To most of us, it may seem obvious that God is sovereign over all nations. But in the ancient world, most nations had their own gods. So in warfare, each nation would pray to their gods, and it was assumed that the nation with the stronger gods would come out on top. In other words, all these regional deities ruled one people in one place at one time. Like mediocre sports teams, they usually won at home, but always struggled on the road. Israel’s God was different. He always won, home or away. This is the message of Jeremiah 46-51, sometimes called, “The Oracles Against the Nations.” As Philip Ryken observes, “Ten nations are mentioned in all, covering nearly a million square miles on the globe. God takes the powers and superpowers of the ancient world and orders them around. Who does God think He is? God knows who He is. He is not a regional supervisor. He is not a tribal deity. He is the God of all nations. His sovereignty is not limited to a single culture, nation, or ethnic group. He has the whole world in His hands.” This is why so many chapters of Isaiah and Jeremiah emphasize that the LORD Himself is raising up Assyria or Babylon to punish His people. The defeat of Israel does not signal the defeat of their God, because their God cannot be defeated. If they lose, it can only be because He has ordained it, using the very nations Israel feared, as weapons at His own disposal. At the same time, God promises that He will hold those nations to account. They are fully responsible for their own actions. So after utilizing them to accomplish His sovereign will, God turns around and chastens them for their arrogance and unrighteousness! When God first called Jeremiah, part of his job description was to be “a prophet to the nations” (1:5). So in these closing chapters, Jeremiah takes his message and goes international with it. Jeremiah 46 contains the LORD’s word to Egypt. Using vivid poetic language, the prophet foretells a battle that would become a major turning point in world history. Historians know it as “The Battle of Carchemish” which took place in 605 BC, shifting the balance of power from Egypt to Babylon, from the Nile River to the Euphrates River (v 1-12). The Babylonians would defeat them again under Nebuchadnezzar (v 13-24)—part of the reason the Jewish remnant was told not to go down to Egypt (42:10-17). Babylon’s defeat of the Egyptians was ultimately the LORD’s victory over the so-called gods of Egypt (v 25-26). The one true God has no rivals. He is Ruler and Judge of all nations. For further meditation: