‹ Back

Jeremiah 5:17 "They shall eat up your harvest and your food; they shall eat up your sons and your daughters; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; your fortified cities in which you trust they shall destroy with the sword."

 

God is talking about sending an enemy nation against Judah as punishment for her many sins (Jeremiah 5:7-9, 15). This nation, says God, will "eat up" everything Judah holds dear. "But", God says, "even in those days ... I will not make a full end of you." (Jeremiah 5:18). God’s end goal is always to save His people, not destroy them.

 

The repetition of the words "eat up" strikes me here. I have written before about how we can see Israel's enemies in the Old Testament as stand-ins for the forces of evil with whom we are doing battle, and these words impart a real sense of evil. They imply the enemy is not just out to conquer Judah, it is not primarily after power or control. Rather, the enemy seeks to devour God's people, everything they hold dear, and everything they need for a healthy, happy life. All of that will be "eaten up" by the enemy, which of course means it will also eventually be excreted when everything good in it has been absorbed. All that is good will be drained, and what remains will become nothing but waste.

 

This is an excellent analogy for what the devil wants to do to us. He does not primarily want to rule over us, although he certainly loves power. He may not want to admit it to himself, but he has an emptiness in him that he is desperate to fill, but cannot because he has rejected the only One who can fill it. Therefore, he prowls around like a roaring lion looking for easy prey to devour (1 Peter 5:8). When we, like Judah here, have given ourselves over to sin and become complacent in it, we become the easy prey. As we are devoured, any goodness in us is drained away as the devil sucks it out, unsuccessfully (and maybe even unknowingly) attempting to fill his own lack.

 

We are nothing to the forces of evil but fodder for their emptiness which can never be sated. But we are everything to God, and our own emptiness, similar to the devil's but not yet complete or permanent, can only be filled by His completeness. He wants to feed us, not let us become fodder.