“Egypt’s Error”

 

BIBLE READING: Jeremiah 46-48


                The next few chapters of Jeremiah (46–51) focus on different Gentile nations that God told Jeremiah to pronounce prophesies of destruction against. This chapter deals with Egypt. From the point of view of secular, military history, the battle of Carchemish was perhaps the most important in ancient Egyptian history. This critical Assyrian city was conquered by Egypt in 605 BC, bringing about the fall of the Assyrian empire. However, when Pharaoh Necho returned to Egypt, he made a tactical error, leaving too small of a garrison to guard the newly acquired city. This left the door open for the rising world power Babylon to take the city from Egypt later that same year.

                Of course, God, who lives outside of time, had already warned the Egyptians to prepare themselves for war and had predicted their defeat. His desire then, and today, is to draw the whole world into His plan of redemption, as it says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (italics added). God desires to redeem every life to be used in His service to reach the world.

                                                                                                                                                                                   -Ed Rea

 

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