Judgment, Destruction, and Desolation

Jeremiah 51:20-35

20 "You are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms;

21 With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
22 With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
With you I will break in pieces old and young;
With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
23 With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.

24 "And I will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight," says the LORD.

25 "Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
Who destroys all the earth," says the LORD.
"And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
And make you a burnt mountain.

26 They shall not take from you a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for a foundation,
But you shall be desolate forever," says the LORD.

27 Set up a banner in the land,
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Prepare the nations against her,
Call the kingdoms together against her:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a general against her;
Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.

28 Prepare against her the nations,
With the kings of the Medes,
Its governors and all its rulers,
All the land of his dominion.

29 And the land will tremble and sorrow;
For every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,
To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.

30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
They became like women;
They have burned her dwelling places,
The bars of her gate are broken.

31 One runner will run to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;
32 The passages are blocked,
The reeds they have burned with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.

33 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
"The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
When it is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
And the time of her harvest will come."

34 "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
Has devoured me, he has crushed me;
He has made me an empty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.

35 Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,"
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
"And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!"
Jerusalem will say.

Babylon was to answer for her sin against God’s people by her judgment and destruction.  Cyrus of Persia was God’s war club to beat Babylon into defeat.  We often see haw God often uses one nation against another to deal with their sin as His instruments of righteous judgment, and this is detailed for us here in this passage.  He breaks up those set against His chosen ones as of Zion and as of all in the Messiah to come when they was written.  God was against this mountainous nation who rolled over others, especially His own, and now proclaimed their judgment and destruction unto desolation.  He rallied the nations under Persia of the Medes to assault that land, “For every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,”  until they were defeated and laid down all their defensive arms.  He struck terror into Babylon in her defeat just as He will in the final battle at the end of time (Revelation 14:8, 18:2, 19-20).  Babylon would be threshed and burned for her idolatrous sin against the LORD and His people at last.  Zion who had been devoured and emptied as worthless enough to spit out would see vengeance taken by the LORD on her (Revelation 6:10) and all who supported her as the Chaldeans did.  This is how it will be in the end as well when all those opposed to Christ and His chosen ones are defeated and made desolate in the final righteous judgment.  May all who read Jeremiah’s words take heed and turn from sin to the Lord before that great and terrible day.