Jeremiah 50:33-46
33 Thus says the LORD of hosts:
"The children of Israel were oppressed,
Along with the children of Judah;
All who took them captive have held them fast;
They have refused to let them go.
34 Their Redeemer is strong;
The LORD of hosts is His name.
He will thoroughly plead their case,
That He may give rest to the land,
And disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 "A sword is against the Chaldeans," says the LORD,
"Against the inhabitants of Babylon,
And against her princes and her wise men.
36 A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools.
A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.
37 A sword is against their horses,
Against their chariots,
And against all the mixed peoples who are in her midst;
And they will become like women.
A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed.
38 A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up.
For it is the land of carved images,
And they are insane with their idols.
39 "Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals,
And the ostriches shall dwell in it.
It shall be inhabited no more forever,
Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors," says the LORD,
"So no one shall reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it.
41 "Behold, a people shall come from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.
42 They shall hold the bow and the lance;
They are cruel and shall not show mercy.
Their voice shall roar like the sea;
They shall ride on horses,
Set in array, like a man for the battle,
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.
43 "The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
And his hands grow feeble;
Anguish has taken hold of him,
Pangs as of a woman in childbirth.
44 "Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the Jordan
Against the dwelling place of the strong;
But I will make them suddenly run away from her.
And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?
For who is like Me?
Who will arraign Me?
And who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?"
45 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that He has taken against Babylon,
And His purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans:
Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;
Surely He will make their dwelling place desolate with them.
46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon
The earth trembles,
And the cry is heard among the nations.
The Redeemer of the captives is strong. The redeemed of the Lord say so. This deliverance from Babylon is a picture and type of God’s deliverance of His remnant of all nations out of the world and its sinful state (Galatians 1:4) taken into the bondage of sin’s captivity. Israel was captured and enslaved to their own idols, only to be handed over to Babylon under the influence and imprisonment of their false gods. Ah, but the Redeemer of God’s people is strong who will plead their case as their sentence is taken by another and He would then give them rest in Himself. The parallel with our salvation in grace is not to be ignored or explained away, for the LORD was giving a veiled explanation of the gospel here, the mystery to be later revealed in the one taking our just punishment as advocate and a prisoner exchange to accept our sentence of death that we might live through His death to kill our sin and its due punishment (Romans 6:23). God’s sword was set against Babylon foolish fortune tellers of occult guidance, against their imagined military might, against their compromises in marriage and lust for wealth, and against all carved images of their imaginary gods they worshipped. He was against all ungodliness opposed to Him in other words. He would utterly rout and defeat them so that there would only be stories left as warnings to tell afterwards. Yes, just as Babylon had leveraged their pride to overthrow God’s people, so would He call the Persians from the north to decimate the oppressor of Israel. This word of the LORD through Jeremiah sent fear to the core of the king of Babylon as the attack would come like a lion to devour them. Who can withstand the LORD God? He is unlike any false god of the feeble imagination of the created man who was made in the image of the true God. Nobody can assemble against Him nor shepherd His people away from His calling His gathering them to Himself. The counsel of the LORD shall always stand (Proverbs 19:21, Isaiah 46:10-11), just as it did against Babylon and against Egypt and so many others opposed to Him and His chosen ones. The earth will tremble again as it did when Babylon was taken down when the adversary of us all is utterly defeated and cast down (Revelation 12:10-11, 20:10) into eternal punishment in the lake of fire. We can take rest in the Lord Jesus Christ in this word of comfort in His calling and keeping. Amen and amen!
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