Flee from Babylon!
Scripture reading for August 17th: Jeremiah 46-52
“Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins. It is time for the Lord’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves. Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand; she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone mad. Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken. Wail over her.” Jeremiah 51:6-8a
Jeremiah ends his book with the story of God’s dealing with Babylon because of her treatment of the people of God. Babylon was to be destroyed suddenly and the Medes and Persians would carry out God’s purposes! (Jeremiah 51:11, 20) Jeremiah had earlier told the people that the captivity would last 70 years! (Jeremiah 25:11-12)
God called His people to flee from Babylon. Although they would live there for 7o years, they must be ready to return to the promised land. Babylon’s fall would come suddenly. In Jeremiah 51:36-40, he told how God would dry up the springs of Babylon. The officials of Babylon would be aroused and drunk at a feast. The Babylonian officials were drinking from the golden goblets from God’s House in Jerusalem when the handwriting appeared on the wall. (Daniel 5) As Daniel was called to interpret he likely remembered Jeremiah’s prophetic word! God’s judgment fell before morning as the Medes damned up the river and came in under the wall, taking the city from within!
This prophecy about the destruction of Babylon was to be read aloud to the captives in Babylon by Seraiah, an aid to King Zedekiah. After reading, he was to tie a rock on it and throw it into the Euphrates River. It was to sink to the bottom as a symbol of how Babylon would sink at the appointed time! (Jeremiah 51:59-64) For a real rush of adrenaline, turn to Revelation 18 and read the whole chapter in light of Jeremiah’s prophecy.
“Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. . . .Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her; death, mourning, and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.” ” Revelation 18:4-5,8
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