Jeremiah 25:15-38. In yesterday’s reading we saw that God had been warning the people for years about their unfaithfulness to Him. We saw repeatedly that they had actively not listened to God’s messengers. We also saw that there are consequences for not honoring God with our lives. We also saw that God can use the actions of others as those consequences. Notice that I underlined “can”, we want to be careful in making everything that happens in life a direct action from God. If every human action is seen as a direct order from God then no human action can be labeled “sin”. That is because “sin” is disobedience to God, literally a “missing” of His mark or target. We cannot say that God tells us not to do something and then causes us to do it (James 1:13-18). Yes God is ruler of the universe, or as scholars like to put it He is sovereign, but in his sovereignty He has chosen to give us the ability to make choices, and often we choose badly. Finally we saw that, even if God uses someone’s actions as a consequence, He will still hold them accountable for those actions if they are “sin”.
At the end of yesterday’s reading we saw specifically that Babylon would eventually pay a price for taking the people of the southern kingdom, Judah, as captives. The Babylonian Empire would only last about 70 years then would be gone. That’s not very long as great empires go.
Remember that a prophet is a messenger from God. The biggest part of their job was to remind the people of things God had already communicated in the Bible. But they weren’t just teachers, they were usually applying the truth to a specific and current situation. As we saw yesterday their messages sometimes contained predictions of things that would happen in the future. Sometimes those things would happen in the near future and sometimes they would be far off. In the book of Daniel, Daniel lays out a whole timetable for the coming of the Messiah, the promised coming king of Israel. The prediction involved a period of 490 years. The “clock” wouldn’t start running until a specific historic event occurred that was many years after Daniel wrote the prediction and within the “timeline” there was to be “pause” in the action at a very specific point for an open ended period of time. Fulfillment of predictions within their lifetime would support their claim to be speaking for God. Predictions of future events would serve the purpose of warning and/or encouraging the people who read or heard them, that includes us today.
Sometimes a description of some future event can actually find it’s fulfillment in more than one future event, one close to the time of the prediction and one later in the future. I’m not talking about something lame like, “I predict that a vehicle will go down my street today.” Remember we are talking about specific predictions. In the book of Isaiah there is a very famous prediction about a virgin giving birth to a son. God applies this prediction to the virgin birth of Jesus (actually it would be a virgin conception, but what ever) in Matthew 1:23. But the entire prediction was given as a sign to then king Ahaz and based on what it says it had to have a fulfillment back then too (though in that fulfillment there was no virgin conception, see Isaiah 7:10-16).
If you have read “The Old Testament Connection” you might remember that the Jewish people (or Israelites) were part of a plan by God to help all of us understand that we have a broken relationship with Him and what will and won’t fix that relationship. One thing that happens with some of the visions that prophets would have is that the timeline would not always be apparent. The end of yesterday’s reading is like that. It describes the short “lifespan” of the Babylonian Empire but also talks about other nations being involved in “punishing” the Jewish people, and suffering for it (Jeremiah 25:14). Today’s reading starts out by continuing that idea. Jeremiah is given a “cup” that is filled with God’s “wrath” for all the nations of the earth to drink from. It is interesting that in verse 14 this all starts out with nations that have oppressed the Jewish people but in today’s reading the Jewish people themselves get to “drink” some of this wrath. But then again, in yesterday’s reading, this whole idea of consequences for showing God disrespect started with the people of Judah (the Jews). No one is immune from the consequences for disobedience, disrespect, and rebellion toward God. With respect to time though, the oppression of the Jewish people is something that has happened through out history and is still happening today, so is their personal disobedience to God. The events talked about in this part of Jeremiah extend from his day to ours and will not be completely finished until Jesus reenters the world as that promised king whose timetable Daniel laid out. We are now in the “pause” but there are 7 years left in that “game” during which the Jewish people will be both oppressed and have an opportunity to be the messenger for God that He always wanted them to be. You really don’t get that sense of timing from Jeremiah but that is how this prediction or vision is playing out.
In verses 17-26 we see a whole list of nations who will “drink” this punishment from God. The list is both specific and general. The history of the nation of Babylon gives us enough proof that Jeremiah was actually speaking for God (Remember the part about the 70 years in yesterday’s reading). The specific names in the list tell us that God is a God who is near by and knows all the players (Jeremiah 23:23). Near the end of the list, though, we see the prediction/warning extended to “all the kingdoms that are on the face of the earth”. In that we see that God is also God over all (far off, Jeremiah 23:23).
To some it seems odd that Babylon, the current threat, isn’t mentioned in the list, but actually it is. The last name in the list, Sheshach, is actually written in an ancient Hebrew code called Athbash (or Atbash). In it the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are written in two lines one above the other, one of the lines is in reverse order. When a person puts a word in the code he looks at the letter he wand and writes the one below it. For us A-B-C would be Z-Y-X in the code. Also in ancient times Hebrew (the language of the Old Testament and the language Jeremiah would have written in) was written using only consonants, no vowels (and no spaces between words either). Sheshach is three consonants equal to our SSK. In thier code (using the Hebrew alphabet) that is a code for BBL, the three consonants that make up the word Babylon. So Babylon is not only in the list but it is placed at the end to emphasize it. Jeremiah uses this code again in chapter 51. Unfortunately no one seems to know why he would use the code instead of writing the actual name. We know he wasn’t using it to keep the name secret because he does use the name Babylon in other places where he predicts their destruction.
It is also interesting that Jeremiah says that Sheshach will drink last of all because Babylon certainly was destroyed before some of the others in the list (Tyre still exists as a city today, but it was completely destroyed in 332 BC by Alexander the Great, about 200 years after Babylon ceased to exist as a nation). The description in this list may go beyond “judgment” of the kingdoms back in the times of the Old Testament and may be referring also to the destruction of nations in that 7 year time period predicted by Daniel. In the New Testament that time period is described in the Revelation and the anti-God world wide empire is called Babylon the Great. Perhaps Sheshach is a reference to that completely backwards anti-God civilization.
In verses 27-28 Jeremiah is told to make the nations “drink” God’s wrath. He probably didn’t travel to all those places and force some icky drink down several king’s throats, but he may have approached traveling business men from those various places and offered them some nasty drink as a symbolic act. The word translated “wrath” is interesting, it can mean “anger, displeasure, fury”, but it’s root has the idea of passion and is used to describe the passion between lovers. One thing that is clear from the Bible is that God is passionate about us. He loves us and wants us to be a part of his future forever existence (the “kingdom” promised to the Messiah, or chosen one, Jesus). Because “sin” separates us from God and that forever future God is very passionate about helping us understand how serious sin is. He wants us to understand that sin has consequences that need to be dealt with and can only really be dealt with by Immanuel (“God with us”, Jesus, see Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23. See also “The Old Testament Connection”), so in history God uses events to teach us that lesson and a record of some of that (enough for us to understand) has been made for us in the Bible. In verses 27-28 we see that no one can avoid the consequences of sin (not without Jesus that is, see Isaiah 53:6). Verse 29 gives the ultimate example of that truth by reminding everyone that if God’s “chosen” people and his “chosen” city were not excused from punishment no one will be (but remember Isaiah 53:6).
Verses 30-32 are a very strong statement of all of this by God to His fold (his flock, the Jews) and to all nations (everyone, the rest of us).Verses 32-38 describe a time of great terror and judgment on the whole earth. On the other hand the reference to shepherds and masters of the flock seem more directed at Jewish people. Again this may be a description both near in time (describing the Babylonian invasions) and future (maybe even describing the last 7 years of Daniel’s prediction). This may be an example of how time is sometimes compressed in prophecy and of multiple fulfillments. What we can be sure of is sin has consequences for every one, both now and in eternity (but remember Isaiah 53:6).
Christians like to talk about God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness. But we need to remember that mercy is not giving someone what he or she deserves. Because of our rebellion and disrespect (sin) we all deserve to have our relationship with God cut off forever. But God is merciful. His mercy comes at a price though; God graciously paid our debt of infinite separation by allowing his infinite son, Jesus, to die on the cross and be separate from Him for a brief period (That is why Jesus said on the cross, “My God MY God why have you forsaken (or left) me.”). It’s good to be reminded that God has standards, that we have all violated them (and Him), and that the consequences are brutal and ugly (without God life would be one total bummer, see Colossians 1:16-17 and think what would happen if he decided to “let go”, think atom bomb on a universe sized scale). There really isn’t much hope in this part of the chapter; I’m glad that there is more than just this part. As we saw yesterday God repeatedly warned the Jews and even told them if they would turn back to him he would let them stay in the land forever. God is really about restoring our relationship with Him (remember Jesus and Isaiah 53:6). But we do need to take Him seriously; we need to be careful not think that God will just pretend we didn’t offend him. Our part of course is to turn back (that is what “repent” means) to God, to listen to the warnings, to take God seriously and to let Jesus’ death take care of our offenses. God thank you for making it very clear what happens when we reject you. Thank you for paying the price I never could. Thank you for showing me who Jesus is and what he has done for me. Help me keep my ears open and let me obey your voice.