“Run for your lives, you people of Benjamin! Get out of Jerusalem! Sound the alarm in Tekoa! Send up a signal at Beth-hakkerem! A powerful army is coming from the north, coming with disaster and destruction.” Jeremiah 6:1
Jeremiah is warning that judgment was coming and the people should run away for the destruction of Jerusalem. The people of Benjamin, just north of Jerusalem, were to flee for safety. But instead of stopping at the capital city, they were to flee from Jerusalem and continue heading south. The trumpet would be sounded at Tekoa, about 11 miles southeast of Jerusalem. And the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem, a vantage point midway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, would be lit to warn the inhabitants of the land to flee. God threatened to destroy Jerusalem so completely that shepherds would pitch their tents and graze their herds on its site. This extensive destruction is confirmed.
Just like Israel our nation is heading for destruction. “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14. I have heard this quoted many times as a fix for our nation. Yes, this is what we as a nation need to do. We need to first humble ourselves before God. The problem; we don’t feel that we have to be humble, we can take care of all of our problems and we don’t need God. God is for weak people. To humble ourselves is to be weak. This is not what the Bible tells us. The Bible tells us that the weak will be strong, because he depends on God.