Jeremiah 49:23-33: a reflection

23Of Damascus: “Hamath and Arpad are confounded, for they have heard evil news. They have melted away. There is sorrow on the sea. It can’t be quiet. 24Damascus has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized her. Anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail. 25How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy? 26Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all the men of war will be brought to silence in that day,” says the LORD of Armies. 27“I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the palaces of Ben Hadad.” 28Of Kedar, and of the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck, The LORD says: “Arise, go up to Kedar, and destroy the children of the east. 29They will take their tents and their flocks. they will carry away for themselves their curtains, all their vessels, and their camels; and they will cry to them, ‘Terror on every side!’ 30Flee! Wander far off! Dwell in the depths, you inhabitants of Hazor,” says the LORD; “for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you. 31Arise! Go up to a nation that is at ease, that dwells without care,” says the LORD; “that has neither gates nor bars, that dwells alone. 32Their camels will be a booty, and the multitude of their livestock a plunder. I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners of their beards cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them,” says the LORD. 33Hazor will be a dwelling place of jackals, a desolation forever. No man will dwell there, neither will any son of man live therein.”

These oracles pronounce judgment on Damascus and on the settled peoples of Kedar and Hazor. And one detail stands out in the description of Hazor: it is a nation at ease, that dwells securely, that has no gates or bars, that dwells alone. They felt safe, untroubled, so secure in their isolation that they had not even built defenses. And yet judgment comes upon them suddenly; their sense of security proves no protection at all.

Notice the false security of these peoples. They dwelt at ease, feeling safe and self-sufficient, so confident that no trouble would reach them that they lived without defenses. But their security was an illusion; it rested on nothing solid, and it gave way. The very feeling of being untroubled and safe, when it is not grounded in God, can be a dangerous thing, lulling people into a complacency that leaves them unprepared for what comes.

That is a caution against a security that is not founded on God. We, too, can feel safe and untroubled, confident in our own arrangements, our resources, our stable circumstances, as though nothing could reach us. But a security that rests on these things, and not on God, is fragile; circumstances change, and what felt unshakable can give way. Do not mistake a comfortable, untroubled feeling for real safety. True security is found in God alone, not in our defenses or our sense of being beyond trouble's reach. Rest your security in God, who does not change, rather than in circumstances that can, and do not let ease lull you into a complacency that forgets him.

Lord, these oracles describe a people at ease, dwelling securely, so confident of safety that they built no defenses, and yet judgment came upon them suddenly. Guard me from a security that is not founded on you. I too can feel safe and untroubled, confident in my own arrangements, my resources, my stable circumstances, as though nothing could reach me. But a security that rests on these things, and not on you, is fragile; circumstances change, and what felt unshakable can give way. Keep me from mistaking a comfortable, untroubled feeling for real safety. Help me find my security in you alone, who do not change, rather than in defenses and circumstances that can. And do not let ease lull me into a complacency that forgets you. Let my confidence rest on you, the one sure ground, and not on my sense of being beyond trouble's reach.