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Book of Jeremiah – Jer 48:1-15  Our Own Flesh-Moab Is Destroyed

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Jer 48:1-15  Our Own Flesh-Moab Is Destroyed

[Study Aired August 7, 2022]

Jer 48:1  Against Moab thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Woe unto Nebo! for it is spoiled: Kiriathaim is confounded and taken: Misgab is confounded and dismayed.
Jer 48:2  There shall be no more praise of Moab: in Heshbon they have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen; the sword shall pursue thee.
Jer 48:3  A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim, spoiling and great destruction.
Jer 48:4  Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.
Jer 48:5  For in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.
Jer 48:6  Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.
Jer 48:7  For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.
Jer 48:8  And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape: the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD hath spoken.
Jer 48:9  Give wings unto Moab, that it may flee and get away: for the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein.
Jer 48:10  Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.
Jer 48:11  Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
Jer 48:12  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles.
Jer 48:13  And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence.
Jer 48:14  How say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war?
Jer 48:15  Moab is spoiled, and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

Moab and Ammon are the sons of Lot, Abraham’s nephew, by his own daughters who thought no one was left on earth to carry on their Father’s name after the destruction of Sodom. The two daughters plotted to get their father drunk and have his children to preserve his name:

Gen 19:30  And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
Gen 19:31  And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
Gen 19:32  Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
Gen 19:33  And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
Gen 19:34  And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
Gen 19:35  And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
Gen 19:36  Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
Gen 19:37  And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
Gen 19:38  And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.

Lot was Abraham’s brother, Haran’s son, who we are told repeatedly went with Abraham:

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Gen 12:2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen 12:3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Gen 12:4  So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Gen 13:1  And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

Gen 13:5  And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.

Lot and his children symbolize those who are very close to the Lord’s elect but are not given the promises given to the Lord’s elect.

Jer 48:1  Against Moab thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Woe unto Nebo! for it is spoiled: Kiriathaim is confounded and taken: Misgab is confounded and dismayed.
Jer 48:2  There shall be no more praise of Moab: in Heshbon they have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen; the sword shall pursue thee.

There is no Hebrew number for the word ‘in’ in the phrase “in Heshbon”. It reads… “Heshbon they have devised evil against”. The word ‘it’ is also added to the text and does not follow the word ‘against’.

“Madmen” is translated from this Hebrew word:

When we look up H1828, we see:

This Hebrew word ‘domen’ appears six times in the Old Testament, and it really is “always” used figuratively of dead corpses.

These six entries therefore are prime examples of the Lord’s estimation of the worth of our flesh. It is a powerful witness against the ‘Madmen’ of Moab within us to read each of these six entries in the order of their appearance:

2Ki 9:37  And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.

Psa 83:8  Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot [Moab and Ammon]. Selah.
Psa 83:9  Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
Psa 83:10  Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth. [“The earth” thrives on dung]

Jer 8:1  At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
Jer 8:2  And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

Jer 9:22  Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.
Jer 9:23  Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
Jer 9:24  But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
Jer 9:25  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
Jer 9:26  Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

Jer 16:4  They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

Jer 25:32  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.
Jer 25:33  And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.

Notice that Moab and Ammon are mentioned in two of these six entries of this Hebrew word, H1828, (‘domen’, dung). Our flesh truly is ‘as filthy rags’ before the Lord. Our flesh is a necessary evil which must die before it can be of any use to the Lord:

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Our flesh is our greatest enemy because it has been given to the adversary for his nourishment.

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

The Lord knows that we are powerless against our own flesh.

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. [In my flesh]
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Israel, while in the wilderness for forty years, was not circumcised and therefore was in no shape to fight against their own flesh as typified by Edom, Moab, and Ammon. That is why in type the Lord told Israel concerning these three nations which were of their own flesh:

Deu 2:4  And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore:
Deu 2:5  Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.

Deu 2:9  And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession.

Deu 2:19  And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession.

It will be many years later, only under King David, that Israel is given to do battle with and subdue these three nations:

2Sa 8:2  And he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive. And so the Moabites became David’s servants, and brought gifts.

2Sa 8:11  Which also king David did dedicate unto the LORD, with the silver and gold that he had dedicated of all nations which he subdued;
2Sa 8:12  Of Syria, and of Moab, and of the children of Ammon, and of the Philistines, and of Amalek, and of the spoil of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah.

2Sa 8:14  And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David’s servants. And the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.

Only after we have spiritually been baptized in the crossing of the Jordan River, been circumcised, and conquered the giants of the promised land, and have been given a king after the Lord’s own heart, are we given to subdue our own flesh, the flesh of Edom, Moab and Ammon. It is not something we are given to accomplish as carnal babes in Christ who are in the process of coming up out of Egypt and rebelling against the Lord while still in the wilderness or our own rebellion.

At the appointed time we are given to subdue and even destroy Moab, our own flesh, as we are ‘crucified with Christ’:

Jer 48:3  A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim, spoiling and great destruction.
Jer 48:4  Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.

“Is destroyed” is in the niphal stem, and this is the definition of ‘niphal’:

a) Niphal is the “passive” of Qal-See [H8851]

So, the destruction of Moab is proceeding and will continue because it is the Lord who is in the process of destroying our sinful flesh which has nothing good within it:

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Gal 2:20  [My own flesh, Moab within me] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Jer 48:5  For in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.

