Jeremiah 48:1-16: a reflection

1Of Moab. The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Woe to Nebo! For it is laid waste. Kiriathaim is disappointed. It is taken. Misgab is put to shame and broken down. 2The praise of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they have devised evil against her: ‘Come! Let’s cut her off from being a nation.’ You also, Madmen, will be brought to silence. The sword will pursue you. 3The sound of a cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction! 4Moab is destroyed. Her little ones have caused a cry to be heard. 5For they will go up by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping. For at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction. 6Flee! Save your lives! Be like the juniper bush in the wilderness. 7For, because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also will be taken. Chemosh will go out into captivity, his priests and his princes together. 8The destroyer will come on every city, and no city will escape; the valley also will perish, and the plain will be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken. 9Give wings to Moab, that she may fly and get herself away: and her cities will become a desolation, without anyone to dwell in them. 10“Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD negligently; and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood. 11“Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his dregs, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed. 12Therefore behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will send to him those who pour off, and they will pour him off; and they will empty his vessels, and break their containers in pieces. 13Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence. 14“How do you say, ‘We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war’? 15Moab is laid waste, and they have gone up into his cities, and his chosen young men have gone down to the slaughter,” says the King, whose name is the LORD of Armies. 16“The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hurries fast.

In this oracle against Moab, one image stands out. Moab, Jeremiah says, has been at ease from his youth; he has settled on his dregs, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel. Like wine left undisturbed on its sediment, growing thick and stale, Moab had rested untroubled in his comfort, never poured out, never shaken, and so had grown complacent and unrefined, trusting in his works and his treasures rather than in God.

Notice the image of wine settled on its dregs. Wine left too long undisturbed on its sediment grows thick and spoiled; it needs to be poured from vessel to vessel to be refined. And Moab, at ease and untroubled, had become like that, complacent, unrefined, resting on his comfort and his wealth. The very absence of disturbance had allowed a spiritual staleness to settle, a complacency that trusted in ease and treasure rather than in God.

That image is a caution about the danger hidden in undisturbed ease. We tend to prize comfort and freedom from trouble; and yet a life never shaken, never poured from vessel to vessel, can grow spiritually stale, settled on its dregs, complacent, trusting in its own ease and possessions. Sometimes the very disturbances we resent are what keep us from settling into that staleness. Do not so prize your comfort that you settle on your dregs, growing complacent and trusting in your ease and possessions rather than in God. And when God allows you to be shaken, poured from vessel to vessel, do not merely resent it; it may be his means of keeping you from the spiritual staleness that undisturbed comfort breeds. Better to be poured out and refined than to settle, untroubled, into a complacency that trusts in everything but God.

Lord, in the oracle against Moab you say he had been at ease from his youth, settled on his dregs, never emptied from vessel to vessel, and so had grown complacent and unrefined, trusting in his works and his treasures rather than in you. Caution me by that image about the danger hidden in undisturbed ease. I tend to prize comfort and freedom from trouble; and yet a life never shaken, never poured from vessel to vessel, can grow spiritually stale, settled on its dregs, complacent, trusting in its own ease and possessions. Sometimes the very disturbances I resent are what keep me from settling into that staleness. Keep me from so prizing my comfort that I settle on my dregs, growing complacent and trusting in my ease and possessions rather than in you. And when you allow me to be shaken, poured from vessel to vessel, keep me from merely resenting it; it may be your means of keeping me from the staleness that undisturbed comfort breeds. Better to be poured out and refined than to settle into a complacency that trusts in everything but you. Refine me, Lord, and do not let me settle on my dregs.