Today’s reading: Jeremiah 48; 1 Corinthians 7
Why is Jeremiah pronouncing an oracle against Moab when Moab has nothing to do with Israel’s current situation?
It’s not uncommon for the prophets to pronounce oracles against the nations, but generally it is in relation to Israel, or her current situation, and how those nations have created or impacted that situation, but that’s not the case with Moab here. So why is God speaking against Moab (as well as against Ammon in our reading tomorrow)?
The important thing to remember is that when God called a people to Himself out of the nations, it was Abraham, not Israel, that He called. Israel is the portion of the Abrahamic line that we tend to focus on because it is the line through which the Messiah comes, and is the line that the biblical story largely focuses on, but it is not the entirety of the Abrahamic line. Abraham had two sons (not including his children through Keturah), Ishmael and Issac, and while Isaac was the son of promise, God still promised to make a great nation out of Ishmael for Abraham’s sake. Similarly, Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob, and while Jacob was the son of promise, God still made a nation of Esau as well. In fact, when God describes the land He is going to give to Abraham’s descendants, it is a much larger area than the land He gives to Israel, because Israel is just one of the nations descended from Abraham.
As for the Moabites and the Ammonites, while they are not descended from Abraham, the get roped in through Lot, and should therefore, like Israel, be aware of Yahweh as God and not go running after other gods. Lot was Abraham’s nephew, but his father died in the land of Ur, before God called Abraham out, and he took Lot along with him and cared for him. So while Lot was never adopted by Abraham, he does get to enjoy the blessings that Abraham enjoyed by association with him. So too, the people that are descended from him, the Moabites and the Ammonites, while not Israel, enjoy similar blessings through their association back to Abraham.
So while God is declaring judgement on them as “the people of Chemosh,” as well as for their treatment of Israel as they were being carried off into exile, He also speaks of that judgement in the same ways He speaks of His judgement against Israel, that they will be punished, but He will not make a full end of them, and will again restore them. He says, “Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are undone, for your sons have been taken captive, and your daughters into captivity. Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares the Lord.”
I’m honestly really curious, when we get to heaven, if we will find out there was a very similar set of prophets in these other Abrahamic nations as there was in Israel, calling the people back to faithfulness to God. Again., like I said, Israel is the line of promise, through whom God was working His plan of ultimate redemption in Christ, and so He preserved for us the account of Israel’s practical and spiritual history, but they were not the only nation who was supposed to belong to God, all the Abrahamic nations were.
Moab should never have been the “people of Checmosh,” any more than Israel should have been the people of Baal.
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