Messages to a variety of nations pt. 2 (Jeremiah 49:23-39)

I. Judgment on Syria [Damascus] (Jer. 49:23–27)

23 Against Damascus. “Hamath and Arpad are shamed, For they have heard bad news. They are fainthearted; There is trouble on the sea; It cannot be quiet. 24 Damascus has grown feeble; She turns to flee, And fear has seized her. Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in labor. 25 Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy? 26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, And all the men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the LORD of hosts. 27 “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, And it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.”

A. The Prophet Isaiah condemned Damascus, the capital of Syria.

Damascus, located near Mount Hermon, was the Aramean center in OT times and the capital city of three Syrian states that included Hamath and Arpad. The sin of these cities that resulted in their judgment is not named. The bad news they heard (the coming invasion?) made them “disheartened, troubled like the restless sea”

They would abandon their ancient cities and try to escape, but their best young men would be killed in the streets and their fortress would be burned to the ground.

B. The Lord used human means to bring his judgment on the nations.

Jeremiah frequently reminds the reader that it is God who is acting. The Lord would set fire to Damascus’s walls. That fire would consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.

This message is brief, but it carries power. How much does God have to say to convince people that His wrath is about to fall?

II. Judgment on Kedar and Hazor (Jer. 49:28–33)

28 Against Kedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon shall strike. Thus says the LORD: “Arise, go up to Kedar, And devastate the men of the East! 29 Their tents and their flocks they shall take away. They shall take for themselves their curtains, All their vessels and their camels; And they shall cry out to them, ‘Fear is on every side!’ 30 “Flee, get far away! Dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Hazor!” says the LORD. “For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you,And has conceived a plan against you. 31 “Arise, go up to the wealthy nation that dwells securely,” says the LORD, “Which has neither gates nor bars, Dwelling alone. 32 Their camels shall be for booty, And the multitude of their cattle for plunder. I will scatter to all winds those in the farthest corners, And I will bring their calamity from all its sides,” says the LORD. 33 “Hazor shall be a dwelling for jackals, a desolation forever; No one shall reside there, Nor son of man dwell in it.”

A. These are two desert peoples.

Kedar was related to Ishmael. We aren’t sure of the origin of Hazor. They lived in the Syro-Arabian desert east of Palestine. The Babylonian Chronicle records Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of Kedar in 599. Hazor, not the city of northern Palestine, was the name of an Arab tribe in the eastern desert. It is understood by some as the area occupied by those Arab nomads.

No reason is stated for the destruction of these two peoples and the. Perhaps the purpose for including these relatively insignificant peoples was to show that no one, however unimportant by our standards, would escape God’s judgment.

B. These two nomadic Arab nations lived by raising sheep and camels.

When Nebuchadnezzar attacked them in 599–598 B.C., however, they lost everything. Once again, we meet the phrase “fear is on every side” (Jer. 49:29). These two Arab nations were guilty of living at ease, isolating themselves from others, and manifesting pride and arrogant self-confidence.

They didn’t need God, and they didn’t need the help of any other people! When Nebuchadnezzar arrived on the scene, they learned how foolish they had been.

III. Judgment on Elam (Jer. 49:34–39)

34 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, 35 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, The foremost of their might. 36 Against Elam I will bring the four winds From the four quarters of heaven, And scatter them toward all those winds; There shall be no nations where the outcasts of Elam will not go. 37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies And before those who seek their life. I will bring disaster upon them, My fierce anger,’ says the LORD; ‘And I will send the sword after them Until I have consumed them. 38 I will set My throne in Elam, And will destroy from there the king and the princes,’ says the LORD. 39 ‘But it shall come to pass in the latter days: I will bring back the captives of Elam,’ says the LORD.”

A. The Elamites were a Semitic people who were neighbors of the Babylonians.

Their country was located beyond the Tigris River across from Babylon, and it eventually became part of the Medo-Persian Empire. Elam was an ancient center of civilization, two hundred miles east of Babylon in what would be the southwest part of modern Iran.

The message given to Jeremiah against the Elamites is dated as “early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.” It seems unusual that Jeremiah would announce judgment on a people so remote from Judah with no actual contact with Judah; however, Jeremiah was a prophet to the nations (1:10). Perhaps Elam was included as a reminder of the sovereignty of God over all nations.

B. The Elamite soldiers were known for their archery, God promised to break their bows.

The Elamites were famed as bowmen, but that major source of their military power would be broken. Ammon depended on Molech and its riches. Edom depended on wisdom and its inaccessible location. Damascus depended on its fame. Kedar depended on its remoteness and Elam on its bow, but all of them failed. The fate of those nations is a solemn reminder that dependence on human resources rather than on God will always fail.

In spite of the harshness of judgment on Elam, the message closes with a word of hope. The message of hope teaches there are no limits on God’s sovereignty. It may include judgment on a nation; it may include exalting that same nation. The collection of messages against several nations in chap. 49 serves to affirm God’s universal sovereignty. All nations are subject to God’s law and will be held accountable.