December 3, 2012
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Lost Without Hope!

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

I praise You, Lord, for this visit with me each day. I’m glad to be with You now.

Read Jeremiah 50:1-28

For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

[1] This is the word the LORD spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians: [2] “Announce and proclaim among the nations, lift up a banner and proclaim it; keep nothing back, but say, ‘Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror.’ [3] A nation from the north will attack her and lay waste her land. No one will live in it; both people and animals will flee away. [4] “In those days, at that time,” declares the LORD, “the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the LORD their God. [5] They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten. [6] “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. [7] Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they sinned against the LORD, their verdant pasture, the LORD, the hope of their ancestors.’ [8] “Flee out of Babylon; leave the land of the Babylonians, and be like the goats that lead the flock. [9] For I will stir up and bring against Babylon an alliance of great nations from the land of the north. They will take up their positions against her, and from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed. [10] So Babylonia will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the LORD. [11] “Because you rejoice and are glad, you who pillage my inheritance, because you frolic like a heifer threshing grain and neigh like stallions, [12] your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who gave you birth will be disgraced. She will be the least of the nations- a wilderness, a dry land, a desert. [13] Because of the LORD’s anger she will not be inhabited but will be completely desolate. All who pass Babylon will be appalled; they will scoff because of all her wounds. [14] “Take up your positions around Babylon, all you who draw the bow. Shoot at her! Spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD. [15] Shout against her on every side! She surrenders, her towers fall, her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of the LORD, take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done to others. [16] Cut off from Babylon the sower, and the reaper with his sickle at harvest. Because of the sword of the oppressor let everyone return to their own people, let everyone flee to their own land. [17] “Israel is a scattered flock that lions have chased away. The first to devour them was the king of Assyria; the last to crush their bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.” [18] Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria. [19] But I will bring Israel back to their own pasture, and they will graze on Carmel and Bashan; their appetite will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead. [20] In those days, at that time,” declares the LORD, “search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare. [21] “Attack the land of Merathaim and those who live in Pekod. Pursue, kill and completely destroy them,” declares the LORD. “Do everything I have commanded you. [22] The noise of battle is in the land, the noise of great destruction! [23] How broken and shattered is the hammer of the whole earth! How desolate is Babylon among the nations! [24] I set a trap for you, Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it; you were found and captured because you opposed the LORD. [25] The LORD has opened his arsenal and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Sovereign LORD Almighty has work to do in the land of the Babylonians. [26] Come against her from afar. Break open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain. Completely destroy her and leave her no remnant. [27] Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter! Woe to them! For their day has come, the time for them to be punished. [28] Listen to the fugitives and refugees from Babylon declaring in Zion how the LORD our God has taken vengeance, vengeance for his temple.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Reflect

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt 9:36).

Psalm 23 portrays an idyllic scene of a sheep or lamb that is secure and well fed, since it is protected by a Good Shepherd. Sadly, this is not the vision of Israel that Jeremiah sees. Because Israel has rejected the Lord, the nation is like lost and abandoned sheep (6,17). Jeremiah blames Israel’s leaders who have failed to give good leadership and have left the sheep vulnerable to attack (6). If Israelites are typified as scattered sheep, vulnerable and defenseless, the great powers, Babylon and Assyria, are the lions that devour the flock (17). Ultimately these lion-like forces will be repaid for their sins (21-28).

For readers in the Near East, the image of scattered sheep portrayed the nation’s vulnerability. Scattered sheep were always in great danger at a time when lions and wolves roamed freely. This negative and sad picture of scattered sheep provides a good context in which to remember the privileges and protection with which Christians have been blessed. We are no longer scattered sheep, because the Good Shepherd has found us and made us one (John 11:52).

The sheep under the protection of the Good Shepherd are blessed indeed. He protects us, guides us and gives us a sense of belonging since he knows us by name. Jesus uses this metaphor of sheep and shepherds to describe the difference that he can make in our lives. He pays particular attention to the sheep that are lost (Matt 18:12-14; Luke 15:3-7). Shepherds were despised in Jesus’ day, but he was willing to accept ridicule and death itself so that he could fulfill the role of the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11).

Apply

Thank God that Jesus is your Good Shepherd. Recall how he, “…protects us, guides us and gives us a sense of belonging….”

Closing prayer

Lord Jesus, how good it is to realize that You, as the Good Shepherd, know me by name. May I always know I belong to You.

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