Week 30 Jeremiah 12
The OT is mostly about Israel. And about the land of Israel. Abraham was promised land. Israel spent time in Egypt but came back to the their land. They spent time in exiled. But returned to their land.
The OT is mostly an Us & Them book that’s very heavy on the Us (Israel) and light on Them (all the others) (I’d say that the ratio of content between Israel & Everyone Else is at least 90:10. Maybe higher.)
But something the LORD says catches my attention: I will uproot from their land all the evil nations reaching out for the possession I gave my people Israel. And I will uproot Judah from among them. But afterward I will return and have compassion on all of them. I will bring them home to their own lands again, each nation to its own possession.
The phrase each nation to its own possession sounds like foreign states had geographic regions assigned (I guess) by the Lord. They were uprooted from their lands but eventually they came back: each nation to its own possession.
So I’m wondering:
Am I reading this right? Did Assyria & Moab & Ammon actually have assigned territories?
Was that a common practice in the OT?
What about after the OT? For example did Rome have assigned territory?
What about today? The USA. Malaysia. Brazil. Russia. China. France. Do modern countries have assigned geographies?
This was a question day for me.
Note: quote from Jeremiah 12:14-15 (NLT)