“Moab is destroyed. Our little ones have made a cry.”
-Jeremiah 48:4
This short verse encapsulates a reality that was not just true in Jeremiah’s day, it’s true in our day. This is talking about the destruction of Moab and the pride of Moab and the arrogance and loftiness and haughtiness of heart you read in Jeremiah 48:29 about these things in Moab and the ruin that came upon the Moabites as a result. This picture in Jeremiah 48:4 talks about her little ones have made a cry.
In Jeremiah 48:4, we see a picture of the effects of sin, specifically on little ones, on children, in a way that we all know around the world, the effects of sin and corruption and oppression and war on little ones, on children. I think about orphan crises, refugee crises, think about what’s happened among the Rohingya and the effects of these crises and events and atrocities in the world on yes, on men and women and then specifically on children who are starving, are left without a family, are ripped away from their homes, who have no idea what the future looks like for them.
The effects of sin and oppression and injustice and war in the world do not just impact adults—they impact children as well.
I think about my kids. I love my kids so much. I’d do anything for my kids. They’re so precious to me and I think about the number of kids like tens of thousands dying every day, every week of preventable diseases. Tens of thousands. The effects of sin and oppression and injustice and war in the world. So God, we pray right now, specifically for children around the world who are suffering and dying as a result of sin and corruption and oppression and injustice.
God, please have mercy. Please have mercy, oh God. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly. Bring an end to this and help us as your people. God, until that day, help us as your people to defend them. Lord, you are father to the fatherless. You care for the orphan. You’ve told us religion, that you look at us pure and faultless, is to look after orphans and widows and their distress. So God, please help us to do that. You couldn’t have said it any more clearly so God, help us to do it. God, help us to care for orphans and widows, but specifically as we’re praying for children, for orphans in the foster care system around us. In the midst of orphan crises around the world.
God, use this as your hands and feet to show your love to little ones. Lord, help us, especially among our brothers and sisters in different places in the world, where they are starving, where there is such poverty. God, help us. Help us to free up our resources and our lives and our families and our churches to make your love and your provision and your grace known among them. God, we pray. Help us to live with urgency for the spread of your glory, specifically among little ones and the cries they’re making around the world right now. Oh God, have mercy and use us as instruments of your mercy we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
