Jeremiah 25:12

 Jeremiah 25:12 says,  And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.  God said that after seventy years that He would punish the king of Babylon.  Matthew Henry says there is some debate when the seventy years actually began, but there is no doubt that the time of captivity was limited.  We do not know when Christ will return, but we know that the time of Satan ruling over the world is limited.  Verse thirteen states, And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.  God said after the seventy years had passed, that what Jeremiah had prophesied and even written down would come to pass.  We can depend on God's word being fulfilled.  Verse fourteen adds, For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.  God said that He would recompense, or pay, those who had oppressed Judah for their sins.  There is coming a day when every person will be judged for his or her sins, and the only hope that anyone can have is by forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.  Verse fifteen declares, For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.  God again used a common thing, the wine cup, to represent His point.  Verse sixteen adds, And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.  God said that these rulers would drink of the wine and become mad because God was going to move among them.  This wine cup represented the wrath of God.  Verse seventeen states, Then took I the cup at the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:  Jeremiah said he took the cup and made all the nations that God sent Him to drink from it.  Jeremiah may have been viewed as a poor prophet, but he was to go to the kings and pronounce God's judgment.  No matter how the world views us, if God sends us to declare His word, we have all the authority and power of God behind us.  Verse eighteen adds, To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;  God said that He would make a desolation of Judah, Jerusalem and the surrounding nations.  Verse nineteen continues, Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;   God begins to list some of the other nations that were going to fall, starting with Judah.  Verse twenty states, And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,  Verse twenty-one says, Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon,  Then verse twenty-two adds, And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea,  Verse twenty-three adds, Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners,  Verse twenty-four states, And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert,  Verse twenty-five adds, And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes,  Verse twenty-six concludes, And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.  These nations would be cut down like a drunk man falls.  They would be helpless to stop the fall, because God had pronounced His judgment on them.