Jeremiah 10:17-25
God is telling the people of Judah to gather up their stuff, for they are under siege and they are going to be carried off to places they do not know and languages they have not learned. And Jeremiah did not get the title “the weeping prophet” for any reason but that he is grieving over what the sins of his people have done to them.
Jeremiah also understands that those he calls the shepherds, and he is referring to the leaders that are stupid. Ezekiel 34 gives a picture of an evil shepherd that would allow the flock to be scattered. In verses 11-16 we have God as the good Shepherd who will gather up His flock and care for them.
In verse 22, we have the Babylonian army showing up and the destruction of Judah as if it is only fit for a jackals den. This prayer of Jeremiah’s is one each of us must have at some point in life; listen to verses 23-25, “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Correct me, O Lord, but in justice; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.
Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, and on the peoples that call not on your name, for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.”
A very personal prayer but also a prayer for Judah, but Jeremiah does not desire God to do to him or his nation what it deserved. Jeremiah knew that if God judged them in anger, they would have no hope, but if injustice maybe God would show mercy and grace. But Jeremiah is also asking the Father to destroy those who have attacked and destroyed Judah.
Jesus has told us in Proverbs 24:17-20, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him. Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.”
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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