Jeremiah 49

Well not really this chapter alone.  But reading through Jeremiah.  In chapter 49 (and elsewhere) God is commenting on the great political events of the time.  He is predicting what will soon happen and commenting on the reasons.  God says these wars and famine and disasters are the result of people's sin and pride.  They refuse to take care of the poor and widow.  Instead they take advantage of them.  They are selfish.  So God sent prophets like Jeremiah to predict what is about to happen and give God's perspective.
What is about to happen is not all that well hidden.  But God's perspective is unique.  As we look at our world and think about what will happen in the future would it be nice now to have a prophet to tell us why?  (Perhaps not.)  But we mostly think there is no why.  I think this is a big mistake.  God still cares about his creation.  Why should it be any different than in Jeremiah's time.  Who has the bravery to speak in God's name?  How would we know if a prophet was self appointed or God appointed?  Certainly any real prophet would be reviled, ridiculed, even punished as Jeremiah was.  So most of us would never volunteer for the job.
But I believe God still loves his creation passionately.  He despairs when  he sees us so selfish and destructive of one another.  He longs to see us do righteously, love mercy, and walk humbly before our God.  That would be good for us, better for our world, and please God greatly.:
I said wouldn't it be nice to have a prophet like Jeremiah today?  Well the people of his time said "No!"   The demanded, "Don't say these horrible things about destruction and murder!"  They must have thought that by predicting these things they might be brought into existence.  They would much rather stay in denial.  But God sent Jeremiah so that there could not pretend everything was all right.  He told them they were sinners and they would see God's judgment.
Aren't we in denial too?  We want things to continue just as they are now.  Why can't we just continue as we are now?  Perhaps the terrible things that could happen with the world's economy can be put off, might not happen at all.  We can continue our selfishness and everything will stay as it is.
But if we are willing to look at the future we can see what is likely to happen done the road.  And perhaps it is not as far off as we'd like to hope.  We remember economic disasters of the past, panics, depressions, monetary collapse.  We hope they will not happen again.  We remember the last big world war.  We can see the power of the U.S. waning.  Who will take up the coming power vacuum in the world?
What we do not have and what we desperately need is God's perspective on all this.  Yes he does have one.  He is close.  He cares.  Whatever happens I trust in his care for me.  Those who do not have this trust should repent of their sins and ask God to enter their heart and take over their lives.  It would be nice if a prophet was here to explain all this for us.  But we do have the Bible and there are many examples that help us to see God's way of understanding.  Let us seek him for his view.