Scripture Daily

Context No. 4066 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 27:1-7: in context

1In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2the LORD says to me: “Make bonds and bars, and put them on your neck. 3Then send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the children of Ammon, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4Give them a command to their masters, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says, “You shall tell your masters: 5‘I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whom it seems right to me. 6Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant. I have also given the animals of the field to him to serve him. 7All the nations will serve him, his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings will make him their bondservant.

God has Jeremiah wear a yoke as a sign and send word to the surrounding kings, and the message rests on a sweeping claim of God's sovereignty: it is I who by my great power and outstretched arm have made the earth, with the people and animals on it, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. On the basis of that authority, God declares that he has, for a time, given these nations into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

Here is a striking assertion of God's rule over all the nations and their rulers. The kingdoms of the earth are not ultimately in the hands of the kings who seem to control them; they are in the hand of God, who made all things and disposes of them as he wills. He raises up rulers and brings them down, and he can use even a pagan emperor as an instrument of his purposes. There is a settling perspective here for anyone anxious about who holds power in the world. Behind the shifting fortunes of nations and rulers stands the God who made the earth and gives it to whom he wills. We need not be dismayed by the rise and fall of earthly powers, for the God who made all things rules over all of them.

Am I settled in the truth that God, who made the earth by his great power, rules over all nations and rulers and gives authority to whom he wills, so that I am not dismayed by the rise and fall of earthly powers?

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