Jeremiah 47. The prophecy of Jeremiah prior to Pharaoh's defeat of the Philistines. Jeremiah is prophesying that waters are rising in the north to overflow the lands of the Philistines and to cut off any help. Men shall cry out, but all will be destroyed. Fathers will not look back for their children because their hands are feeble. "For the Lord is destroying the Philistines." Jeremiah asks the Philistines how long they will gash themselves, then asks the sword of the Lord how long until it is quiet? But it cannot be quiet until it has accomplished its charge, and it has been appointed by God against the Philistines' lands.

Jeremiah's prophecy once again comes true - Egypt does defeat the Philistines. (On a side note: do we have prophets today that we are ignoring? I think we very much do and we are paying the price!) The fathers not even turning back for their children in the midst of the flood really hit me. The flood is a symbol for the destruction of the city, it helps us see how sinful the people have become when Jeremiah says that their hands are too weak to save their own children from the flood waters. They can't pull their children to safety from the rising floods because they have allowed themselves to become too weak.

Are we doing this? I would argue that we are - we are so comfortable as our society slips into terrible sin that we don't fight it. We don't stand up for the truth, or for justice, or for what is right and moral, and therefore our own morality has become weak and feeble. Our morality is the hand we reach out to future generations. We cannot teach our children or be examples for them if we don't know or preach the truth ourselves. Thus, they are at the mercy of the rising waters, not knowing how to swim or where to turn for a grip on safety. We can't even offer them our hands, because we are in the same situation.

I think we still may have time to practice the virtues in our own lives thus strengthening our own morality. If we do this, and at this point it has to be intensely and quickly, we might be able to help our children before it is too late. It is worth a try, there is nothing else we can do!