the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Jeremiah 49:1-22
The sons of Ammon had, in a cowardly fashion, profited from the ten tribes being taken away captive, by taking possession of the territory of Gad on the other side of the Jordan. By a just recompense, having unduly "inherited" from Israel, they were to become Israel’s inheritance (v. 2). Yesterday we saw Moab, the mocker, becoming in his turn an object of derision (Jeremiah 48:26-27), and it is remarkable to note that the judgments which God sends are often in accordance with the offence committed against somebody else. Such lessons, if we know how to accept them, allow us to understand more clearly the full significance of Matthew 7:2; Matthew 7:12, encouraging us not to do to others what we would not like done to ourselves.
Edom is epitomised here by her extreme arrogance. Living like an eagle in the steep and rugged rocks of mount Seir (v. 16), this people reckoned they were impregnable. But God knew and will again know where to find them to make them come down from there, reducing their den to a perpetual waste (v. 13; Obadiah 1:4). In contrast with Moab and Ammon the LORD, in closing, makes no promise to Edom to restore her captives. "There shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau" (Obadiah 1:18; cf. Jeremiah 48:47; Jeremiah 49:6).
