Photo by Frank Cone on Pexels.com

swooping nation

Deuteronomy 28:49-52 (JDV)

Deuteronomy 28:49 Yahveh will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the land, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you won’t understand,
Deuteronomy 28:50 a ruthless nation, showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young.
Deuteronomy 28:51 They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your land’s produce until you are exterminated. They will leave you no grain, new wine, fresh oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to be destroyed.
Deuteronomy 28:52 They will besiege you within all your city gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your city gates throughout the land Yahveh your God has given you.

swooping nation

If the Israelites fail to live up to the covenant they agreed to, God would move an entire foreign nation to invade them. They will swoop down like an eagle from the sky and take all their crops and livestock, and besiege their cities until the walls come down.

No doubt, when this happened — and it happened numerous times in history, many of the Israelites prayed for God to rescue them from these enemies. Sometimes the prophets would point out that these invasions were orchestrated by God himself, and many of the prophets paid for this loyalty with their lives. No one wants to believe that God himself would use his nation’s enemies to judge them. But he does.

As believers under the new covenant with Christ, we certainly should pray to God for relief when people oppress us, or act violently against us. But we should also do a bit of introspection. Could it be that this ordeal we are facing is God’s way of getting our attention, leading us to return to him?

Lord, open our eyes to see your work in our lives, even when you use our enemies.