Judgment on Babylon (2): Jeremiah 51

Pray Psalm 2.11, 12.
Serve the LORD with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Sing Psalm 2.11, 12.
(Agincourt: O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High!)
Rejoice with fear in Jesus’ grace,
and worship before His exalted face!
Beware His anger and judgment grim:
How blessed are all who rest in Him!

Read and meditate on Jeremiah 51.20-32.

Prepare.
1. What happens to the “hammer” that was Babylon?

2. How does God refer to the nations that come to destroy Babylon?

Meditate.
We recall that God referred to Babylon as the “hammer of the earth” (50.23). The repetition of that phrase “break in pieces” (vv. 20-23) recalls Psalm 2 (Ps. 2.9) and emphasizes that God will to do Babylon what Babylon did to the nations, and especially to the people of Judah. The “you” mentioned in these verses refers to that coalition of nations that comes against Babylon, led by Cyrus the Persian. Cyrus will be the Lord’s “servant” to thresh, trample, and break Babylon in pieces (Is 44.28; 45.1-7).

Cyrus, by the way, had not been born at the time this prophecy was being read aloud in Babylon.

Babylon’s evil is returning upon their own head (v. 24). So complete will be the devastation of Babylon and the Babylonian Empire that it would “be desolate forever” (v. 24-26), “a desolation without inhabitant” (v. 29). God called the nations to join together in hammering the hammer of the earth (vv. 27, 28), a new coalition under one banner, led by the Medes and Persians.

Verse 31 gives a picture of runners from every sector of the city coming to the king reporting that the city has been taken and every way of exit has been blocked. The men of war are terrified and will not go out to fight (vv. 32, 30). Only hours before, the king had been told that his days were up and the judgment of God was upon him (Dan. 5). Little did he know it would be that very night (Dan. 5.30).

Just so, when Christ comes again, people will be going about their business, thinking themselves safe and secure, when suddenly the Lord will burst through the skies and be upon them in wrath. Even now, the handwriting is on the wall against this unbelieving age (Rom. 1.18-32). Christ is coming to break the rebellious nations in pieces, and it is our duty to read the signs and warn the wicked of the coming judgment of the King Who reigns in Zion.

Reflect.
1. Why must the Good News of Christ and His Kingdom include the bad news of people and their sins?

2. How can you prepare each day for opportunities to tell the Good News of Jesus to the people in your Personal Mission Field?

3. How can you pray for the lost people in this world?

He afterwards adds, that the men of war were broken in pieces. For though the fords were made dry, that is, the streams which were drawn from the Euphrates, yet the guards of the city might have still kept possession of a part of it, and have manfully resisted, so as to prevent the soldiers of Cyrus from advancing farther; but the city was so craftily taken, that the Babylonians were so terrified as not to dare to raise up a finger, when yet they might have defended a part of the city, though one part of it was taken. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Jeremiah 51.32

Lord, created in me a sense of urgency about the Gospel, so that I…

Pray Psalm 2.1-10.
The nations that reject Jesus are setting themselves up for a hammering. Pray that God will send a revival to His Church and a great awakening to the world.

Sing Psalm 2.1-10.
Psalm 2.1-10 (Agincourt: O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High!)
Why do the nations vainly rage,
conspiring together from age to age?
Earth’s kings and all of their counselors stand
against the Lord and His Right Hand:

“Now let us cast His yoke below,
His Kingdom authority overthrow!
Throw off His Law, reject His Word;
no more be governed by this Lord!”

The Lord in heaven laughs in wrath
at all who embark on this cursèd path.
His angry Word to them is plain:
“Yet shall My King in Zion reign!”

Proclaim the message far and wide,
that God has exalted the Crucified!
From heav’n He sent us His only Son,
Who has for us salvation won.

To Christ the Lord be given all
who humbly embrace Him and on Him call.
Be wise, be warned: His judgment comes
to break the prideful, sinful ones.

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).