What The Lord Says About Egypt

Topic: Battle
Passage: Jeremiah 46:1–12

May 23, 2019

Commentary

This takes us back to the year 605 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar first came up against Judah. He was met by the armies of Egypt at the city of Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and there one of the great strategic battles of all history was fought (vv. 1-2). Here Jeremiah is describing that battle in advance (vv. 3-4). He describes in very vivid terms the advance of the Babylonian army, the clash of these conflicting forces, the terrible battle that ensued, and the final defeat of Egypt. Egypt was a place of tyranny and bondage for the people of Israel. They were under the yoke of a wicked and severe king who enslaved them and treated them cruelly(vv. 5-6). Yet strangely enough, after they escaped, it was the place they always fondly remembered and wanted to return to. They remembered the food, the comfort, and the ease of life in Egypt. Worldliness is an attitude of life that causes you to think of living only for your own pleasures and enjoyment.
That is what Egypt symbolizes in Scripture. (vv. 7-8). Egypt rises like the Nile. Every spring the Nile River overflows its banks, They were told to fight hard and march out with the Ethiopians and Libyans (v. 10). The Lord will win this battle and take revenge of his enemies (v. 11) They will be killed near the Euphrates river. Egypt was told that no medicine can heal you. All the nations have heard you weep as your troops fall to the ground, stumbling over each other (v. 12).

Application

I need to let the Lord take care of my battles rather than thinking I can take care of them myself.

Jeremiah 46:1– 12 (NET)

1 This was the Lord’s message to the prophet Jeremiah about the nations.

2 He spoke about Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, which was encamped along the Euphrates River at Carchemish. Now this was the army that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah:

3 “Fall into ranks with your shields ready! Prepare to march into battle!

4 Harness the horses to the chariots; mount your horses! Take your positions with helmets on; ready your spears! Put on the armor!

5 “What do I see? The soldiers are frightened. They are retreating. They are being scattered. They have fled for refuge without looking back. Terror is all around them,” says the Lord.

6 But even the swiftest cannot get away. Even the strongest cannot escape. There in the north by the Euphrates River they have stumbled and fallen in defeat.

7 Who is this that rises like the Nile, like its streams turbulent at flood stage?

8 Egypt rises like the Nile, like its streams turbulent at flood stage. Egypt said, ‘I will arise and cover the earth. I will destroy cities and the people who inhabit them.’

9 Go ahead and charge into battle, you horsemen! Drive furiously, you charioteers! Let the soldiers march out into battle, those from Ethiopia and Libya who carry shields, and those from Lydia who are armed with the bow.

10 But that day belongs to the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies. It is a day of reckoning, when he will pay back his adversaries. His sword will devour them until its appetite is satisfied. It will drink its fill from their blood! Indeed it will be a sacrifice for the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies in the land of the north by the Euphrates River.

11 Go up to Gilead and get medicinal ointment, you dear poor people of Egypt. But it will prove useless no matter how much medicine you use; there will be no healing for you.

12 The nations have heard of your shameful defeat. Your cries of distress fill the earth. One soldier has stumbled over another and both of them have fallen down defeated.”