Jeremiah 48

Flee, save your lives!
And be like the juniper in the wilderness.v.6

Read chapter 48
I lived in the high desert of Oregon for almost six years and I loved it.  It was like no environment I had ever lived in before.  To me being a Minnesotan I called the land mountainous, but really they were just ginormous hills and canyons that stretched for miles and miles.  The land is pretty bare of lush vegetation yet with many places to graze cattle who eat the shrubs and grass, some fields for harvesting alfalfa, and juniper trees scattered around.  Being a Minnesotan we call all types of pine trees pine, not really knowing the difference of the different varieties of pines as one friend poked fun at me true of most midwesterners, so I called the junipers pine.  I thought pines were to grow in cold, humid climates, yet I was living in high dry dessert which is what makes the juniper variety so unique.  What I did grow to love was the sweet smell that was so distinct to the juniper when it burns.  
So of course as I read this chapter about the judgment on Moab for them to be like the juniper it caught my attention.  Moab is told to flee from destruction that is coming on them from the Chaldeans through God's judgement and to be LIKE THE JUNIPER IN THE WILDERNESS.  Just as the juniper is a barren, fruitless shrub in a dry, desert place so when they fled from their home they would be in a solitary place bare of all their material things yet where the enemy would stop pursueing them.  Just as Jeremiah said in 17:6, "For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness
In a salt land which is not inhabited," 
so their trust in man and their own strength led to their destitution not even realizing when good came.  Moab is not a tribe of Israel but are still a people created by God.  They didn't have the standard of the law that Israel had, yet they still could have lived as a sweet aroma to God with what had been revealed to them.  How have you felt like the juniper, feeling dry and desolate, not bearing much use?  Even in this state you can still be a sweet smelling aroma to God and others if you chose to be on fire for Him no matter where you're placed.