Jeremiah 51:59-64. We finally come to the end of the message to Babylon and the end of the main part of Jeremiah. Earlier we noted that the message to Babylon that we didn’t know when the message to Babylon that we have been reading was written. Obviously it had to be written before Jeremiah died and I mentioned that we didn’t know exactly when that happened either. I suggested that it was certainly some time before Cyrus conquered Babylon (539 BC).   Today’s reading starts out by telling us that it is a message for a guy named Seraiah. Seraiah was the son of Neriah and the grand-son of Mahseiah. This exact same description is used for Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary, in Jeremiah 32:12. Evidently Seraiah and Baruch were brothers. According to verse 59 this message or instruction was given to Seraiah in the fourth year of Zedekiah.

In 597 BC Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah to put down a rebellion started by king Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim died before Nebuchadnezzar arrived and his 18 year old son took over. Nebuchadnezzar took the son, Jehoiachin, captive (along with many others including the prophet Ezekiel) and placed Mattaniah, Jehoiakim’s brother (Jehoiachin’s uncle), on the throne. Nebuchadnezzar also gave Mattaniah a new name, Zedekiah. The people put a lot of pressure on Zedekiah to start another rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar. In Jeremiah 27:1-3 we see a group of representatives from surrounding kingdoms in Jerusalem. Jeremiah gave a message for those representatives to take back to their kings, “God had put Nebuchadnezzar in power don’t fight him.” According to Jeremiah 27:1 this was early in the reign of Zedekiah.

For some reason Zedekiah was called to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth year of his (Zedekaiah’s) reign. That would make it 593 BC. Maybe Nebuchadnezzar had heard of the “meeting” in Jerusalem and wanted to make it clear to Zedekiah that there were to be no more revolts. What ever the reason Zedekiah was going to Babylon and Seraiah was going with him.

According to verse 60 Jeremiah wrote a message about the destruction of Babylon on a scroll. The wording of verse 60 suggests it was the message we have just been looking at. Jeremiah gave the scroll to Seraiah and told him that as soon as he reached Babylon he was to unroll the scroll and read it aloud. After reading the scroll he was to summarize what he had read then he was to take a rock, tie it to the scroll and throw the scroll into the Euphrates River. After that he was to tell whoever was listening that Just like the scroll sank to the bottom never to rise again that Yahweh would cause Babylon to sink down never to rise again as a world power.

Today’s reading ends by telling us that these have been the words of Jeremiah. In Jeremaih 1:1 we started out the book with very similar words, “The words of Jeremiah…” Sometimes writers use the same words or idea at the beginning and end of a section to create a sort of literary envelope to help us understand that what we have read all goes together, scholars call this technique an “inclusio” (Like the word “included” or grouped together). In Jeremaih 1:9-10 Yahweh (LORD) told Jeremiah that he had been chosen to be a messenger to the nations and kingdoms. Jeremiah would yank out, break down, destroy, and overthrow nations. Of course he didn’t actually do this but he was the messenger of God warning of the actions that Yahweh was going to take against these nations and kingdoms. Jeremiah would also build up and plant. Again, he didn’t physically do this either but if people or kings would listen to his warnings and turn back to God then those people of nations would be planted or established.

