Jeremiah 51:38-51--The Utter Destruction of Babylon (Part 4)

Jeremiah 51:38-51
English Standard Version

38 “They shall roar together like lions;
    they shall growl like lions' cubs.
39 While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast
    and make them drunk, that they may become merry,
then sleep a perpetual sleep
    and not wake, declares the LORD.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and male goats.

41 “How Babylon is taken,
    the praise of the whole earth seized!
How Babylon has become
    a horror among the nations!
42 The sea has come up on Babylon;
    she is covered with its tumultuous waves.
43 Her cities have become a horror,
    a land of drought and a desert,
a land in which no one dwells,
    and through which no son of man passes.
44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon,
    and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed.
The nations shall no longer flow to him;
    the wall of Babylon has fallen.

45 “Go out of the midst of her, my people!
    Let every one save his life
    from the fierce anger of the LORD!
46 Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful
    at the report heard in the land,
when a report comes in one year
    and afterward a report in another year,
and violence is in the land,
    and ruler is against ruler.

47 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming
    when I will punish the images of Babylon;
her whole land shall be put to shame,
    and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the heavens and the earth,
    and all that is in them,
shall sing for joy over Babylon,
    for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,
declares the LORD.
49 Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,
    just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.

50 “You who have escaped from the sword,
    go, do not stand still!
Remember the LORD from far away,
    and let Jerusalem come into your mind:
51 ‘We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach;
    dishonor has covered our face,
for foreigners have come
    into the holy places of the LORD's house.’

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The LORD tells Jeremiah to prophecy that Babylon will be in the midst of a loud, drunken party when the Medes and Persians attack them.  This is exactly what we see happen in the book of Daniel.  They are right in the middle of an all-night party where they are taking the sacred objects from the Temple and using them to offer worship to their gods of wood, stone, bronze, iron, silver, and gold.  The LORD comes down in the midst of this party to write a message on the plaster that the king and the kingdom of Babylon have been weighed and found wanting and that the kingdom would be taken from him that evening and his life would be required of him.  Within moments of Daniel interpreting the words the LORD had written, the prophecy was fulfilled and the Babylonian Empire was no more.

The LORD specifically calls out the false god Bel here to whom much of the military victories of Babylon were attributed.  The LORD said that He would take out Bel's mouth the nations that he had swallowed (speaking of the demon that was at work behind this idol worship).  The LORD would reverse the damage the demon had done and release His people from their captivity and return them to their Land and the Land would once again become fruitful, though the Babylonians tried hard to destroy it.  It will be Babylon that will become a desert wasteland though the mighty Euphrates River and the Tigris River flow through its midst.

The days is coming when these idols that the Babylonians worshiped would be destroyed by the invaders from the North (the Medes and the Greeks and eventually the Romans).  None of them will tolerate the worship of other gods besides the ones they worship.  Just look at Islam which comes from the worship of the moon god Allah and how they destroy all other images and temples wherever they go.  So it was with these other kingdoms as they swept through the area.

The LORD tells all of the Babylonians that hear Him now to run for their lives and all of the Jewish people should get out from among her borders before this time comes (though the LORD is going to use the Medes and the Persians to set His people free, He doesn't want them to get caught up in the battle and killed).  None of the Jews should fight for the Babylonians against the Medes and Persians.  When this day comes, the LORD says that all of creation (including the creatures in heaven) will rejoice at the victory of the LORD over this wicked empire and the kingdom of the devil that was at work through them.  Is it any wonder that the Antichrist will associate His kingdom with the kingdom of Babylon? Once again, when Antichrist, the False Prophet, and the Devil are defeated, and the "New Babylon" falls, all creation will again rejoice at the victory of the one who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  His Kingdom is forever!

The kingdom of Babylon now and in the future will be punished for the blood of God's people that they have spilled and the persecution they have committed against them.  The LORD will avenge His people as they are told to not take vengeance themselves, but to leave room for the wrath of God.  That is what we see happening here.  The wrath of God is avenging His people in His way and in His time.  He will not let the wicked go unpunished, yet, He saves a remnant from every tribe tongue and nation and there will be people from the Kingdom of Babylon that will one day gather with us to worship the Father and the Son in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Those who escape the sword are to run and not stop running.  They may be dispersed throughout the entire world, but they are to keep Jerusalem in their hearts and always remember how the LORD loves His people and His City.  The Temple has been desecrated and that is shameful to the LORD's people right now, but the day is coming when Jerusalem and the Temple will be rebuilt (and the Medo-Persian Empire will pay for it and will return everything that the Babylonians stole from the Temple).