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Scripture Reading: Jer. 46; Jer. 47
After writing concerning Israel, God's chosen people, Jeremiah wrote another six chapters, chapters forty-six through fifty-one, concerning Jehovah's judgment upon the nations involved with Israel. The nations cannot avoid involvement with Israel, and Israel cannot avoid contact with the nations. In this message we will consider chapters forty-six and forty-seven.
In chapter forty-six we see Jehovah's punishment and judgment upon Egypt.
In the Old Testament Egypt, which is symbolically or poetically called Rahab (Isa. 51:9-10; Psa. 87:4), typifies the world of making a living and of enjoyment, with which Satan occupies and usurps the people chosen by God for His economy (Gen. 12:10; 41:57—42:3; Num. 11:4-6). The name Rahab refers to a monster, to a large sea animal. This indicates that God regards Egypt as a monster, as an ugly, terrifying sea animal.
The people of Israel, as the elect of God, went down to Egypt and were usurped and enslaved by Pharaoh the king of Egypt (Exo. 1:1, 11-14), a type of Satan as the ruler of the world (John 12:31).
Because the world has many aspects, the Old Testament uses the nations to typify the world in its various aspects. The first of these types is Egypt. Egypt typifies the world in the aspect of making a living and of enjoyment, and Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, typifies Satan, the ruler of the world.
Jehovah delivered the people of Israel out of the Egyptian slavery and tyranny and brought them into the good land (Exo. 3:7-8).
The people of Israel were often tempted to go back to Egypt against Jehovah's will when they were weak or in trouble (Isa. 30:1-3; 31:1-3; Jer. 43:4-7). Because Israel was in Egypt for more than four hundred years, they were accustomed to the Egyptian ways and liked the Egyptian food (Num. 11:4-6). Hence, whenever the children of Israel had problems or were weak, they desired to go back to Egypt and take Egypt as their refuge.
When the Chaldeans were besieging Jerusalem and heard that the army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt to help Judah, they withdrew from Jerusalem. Pharaoh's army returned to Egypt, and the Chaldeans returned and fought against the city of Jerusalem and captured it and burned it with fire (Jer. 37:5-8). This is a sign showing that we should not trust in the world, where man makes a living and finds enjoyment.
The army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt invaded Babylon and encamped by the river Euphrates. However, he was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (46:2). The Egyptians were soundly defeated and returned to their own land.
Egypt rose up like her river Nile, whose waters surge to cover the land (vv. 7-8). But that day belonged to the Lord Jehovah of hosts, a day of vengeance to avenge Himself on His adversaries; for there was a sacrifice to the Lord Jehovah of hosts in the land of the north by the river Euphrates. The Egyptians were wounded so that even if they had used many medicines, there would have been no healing for them (vv. 9-11).
The King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts, struck the land of Egypt and cast down her army by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was a gadfly from the north coming on Egypt as a beautiful heifer. Jehovah, the God of Israel, punished Amon (the most honorable god in Egypt), Pharaoh, Egypt, and her gods and kings, even Pharaoh and those who trusted in him, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of his servants. Afterward she will be inhabited as in the days of old (vv. 13-26; 43:10-13; 44:11-30; cf. Isa. 19:1-18).
Jeremiah 46:27-28 is a word of comfort to Israel. These verses say, "But as for you, O Jacob My servant, do not fear; / And do not be dismayed, O Israel. / For, behold, I will save you from afar/And your seed from the land of their captivity; / And Jacob will return and be undisturbed / And at ease, and no one will frighten him. / As for you, O Jacob My servant, do not fear, declares Jehovah, / For I am with you; / For I will make a full end of all the nations / To which I have driven you; / Yet I will not make a full end of you, / But will correct you in measure / And will by no means leave you unpunished." Jeremiah declared God's judgment on Egypt because Israel depended on Egypt, thus offending God. Israel also suffered that judgment, so Jeremiah gave Israel this word of comfort, saying that God will come to visit them and bring them back to their land. This word will be fulfilled at the time of the restoration to come, in the thousand-year kingdom.
Chapter forty-seven concerns Jehovah's punishment and judgment upon the Philistines.
The Philistines were a nation called Philistia (Exo. 15:14). The Philistines typify the world that is close to the interest of God on earth and attacks and damages the testimony of God on earth. In the Old Testament the Philistines came several times to bother Israel.
The Philistines were located alongside the nation of Israel.
In the time of the judges, Jehovah delivered Israel into the hands of the Philistines forty years (Judg. 13:1; 14:4).
Once the Philistines even attacked the ark of God and captured it (1 Sam. 4:3-11).
At Saul's time the Philistines gathered their armies to fight against Judah, and David slew their champion Goliath (1 Sam. 17:1, 4, 45-49).
Jeremiah 47:2 says that Jehovah would destroy the Philistines by the army of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon rising up as waters rising up from the north to overflow the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it (cf. Isa. 14:29-31; Zech. 9:6b).
In this message we have considered the two aspects of the world typified respectively by Egypt and Philistia. Around the church, typified by the people of Israel, are the Egyptian world and the Philistine world. The Egyptian world attracts those in the church by their making a living and the pursuing of worldly enjoyment. These distract the church people from God's economy and from God as the fountain of living waters. The aspect of the world typified by Philistia constantly opposes and troubles the people of God and the church and hinders God's economy.
