Jeremiah 48

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. Benjamin Franklin

Jeremiah had spoken to his people for over forty years, but they wouldn’t listen; now he spoke to the nations related in some way to the Jewish people. As God’s spokesman, Jeremiah was “handing the cup” to these nations (25:15ff.) and declaring what God had planned for them. He was called to be “a prophet unto the nations” (1:5), and he was fulfilling his ministry.

While these names, places, and events are ancient history to most of us, the lessons behind these events reveal to us the hand of God in the rise and fall of rulers and nations. One of the repeated phrases in these chapters is God’s “I will,” for “history is His story,” as A. T. Pierson used to say. You will also note that God judged the gods of these nations, just as He had judged the gods of Egypt before Israel’s Exodus (Ex. 12:12).