Year 2, Week 16, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 16, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 51.

Today’s reading concludes the fifth segment of the Book of Jeremiah. The fifth segment (chapters 46-51)  is a collection of judgment against the nations as it corresponds to the first segment (chapters 2-20) in that it is a collection of judgments against Judah. Today’s reading is connected to yesterday’s reading in that both Jeremiah 50 and 51 pertain to the pronouncement of judgment against Babylon, forming the longest of Jeremiah’s oracles against any of the nations. So, Jeremiah 51 completes the pronouncement of judgement against Babylon: “Behold, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon, against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai, and I will send to Babylon winnowers, and they shall winnow her, and they shall empty her land, when they come against her from every side on the day of trouble…Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north, declares the LORD. Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth” (Jeremiah 51:1-2,48-49).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is how the language used against the historical empire of Babylon that existed in the sixth century BC, but it also expresses imagery of the ultimate opponent to God’s rule: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living” (Revelation 18:2-3). This passage from the Book of Revelation refers not to Babylon from the sixth century BC, but the “nations” of people who come together and conspire to live in rebellion against the LORD. The language of Revelation borrows heavily from today’s reading in Jeremiah: “Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken…and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, the haunt of jackals, a horror and a hissing, without inhabitant…Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations went mad. Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; wail for her! Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed” (Jeremiah 51:8a,37,7-8) Revelation deploys even further common language connecting the condition of Babylon in the sixth century BC and the Babylon that John speaks of: “I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk…The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality”  (Revelation 17:2-4).

But the language in today’s reading not only looks forward in anticipation of God’s final destruction of all rebellion, in also uses language that suggests a look back in reminiscence of an earlier judgment by the LORD on human rebellion: “Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height, yet destroyers would come from me against her, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 51:53). At Babel, in rebellion to God, the people sought to reach the heights of heaven: “Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4). Interestingly, Babel shares the same root word from which Babylon is derived. The people of Babel and the people of Babylon share more than a common name, they also share a common arrogance and rebellion. And as with Babel, Babylon too would face judgment and will once again, as the symbol of arrogance and rebellion still left on this earth face judgment.

The comparative language of Jeremiah and Revelation continues: “Flee from the midst of Babylon; let every one save his life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance, the repayment he is rendering her…Go out of the midst of her, my people! Let every one save his life from the fierce anger of the LORD!” (Jeremiah 51:6,45). These instructions to flee correspond to: “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:4-5). Both in Jeremiah’s time as well as in heeding John’s admonition, the LORD’s people should to separate themselves in such a way that they will not share in the sins of the systems of arrogance and rebellion, as well as abstain from participating in the idolatries of such a culture.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe