07/30/2022 – Day 153 – Jeremiah 47 – 52 //”After all, we are not judged so much by how many sins we have committed but how much light we have rejected.” Vance Havner //”It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31) // Jeremiah postlude to follow.
Our guide today is Wiliam Wiersbe, though his book: “Be Decisive”, a commentary and study guide for the Book of Jeremiah. My quote on the title line comes from Chapter Thirteen – “Babylon is Fallen!” (Jeremiah 50 – 51). I will quote verbatim excerpts from the book unless otherwise noted. Let’s get started!
Chapter Twelve: “God Speaks to the Nations” (Jeremiah – 46 – 49)
“Jeremiah had spoken to his people for over forty years, but they wouldn’t listen; now he spoke to the nations related in some way to the Jewish people. As God’s spokesman, Jeremiah was ‘handing the cup’ to these nations (25:15ff.) and declaring what God had planned for them. The was called to be a ‘prophet unto the nations’ (1:5), and he was fulfilling his mystery.
Judgment on Philistia (Jeremiah 47: 1-7)
“The Philstine people probably came from Crete (Caphtor, v. 4). They built a wealthy nation by developing a merchant marine that sailed the Mediterranean and acquired goods from many lands. But their destiny was destruction. Tyre and Sidon had been confederat with Judah in an attempt to stop Nebuchadnezzar (27:3)…
The people would act like mourners at a funeral (47:5) and ask the Lord when He would put up the terrible sword of His judgment (v. 6). But his sword would continue to devour the land until God’s work of Judgment was finished.”
Judgment on Moab (Jeremiah 48: 1-47)
The Moabites were descenants of Lot (Genesis 19: 20-38) and, along with the Ammonites, the enemies of the Jews. During the Babylonian crisis, however, both Moab and Amoon allied themselves with Judah in an ill-fated attempt to defeat Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 27-3). Over twenty different places are named in this chapter, some of which we can’t identify with certainty, but the list shows how detailed God can be when He wants to predict future events…
The remarkable thing is that Jeremiah wept over the fall of Moab (Jer 48:31) and lamented like a flutist at a funeral (vv 36-38). Certainly his grief is evidence of the compassion of God has for people who are destroyed because of their sins against the Lord. God has ‘no pleaseure in the death of {the wicked}’ (Ezekiel 18:32, see 1823; 33:11) and does all He can to call them to repentance before judgment falls.
There is no escape (Jer. 48: 44-46; see Amos 5:19)… Sinners need to face the fact that there is no place to hide when God begins to judge (Revelation 20: 11-15). For lost sinners today, their only hope is faith in Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of the world. They need to flee for refuge to Christ (Hebrews 6:18) — the only refuge for their souls.
Once again, however, we see the goodness and mercy of the Lord in promising to restore the fortunes of the Ammonites when He restores the fortunes of Israle and Judah in the future kingdom. God restores them, not because of their merits, but because they share in the glories that Israel will experience when King Jesus sits on David’s throne. ‘Salvation is for the Jews” (John 4:22).
Judgment on Edom (49: 7-22)
The Edomites had descended from Jacob’s elder brother Esau, whom God bypassed for the blessing, giving it to Jacob (Genesis 25: 19-34; See Gen 36). The Edomites weren’t friendly to the Jews, but their common enemy, Babylon, caused Edom to join the ‘Jerusalem Summit’ in the days of Zedekiah (Jeremiah 27:3)
You will want to read the prophecy of Obadiah and see ow the two prophets agree. Since we don’t know when the book of Obadiah was written, we aren’t sure wheter Jeremiah borrowed from Obadiah or vice versa. The prophets ocassionally quoted one another, an evidence that the same God was the author of their messages. Furthermore, there are a number of parallels between Isaiah and Jeremiah as well.
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In the midst of wrath, the Lord remembers mercy (Habbakuk 3:2) and shows compassion for the widows and the orphans (Jer 49:11; See Ex. 22: 21-24; 23:9; Le. 19:33; Deut. 10:18; 27:19). But Edom’s pride would bring her low, as pride always does.
Judgment on Syria (Damascus) (49: 23-27)
The prophet Isaiah condemned Damascus, the capital of Syria (Isaiah 17). Amos accused the Syrians of treating the people of Gilead like grain on a threshing floor (Amos 1: 3-5). God would judge them for their inhumanity and brutality to His people.
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The Message is brief, but it carries power. How much does God have to say to convince people that His wrath is about to fall?
