Jeremiah 51:29 says, And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. The destruction of Babylon would be a total destruction. Verse thirty states, The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken. Verse thirty-one adds, One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, God said the brave men would lose their bravery and that those on post, or wa5ch, would run to the next post sending messengers to the king telling him that his cities were being taken. Verse thirty two continues, And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. The king was to be told that everything was being destroyed and that the men of war were frightened. I am not sure that I would want to be the one to deliver this message to a king, but we as Christians have a message about the coming destruction of all who defy God today and we must be willing to deliver it to everyone that we can. Verse thirty-three declares, For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. The God of Israel, the only true God, said that soon Babylon would be like a threshing floor. Verse thirty-four adds, Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out. God said that Nebuchadrezzar had defeated His people. Though this says that Nebuchadrezzar had defeated and crushed God, it could only be that he had defeated God's people. Verse thirty-five continues, The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. God said that the Babylonians would be held responsible for what they had done to His people. God will likewise one day hold everyone who attempts to harm or destroy His people today responsible. Verse thirty-six says, Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. God said that He would plead the cause of His people, just as He does for Christians today. We stand by the fact that God has made salvation possible, and we will stand with Him forever no matter what happens in this world if we truly put our faith in Jesus Christ. Verse thirty-seven adds, And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. Verse thirty-eight continues, They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps. God continues to tell Jeremiah how the people of Babylon would fall. Verse thirty-nine states, In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD. God said that the men of Babylon would be drinking and fall asleep, but they would never wake from that sleep, because the coming army would destroy them. Verse forty declares, I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats. God said that they might see themselves as lions,but to Him they were like sheep led to the slaughter. No matter how powerful those who defy God may believe they are today, they are like helpless sheep before God. Verse forty-one asks, How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! God said other people around Babylon would ask how they had fallen. Verse forty-two says,The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. God said that Babylon would look as if it had been swallowed up by the sea. Verse forty-three adds, Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby. God then said Babylon would be a land where no one lived. No one can survive the coming judgment of God unless he or she accepted Jesus Christ as his or her personal Savior and Lord. Verse forty-four declares, And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. God said that the nations would no longer look to Babylon for help or as a source of concern. Verse forty-five continues, My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. God called on His people to get out of Babylon, just as we must get out of the world today spiritually. We can no longer look to the world for protection or deliverance, but must trust in God alone. Verse forty-six states, And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. God said that His people should not fear the rumors that were coming. We likewise as Christians hear rumors of destruction today, but we are not to fear them. One day, the end is coming to this old world, but as followers of Christ we have nothing to fear. Verse forty-seven declares, Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. God said there could be a certainty that His judgment was coming on Babylon, just as we can be certain that His judgment is coming on the whole world when He decides the time is right. Verse forty-eight adds Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD. God said the heaven and the earth would sing for Babylon, because the spoiler had come. The fall of Babylon would be noted everywhere. Verse forty-nine says, As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. God said that just as Babylon had caused the slain of Israel to fall, so would Babylon fall. God may have allowed Babylon to defeat the people of Judah and Israel because of their idolatry, but that did not mean that they had somehow become His chosen people. The world may defeat and destroy Christians today, but if they do, it will be a hollow victory. God's judgment will come one day. Verse fifty states, Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. God calls on the people of Israel who had survived the sword, or in other words who were still alive, to remember their land. If we find the world today to be almost overpowering, we need to simply remember that we serve the all-powerful God. Verse fifty-one adds, We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’s house. God said that when the people of Israel remembered their land that it should cause them shame because they had caused it to fall due to their idolatry. If we fail in our relationship to God today and then return to Him for forgiveness, it should bring us shame that we allowed the things of this world to come between God and us.
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