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Scripture Reading: Jer. 50; Jer. 51; Jer. 52
In this message we will first consider Jehovah's punishment and judgment upon Babylon and then give a brief word on chapter fifty-two, which is a supplement to the history of captivity.
Jeremiah 50 and 51 speak concerning Jehovah's punishment and judgment upon Babylon. The word of condemnation regarding Babylon is much longer than that spoken regarding any other nation.
Babylon's origin and initiation was Babel, and the name Babel means confusion (Gen. 11:7-9). Babel was built by Nimrod, who was a descendant of Ham and began to be a mighty one in the earth, and the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel as the beginning of human government on earth (Gen. 10:6-11; Dan. 2:31-32, 38). It was a land full of idols, where man worshipped idols, exalted man's self, and opposed God (Jer. 50:38b; Josh. 24:2; Gen. 11:3-4). The first king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, was even identified with Satan as Satan's embodiment (Isa. 14:4, 11-15). It was this Babylon that destroyed God's holy city and His holy temple and carried the vessels of God's temple and His holy people into captivity (2 Chron. 36:17-20). The coming Roman Empire and the Roman church will both in the spiritual sense be called Babylon the Great and will be destroyed by God (Rev. 17:5; 18:2, 10). Hence, Babylon typifies the world, both physically and spiritually, that worships idols, exalts men, and opposes God to the uttermost, all of which was or will be utterly destroyed by God (Jer. 51:11; Rev. 14:8; 16:19b; 18:2, 10).
Jeremiah 50:2 declares that Babylon is captured, that Bel (the chief Babylonian idol — Isa. 46:1) is put to shame, that Merodach (a Babylonian idol) is shattered, that her images are put to shame, and that her idols are dismayed (Jer. 51:17-18). For a nation (of the Medes — 51:11, 28) has come up against her from the north (50:41; 51:48). It will make her land a waste, and there will be no inhabitant in it. Both man and beast have fled because she has sinned against Jehovah and engaged in war with Jehovah (50:3, 14, 24). This is the vengeance of Jehovah, for she has acted proudly against Jehovah, against the Holy One of Israel (vv. 15, 29). Jehovah will kindle a fire in her cities, and it will devour all those around her (v. 32; 51:30b).
In those days and at that time, the children of Israel will come, both they and the children of Judah together; they will go along with weeping as they go, and they will seek Jehovah their God (50:4). They will ask for the way to Zion with their faces toward it, saying, "Come and let us join ourselves to Jehovah / In an eternal covenant that will not be forgotten" (v. 5). They have been as lost sheep, turning aside on the mountains and going from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place and have sinned against Jehovah, the habitation of righteousness, even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers (vv. 6-7). In verse 8a Jehovah charges them, saying, "Flee from the midst of Babylon, / And go out from the land of the Chaldeans."
Verse 17 says that Israel is a scattered sheep; lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and last Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has broken his bones. Therefore, Jehovah, the God of Israel, will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as He punished the king of Assyria. He will bring Israel back to his habitation, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan. In those days the iniquity of Israel and the sin of Judah will not be found, for Jehovah will forgive those whom He will leave as a remnant (vv. 18-20).
Verse 28 speaks of a sound of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Jehovah their God (51:24), the vengeance of His temple. Neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken by his God; but their land (the land of the Chaldeans) is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel (51:5). Again God's people are told to flee from the midst of Babylon and to let each man save his life. They are not to be cut off in Babylon's iniquity. This is a time of vengeance to Jehovah; He will give full recompense to Babylon (v. 6). Verses 8b through 10 continue, "Take balm for her pain, / If perhaps she may be healed. / We tried to heal Babylon, but she is not healed; / Forsake her, and let each one of us go to his own land; / For her judgment has reached to heaven / And has been lifted up to the clouds. / Jehovah has brought forth our righteousnesses; / Come and let us relate in Zion / The work of Jehovah our God."
