Jeremiah 51
The LORD does not forsake His own
1 The LORD says this; Behold, I will raise up a destroying wind/ tornado/ hurricane against Babylon, and against those that dwell in the midst of those that rise up against me; 2 And will send to Babylon winnowers, that will winnow her, and empty her land: for in the day of trouble they will be against her round about. 3 Against him that bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifts up his armor: do not spare her young men; utterly destroy all her army. 4 The slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, they are thrust through in her streets. 5 For Israel has not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.
- Hebrews 13:5 Let your way of life be without covetousness; and be content with what you have: for he has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.
God desires that all turn to Him and be healed
6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and every man deliver his soul: do not be cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance; he will give her a just reward. 7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD's hand that made all the earth drunk: the nations drank her wine; therefore the nations go insane. 8 Babylon has suddenly fallen and is destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if perhaps she may be healed. 9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let’s every one go into his own country: for her judgment reaches unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
- The Lord sent a warning ahead of time so that those who wanted to avoid the judgment could get away.
- The Jews turned back to the One true God while they were exiled in Babylon. They worshipped Him there.
- Seventy years the Babylonians had a testimony from God’s people.
- 2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any perish, but that all come to repentance.
10 The LORD has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God. 11 Make the arrows bright; gather the shields: the LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his plan is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple. 12 Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD has both planned and done what he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. 13 O you that dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, and the measure of your covetousness.
- Colossians 3:5 Control your members that are on the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
14 The LORD of hosts has sworn by His soul, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, as with caterpillers; and they will lift up a shout against you. 15 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by his understanding. 16 When he utters his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth: he makes lightnings with rain, and brings the wind out of his treasures.
- Psalm 33:6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 9 he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
17 Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every refiner is ashamed by the carved image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath/spirit in them. 18 They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they will perish. 19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name.
- The title ‘LORD of hosts’ speaks of His command over all the infinite armies of angels in heaven.
- No one else who speaks to us has the credentials that God has.
- He made all things including us. He deserves our attention more than any.
20 You are my battle-axe and weapons of war: for with you I will break in pieces the nations, and with you I will destroy kingdoms; 21 And with you I will shatter the horse and his rider; and with you I will shatter the chariot and his rider; 22 With you also shatter in man and woman; and with you I will shatter old and young; and with you I will shatter in pieces the young man and the maid; 23 I will also shatter with you the shepherd and his flock; and with you I will shatter the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with you I will shatter captains and rulers. 24 And I will repay to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says the LORD.
- Idolatry is the cause of war.
- Judges 5:8 They chose new gods; then was war in the gates.
- Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that is what he will reap.
25 Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says the LORD, who destroys all the earth: and I will stretch out my hand on you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain. 26 And they will not take from you a stone for a corner or a stone for foundations; but you will be desolate forever, says the LORD. 27 Set up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers. 28.Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, its captains, all its rulers, and all the land of his dominion.
- God from His eternal throne (Ezekiel 1:26-28) calls for armies of earth to destroy these kingdoms that are leading people to earthly misery and eternal death.
- In Jeremiah 50 God foretold the destruction of Babylon. Here He foretold who would destroy Babylon.
29 And the land will tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD will be done against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon desolate without an inhabitant. 30 The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting, they have remained in their holds: their strength has failed; they become as women: they have burned her dwelling-places; her bars are broken. 31 One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, 32 And that the passages are stopped, and they have burned reeds with fire, the men of war are terrified. 33 For the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says this; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest will come. 34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a dragon, he has filled his belly with my delicates, he has cast me out. 35 The inhabitress of Zion says, the violence done to me and to my flesh is on Babylon; and Jerusalem says, my blood is on the inhabitants of Chaldea.
The Lord pleads our cause and takes vengeance for us
36 The LORD says this; Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. 37 And Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant. 38 They will roar together like lions: they will yell as lions' whelps. 39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the LORD. 40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats. 41 How Sheshach is taken! And how the praise of the whole earth is surprised! How Babylon has become an astonishment among the nations! 42 The sea comes up on Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of its waves. 43 Her cities are desolate, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land where no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass by there. 44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed up: and the nations will not flow together any more to him: yes, the wall of Babylon will fall.
- God punished the false gods of Babylon.
- Demons are behind false gods—1 Corinthians 10:20
45 My people, go out of the midst of her, and every man deliver his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. 46 Do not let your heart faint and fear at the rumor that will be heard in the land; a rumor will come one year, and after that in another year a rumor will come, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. 47 Therefore, behold, the days come that I will do judgment upon the carved images of Babylon: and her whole land will be confounded, and all her slain will fall in the midst of her. 48 Then the heaven and the earth and all that is in them will sing for Babylon: for the spoilers will come to her from the north, says the LORD. 49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so, at Babylon, the slain of all the land will fall.
- Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
50 You that have escaped the sword, go away, do not stand still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. 51 We have turned pale because we have heard a reproach: shame has covered our faces: for foreigners have come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house. 52 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will judge her carved images: and the wounded will groan through all her land. 53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet ravagers will come from me to her, says the LORD. 54 A sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: 55 Because the LORD has stripped Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered: 56 Because the ravager has come upon her, even on Babylon, and her mighty men are seized, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of vengeance will definitely repay.
- He is paying back the evil they have done because it brought great suffering and death.
57 And I will make her princes drunk, her wise men, her captains, her rulers, and her mighty men: they will sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, says the King whose name is the LORD of hosts. 58 The LORD of hosts says this; The broad walls of Babylon will be utterly broken, and her high gates will be burned with fire; and the people will labor in vain, the folk in the fire, and they will be weary. 59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah, the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now this Seraiah was quartermaster. 60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come on Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. 61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, and see, then read all these words; 62 Then you will say, O LORD, you have spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none will remain in it, neither man nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever. 63 And when you have finished reading this book, then tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: 64 And say, Babylon will sink like this, and not rise from the evil that I will bring on her: and they will be weary. This far are the words of Jeremiah.
- Ezekiel 18:23 Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
Jeremiah 52
The LORD cast out idolaters
1 Zedekiah was one twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For because of the anger of the LORD this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until He finally cast them out from His presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4 And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem. They camped against it, and built a siege wall against it all around.
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Today Jerusale is the 3rd largest fruit exporter to the world. God blesses and protects those who follow Him. He destroys those who lead others to eternal death by idolatry.
- Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
- Daniel 2:21 And he changes the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he gives wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding.
5 So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 6 And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no food for the people of the land. 7 Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled. They went out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans had surrounded the city:) and they went by the way of the plain. 8 But the army of the Chaldeans chased after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. 9 Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment on him. 10 The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he also killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11 Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; the king of Babylon bound him in chains, carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death. 12 Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the chief executioner, who served the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem, 13 and burned the house of the LORD, the king's house; all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, he burned with fire: 14 And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem. 15 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard/chief executioner, carried away captive some of the poor people, the rest of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.
- The temple was destroyed, but God was not.
- The people had worshipped all the host of heaven rather than God in this temple.
- They had filled God’s house with images of false gods (devils-1Corinthians 10:20).
- Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
- Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
He left a remnant and gave them another chance
16 But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left some of the poor of the land for vinedressers and farmers. 17 Also the Chaldeans broke the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, the bases, and the bronze sea that was in the house of the LORD, and carried all the bronze to Babylon.18 They also took away the caldrons, the shovels, the snuffers, the bowls, the spoons, and all the utensils of bronze with which they ministered. 19 The basins, the fire pans, the bowls, the caldrons, the candlesticks, the spoons, and the cups; that were of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, the captain of the guard/chief executioner took away. 20 The two pillars, one sea, and twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the LORD: the brass of all these vessels was without weight.
- The people had let go of their God and were clinging to things.
- This exile brought many of them back to their source and their destiny—God.
- Luke 21:5-6 And as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts, he said, 6 As for these things that you see, the days will come, in which not one stone will be left on another, that will not be thrown down.
21 And concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits went around it; and its thickness was four fingers: it was hollow. 22 And a capital of bronze was on it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital round about, all of brass. The second pillar also and the pomegranates were like these. 23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates on the network were a hundred all around. 24 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah, the chief priest, Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three doorkeepers: 25 He also took out of the city a eunuch who had the charge of the men of war, seven men of those that were near the king's person who were found in the city; and the principal scribe of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city. 26 So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. 27 And the king of Babylon struck them down, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.
- If they had listened to God’s 861 years of warning this would never have happened.
- This nation would have been blessed above all nations on earth.
- If any people on earth seek God and obey Him, He will bless them beyond their wildest imaginings.
28 This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year 3,023 Jews: 29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem 832 souls: 30 In the 23rd year of Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews 745 persons: all the persons were 4,600. 31 And in the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the 25th day of the month, Evilmerodach, king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and brought him out of prison, 32 And spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon, 33 and changed his prison garments: and he ate bread continually before his face all the days of his life. 34 And his allowance, a continual allowance was given to him from the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.
- Revelation 3:21 To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
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SUMMARY: Jeremiah 51-52
- The LORD does not forsake His own
- God desires that all turn to Him and be healed
- The Lord pleads our cause and takes vengeance for us
- The LORD cast out idolaters
- He left a remnant and gave them another chance