MOURNING FOR MOAB

"I know"--God's Decree--"his rooster-crowing pride, the inflated claims, the sheer nothingness of Moab. But I will weep for Moab, yes, I will mourn for the people of Moab." (Jeremiah 48:30-32, MSG)

Chapters 48 and 49 of Jeremiah deal with judgments on Israel's neighbors. Ho hum, although I did run across an interesting verse ("sloppy work in God's name is cursed," 48:16).

But then I ran across this unexpected word midway through the judgments. I will weep for Moab.

I went back and confirmed. Yes, God was speaking, not Jeremiah.

I went forward. God repeats His grief: "My heart moans for Moab." (48:36)

God doesn't give a reason for grieving Moab. He says the men of the city Kir-heres are like flute sounds carried by the wind. They will lose everything. But if the severity of judgment hurt God's heart, He would mourn every nation under judgment.

If you're wondering--keep reading. God doesn't express the same grief about Ammon or Damascus.

It's not even because the Moabites descended from Abraham's nephew Lot. So did the Ammonites. They are destroyed without sympathy.

Is it because of David's Moabitess great-grandmother, Ruth?

Or more precisely, because of Ruth herself? Her faith inspired an entire book of the Bible. Its legacy lived on, affecting generations to come. Perhaps she even held an infant David on her knee, telling him of Israel's great God.

I don't know. God doesn't tell us, so all my reasonings are pure conjecture.

The fact that God mourned Moab gladdens my heart, however. God's heart always included other nations than Israel. Israel was meant to be the lighthouse to draw the world to Himself. The lament regarding Moab is a comparatively rare record of that love in the Old Testament.

God gives Moab a promise: "There's a day that's coming that I'll put things right in Moab." (Jeremiahs 48:47)

Jordan (which includes the old Moab) and Israel should "just get along."

Well, Moab, Israel and Judah didn't do so well either.

SIEGE (Jeremiah 39)

In the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem. In the eleventh year and fourth month, on the ninth day of Zedekiah’s reign, they broke , MSG)through into the city. (Jeremiah 39:1-2, MSG)

October 2009 to April 2011--easier for me to calculate than "10th month of the 9th year and the 4th month of the 11th year."

The Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem for 18 months.

Eighteen months.

The famous siege of Masada in the first century, where all the residents killed themselves rather than be captured, only lasted a few months. Two pregnancies. No new supplies for a year and a half. This was a city, after all. House gardens wouldn't provide the grains and produce without the surrounding countryside.

No grain or livestock for the daily sacrifice.

Surviving eighteen months of dwindling resources and the threat of annihilation would ordinarily rouse admiration for their courage. We would admire the king who look to their leaders for our heroes.

Instead, Jeremiah told them to go to the Babylonians and end the siege. And Zedekiah is remembered as the last king of Judah.

Are you facing any long-term problems? Where would you like to be in eighteen months? Do you do the right thing by fighting towards that goal, using all of your resources and then some more?

Or is God calling you to give up that battle and to move on to the next stage of your life?

Is the future God wants for you something other than that seems obvious to you?

It's worth thinking about.

WHEN BAD NEWS IS GOOD: LIFE, POLLYANA-STYLE

You won't be killed. You'll die a peaceful death. They will honor you with funeral rites as they honored your ancestors, the kings who preceded you. They will properly mourn your death. (Jeremiah 34:4-5)

I'm going to see you free--God's Decree--free to get killed in war or by disease or by starvation. (Jeremiah 34:7-8)

Poor King Zedekiah.

Well, not so poor. As king, I expect he had a fairly comfortable lifestyle; and his father was the great Hezekiah, one of the high notes as the kingdom of Judah stumbled toward exile.

The exile Judah had been earning year by year, decade by decade, century by century, came due during Zedekiah's reign. He couldn't escape. He would end his life in Babylon, far away from home.

Jeremiah sugar-coated the bitter pill of death in exile. He would live a full life span. He wouldn't die in battle, be executed or assassinated. When he died, he would be honored and mourned. His family and his people would mark his passing.

He might be a prisoner of war, but he was given VIP treatment. Bad news, with a twist that turned it good.

Later in the chapter, God turned good news into bad.

The people of Judah had entered into a covenant to free their slaves. They never should have kept their fellow-Israelites as slaves beyond seven years. But like so much else of the law, they paid no attention.

And in this case, they went back on their word almost as soon as they released them, pulling their former slaves back to work in their homes.

God teased them. I'm going to set you free!

Grins on everyone's faces. For a split second.

Freedom to get killed. Not in old age, in their sleep. No, war, disease, and starvation would thin their ranks.

Clouds can have silver linings. The glass can be half full when it seems half empty.

I believe I read this story in Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. They were in a concentration camp. And their barracks had bedbugs. Suffering upon suffering. Corrie complained about it until she realized--the guards turned their back on the Bible reading and prayer because they didn't want to come to close t the bugs.

