Jeremiah 48 Devotional

A Lament for an Enemy

“Therefore My heart laments like a flute for Moab; it laments like a flute for the men of Kir-heres, because the wealth they acquired has perished.”Jeremiah 48:36 (BSB)

Moab had made Israel an object of ridicule (48:27), and Jeremiah 48 announces its ruin town by town (48:21-24). The charges are clear. Moab trusted in its own works and treasures (48:7). It had been at ease since its youth, like wine left on its dregs and never poured from jar to jar, so nothing about it ever changed (48:11). Its pride is described at length (48:29), and it is destroyed because it exalted itself against the LORD (48:42).

What startles is the voice announcing it. God says he will wail for Moab and weep for its vineyards, and that his heart mourns for its people like the sound of a flute (48:31-32, 36). He judges without delight. Through Ezekiel he says he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but wants them to turn and live (Ezekiel 33:11). The oracle even ends promising Moab's restoration (48:47). Long, undisturbed ease can harden a heart. God's grief over pride is an invitation to humility while there is still time.

To think about: Where has a long stretch of ease made you settled and self-satisfied, and how does God's grief over pride speak to you?