The book of Jeremiah has had two main players in it, Babylon and Judah. The book begins with a warning of coming disaster in the lives of the Jews living in Judah and ends with a warning of coming disaster for Babylon. Babylon would be God’s tool for punishing Judah for defecting from him and in a way Judah would play a part, not the actual tool (that would be Cyrus), in the destruction of Babylon. If you have read “The Old Testament Connection” you know that Israel was to be an example to the nations around them; teaching mankind the story of the one true God, Yahweh. Even in their rebellion and disobedience they wound up being that example because the world could see how serious God is about truly living for him. Sin has a real price that must be paid and Yahweh cannot be bought off with good intentions or little trinkets. We cannot get to God using our own powers and ideas (the lesson to be learned from the history of Babylon) and God’s design for life is God’s design and when we ignore it we put ourselves on the outside of God’s good place for us (the lesson from Judah and Babylon and all the other players in the book). Sin (rebellion, disobedience, disrespect toward God) has a price, death (separation). God does not ignore sin. The repeated calls to repent or return or come back in the book, though, tell us that God doesn’t just write us off either. He has a solution for sin, Jesus. Jesus paid the price of separation so that we could come back to God and so that God could actually live inside of us through his Holy Spirit. With the help of the Holy Spirit we can work toward honoring God more and more with our lives. Judah would eventually be restored as a nation, Babylon would sink to rise no more (the Babylon in the book of Revelation is a different place and nation that reflects the same attitudes as the original Babylon). Nations are not the point though people are. God’s forever kingdom isn’t built nation by nation but one person at a time. Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are tired and weighed down and I will give you rest.” In Revelation 22:17 Jesus is speaking to the world through the Holy Spirit and through his followers (the “bride” is the church, or those who have responded already to God’s offer of peace through Jesus). Jesus says “Let the thirsty person come to me, the one who wants to drink the water of life with God.” He was talking to individuals; to you and me. If you haven’t let Jesus deal with your sins come to him today.

Jesus thank you for being the water of life. Thank you for caring about people. Thank you for making a way back to God. Help those who read this hear and understand and return to God through you. Thank you for loving us, each and every one.

Jeremiah 51:45-58.  Two more days and we are done with the warnings and message to and about Babylon. Today’s reading contains a lot of stuff that is similar to things we have already read. First we find God calling the Jewish people to leave Babylon. Yahweh doesn’t want them there when the city is taken. It’s kind of interesting since the city itself was taken fairly peacefully by Cyrus’ army. And the real opportunity to return to Judah and Jerusalem didn’t come until Cyrus gave the Jewish people permission to return. In 538 BC Cyrus issued a proclamation that the Jewish people should return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Over 42000 people returned at that time but that was not all of the Jewish people living in exile. Eighty years later there was a second return with a guy named Ezra in 458 BC and a third group returned in 444 BC. In the story of Esther we know that enough Jewish people were living scattered through out the Persian Empire to kill 75,000 of their neighbors who attacked them and tried to take their possessions. It is likely that many of these Jewish people had become comfortable where they were living and were not interested in returning to Jerusalem and Judah. Certainly many of them stayed on in the city of Babylon after it was conquered by Cyrus and his Medo-Persian Army

The fear of destruction that God talks about in verse 46 certainly applied to those in captivity before Cyrus conquest. And remember that they all didn’t live in the town of Babylon. Although the city itself was taken fairly quietly there were battles in the outlying area that would have see plenty of death and destruction. Of course these people did not have an opportunity to leave, yet. The warnings would also would apply to those that remained in Babylon after 538 BC. Verse 46 tells us that this was not all coming at once, the reports of invasion would come some in one year and other reports in another.

The fact that there would be many different rulers seems to fit the end of the Babylonian empirte better than the beginning of the Medo-Persian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 BC and was succeeded by his son Amel-marduk (Evil-merodach, Jeremiah 52:31-34, 2 Kings 25:27-30). After two years as king he was murdered by his brother-in-law, Neriglissar (Nergal-shar-usur or Nergal-sharezer, Jeremiah 39:3,13). Nergal was succeeded by his son Labashi-marduk in 556 BC. Nabonidus assassinated Labashi a few months later and took control of the empire. He ruled for seventeen years but shared control with his son Belshazzar near the end. Then came Cyrus and a line of kings who ruled the new Medo-Persian Empire. Theses kings tended to reign for longer periods, the first five kings of the empire ruled over a period of 113 years. About 330 BC the empire was conquered by the Greeks who had given the Persians trouble for over 100 years (In the book of Esther, Artaxerxes the king of Persia, attacks the Greeks in an attempt to avenge their defeat of his father several years earlier). Most of the action with respect to these changes in leadership and conquests by other empires tended to be in areas other than Judah. Egypt was involved in some of the battles as was Syria and even one of the coastal towns, Tyre, but Judah and Jerusalem missed out on most of the action. It is clear that returning home would be the more peaceful choice for the Jewish people. From the books of Ezra and Nehemiah we do know that there were challenges there too but not nearly as great as other areas of the empire.

