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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
This is the word the Lord spoke through
Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians:
“Announce and proclaim among the nations,
lift up a banner and proclaim it; keep nothing back, but say,
‘Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror.’”
‘Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror.’”
“A nation from the north will attack her and lay waste her land. No one will live in it; both people and animals will flee away. For I will stir up and bring against Babylon an alliance of great nations from the land of the north. They will take up their positions against her, and from the north she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed. So Babylonia will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the Lord.
“Lift
up a banner in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the
nations for battle against her; summon against her these kingdoms: Ararat,
Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her; send up horses like a
swarm of locusts. Prepare the nations for battle against her—the kings of the
Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the countries they
rule.”
Jeremiah 50:1-3, 8-9, 51:27-28
This ends today’s reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
The fundamental history of God’s nation of Israel as found
in the Old Testament is clear. He blessed His people with a land called Canaan
that He had promised them from the days of Abraham. All His people had to do
was drive out the other pagan nations within Canaan and occupy the land for
themselves. They would be His people and He their God. All they had to do was
be obedient and faithful to Him.
Well, as we know, the people of God didn’t take long to not
carry out God’s will, allowing some of the pagan peoples to remain in Canaan
and dwell within alongside them, a drastic mistake as the sinfulness of those
pagan people infected the people of God and drove them to a place that brought
their eventual demise, a demise that God brought in the way of two powerful, avenging
nations.
You’ll recall that the nation of Israel divided after the
death of Solomon into a northern and southern kingdom (Israel and Judah
respectively). And after the people in each kingdom chose to worship other gods
instead of the Lord, directly violating His command to have no other gods
before Him, God sent first Assyria to attack and destroy the north followed by
Babylon to take care of Judah and Jerusalem in the south. Note that Assyria and
Babylon were no less sinful than Israel or Judah. In fact, both nations were
much more sinful when you got down to the way they lived but God can use anyone
to be instruments of His judgment, the sinful and righteous alike.
The prophet Habakkuk, in the book named after him,
questioned God as to why He would use evil nations like Assyria and Babylon to
do His work and in His reply to the prophet, God assured the prophet that the
countries He used to carry out His will would not escape His judgment anymore
than His own people in Israel and Judah did. And so it was. The Assyrians were
wiped out by the Babylonians after they carried out God’s judgment on Israel
and then the Babylonians were obliterated by the Persians after they had
carried out God’s punishment on Judah, Jerusalem, and a host of other nations.
In other words, there was also trouble from God for the
avengers. Today and in several coming devotions, we examine God’s judgment on
the Babylonians. Look at these verses as we begin to look at Jeremiah 50:
This
is the word the Lord spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and
the land of the Babylonians:
“Announce
and proclaim among the nations, lift up a banner and proclaim it; keep nothing
back, but say,
‘Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror.’”
‘Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror.’”
“A nation from the north will attack her and lay waste her land. No one will live in it; both people and animals will flee away. For I will stir up and bring against Babylon an alliance of great nations from the land of the north. They will take up their positions against her, and from the north she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed. So Babylonia will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the Lord.
“Lift up a banner in the land! Blow the
trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations for battle against her; summon
against her these kingdoms: Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander
against her; send up horses like a swarm of locusts. Prepare the nations for
battle against her—the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their
officials, and all the countries they rule.”
Jeremiah
50:1-3, 8-9, 51:27-28
Here we find another prophet, Jeremiah, again being used to
share the words of the Lord to others, in this case, words regarding the once
powerful empire of Babylon. Right away we find a proclamation of Babylon’s
demise:
“Announce
and proclaim among the nations, lift up a banner and proclaim it; keep nothing
back, but say, ‘Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk
filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with
terror.’ A nation from the north will attack her and lay waste her land. No one
will live in it; both people and animals will flee away. For
I will stir up and bring against Babylon an alliance of great nations from the
land of the north. They will take up their positions against her, and from the
north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do
not return empty-handed. So Babylonia will be plundered; all who plunder her
will have their fill,” declares the Lord.
Consider the impact this prophecy must have had. It would
have left people in a state of disbelief. The Babylonian empire was vast and
immensely powerful. After they had defeated nations, that land became part of
the Babylonian territory and it grew and grew with every conquest which
included the entire nation that once belonged to God’s people.
To conceive that a realm that large and strong would ever
fall would be inconceivable from a human perspective. But we have to remember
that nothing is greater than God and we learn this over and over again as we
look into history and see how He has brought down every worldly kingdom that
has ever been established by human hands. Not one of them survived when they faced
off against the Lord.
In Babylon’s case, the nation would be attacked and laid to
waste by attackers from the north. The Persians, joined by other nations (Ararat, Minni, Ashkenaz, and Medes),
would bring down the mighty Babylonians, plundering the people and putting them
to shame. The Babylonians would turn to their false gods like Bel and Mardok
but they would find no protection there as the gods were as false and lifeless
as the people’s worship and misplaced faith. In the end, Babylon would be wiped
out, left desolate and uninhabited.
In the end translation, Babylon would join a long list of
mighty empires who rose and fell before the King of kings and Lord of lords.
And as we know, the Persians who defeated them, the Greeks, the Romans, and
every powerful kingdom who would follow would face the same fate.
For unless a kingdom is established in the name of the Lord,
that kingdom will not stand. It’s a simple as that and every nation today had
better get the message.
Or they might be next.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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