This is in continuation of my reflections on my reading of Jeremiah, a book God has put on my heart to read. And there was a verse that stood out as very relevant to today’s political climate. Granted, its relevant in that America is a fallen culture that worsens daily, so it seems. Jeremiah 6:23, in context, shows that gun control is a tool of oppression.
Jeremiah 6 begins by prophesying the coming Chaldeans (Babylonians). Jerusalem shall be put to siege. A destructive war is nigh.
22Thus says the Lord,
“Behold, a people is coming from the north land,
And a great nation will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.
23They seize bow and spear;
They are cruel and have no mercy;
Their voice roars like the sea,
And they ride on horses,
Arrayed as a man for the battle
Against you, O daughter of Zion!”
24We have heard the report of it;
Our hands are limp.
Anguish has seized us,
Pain as of a woman in childbirth.
25Do not go out into the field
And do not walk on the road,
For the enemy has a sword,
Terror is on every side.
The people of Jerusalem will not be able to defend themselves. Their peasant weapons will be seized (bow and spears) while the Chaldeans will be mounted on horseback bearing swords. Thus, God’s rebellious people are outmatched. But this is because they have rejected their all-powerful God. A proper reading of David and Goliath would show that Goliath was the real underdog and got trounced accordingly because God always covers the spread.
Now, the people of Israel and Judah are condemned for many things, but keeping weapons is not seen as an idol or otherwise rejecting God. It’s almost assumed that the rabble would keep bows and spears. Thus having these arms removed denotes a major tyrannical presence. It precedes the statement that “they are cruel and without mercy.”
Modern Application
A pressing danger or tragedy is all the more reason to keep and bear arms. In this passage the arms of the people will be confiscated and the land will be made untraversable for lack of safety. While one is not necessarily the cause of the other, confiscation would make this disaster worse.
We see in modern day this push for gun confiscation that will only worsen the problem because most mass shootings happen in gun free zones. We recently saw a church shooting put down in seconds by armed congregants in Texas.
And while this passage does not prophesy that all civilian disarming measures will result in a lack of safety, this passage strongly ties it to tyranny which is a historically strong association.
I do not want to make too many more claims about what this passage says with regards to gun control because the established strong connection of confiscation and tyranny is a truth worthy of standing on its own without embellishing on the commentary.
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