In verses 47-48 we see a focus on the “idols” of Babylon being put to shame. It is interesting that “heaven and Earth” will both be glad when Babylon is destroyed. Certainly the inhabitants of Heaven (angles) are fans of Yahweh, the one true God, and we can expect any victory for God to be cheered on by them. The people on earth probably were excited because of the political freedom they thought they were getting but as we have seen the real issue was the bad spiritual influence that was broken when Babylon was destgroyed. We see also that Yahweh (LORD) is giving his word that this destruction is coming.

In verses 49 we see the fairness of God. Babylon will be destroyed because she was a destroyer. In particular Babylon had killed many Jews. IN verse 50 “those who had escaped the sword” is a way of referring to Jews living in exile in Babylon, the city and other parts of the empire. They are far from Jerusalem (physically) and Yahweh (spiritually or emotionally) and need to remember both. Instead of faithful Jewish people living in Jerusalem and honoring Yahweh there the city is filled with strangers using the temple ruins to honor their false gods.

In verses 52-53 we see that this issue of idols is a big deal. The word translated “wounded” in verse 52 is interesting because it is related to a word that means polluted or unholy. These polluted people are wounded in the worst possible way, spiritually. They are groaning because the object of their worship are being judged. Verse 53 probably contains a slight hint at another problem that Babylon was had, pride. In Genesis 11 we see Babel (Babylon) as the place where mankind decided they would climb up to Heaven on their own. They were going to build a tower to God. In verse 53 there is a hint at that tower and Yahweh (LORD) tells the readers that he is sending a destroyer there.   The big picture here is us either denying God or denying that we cannot fix the broken relationship we have with God on our own. Both of these things keep us separated from God. God hates the idea of us being separe=ted from him because he loves us.

Verses 54-58 repeat a lot of the things we have seen in previous posts. We need to see that the destruction is from Yahweh (LORD). In verse 58 we see all of the hard work that people put into the building up of Babylon was for nothing. It is interesting that Babylon reappears in the Bible in the book of Revelation. During a time called the tribulation or “time of Jacobs’ trouble” Satan is going to have very open access to the world and mankind. The Bible talks about a time when a certain representative of Satan, called the Man of Lawlessness, will be unrestrained on the earth (2 Thessalonians 2:3-7). The book of Revelation describes the rise of a unified world empire. The name Babylon is applied to this new empire. There are a lot of people making a lot of effort right now in our world to unify the world under one government. These people think that “nations” are the source of the problem, we fight because we think in terms of the countries we are from. In the end their efforts will be useless because fights and quarrels come from within us (James 4:1). Our desire for pleasure, praise, and power make us fight. The solution is to allow God to heal our broken souls from within. All this trying to build ourselves up will come to nothing and leave us exhausted.

Jesus said come to me all you who are weary and weighed down and I will give you rest. Take my yoke (the thing oxen are tied to to pull wagons or plows) upon you and learn from me how to be gentle and humble and you will find rest for your souls. We can keep ignoring God, we can ignore his call to come home, we can keep trying to find peace and goodness on our own and we will suffer and fail. Or we can listen to his call, admit that we need help, and allow Jesus to be our master and savior and we will have peace in the middle of our troubling world and peace that lasts into eternity. That is why God is so hard on false religion, it keeps us separated from him and from all that is good.

God thank you for being serious about saving us. Thank you for saving me. Help us respond to your plan of salvation, help us back home. Thank you for Jesus who makes it all possible.