10 ‘Behold, the day! Behold, it is coming! Your doom has gone forth; the rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed. 11 Violence [d]has grown into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, none of their people, none of their wealth, nor anything eminent among them. 12 The time has come, the day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn; for wrath is against all their multitude. 13 Indeed, the seller will not [e]regain [f]what he sold as long as [g]they both live; for the vision regarding all their multitude will not [h]be averted, nor will any of them maintain his life by his iniquity.
14 ‘They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle, for My wrath is against all [i]their multitude. 15 The sword is outside and the plague and the famine are within. He who is in the field will die by the sword; famine and the plague will also consume those in the city. 16 Even when their survivors escape, they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them [j]mourning, each over his own iniquity. 17 All hands will hang limp and all knees will [k]become like water. 18 They will gird themselves with sackcloth and shuddering will overwhelm them; and shame will be on all faces and baldness on all their heads. 19 They will fling their silver into the streets and their gold will become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their [l]appetite nor can they fill their stomachs, for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling.
As this declaration of judgment continues, we see several things that are not what they ought to be. First there is the rod that has budded, then the doves of the valleys scattered to the mountains, and finally the gold and silver that have become abhorrent and worthless. Of these, the rod might be a little obscure, but it is the same imagery as when God used the budded rod to appoint Aaron to the priesthood in Numbers 17.
Interestingly though, the budding of Aaron’s rod happened at a time when the people of Israel were grumbling and rebelling, especially Korah and his sons. They were all consumed by an earthquake then, and even now the budding rod came with their doom. The dove, well that seems a bit obvious, they lived in the valley, and now they were alone and lost in a place they did not know.
The silver and gold also, which could have bought many fine things, and plenty of food, could now do none of that. For with the siege (coming or present), food would be so scarce that even gold and silver were not enough to procure sustenance. Even the army that had made ready in v. 14 would not go forth to battle, either for fear, or lack of food, or for fear of the overwhelming army arrayed against them.
The dove is the one that really caught my eye though. I don’t know a lot about doves, but the picture here is one of mourning over their mistakes, their iniquity. Rather than follow God’s ways, the people of Israel had gone astray, each to his own ways.
In our own lives, God has a plan and a purpose for us. There is a place where we belong, first and foremost, putting our trust in Him, committing our hearts to His care. However, it doesn’t stop there. We don’t say, thanks for saving me Jesus, I’ll just be on my way now… Rather, we are called to follow Him all the days of our lives.
Anything less is accompanied with misery. Even for those who once committed their lives to God, if they have lost sight of His way, they wander listless and without purpose. Are we in the place God wants us, are we seeking His purpose in our lives? No, we aren’t all called to be pastors or missionaries to a foreign land (though maybe you are).
Yet whatever gifts God has given you and I, we need to be about our Father’s business, just as Jesus was at the ripe young age of 12 (see Luke, chapter 2). Find your place, walk with Jesus, hand in hand, and never let go!