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Text: Jeremiah 46
The battle at Carchemish in 604 B.C. was decisive. General Nebuchadnezzar was solidified as a war hero for stomping out Egyptian and Assyrian allied aggression against Babylon. In God’s kingdom, there was another storyline, the real story. The real narrative wasn’t about Nebuchadnezzar, but about the LORD requiring a sacrifice of the Egyptian and Assyrian nations; Jeremiah 46:10.
Lord’s day of visitation (vss 1-12)
- The day of the LORD in Carchemish was like a wake-up call. But more than that, it was like the authorities showing up in a raid.
- Egypt, along with Assyria, proudly invade Babylon at her front door and Nebuchadnezzar crushes the invasion. This was under Pharaoh Necho.
- You need to notice the language used of the battle at Carchemish. That God uses language just like people use language to communicate. He uses hyperbole, and personifications, and allegory.
- Pharaoh’s army is like a flood (vss 7-8). Pharaoh is likened to a dragon in the waters in Ezekiel 29 in the same way you would say that football player is a beast. He’s not a literal beast, he’s a human being, but that’s the spirit that comes from him. He’s a beast; strong, aggressive, stoic, fast.
- Ezekiel 29:3-4 Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. 4 But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.
- You have very similar language in Revelation about the dragon issuing out a flood from his mouth.
- Jeremiah refers to this historical event which is barely 15 years in his past at that time, as a foretelling of what will happen to Egypt in the near future.
- The day of the LORD is a day of visitation (vs 21), kind of like a day of reckoning. It is not about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ specifically, but the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will also be a day of the LORD.
Misplaced trust in Egypt’s king (vss 13-26)
- Nebuchadnezzar would attack Egypt within her borders
- The LORD now outlines judgment for the nations which the Jewish remnant have been sattered to. Starting with Egypt, the Philistines, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Hazor, Elam, and finally Babylon. All the places where Jewish settlements were created as a result of the dispersion. These are the nations that contain the remnants from the captivity. These are first and foremost historical events that were fulfillments of prophetic judgment. Ezekiel 29-32 records this also.
- This event happens several years after Carchemish, Pharaoh Hophra, aka Wahibre Haaibre, is king of Egypt at this time.
- He would suffer a fate like king Zedekiah, the final king in Jerusalem. Hophra was captured and imprisoned, then killed in prison.
- Trusting in Pharaoh proves to be unreliable (vs 25)
Preservation of the seed continues while judgment falls (vss 27-28)
- The LORD uses the name Jacob representatively. He’s not talking to the dead man named Jacob. He’s talking to descendants of Jacob.
- The seed is what preserves the people. The seed is why God will not fully make and end of Israel. And the seed turns out to be Jesus Christ as was promised to Abram in Genesis.
- Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