Death in exile.

Small mercies help us keep the bigger problems in perspective.

God is Good (Jeremiah 32:33)

     Thirty-four years ago, when my husband and I married, we were unaware he had bipolar disorder. In fact, he said he didn't get depressed. He did cite one time of mental confusion years earlier, but blamed it on coming off meth, the turning point when he followed the Lord wholeheartedly. His dedication to the Lord and his emotional stability attracted me to him. On the other hand, I struggled with depression.

     About nine years into our marriage, when our two children were little, job instability, financial pressures and budding marital problems woke up the sleeping monster of bipolar disorder. Once so stable, my husband became a roller coaster of emotions, with breaks from reality. Once sensitive to God’s wisdom and insight, he became confused and lost confidence in his relationship with the Lord.

     He and I always had been opposites, but over the next fifteen years or so we struggled to keep body, mind and marriage together. We often gave up trying to see eye to eye and simply said, “The Lord is good!”  We could always agree on that, even though times were tough.

     In Jeremiah 32, King Zedekiah couldn't understand why Jeremiah would prophecy destruction. He even locked the prophet up in prison. But the king only understood part of the message. When God called Jeremiah, He told him to buy land from his cousin and seal it up in a clay pot so it would keep for a long time. Because of the Israelites’ evil ways, God would destroy the city, but He promised they would live and thrive there again. Jeremiah’s deed was a sign of hope.

     God’s intentions were, are and always will be to love and care for His people. The Lord said in Jeremiah 32:41, “I will rejoice in doing them good.” In Jeremiah 33:15, He went on to say that He would send “a righteous Branch to spring up for David” who would carry out justice and righteousness.

     That branch is Jesus, in whom we find grace, love, forgiveness, and the good God has always wanted for His people. Most importantly, we have a loving relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit within us.

God is good and desires good for His people. He will take us through bad times to get to the good times. Many marriages would stay intact, if they’d grasp the vision of what God intended to do for them through trials.

     My husband is back to being emotionally stable (for the most part) and the spiritual man I fell in love with. And I’m seldom depressed. We’re still opposites. If there are two way to do things, he’ll do it one way and I’ll do it the other. But we always agree that God is good.  

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3)             

                                                                                                                                

Connie L. Peters has thirty years of experience in writing poetry, adult and children’s fiction and inspirational non-fiction. Currently she writes devotions for The Presidential Prayer Team and The Pagosa Sun. She also writes a poem a day on enthusiaticsoul.blogspot.com. Connie’s work has appeared in numerous publications including Focus on the Family, Bible Advocate and The Quiet Hour. She has served on the board of Southwest Christian Writers Association for the past twenty years. Connie lives in Cortez, CO where she and her husband host two adults with developmental disabilities. The Peters’ two grown children live in Arizona.

IN THE COMPANY OF YOUR PEERS (Jeremiah 26)

At another time there had been a man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim, who had preached similarly in the name of God. He preached against this same city and country just as Jeremiah did. (Jeremiah 26:20-21, MSG)

Fairly often in the posts I have talked about the theme of "why me? Why do I have to suffer?"

My mother used to ask, "Why not me? Why have I been spared natural disasters and illness and . . .?"

Today's passage reminded me of Mom. Earlier Jeremiah has spoken along the lines of Elijah, "I am the only one left who believes in God." Today, he talks about all the prophets God has sent who shared the same message: Doom is imminent if you don't repent! (Jeremiah 25:4-6)

In the next chapter, he gives us a small insight into one of those prophets, Uriah, son of Shemaiah.

The question of why God called Jeremiah to write His message and not Uriah or the other prophets intrigues me, but I won't chase down that rabbit trail.

Jeremiah and Uriah served the same God. They preached the same message and in the same place.

However, when a lynch mob formed. . .

• Ahikam intervened and spared Jeremiah's life.
• Uriah was killed even though he went into hiding.

The unspoken "Why me?" rings through Jeremiah's description of events:

The king had him killed. They dumped his body unceremoniously outside the city. But in Jeremiah's case, Ahikam son of Shaphan stepped forward and took his sidie, preventing the mob from lynching him. (Jeremiah 26:23-24)

Why Jeremiah, indeed. Why did God spare Jeremiah's life but allow Uriah to be killed? God lost a loyal servant (on earth, at least), but Jeremiah lost a friend and ally.

Why did God spare Jeremiah but not Uriah?

Corrie ten Boom asked the same question when her sister Betsy died in the concentration, while Corrie lived a long and blessed life.

I lived in Colorado at the time of the Columbine killings. Our churches overflowed in the ensuing weeks, as the stories of Cassie and Rachel's brave testimony circulated.

The death of one of our own. We hurt. Incredibly. We may put on brave faces and continue to work while our insides fall apart.

Their deaths might inspire others--to faith. To service. To spending more time with people they love.

