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.