For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts. A day of vengeance, that he may avenge himself on his adversaries. The sword shall devour. It shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood. For the Lord God of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the River Euphrates. Jeremiah 46:10 (NKJV)
Have you ever had a time in your life where everyone seemed against you? They don’t hear you when you speak, and they look right through you as though you aren’t there. There are some days that you just can’t win for all the losses!
At the time of this scripture, Egypt was the acknowledged leader of the world. They had the military might and all the resources. People would ask Egypt for help against some of their warring neighbors – like Babylon. Many of the Israelites had moved to Egypt for protection.
God kept telling everyone to pay attention to him and to stop asking for help from foreigners and their gods. Most of his people decided they’d rather keep the habits they had developed rather than check in with the God who had kept them together through thick and thin. Finally, God said, “Enough!”
In some of the adventure cartoons, there is a magical person who becomes infuriated with all the stupid stuff going on and starts to spin. He spins faster and faster until he becomes a blur and suddenly, sparks start to fly from this tornado he has become. Lightning strikes out at people who haven’t run in fear and, when this person finally calms down and looks around him, he sees only destruction. Hopefully, the stupid people start to pay attention to what he says, and they become smart people who have learned a valuable lesson.
God decides it’s time for someone to go back to school and he warns the Israelites that Egypt will go down in flames along with those who turned to Egypt for protection from Babylon. This young, upstart of a country will conquer the old lion of Egypt.
The good news for God’s people is that, in the midst of all the death and destruction, they will be ok. If they hold to their course, putting one foot in front of the other, and continue to pay attention to what their God is telling them, they will come back home again.
When people start to diminish us, looking at us as though we were of no value, there is a tendency to want to change so that they’ll see that we do have value. The problem is that, when we start to change in order to please others, we move off of the path that God has assigned us. If we can ignore those loud voices around us and keep paying attention to the person we were created to be, we’ll come home like the Israelites – and what a celebration that will be!
Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She is the author of “Jessie’s Corner: Something to Think About,” a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.
