Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, and lift up your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are crushed. I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, “I will not listen.” This has been your way from your youth, for you have not obeyed my voice. The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity; then you will be ashamed and dismayed because of all your wickedness. O inhabitant of Lebanon, nested among the cedars, how you will groan when pangs come upon you, pain as of a woman in labor! Jeremiah 22:20-23
“When he says “I spoke to you (that is God spoke through the prophets: or else ‘they spoke to you’ so that ‘my prophets’ is understood) in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen’ he charges Jerusalem with pride and with misusing their great wealth in contempt of God. He also explains how not only at this time but even from the beginning when they were first led out of Egypt, they would not listen to God. For this reason their shepherds and leaders will be scattered here and there and their necks will be bowed down to Babylonian captivity. And when he adds, “You who sit in Lebanon and make your nest among the cedars,” he is scoffing at their arrogance that sprang from their abundance in all things. He also says that sudden pain and unexpected captivity will come on them as on a woman who is giving birth.”
Jerome of Stridon (347-420) in Commentary on Jeremiah, trans. by Michael Graces, ed. by Christopher Hall (Ancient Christian Texts; Downers Grove: IVP, 2011) 134.
In speaking to various church groups, I remind them not to misuse the great wealth that God has entrusted to them. Obedience often leads to material blessing but our own prosperity can destroy us personally and our churches collectively. This is true for all Christians as well as every denomination and congregation.
Shepherds of God’s flock in modernity today must consider Old Testament texts like this one written to the Jews, as a wake up call for us lest the same complacency and arrogance spring from our own experience of abundance. Our churches have been blessed richly and must, in turn, generously put God’s resources to work, lest we too (at least metaphorically speaking) become enslaved by Babylon (which personifies materialism in Scripture).
Misuse of the material wealth God provides leads to slavery and possibly even destruction.