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had devoured God's people. He had crushed them, made them an empty vessel, swallowed them up like a dragon, filled his stomach with their delicacies, and washed them away (v. 34). Thus, the violence done to them and their flesh should be on Babylon and their blood on the inhabitants of Chaldea (v. 35). Therefore, Jehovah says, "Behold, I will plead your cause / And execute vengeance for you; / And I will dry up her sea / And make her fountain dry. / And Babylon will become heaps, / A habitation of jackals, / An astonishment and a hissing, / Without inhabitant" (vv. 36-37). Then Jehovah again charges His people to come out of Babylon, saying, "Come out from the midst of her, My people, / And let each man save his life / From the burning anger of Jehovah...You who have escaped the sword, / Go and do not stand still; / Remember Jehovah from afar, / And let Jerusalem come up in your heart" (vv. 45, 50).
In the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah the king of Judah, when Seraiah, the quartermaster, went to Babylon with Zedekiah, Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come on Babylon, all the words that are written concerning Babylon (vv. 59-60). Jeremiah told Seraiah that when he came to Babylon, he was to read all these words and say, "O Jehovah, You have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, so that nothing should dwell in it, neither man nor animal, for it will be an eternal desolation" (vv. 61-62). Jeremiah further told him that as soon as he had finished reading this book, he was to bind a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates and say, "Thus Babylon will sink and will not rise up, because of the evil which I will bring upon it, and they will weary themselves" (vv. 63-64).
According to the Bible, the human government on earth is, in the eyes of God, altogether Babylonian from beginning to end. This is proved by the great human image in Daniel 2. This image is Babylon from the head to the toes.
As we have pointed out, the origin of Babylon was Babel, the first nation constituted by man, which opposed God, exalted man, and worshipped Satan in all the idols. Babel was formed by a mighty man named Nimrod, a type of the Antichrist. Babel has its continuation in Babylon which, in the sight of God, is the consummation of human government. At the end of the Bible, Babylon is mentioned again in its religious and material aspects (Rev. 14:8; 17, 16:19—18). In Revelation Babylon does not refer literally to the place of ancient Babel but to the city of Rome. This indicates that, from God's point of view, Rome is the continuation, consummation, and conclusion of Babylon.
The image in Daniel 2 signifies four empires: the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Macedonian-Grecian Empire, and the Roman Empire. Today we are still in the Roman Empire, for the culture and customs of today are Roman. In the future there will be a further restoration of the Roman Empire. The coming Antichrist will restore the Roman Empire and will make himself the last Caesar over it. In the last seven years of this age, he will make a covenant of peace with Israel, allowing Israel to worship God with freedom. But after three and a half years, Antichrist will change his mind and begin to persecute all religion, especially persecuting the Jewish people and the believers in Christ. At that time God will consider Rome, the capital of the restored Roman Empire, as Babylon.
Historically, in the past ten or more centuries, the city of Rome has been involved, even wrapped up, religiously with the Roman church. Rome today is the capital of both the nation of Italy and of the Catholic Church. At the beginning of the great tribulation, Antichrist will destroy the Roman church (Rev. 17:16). Three and a half years later, at the end of the great tribulation, the Lord Jesus will destroy the city of Rome (18:8). At this point, the destruction of the human government, consummated in the Roman Empire, will be completed.
This corresponds to Jeremiah's prophecies concerning the punishment and judgment upon the nations which are involved with God's elect, Israel. This punishment and judgment begins with Egypt and ends with Babylon, after which there will be no more human government.
Both Isaiah and Jeremiah tell us clearly that Babylon, including the land and the people, will be cut off. Babylon is the most evil thing on earth opposed to God; and once Babylon has been destroyed, it will not be restored. Babylon began with Nimrod and it will end with the restored Roman Empire under Antichrist, which, in the sight of God, will be the continuation, consummation, and conclusion of Babylon. When God destroys both the religious and the political Babylon, that will be the end of the judgment on Babylon prophesied in Jeremiah 50 and 51.
Jeremiah 52 is a supplement to the history of captivity. As such a supplement, this chapter covers five matters: the fall of Jerusalem (vv. 1-16); the plundering of the temple (vv. 17-23); the exile of the people of Judah (vv. 24-27); the number of those exiled by Nebuchadnezzar from Judah (vv. 28-30); and the lifting up of Jehoiachin king of Judah (vv. 31-34). This chapter is the definite fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecies as a justification to this genuine prophet and a condemnation to the false prophets (ch. 29).