Judgment on Kedar and Hazor (49: 28-33)
These are two desert peoples. Kedar was related to Ishmael (Genesis 25:13) We aren’t sure of the origin of Hazor, which is not to be confused with the city of that name in northern Palestine (Joshua 1:1)
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These two Arab nations were guilty of living at ease, isolating themselves from others, and manifesting pride and arrogant self-confidence (49:31) They don’t need God, and they don’t need the help of any other people! When Nebuchadnezzar arrived on the scence, they learned how foolish they had been.
Judgment on Elam (49: 34-39)
The Elamites were a Semitic people who were neighbors of the Bablonians. (Along with this paragraph, they are mentioned in Gen 14:1; Isaiah 11:11; 21:2; 22:6; Jeremiah 25:25; Ezekiel 32:24; Daniel 8:2) Their country was located beyond the Tigris River across from Babylon, and it eventually became part of the Medo Persian Empire. God gave Jeremiah this prophecy about 597 BC, during the reign of Zedekiah.
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The Lord ended this description of judgment with a promise of mercy. Why He chose to restore Egypt, Moab, Ammon, and Elam is not explained, but they will share in the kingdom because of God’s grace.
Judgment on Babylon (Chapters 50 – 51)
I am going to share most if not all of the summary of these two chapters , but I am placing the last chapter in the book , first here:
“Jeremiah’s prophecy about Babylon has both a near and a far fulfillment. The Medes and the Persians captured Babylon in 539 BC (See Daniel chapter 5), but they didn’t destroy the city. Cyrus issued a decree that the Jews could return to their land (Ezra 1: 1-4), which many of them did in three stages: in 538 BC (Ezra 1-6), 458 BC (Ezra 7-10), and 444 BC (book of Nehemiah). It was Alexander the Great who finally destroyed Babylon in 330 BC and left it a heap of ruins. SInce Babylon symbolizes the anti-God world system, however, the ultimate fulfillment is recorded in Revelation 17-18. Remember, the prophets often looked at ‘two horizons’, one near and one far, as they soke and wrote about the future.
After declaring the desiny of the Gentile nations (Jeremiah 46–49), the prophet now focused on Judah’s hateful enemy, the empire of Babylon. Jeremiah devoted 121 verses to the future of nine nations and 44 verses to the defeat and destruction of Jerusalem. When we count the number of verses in Jeremiah 50 and 51, however, he devoted 110 verses to the fall of Babylon. It is an important subject indeed!
In Scripture, the city of Babylon is contrasted with the city of Jerusalem — the proud city of man verseus the Holy City of God. In Hebrew, the name babel means ‘gate of God,’ but babel is so close to the word balal (‘confusion’) that it’s associated with the famous tower of Babel and confusion of human languages (Genesis 11: 1-9). The founder of Babylon was Nimrod (10:8-10), ‘ a mighty hunter before the LORD’ (v9). Some students interpret this to mean ‘ a mighty rebel against the Lord.’ Babel/Babylon is a symbol of rebellion against God, the earthly city of human splendor opposting the heavenly city that glorifies God. All of this culminates in the Babylon of Revelation 17:1 – 19:10, ‘Babylon the Great,’ that symbolizes the anti-God system that controls the world in the end times and then is destroyed by the Lord. There are many parallels between Jeremiah 50-51 and Revelation 17-18, and I suggest you read all four chapters carefully.
Jeremiah wrote this prophecy during the fourth year of Zedekiah (594 – 593 BC) and gave the scroll to Baruch’s brother Seraiah to read in Babylon and then throw into the Euphrates (Jeremiah 51: 59-64). Since Seraiah was an officer in Zedekiah’s cabinet he had access to things officially diplomatic. This was the last of Jeremiah’s ‘action sermons,’ performed without Jeremiah, symbolizing the complete destruction of the Babylonian Empire.
Jeremiah 50 -51 is something like an extended declaration coupled with a conversation. Usually it’s the Lord speaking through His prophet, but occasionally we hear the Jewish people speaking and the Lord answering them. God speaks to and about Babylon; He also speaks to the invading army; and He speaks to the exiles of Judah. Three movements are in this declaration: God declares war on Babylon (50: 1-28); God assebles the armies against Babylon (50:29 – 51:26); and God announces victory over Babylon (51: 27-58)
I’ll conclude with a postlude in a separate concluding Jeremiah post for this cycle.
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Chapter 52, our final chapter: I found this commentary:
Soli Deo Gloria!