Judgment on Babylon (2): Jeremiah 51

Pray Psalm 137.4-6.
How shall we sing the LORD’s song
In a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget its skill!
If I do not remember you,
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth—
If I do not exalt Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.

Sing Psalm 137.4-6.
(Gift of Love: Though I May Speak)
How can we sing, exalt Your Name,
or praises bring amid our shame?
If we forget Your Church's fame,
O Lord, then let our hands grow lame.

If ever praise forsake my tongue,
if Zion's ways no more be sung,
if greater joy by me be found,
my lips destroy, no more to sound.

Read and meditate on Jeremiah 51.1-4, 33-44.

Prepare.
1. What image does God use to portray the destruction of Babylon?

2. What is suggested by this image?

Meditate.
Just when we thought God might have said all that could be said about the destruction of Babylon, He goes at them again. In these verses, God employs two new images to convey His designs. Babylon will be like the chaff on a threshing floor, which is dissipated in the “destroying wind” of the wrath of God (v. 1). The Medes and Persians will do the winnowing (v. 2), as their archers destroy the army and inhabitants of Babylon (vv. 3, 4). And Babylon will be like the threshing floor (vv. 33, 34), which is trampled underfoot to release its corn.

The destruction of Babylon will be as in the time of harvest (v. 33), when he who swallowed up the people of Judah and Jerusalem will be reaped, threshed, dissipated, and trampled by the wrath of God (v. 34). As oxen trampled out the harvest on a threshing floor, so Babylon would be trampled upon, to yield the fruit of its harvest – the captive people of God. Then Babylon will “spit out” the people of God whom Nebuchadnezzar devoured, and they will be free to return to their native land (v. 34).

God used these images from Psalm1.4 and Deuteronomy 25.4 to prophesy the fate of all the ungodly. Those who will not embrace the Law of God, to plant themselves by His ever-flowing grace – all who dally in sin and find the comforts of the world more to be desired than the precepts, testimonies, rules, and commandments of God – will be “like the chaff which the wind drives away.” They “shall not stand in the judgment” or have any place “in the congregation of the righteous.” They will be ground into the floor of the earth until they exist no longer.

Thus, all the terrifying wrath that God promised to inflict on the Babylonian Empire – and on the last days Babylon of Revelation 18 – He will also visit on those who neglect, despise, and scorn His Law, choosing to live by their own standards of goodness and truth, rather than God’s.

The reference to Psalm 1 in this condemnation of Babylon would have cued up the people of God who were in captivity about how they must comport themselves in Babylon, if they wished to escape the winnowing that was to come. The same is true for us as well. Jesus said that true Kingdom servants, and all who desire to be great in His Kingdom, will do and teach His Law as the way into all the promises of God (Mk. 10.42-45; Matt. 5.17-19), and into His eternal Kingdom and glory. We’re not saved by the Law of God, but we’re not saved without it (Rom. 3.31).

Reflect.
1. Why is winnowing a particularly effective metaphor for divine judgment?

2. Read Psalm1. Who should expect to escape divine winnowing?

3. What should we learn from God’s plan to winnow and trample Babylon?

He proceeds with the same subject. Jeremiah seems, indeed, to have used more words than necessary; but we have stated the reason why he dwelt at large on a matter so clear: His object was not only to teach, for this he might have done in a few words, and have thus included all that we have hitherto seen and shall find in the whole of this chapter; but as it was an event hardly credible, it was necessary to illustrate the prophecy respecting it with many figures, and to inculcate with many repetitions what had been already said, and also to confirm by many reasons what no one hardly admitted. John Calvin (1509-1564),Commentary on Jeremiah 50.1

Lord, keep me near to You, that I may bear the fruit of praise and witness as I…

Pray Psalm 137.1-4, 7-9.
A day of judgment is coming to the world. Pray for lost peoples and nations, that God may be gracious to deliver them from the wrath to come.

Sing Psalm 137.1-4, 7-9.
Psalm 137.1-4, 7-9 (Gift of Love: Though I May Speak
We sit beside the waters deep
in broken pride, to mourn and weep
for Zion's woes and all our sin:
How great our foes, without, within!

No songs have we of joy to sing.
Our enemy, to taunt and sting,
bids us rejoice, as they oppress:
We have no voice to praise or bless.

Remember, Lord Your boasting foes,
who hate Your Word and visit woes
on your dear sheep that they may die:
Cause them to weep and mourn and sigh.

How blessed are You, our sovereign Lord,
Who judgment true shall soon accord
to all who seek Your sheep to kill.
Preserve the meek who serve You still.

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).