Judgment on Babylon (1): Jeremiah 50

Pray Psalm 52.1, 2.
Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?
The goodness of God endures continually.
Your tongue devises destruction,
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.

Sing Psalm 52.1, 2.
(Warrington: Give to Our God Immortal Praise)
Why do the mighty boast in sin? God’s love endures, it knows no end!
They with their tongues vain boasts repeat, and like a razor, work deceit.

Read and meditate on Jeremiah 50.21-28.

Prepare.
1. The Medes and Persians are the proximate cause of Babylon’s destruction. Who is the ultimate cause?

2. How does the Lord present Himself in these verses?

Meditate.
When God moves in judgment, nothing can stop Him. He can work through a wide range of tools to exert His wrath on rebellious, haughty nations. They would not have recognized it, but the Medes and Persians were obeying the Lord’s commands in destroying Babylon and its armies (v. 21). God is the trapper, and Babylon is prey, and they will be found and caught because they “contended against the LORD” (v. 24).

The full armory of God will come against Babylon (v. 25), and the city and empire will come to woe. It is “the time of their punishment”, says the Lord (v. 27). None will escape (v. 29) as God moves to act in revenge against those who destroyed His temple (v. 28).

The picture of devastation is thorough. Remember that this prophesy was to be read to the people of Judah who were living in captivity in Babylon. Would it give them hope? Would it inspire faith, patience, and obedience? Would it raise sympathy in their hearts for their Babylonian neighbors? I suspect that, for those who were praying for the shalom of the city where they had been taken captive, all these things would be true.

And what about us? We know that a day of judgment and destruction is coming, when Christ returns with the armies of heaven to shut down once and for all the rebellion of sinful people. Does knowing this give us hope? Excite us to greater faith and obedience? Move us to seek the lost with the Good News of Christ?

Let us pray that it would be so, and that God would make it so for each of us.

Reflect.
1. Why does God reveal to His people that a time of judgment is coming?

2. The Babylonians destroyed the Lord’s temple. Are there other ways of destroying the temple of the Lord besides tearing down a building?

3. Babylon was “the hammer of the whole earth” in its day. Can God bring powerful nations to destruction still? Explain.

The Prophet again shows, that God in punishing Babylon, would give a sure proof of his favor towards his Church. For this prophecy would have been uninteresting to the faithful, did they not know that God would be an enemy to that great monarchy, because he had undertaken the care of their safety. Then the Prophet often calls the attention of the faithful to this fact, that God's vengeance on the Babylonians would be to them a sure proof of God's favor, through which he had once embraced them, and which he would continue to show to them to the end. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Jeremiah 50.28

Give me compassion for lost people, Lord, so that I…

Pray Psalm 52.3-9.
Call on the Lord to deal with the wicked, and to strengthen His people who are righteous in Jesus Christ.

Sing Psalm 52.3-9.
Psalm 52.3-9 (Warrington: Give to Our God Immortal Praise)
Men more than good in evil delight, and lies prefer to what is right.
They utter words, both harsh and strong, with their devouring, deceitful tongue.

God will forever break them down, uproot, and cast them to the ground!
He from their safety tears them away, no more to know the light of day.

The righteous see and laugh and fear, and say, “Behold, what have we here?
Such are all who at God conspire, and wealth and evil ways desire.

“But as for me may I be seen in God an olive ever green!
Ever in God, most kind and just, shall I with joy and gladness trust!”

Thanks evermore to our Savior be raised! His faithfulness be ever praised!
Here with Your people, loving God, I wait upon Your Name, so good!

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).