November 13th, 2015
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Choosing Judgment?

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Gracious God, where I have wandered off, search me out. Take my face in Your hands, to see Your smile of grace and truth.

Read JEREMIAH 51:33-64

[33] This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come.” [34] “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us, he has thrown us into confusion, he has made us an empty jar. Like a serpent he has swallowed us and filled his stomach with our delicacies, and then has spewed us out. [35] May the violence done to our flesh be on Babylon,” say the inhabitants of Zion. “May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,” says Jerusalem. [36] Therefore this is what the LORD says: “See, I will defend your cause and avenge you; I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry. [37] Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives. [38] Her people all roar like young lions, they growl like lion cubs. [39] But while they are aroused, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk, so that they shout with laughter- then sleep forever and not awake,” declares the LORD. [40] “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats. [41] “How Sheshak will be captured, the boast of the whole earth seized! How desolate Babylon will be among the nations! [42] The sea will rise over Babylon; its roaring waves will cover her. [43] Her towns will be desolate, a dry and desert land, a land where no one lives, through which no one travels. [44] I will punish Bel in Babylon and make him spew out what he has swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him. And the wall of Babylon will fall. [45] “Come out of her, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the LORD. [46] Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler. [47] For the time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be disgraced and her slain will all lie fallen within her. [48] Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for out of the north destroyers will attack her,” declares the LORD. [49] “Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon. [50] You who have escaped the sword, leave and do not linger! Remember the LORD in a distant land, and call to mind Jerusalem.” [51] “We are disgraced, for we have been insulted and shame covers our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s house.” [52] “But days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan. [53] Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens and fortifies her lofty stronghold, I will send destroyers against her,” declares the LORD. [54] “The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians. [55] The LORD will destroy Babylon; he will silence her noisy din. Waves of enemies will rage like great waters; the roar of their voices will resound. [56] A destroyer will come against Babylon; her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken. For the LORD is a God of retribution; he will repay in full. [57] I will make her officials and wise men drunk, her governors, officers and warriors as well; they will sleep forever and not awake,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD Almighty. [58] This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled and her high gates set on fire; the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.” [59] This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign. [60] Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon-all that had been recorded concerning Babylon. [61] He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. [62] Then say, ‘LORD, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate forever.’ [63] When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. [64] Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.'” The words of Jeremiah end here.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Meditate

“The tumult and the shouting dies; / The captains and the kings depart: / Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, / A humble and a contrite heart. / Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, / Lest we forget–lest we forget!” (Rudyard Kipling, 1865-1936).

Think Further

Jeremiah’s dire warnings of the demise of Egypt came true 20 years after the Jews settled there. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt in 568 B.C. History is silent about the fate of the Jews, but the Babylonians made no distinctions and all were caught up in the destruction. As Jeremiah predicted, remnants would survive as refugees (44:28). Some no doubt eventually returned to Egypt. Many would be released when Babylon fell to Persia, some returning to rebuild Jerusalem. Scripture sees this as fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophesies of restoration (Ezra 1:1-5). Others remained scattered throughout the Babylonian Empire. Many more were resettled throughout the subsequent Greek Empire and extensively dispersed when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

Jeremiah’s graphic tirade against Israel’s ancient enemies in chapters 46-49 makes hard reading. Commentators disagree about the historical placement of these prophesies, but their literary placement suggests that the editor of the material gathered all prophesies dealing with foreign nations into one place at the end. They culminate in the longer prophetic utterances against Babylon, the last of which we read today.

Some people find difficulty reconciling Jeremiah’s picture of Babylon as God’s agent in history (e.g., Jer. 6:1,2,22) with his equally strong condemnations, but this thinking is to presume that we are privy to the mind of God. Hidden away in Jeremiah’s long diatribe is the clue: “We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed” (51:9). Babylon was briefly God’s chosen instrument but this did not excuse the people from the ultimate requirement that they seek God. We know they had clear opportunities (Dan. 3:28-29), but in the end they did not take them and they too came under God’s judgment.

Apply

In your life has God used bad people to accomplish his will? What does this tell you about God’s power and plan?

Closing prayer

Lord God, life can be so confusing at times. I know Your ways are not always my ways so I look to you and the rock of Your faithfulness.

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