Luhith was on a hill and Horonaim was situated in a valley. Both were weeping because of the destruction of their cities at the hands of the Chaldeans who the Lord used to punish Moab. Weeping is what we all do when we learn of the necessity of the death of our old man. This is what Abraham said when the Lord told him that his own flesh, Ishmael, would not be his heir:

Gen 17:17  Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
Gen 17:18  And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

It is a great struggle to give up our old man and die daily to him.

Jer 48:6  Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

“The heath” (H6176) is the juniper:

H6176

ערער    ערוער
‛ărô‛êr  ‛ar‛âr
ar-o-ayr’, ar-awr’
From H6209 reduplicated; a juniper (from its nudity of situation): – heath.

The name of this bush is from H6209 of which we are told:

H6209
ערר
‛ârar
aw-rar’
A primitive root; to bare; figuratively to demolish: – make bare, break, raise up [perhaps by clerical error for raze], X utterly.

The admonition seems to be, ‘Save your life by having it demolished’ which is just another way of saying:

Mat 16:25  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Jer 48:7  For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.

‘Chemoah’ was the god of the Moabites, and he is being destroyed along with all who put their trust in him. In type, Chemosh is our own ‘man of sin’ who sets himself up in the temple of God and demands our worship; and always takes the Lord’s glory unto himself. We can do nothing of ourselves:

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Joh 8:28  Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

If this is true for our Lord, how much more does it apply to each of us? This is the Truth as to how much these words apply to each of us:

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

However, Moab within us trusts in his own works, because he thinks he is God, and as Paul tells us:

2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

We are the temple of God, and it is our old man of sin who sits in the Lord’s temple demanding our worship. If we are blessed of the Lord, He will judge Moab within us in this present time:

Jer 48:8  And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape: the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD hath spoken.

The cities within us typify our entire lifestyle which has been built up over the years of believing and acting upon all the false doctrines we have been given to believe and to act upon in our daily lives. They must be destroyed and spoiled every one…’No city shall escape’.

Jer 48:9  Give wings unto Moab, that it may flee and get away: for the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein.

It is good to know that the Hebrew word translated ‘wings’ here is H6731, ‘tsiyts/tsits’. It appears 15 times in the Old Testament, and this verse in Jeremiah 48 is the only time it is translated as wings:

This is how Strong’s defines this word:

When we check out its root word, we are still led to believe it means a flower. Here is Strong’s definition of H6692:

The first time the word H6731 appears in scripture, it appears to be in accord with what is being said here about Moab:

Job 14:1  Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
Job 14:2  He cometh forth like a flower [H6731: tsiyts/tsits], and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

The Lord expects us to put our whole heart into the destruction of Moab within us:

Jer 48:10  Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.

This verse is addressed outwardly to the Chaldeans who are commissioned to destroy Moab. King Saul was commissioned to destroy Israel’s enemy, the Amalekites. Instead, he brought back King Agag as a trophy of his campaign, and he spared the best of the livestock. King Saul is a perfect example of “doing the work of the Lord deceitfully”. As this prophecy applies to each of us, we are told:

2Co 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

If we ’touch’ the unclean thing, then we become unclean, and if we do not come out of this world we will receive of her plagues.

When the Lord told Moses:

Deu 20:16  But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
Deu 20:17  But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
Deu 20:18  That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.

Once again, these ‘cities’ typify our entire life lived under the false doctrines of the churches of this world, and we are to thoroughly destroy every vestige of all of those lies and false doctrines and… “save alive nothing that breathes”.

Our old man has been ruling within the Lord’s temple for many years, and he is very comfortable in that position, but he must, at the appointed time, be cast out of the Lord’s house by the brightness of the coming of Christ and His Truth:

Jer 48:11  Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
Jer 48:12  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles.

Until the appointed time, our old man is not tried in fire nor ever had his faith to be tried:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

This is what must happen to our old ‘man of sin’:

2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

‘Empty his vessels and break his bottles’ refers to the destruction of all the lying false doctrines within us which must be destroyed by “the brightness of His coming”. The Truth will automatically displace the lies when “the eyes of [our] understanding are enlightened by ‘His coming’ into our hearts and minds:

Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19  And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

Jer 48:13  And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence.

“Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh” refers to what we just read in verse 7:

Jer 48:7  For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.

“As Israel was [ashamed] of Bethel their confidence” refers to Israel’s apostasy and establishing of a golden calf in Bethel under Jereboam the son of Nebat. That golden calf did not stop the Assyrians from carrying Israel away captive into different Assyrian cities:

1Ki 12:26  And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
1Ki 12:27  If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
1Ki 12:28  Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
1Ki 12:29  And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.

When we trust in our own false doctrines and ignore the words of God to keep our traditions, we will be made to regret how lightly we have treated the Lord’s Words for the sake of fitting into the society in which we live and in which our families and friends live. When we do that, we are trembling at what they think of us and not at the Lord’s Words or what He thinks of us:

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
Isa 66:3  He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
Isa 66:4  I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.

While we tremble before men and make light of the Lord’s words, we still convince ourselves that we are men of great courage and strength.

Jer 48:14  How say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war?
Jer 48:15  Moab is spoiled, and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

That is the fate of our hypocritical old man who convinces himself he is serving God when in fact he is worshiping himself and this world. For those who are given to ‘come out of her and be separated from her sins and her plagues’, this is what the Lord says to us:

Isa 66:5  Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.

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