Daily Devotions
Jeremiah
"Flee, save your lives"
Text: Jeremiah 48:6
FLEEING FROM THE BABYLONIANS
The call to flee from the Babylonians were sounded urgently throughout Moab. The devastation would be savage!
“Flee, save your lives!
And be like the juniper in the wilderness.
For because you have trusted in your works and your treasures,
You also shall be taken.
And Chemosh shall go forth into captivity,
His priests and his princes together.
And the plunderer shall come against every city;
No one shall escape.
The valley also shall perish,
And the plain shall be destroyed,
As the LORD has spoken”.
Jeremiah 48:6-8
1. “Flee, save your lives! And be like the juniper in the wilderness”
a) To stay and fight the Babylonians would be a suicidal decision.
b) The urgent cry was to flee into the wilderness for survival.
c) The “juniper” was more a shrub than a tree.
d) And shrubs can survive in the wilderness.
The word was simply “to survive” in any way possible!
2. “For because you have trusted in your works and your treasures, you also shall be taken.
And Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, his priests and his princes together”
a) Moab was a little more secluded than Israel.
b) It became a rich country because it was spared from frequent wars that affected countries along the main trade routes.
c) Moab carefully used its geographical position to their great profit.
d) Moab trusted in the following:
i) Their fortifications (works).
ii) Their wealth (treasures).
iii) Their God called Chemosh.
(This deity demanded human sacrifice)!
iv) Their priests and princes.
3. “And the plunderer shall come against every city; no one shall escape.
The valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken”
a) The plunderer is a reference to Babylonia.
b) The Babylonians would launch attacks on all their cities.
i) Cities in the valley.
ii) Cities in the plain.
c) The devastation would come to all their cities.
No city would be spared.
d) This was the word of judgment the LORD had spoken.