We're not told how the people of Jerusalem or the other prophets responded to Uriah's death. But we can infer that was grieved.

Whatever ministry God has called us, Uriah also reminds us that we are not alone. A writer's life is often a lonely one, but we can count on our peers to encourage us, to come alongside with their message, stories, prayers.

ADVICE (Jeremiah 23)

Instead of claiming to know what God says, ask questions of one another, such as "How do we understand God in this?" But don't go around pretending to know it all, saying "God told me this. . .God told me that. . . ." . . . You can the prophets, "How did God answer you? What did he tell you? But don't pretend that you know all the answers yourselves. (Jeremiah 23:35-37, MSG)

To start with today, I will apologize to those of you from the pentecostal/prophecy branch of the Christian faith, in case my comments offend you. But today's passage reminded of an earlier incident which struck me as insensitive:

For years I was part of a face-to-face critique group. We met every other week for almost ten years, until our hostess died. Vicki Baker left an unforgettable influence on my life, only partly because of her courageous life in spite of living as a quadriplegic. She described herself as a "wheelchair-bound trapeze artist" because that explained both her high-octane enthusiasm for living and the way she broke her neck.

Like Joni Erickson Tada, she believed that "in every way that matters, (she) was already healed."

One day a new writer visited our group. On her second visit, she told Vicki, "I have a word from God. He wants to do a work of healing in you, starting with your legs."

Embarrassed silence. At the time, the comment struck me as incredibly insensitive. I now suspect the visitor came from a practice where such words are received and accepted. I still think, however,that she handled it poorly.

She might have benefited from Jeremiah's advice today. Perhaps she could have initiated a dialogue about divine healing. Perhaps even that would have felt like an assault. The time is too far removed for me to gauge it today.

Suggestions included:
Don't pretend you have all the answers.
Ask others what their understanding of the situation is.
Assume that others are seeking God about the same matter. You should find common ground in His answers.

In Jeremiah's time, they faced strong military oppression, the king of Judah already deposed. Rarely did the decision to fight or to surrender carry such a heavy weight. The decision affected many people.

If you feel God is urging a change of direction on you. . .ask the people your decision will impact. What has God told your church? your co-workers? your family? your spouse?

Then listen. . .really listen.




23:35-37





Instead of claiming to know what God says, ask questions of one another, such as ‘How do we understand God in this?’ But don’t go around pretending to know it all, saying ‘God told me this . . . God told me that. . . .’ I don’t want to hear it anymore. Only the person I authorize speaks for me. Otherwise, my Message gets twisted, the Message of the living God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

37-38 “You can ask the prophets, ‘How did God answer you? What did he tell you?’ But don’t pretend that you know all the answers yourselves

FIRST THINGS FIRST (Jeremiah 21)

Start each day by dealing with justice. Rescue victims from their exploiters. (Jeremiah 21:11-12)

I'm not a psychiatrist, but my daughter struggled with mental illness for most of her life.

So I have this to say about Jeremiah: Like someone with bipolar disorder (manic/depressive), he swings from the depth of despair (curse the day I was born!) to attempts at happiness (sing praise to God!) He expresses his faith by obeying God in spite of the fear, paranoia, and isolation he experienced.

His message didn't make things any better. No one wanted to listen to the doomsday prophet. His countrymen tolerated him as the voice of a minority of one.

Tucked into today's message, God told the leaders how to avert the coming catastrophe. Get your priorities straight.

The first order of business each and every day? Deal with justice. Rescue victims from the perpetrators.

Justice suggests a court with judge and jury. The king acted as the supreme court, or perhaps a presidential pardon. The people brought their most difficult cases to him. Solomon's decision regarding the two mothers and one child is a classic example of discerning the truth of a situation.

Rescuing victims suggests a more active role. The king not only judge impartially. He, and his leaders with him, should seek out victims. The poor, orphans, widows, and foreigners are often mentioned throughout the Bible in need of special consideration.

Good advice. But Jeremiah preached this wisdom when the kingdom felt increased pressure from invaders. I'm sure national leaders focused on defense, alliances, weapons, a strong army. Even then, "the best offense was a good defense."

Taking care of the poor and downtrodden, preventing prejudice against foreigners, ranked low in the national conscience.

Yet God said to take care of it first.

These last couple of days have come out as more political than I like, but that is where the scripture took me. On an individual basis, perhaps I should look to the needs of others instead of always expecting them to accommodate my needs.

For years, I met with fellow writer Vicki Baker twice a month. A fall during a trapeze act left her paralyzed. She said how she learned to make others comfortable with her chair.

I've thought of that lately. When people visit, I need to be prepared to involve them. If I wait for them to initiate a lively discussion, they're at a loss.

That happened the last time I spoke with my son. I mentioned my post on "cheap whining," and we got into an interesting exploration of the idea.

Anyhow: first things first.