The Consequences and Shame of Idolatry

Jeremiah 51:36-51

36 Therefore thus says the LORD:
"Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.

37 Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.

38 They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions' whelps.
39 In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;
I will make them drunk,
That they may rejoice,
And sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake," says the LORD.

40 "I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.

41 "Oh, how Sheshach is taken!
Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!

42 The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43 Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
A land where no one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.

44 I will punish Bel in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

45 "My people, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the LORD.
46 And lest your heart faint,
And you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land
(A rumor will come one year,
And after that, in another year
A rumor will come,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),

47 Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
48 Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
For the plunderers shall come to her from the north," says the LORD.

49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
50 You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
Remember the LORD afar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

51 We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
For strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house.

The consequences and shame of idolatry are detailed here by Jeremiah; consequences for Babylon’s sin and dragging Israel in, and shame for God’s people when they realize their own sin and going along with them against Him.  The vengeance of the LORD would make Babylon uninhabited and uninhabitable.  They would be inebriated and sleep forever without waking.  This is not soul death or annihilation, but never-ending punishment of judgment after death as Hebrews 9:27 details for us.  They would not awake to His presence in glory but separation in worse shame than Israel who joined in their sin.  They would be slaughtered like lambs, but not for a holy sacrifice.  Their desolation would not find forgiveness after the grave because of their false gods without life and rejection of worship of the only living God of hosts, the self-revealing God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The imminent judgment (no mere rumor) and fall of Babylon was proclaimed to God’s people living in the midst of this evil age that they might quickly come out of there for deliverance.  They were to separate themselves from sin and return to Him out of the world opposed to the LORD.  Judgment was coming on those worshiping false and lifeless gods of their own hands’ making, an event which would elicit joyful singing at her long-overdue defeat.  The sins of Babylon had caused Israel to sin and face death in judgment as well, so those who escaped that place were warned to flee immediately.  They were to remember their God and face their shame for following them instead of Him.  Their shame also was for abandoning the temple of worship in Jerusalem and allowing the ungodly to enter that sanctuary meant only for worshipers of the LORD.  Some of them left behind should have kept it holy instead of running to Egypt for vain protection as Jeremiah chapter 46 describes.  There is shame in worshiping the idols of our making, but for God’s people there is forgiveness and grace in Christ alone who took on all of our sin and offers life in Him and no other.  We are to be like Daniel and not bow to the idols of this world (Daniel 3:12) but worship God alone in spirit and truth as John 4:24 tells us.