1 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: 2 "Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. 3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. 4 On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 5 Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.' 6 "On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem. 7 "And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. 8 On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. 9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
"Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. 3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it"
It's like.. what does the mean.. when the Lord says "I will make Jerusalem a cup of staggering".
To stagger means:
1.walk or move unsteadily, as if about to fall.
2. astonish or deeply shock.
3. an arrangement of things in a zigzag order or so that they are not in line.
So... to make a people into a cup of staggering.. I can't see the third definition making sense for that.
But a cup of staggering... God will make Jerusalem into a cup of staggering, a cup that will cause the nations around them to not hold their line well.
OR he will use them to shock or astonish the nations around them.
The peoples around them will be hurt by the weight of Jerusalem as God will cause them to be like a heavy stone.
I'm getting this image in my head of the nations around Israel throwing their collective might against the peoples of God and finding it as effective as throwing a person trying to move a huge boulder, or when folks try to break down a heavy door and find themselves bounced off it (or lying on the ground).
Being an immovable force because of God.
Hmm.. do you see yourself that way?
I don't.
I find myself feeling a bit beaten some days. Like I can't stand up against the constant battering that the world throws against me. Causing me to doubt my faith. Not seeing what the Lord is truly doing.
Making me a "cup of staggering".. that that causes others to not be quite sure of what they are doing... unable to walk the line they have chosen for themselves or being a huge boulder that they can throw themselves against and know that I will not be damaged by it.
I struggle seeing myself as the Lord has made me.
I have trouble living that out.
This passage is a call to me to remember what the Lord has done and is doing in my life. Yes?
What is he doing in your life?