Jer 4:23 | KingComments | STEP | Jeremiah sees in the spirit the consequences of the enemy’s coming. He sees God’s judgment as a cosmic catastrophe that will make the land “formless and void” ( ), as the earth was before God began to form and fill it ( ). The heavens lack light. What stands for firmness and stability, “mountains” and “all the hills”, is moved to and fro ( ). There is no longer a living creature to be seen ( ). Nor is there any life to be seen further, for the fertile land has become a wilderness, and the gathering places of people, the cities, have been pulled down ( ). The description is vivid, simple, direct, wide in references, and earnest in content. These are unique verses. The prophet is led by the Spirit to witness this cosmic disaster. Four times it says “I looked”. It applies to the coming day of the LORD. All of nature will be upended and no element of it will be left untouched. And if then we expect this to be because of the work of the enemy, we suddenly hear that it happened “before the LORD, before His fierce anger”. Behind the work of the enemy is the hand of the LORD. He is the Causer of the devastation.

‏ Jeremiah 4:23

The Cosmic Disaster

Jeremiah sees in the spirit the consequences of the enemy’s coming. He sees God’s judgment as a cosmic catastrophe that will make the land “formless and void” (Jer 4:23), as the earth was before God began to form and fill it (Gen 1:2). The heavens lack light. What stands for firmness and stability, “mountains” and “all the hills”, is moved to and fro (Jer 4:24). There is no longer a living creature to be seen (Jer 4:25). Nor is there any life to be seen further, for the fertile land has become a wilderness, and the gathering places of people, the cities, have been pulled down (Jer 4:26).

The description is vivid, simple, direct, wide in references, and earnest in content. These are unique verses. The prophet is led by the Spirit to witness this cosmic disaster. Four times it says “I looked”. It applies to the coming day of the LORD. All of nature will be upended and no element of it will be left untouched.

And if then we expect this to be because of the work of the enemy, we suddenly hear that it happened “before the LORD, before His fierce anger”. Behind the work of the enemy is the hand of the LORD. He is the Causer of the devastation.