Jeremiah 51:24-37--The Utter Destruction of Babylon (Part 3)

Jeremiah 51:24-37
English Standard Version

24 “I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in Zion, declares the LORD.

25 “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
declares the LORD,
    which destroys the whole earth;
I will stretch out my hand against you,
    and roll you down from the crags,
    and make you a burnt mountain.
26 No stone shall be taken from you for a corner
    and no stone for a foundation,
but you shall be a perpetual waste,
    declares the LORD.

27 “Set up a standard on the earth;
    blow the trumpet among the nations;
prepare the nations for war against her;
    summon against her the kingdoms,
    Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz;
appoint a marshal against her;
    bring up horses like bristling locusts.
28 Prepare the nations for war against her,
    the kings of the Medes, with their governors and deputies,
    and every land under their dominion.
29 The land trembles and writhes in pain,
    for the LORD's purposes against Babylon stand,
to make the land of Babylon a desolation,
    without inhabitant.
30 The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting;
    they remain in their strongholds;
their strength has failed;
    they have become women;
her dwellings are on fire;
    her bars are broken.
31 One runner runs to meet another,
    and one messenger to meet another,
to tell the king of Babylon
    that his city is taken on every side;
32 the fords have been seized,
    the marshes are burned with fire,
    and the soldiers are in panic.
33 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
    at the time when it is trodden;
yet a little while
    and the time of her harvest will come.”

34 “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me;
    he has crushed me;
he has made me an empty vessel;
    he has swallowed me like a monster;
he has filled his stomach with my delicacies;
    he has rinsed me out.
35 The violence done to me and to my kinsmen be upon Babylon,”
    let the inhabitant of Zion say.
“My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
    let Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus says the LORD:
“Behold, I will plead your cause
    and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea
    and make her fountain dry,
37 and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins,
    the haunt of jackals,
a horror and a hissing,
    without inhabitant.

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The LORD is giving this prophecy to His people--the people of Israel and Judah.  Though it is a prophecy against the people of Chaldea and Babylon, it is not obvious that the LORD ever instructed anyone to make this prophecy publicly known in Chaldea and Babylon (though the LORD will work in other ways to call the people of Babylon to repent before their time of judgement).  The people of the LORD would see the LORD do all this to avenge hat the Chaldeans and Babylonians had done to Jerusalem and the Temple and to Him (and to His people).  His people (Israel and Judah) will see this and understand that the LORD is defending Himself, His City, His Temple and His People.

The Chaldeans saw themselves as a strong mountain that would conquer the whole earth.  That's interesting, because that is the very imagery that the LORD gave to Daniel in his dream about the rock that smashed the statue of the kingdoms of this world and the Rock turned into a mountain the filled the whole world.  It is the LORD's kingdom, not the kingdom of Babylon that would be eternal and without boundaries or measure.  The LORD is going to light the "mountain" of the Chaldeans on fire and burn it so that it is utterly destroyed.

The LORD does declare that the other surrounding nations should see what is going to happen to her and side with the LORD.  They should be ready to battle against Babylon--all the lands of the Medes and the Persians.  The LORD's purpose is to destroy Babylon and turn it into a wasteland and ruin it forever.  It will remain a sign to all those who would rebel against the LORD as Babel and its people did immediately after the Flood (that is where the kingdom of Babylon started, and it will stay a kingdom of spiritual rebellion until the kingdom of Antichrist is destroyed).  City after city of Babylon is going to send messengers to the king that they are being attacked and that their city has fallen.  So many messengers will be running to and fro that they will run into each other as they are trying to enter and leave the king's presence.  The soldiers will stop fighting, the River and its fords will be seized and the marshes will be burned with fire.  This will be a time of "harvest" for the kingdom of Babylon (the righteous good grain will be separated from the evil bad tares.  The good grain is brought into the barn but the tares and the chaff are burned up with fire.)

The LORD speaks of the violence done to the people of Israel and Judah as being done directly towards Him.  Nebuchadnezzar has dried to destroy the people of Israel and Judah.  Not only did he try to destroy the Land and destroy many of the people, but he took the young people back to Babylon to try to brainwash them to turn them into Babylonians and worshipers of his gods so that there would be no more Jewish people.  He ordered them to worship him and most of them complied.  The LORD knows this was a pattern of trying to destroy His people and to keep His covenant with them from coming to pass (this is the spirit of antichrist that is at work in the world throughout all generations that is against the people of the LORD and His covenant people).

The LORD has heard the cries of His people for the LORD to avenge them, and, once again, He will go to war against their enemy (and His enemy) for them.  The LORD will make the land of Chaldea and Babylon a wasteland as they desired to do to Zion and the Holy Land.  It will become a desert without a source of fresh water.  Nothing will be left but the scavengers and unclean animals that inhabit such desert wastelands.  All of its inhabitants will be destroyed either through the battle or by assimilating into other nations (just as the Babylonians had desired to do to Israel and Judah, it will be done to them).