Jer 48:16-31  Moab Shall Wallow in His Vomit

[Study Aired August 14, 2022]

Jer 48:16  The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast.
Jer 48:17  All ye that are about him, bemoan him; and all ye that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!
Jer 48:18  Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds.
Jer 48:19  O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and espy; ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth, and say, What is done?
Jer 48:20  Moab is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled,
Jer 48:21  And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath,
Jer 48:22  And upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Bethdiblathaim,
Jer 48:23  And upon Kiriathaim, and upon Bethgamul, and upon Bethmeon,
Jer 48:24  And upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.
Jer 48:25  The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith the LORD.
Jer 48:26  Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
Jer 48:27  For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.
Jer 48:28  O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth.
Jer 48:29  We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.
Jer 48:30  I know his wrath, saith the LORD; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.
Jer 48:31  Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kirheres.

Both Moab and Ammon are the sons of Lot, and Lot is Abraham’s brother’s son. Abraham fought several eastern kings for the purpose of rescuing his nephew Lot when those kings fought with and conquered Sodom. Notice how scripture refers to Lot’s relationship to Abraham:

Gen 14:14  And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
Gen 14:15  And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
Gen 14:16  And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

Abraham risked life and limb to save ‘his brother Lot’. It was only because of Lot that Abraham later attempted to bargain with the Lord to spare Sodom if He found at least ten righteous men in the city. The point being made is that Lot signifies Abraham’s own flesh, just as much as Ishmael was his own flesh when Abraham was informed of the Lord that Sarah would have a son:

Gen 17:15  And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
Gen 17:16  And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
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!
Gen 17:19  And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
Gen 17:20  And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
Gen 17:21  But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

Ishmael was Abraham’s own son by a bondwoman. The Lord promised to make of him ‘a great nation [of] 12 princes”. Look at what we are told of this ‘great nation [of] twelve princes’:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Notice how the holy spirit went from physical Sarah to spiritual Sarah, “Jerusalem above”, without as much as a pause or explanation. The holy spirit even likens “Jerusalem which now is” with Hagar and her son, “the son of the bondwoman”. The mind of the natural man cannot follow the mind of the spirit in making that transition.

This fourth chapter of Galatians reveals that there is little spiritual difference between Ishmael and Moab. Both signify the rejected seed of Abraham, and neither Ishmael nor Moab will be made heir with the son who is born of promise.

Lot separated from Abraham and moved into Sodom. Ishmael was cast out of Abraham’s house and will not be made heir with the son of the freewoman. Both Lot and Ishmael typify our dying flesh whose kingdom of twelve princes are “in bondage with [their] children” and will not be made heir with the son of the freewoman, “Jerusalem above”.

‘All flesh is as grass’ and, like grass, flesh is very short-lived.

Isa 40:6  The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
Isa 40:7  The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
Isa 40:8  The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

1Pe 1:24  For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
1Pe 1:25  But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Moab, as a type of our flesh, is ‘as grass’ which withers, fades and falls away. Moab signifies our carnal mind which is enmity with God’s mind:

Jer 48:16  The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast.

Everyone upon whom the judgment of the house of God has come knows that the calamity of Moab is near and ‘hasteth fast’. Peter tells us the same thing in these words:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Jer 48:17  All ye that are about him, bemoan him; and all ye that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!

‘Knowing Moab’s name’, like knowing the name of the Lord, is to have Moab’s mind. Moab’s name is one of opposition to everything that reflects the mind of the Lord. Moab’s name is associated with a carnal mind:

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Jer 48:18  Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds.

Here is how Strong deals with the name ‘Dibon’:

H1769
דִּיבֹן    דִּיבוֹן
dı̂ybôn    dı̂ybôn
dee-bone’, dee-bone’

From H1727; pining; Dibon, the name of three places in Palestine. Dibon, the name of three places in Palestine – Dibon.

The name means “pining” which indicates grieving. “Thou daughter” reveals that our flesh thinks of itself as being in the Lord’s service as His church. Moab is called ‘daughter’ to let us know there is such a thing as a carnal-minded church, which is full of “carnal babes in Christ”.

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, [40,000 divisions] are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

The ‘thirst’ of the daughter of Moab… “And sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee”, signifies the drought of the Word we suffer as carnal babes in Christ:

Deu 28:48  Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

It does not seem possible to be so blind, but this is what our own flesh, our ‘Moab’ within us, is capable of:

Deu 29:19  And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

Isa 5:13  Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

Jer 48:19  O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and espy; ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth, and say, What is done?

‘Aroer’ is a city of Moab, and the instruction is to enquire what has the Lord done to Moab. Verse 20 is the answer to that question.

Jer 48:20  Moab is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled,
Jer 48:21  And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath,
Jer 48:22  And upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Bethdiblathaim,
Jer 48:23  And upon Kiriathaim, and upon Bethgamul, and upon Bethmeon,

Nebo is already “spoiled”, and Kiriathaim is already confounded and taken by the Chaldeans according to verse one:

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 48:24  And upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.

These are all cities of Moab. Not one small village is exempt from the Lord’s judgments upon the kingdom of our rebellious carnal-minded old man.

Jer 48:25  The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith the LORD.

A horn in scripture signifies power, and our arm indicates our strength. The power of our flesh is cut off, and our carnal strength is literally broken.

