Friday - Jeremiah 49 - A Troubled Family

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HE Moabites were descendants of Abraham's nephew, Lot. So were the Ammonites. They were distant relatives of the Jews. The Edomites were also relatives of the Jews, more closely related actually, since their progenitor, Esau, was Jacob's brother. Abraham, Rebecca and Rachel are all called Syrians in the Scriptures (Deuteronomy 26:5, Genesis 25:20 & 28:5), so again, the people of Damascus had ethnic ties with the Jews. Ishmael had a son named Kedar (Genesis 25:13), and Ishmael was Abraham's son, Isaac's half-brother, Jacob's half-uncle. And finally, the people of Elam were also connected to the Jews through their common ancestor, Shem (Genesis 10:22), which means that those Elamites who lived in Persia were Semitic.

Now, here in Jeremiah 49 we have prophecies spoken by Jeremiah against each of these groups. Look at a modern map at Syria, Jordan, Iraq & Iran, and realize that God had (and has) a plan for these peoples. Sprinkled in among the threats and warnings of Jeremiah 49 are several promises of hope. God's grace does extend even to peoples that we sometimes overlook. In our proper Christian fervor for the success of the Jews, we must not forget that God does have an interest in those peoples who have actually been the most hostile against His chosen people down through the centuries. Truly, the families that came from the loins of Shem were (and are) troubled, to say the least. But God will bring peace to them someday. When the Bible says that the whole earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, this includes the lands of the Arabs (Isaiah 11:9).