In Old Testament times many people lived in tents. They moved many times because
they took their sheep to new fields to graze. Some people traveled long distances to obtain items
to bring back to sell. They would travel in caravans and live in tents.
When it was time to stop for the night and put the tent up it was a family affair. The
children would help pull the tent cords which would stretch the tent material and raise it off the
ground. They would also help drive the tent stakes into the ground. The adults would teach the
children from the earliest age how to help put the tent up.
“Woe is me because of my hurt! My wound is grievous: but I said truly this is my grief,
and I must bear it. My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth
from me and they are not: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Jehovah: therefore, they have
not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered” (Jeremiah 10:19-21). God pictures the
Kingdom of Judah as his tabernacle (tent). God says the tent is spoiled. It is no longer put up in
the right way. He says the cords are broken. When this happened, the tent material could not be
stretched and raised off the ground. If the cords that were connected to the stakes broke, the tent
would collapse. God says His tent is collapsing. The people of Judah are not what they are
supposed to be.
God even says that there are no more children to pull on the cords. There is no one to
stretch the tent. This means that there is no one serving Him the way they are supposed to do.
There is no one worshipping Him the right way. Because of their disobedience, He will punish
them.
The church today is God’s tent. The people are the church. Christians must make sure
that they are serving God appropriately. It would be a sad situation for God to say that there is no
one left in a congregation to pull the cords and stretch His tent.

~Mark McWhorter, Crossett church of Christ, Crossett