Jeremiah 49:12-22: a reflection

12For the LORD says: “Behold, they to whom it didn’t pertain to drink of the cup will certainly drink; and are you he who will altogether go unpunished? You won’t go unpunished, but you will surely drink. 13For I have sworn by myself,” says the LORD, “that Bozrah will become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse. All its cities will be perpetual wastes.” 14I have heard news from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, “Gather yourselves together! Come against her! Rise up to the battle!” 15“For, behold, I have made you small among the nations, and despised among men. 16As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill, though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there,” says the LORD. 17“Edom will become an astonishment. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished, and will hiss at all its plagues. 18As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbor cities,” says the LORD, “no man will dwell there, neither will any son of man live therein. 19“Behold, he will come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation; for I will suddenly make them run away from it, and whoever is chosen, I will appoint him over it. For who is like me? Who will appoint me a time? Who is the shepherd who will stand before me?” 20Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Edom, and his purposes that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they will drag them away, the little ones of the flock. Surely he will make their habitation desolate over them. 21The earth trembles at the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise which is heard in the Red Sea. 22Behold, he will come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah. The heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day will be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

In this oracle against proud Edom, secure in its rocky heights, God pronounces judgment, and then asks a series of unanswerable questions that reveal his incomparable sovereignty: Who is like me? Who will summon me? What shepherd can stand before me? Edom trusted its lofty strongholds and thought itself untouchable, but God declares that none can challenge him, none can call him to account, none can stand against his purpose. The proud nation that thought no one could bring it down would be brought down by the God whom no one can resist.

Notice the questions God asks, and their answer. Who is like me? No one. Who can summon me, call me to account, put me on trial? No one. What shepherd, what leader or ruler, can stand before me and resist my will? None. God is utterly incomparable and unassailable; there is no force that can challenge him, no authority that can call him to account, no one who can stand against what he purposes. Before such a God, the proudest human strength is nothing.

That is both a warning to pride and a comfort to faith. It warns the proud, like Edom, who imagine themselves secure and beyond reach: there is a God who is incomparable, whom none can resist, and before whom every proud height will fall. And it comforts those who trust him: the God on your side is one whom no force can challenge, no enemy can overrule, nothing can stand against. When you are tempted to pride, remember: who is like God? And when you are afraid of the powers arrayed against you, remember the same: who is like God? None can stand before him; rest your trust in the incomparable Lord.

Lord, against proud Edom you asked, who is like me? who will summon me? what shepherd can stand before me? and the answer to each is no one. You are incomparable and unassailable; no force can challenge you, no authority can call you to account, no one can stand against your purpose. Warn me by this whenever I grow proud and imagine myself secure and beyond reach, for every proud height falls before you. And comfort me by it whenever I am afraid of the powers arrayed against me, for the God who is for me is one whom none can resist. Who is like you, Lord? No one. Help me humble myself before you, and rest my trust in you alone.