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he sees what we don’t

Jeremiah 49:28-33 (JDV)

Jeremiah 49:28 This is what Yahveh says about Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated: Rise up, attack Kedar, and destroy the people of the east!
Jeremiah 49:29 They will take their tents and their flocks along with their tent curtains and all their equipment. They will take their camels for themselves. They will call out to them, “Terror is on every side!”
Jeremiah 49:30 Run! Escape quickly! Lie low, residents of Hazor – this is what Yahveh declares – because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has drawn up a plan against you; he has devised a strategy against you.
Jeremiah 49:31 Rise up, attack a nation at ease, one living in security. This is what Yahveh declares. They have no doors, not even a gate bar; they live alone.
Jeremiah 49:32 Their camels will become plunder, and their massive herds of cattle will become spoil. I will scatter them to the wind in every direction, those who clip the hair on their temples; I will bring calamity on them across all their borders. This is what Yahveh declares.
Jeremiah 49:33 Hazor will become a jackals’ den, a permanent desolation. No one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily.

he sees what we don’t

Kedar and Hazor were Arab nomaic tribes, and their kingdoms were ruled by tribal chiefs. There does not seem to be much information in the prophecy about the reason God chose to turn the Babylonians loose on Kedar and Hazor.

Matthew Henry has an interesting take on this section:

“These people had lived inoffensively among their neighbours, as many do, who yet, like them, are guilty before God; and it was to punish them for their offences against him that God said (v. 28): Arise, go up to Kedar, and spoil the men of the east. They will do it to gratify their own covetousness and ambition, but God orders it for the correcting of an unthankful people, and for warning to a careless world to expect trouble when they seem to be most safe.”

Many often wonder about those nations who do not seem to be bothering anyone else — whose only crime seems to be that they are different from us.

There has to be a point where we allow our sovereign God to be sovereign. If he chooses to judge another nation, he has the right to do so. If he is judging us, he has good reason to do it.

Lord, forgive us for passively judging you. Only you see the world as it truly is.