Jer 48:26  Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

This is very graphic language which simply reveals our stubborn old man for who he is and of what he is capable. A dog returns to his vomit, and the sow returns to her wallow in the mire:

Pro 26:11  As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Our flesh, proud Moab within us, is capable of being insanely foolish and stubborn to the extent of combining the dog and the sow, and wallowing in his own vomit. It is not natural or possible for either a dog or a sow to be anything but what they are, and so it is with each of our stubborn, rebellious, old first man Adam, until Christ comes and cuts off Moab’s horn and breaks his arm. If the Lord is merciful in this present time, we are actually brought to the realization that we are given to wallow in our own vomit. If we have been made to see just how self-righteous we are, then we can say with Job:

Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

Job at this stage of his experience has been made to “wallow in his own vomit” before coming to see just how vile he was. Long before Moab, Job had also “magnified himself against the Lord”. The spirit of ‘Moab’ and the spirit of ‘the daughter Moab’ convinces us that our own righteousness is a gift to the Lord for which the Lord should be grateful to us:

Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

Oh, how foolish and how fateful is such nonsense! Nothing is further from the Truth. The Truth is that we of ourselves can do nothing and much less place our Lord in our debt. Such mental gymnastics is truly ‘our own vomit’, and the Lord makes us wallow therein until He knows we are brought to say, “Behold I am vile… I will lay my hand upon my mouth”.

Here is what we do while wallowing in our own vomit:

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.

Job had said, “Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous”. Job had already acknowledged to his wife that it was the Lord who had risen up against him, and yet he made that statement:

Job 1:21  And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Job 1:22  In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly [yet].

Job 2:9  Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
Job 2:10  But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips [yet].

Later Job did “charge God foolishly [and] sin with his lips” when he accuses God of taking away his judgment even as the Lord was in the process of judging Job.

Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

While we wallow in our own vomit, we do not think that is what we are doing. We think we are making ourselves even more righteous than God. Wow! That is indeed “vile”. We 1) contend with the Almighty. We have the temerity to question why He would afflict such a righteous person as we think ourselves to be. Then we actually 2) reprove God for afflicting such a righteous person as ourselves, and when we do that, we 3) disannul His judgment and 4) we condemn the Lord Himself rather than acknowledge that we are wallowing in our own vomit. That is the extent of the pride of our rebellious old man.

Our old man hates and despises our new man and takes great joy in assisting in the death of the new man within us. Israel had attempted to befriend the king of Moab and buy bread and water from the Moabites when they came up out of Egypt.

Deu 2:28  Thou shalt sell me meat for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only I will pass through on my feet;
Deu 2:29  (As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did unto me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the LORD our God giveth us.

Nevertheless, Balak, the king of Moab, hired Balaam the prophet to curse Israel, and the Lord turned the curse into a blessing:

Deu 23:5  Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee.

Jer 48:27  For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.
Jer 48:28  O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth.

This is just another version of:

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,
2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

This admonition is repeated in:

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.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

We are admonished to help even our enemies:

Pro 25:21  If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
Pro 25:22  For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.

Moab rejoiced when Assyria carried the northern kingdom of Israel into captivity, and now they rejoice that Judah is being carried into captivity by Babylon. Moab’s heart was glad when Israel stumbled, and the Lord now has Moab in the queue to be carried away captive of the same Babylonians. We just naturally love it when our enemy gets what we see as his comeuppance, his just deserts. Moab has no fear of these words of the Lord:

Pro 24:17  Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:
Pro 24:18  Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

Jer 48:29  We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.
Jer 48:30  I know his wrath, saith the LORD; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.

Nothing changed in over 70 years because Isaiah had earlier made the same observation concerning Moab’s extreme pride and self-righteousness:

Isa 16:6  We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so.

“His lies shall not so affect it” is demonstrated by how little Job’s lies against the Lord affected the Lord’s judgment of Job’s pride and self-righteousness:

Job 27:5  God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Job is each of us before we come to see just how vile and self-righteous we just naturally are.

Job 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

The enemy of Job’s self-righteousness was the Lord Himself, and Job is condemning his own Maker with his proud, self-righteous words. However, Job’s pride does not keep the Lord from His work in Job’s life, and our pride and our lies do not restrain the destruction of our self-righteous proud old man with “the brightness of His coming”:

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
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?
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:

Jer 48:31  Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kirheres.

As a type of our flesh, Moab is a necessary evil which “cannot inherit the kingdom of God” and was made to be taken and destroyed:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
2Pe 2:13  And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;

It is all part of ‘plan A’. The first man Adam was designed to be temporary and to be dispensed with:

Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

The Hebrew word translated as ‘unto’ in this verse is ‘el’ and it is translated as ‘against‘ in the very next verse:

Gen 4:8  And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against [H413: el] Abel his brother, and slew him.

‘Sin’ is personified, and we are told its desire will be ‘against’ us, but then we are assured right here in the book of Genesis “thou shalt rule over him”.

Immediately after telling us…

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

… we are given these very encouraging words:

1Co 15:51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

This promise of the destruction of death will not be kept until the last person who ever died is made alive. This promise Paul references in:

Hos 13:14  I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

Christ Himself made the same statement:

Joh 5:21  For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
Joh 5:22  For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
Joh 5:23  That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
Joh 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Joh 5:25  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
Joh 5:26  For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. [G2920: krisis, judgment]

In the end it is the Lord’s judgments which will bring life to all who are in Adam:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

This is not the time for “the inhabitants of the world” to be judged. When the time does arrive for the Lord’s judgments to be “in the earth, [then] the inhabitants world will learn righteousness”, and death will not claim one single soul of all who are in Adam.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.