Out of This World

by Zeke Flores

Getting ourselves out of the world is hard. Getting the world out of us is harder.

"O Jacob My servant, do not fear," declares Yahweh, "For I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I will not make a full end of you" (Jeremiah 46:28).

The oracle of Jeremiah 46 concerns Egypt, and it isn’t the first or last time God has given a special message to the once-nighty world superpower. Already defeated once by Babylon at Carchemish, a battle of huge historical significance, Egypt is promised that she will again suffer defeat by the Babylonians. Despite her prestige, power, wealth, and military strength, Egypt will be toppled from her perch.

For Israel, Egypt had been a place of slavery, hardship, and tyranny. Yet strangely, as they were freed from that bondage, they fondly remembered the food there and the life they had there. Despite the way they were treated, they often wanted to return there, conveniently forgetting their slavery! Even in Jeremiah’s time, they believed that Egypt would save them from being another of Babylon’s conquests.

This strange allure has always been a bane to believers throughout the ages. In a way, the ancient nation is a picture of today's world, even the United States. The world, that is, the system of belief that is decidedly anti-God, is what we, as Christians, try to escape. Yet, when we think of what we give up to follow Jesus, we feel the tug to return.

Just as God promised defeat to Egypt, He’ll defeat the way of the world and will take us out of it for good. The question is, when that time comes, will the world still be in us?