Introduction to Our Study of Babylon from Jeremiah 50-51

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/31/2014 8:43 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  Introduction to our study of Babylon

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Jeremiah 50-51

            Message of the verses:  Before we began to look at the verses from chapters 50-51 of Jeremiah I wanted to write an introduction to them.  We know much more about Babylon now than what Jeremiah knew when he penned chapters 50 and 51 of his book and so I want to take a look at what Babylon is.  There are several names for Babylon in the Scriptures and I looked up several of them to see how many times they are mentioned in the Scriptures.  Babylon is mentioned 260 times in the entire Bible, while Babel is mentioned two times; Babylonians is mentioned four times and finally Chaldeans is mentioned 80 times.  This information is from my Online Bible program and it is from the NASB95 version of the Bible.

            Babylon is not only a city, but it is also a system and both will be destroyed during the last days of the tribulation period.  The systems destruction is seen from Revelations 17 and the systems destruction is seen in Revelations 18:1-19:10.  Now we have mentioned that the system and the city of Babylon began in Genesis chapters 10-11 with a man named Nimrod who was “a mighty hunter before the Lord” (Genesis 10:9 NIV).  We can even go back further in Genesis to find what the Lord said to Eve about the how He would bring the Messiah into the world:  “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."”  Now God was actually speaking to Satan, but in this verse God tells how He would destroy him.  I truly believe that this verse speaks of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ for this is the only place in Scripture where the seed of woman is mentioned.  The point that I want to make here is that of the seed of woman for it is believed that Eve believed that Seth was that seed, and I have read that the mother of Nimrod believed that Nimrod was this seed and that is where the Babylonian religion began, way back in Babel where the seeds of this religion began, and where the Lord confused the languages so that the system and the religion would be slowed down because of the different languages that God began then.  Man could not communicate with each other like he could before.  “The Babel speaks of confusion and the words Babel/Babylon mean a rebellion against God, the earthly city of human splendor opposing the heavenly city that glorifies God.  All of this culminates in the Babylon of Revelation 17:1-19:10, ‘Babylon the Great’ that symbolizes the anti-God system that controls the world in the end times and then is destroyed by the Lord.  There are many parallels between Jeremiah 50-51 and Revelation 17-18, and I suggest you read all four chapters carefully.”  (Quoted from Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on Jeremiah.) 

            We have just studied Jeremiah chapters 446-49 which was about the nations that God was going to bring judgment upon, and now we are going to look at Babylon in chapters 50-51 of Jeremiah.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Jeremiah devoted 121 verses to the future of nine nations and 44 verses to the defeat and destruction of Jerusalem.  When we count the number of verses in Jeremiah 50-51, however, he devoted 110 verses to the fall of Babylon.  It is an important subject indeed!”

            We continue with his introductory comments on chapters 50 and 51 of Jeremiah because it will show us the direction in which we will study these two chapters.  Jeremiah’s prophecy about Babylon has both a near and a far fulfillment.  The Medes and Persians captured Babylon in 539 (see. Dan. 5), but they didn’t destroy the city.  Cyrus issued a decree that the Jews could return to their land (Ezra 1:1-4), which many of them did in three stages:  in 538 (Ezra 1-6), 458 (Ezra 7-10), and 444 (Book of Nehemiah).  It was Alexander the Great who finally destroyed Babylon in 330 and left it a heap of ruins.  Since Babylon symbolizes the anti-God world system, however, the ultimate fulfillment is recorded in Revelations 17-18.  Remember, the prophet often looked at ‘two horizons,’ one near and one far, as they spoke and wrote about the future.

            “Jeremiah 50-15 is something like an extended declaration coupled with a conversation.  Usually it’s the Lord speaking through His prophet, but occasionally we hear the Jewish people speaking and the Lord answering them.  God speaks to and about Babylon; He also speaks to the invading army; and He speaks to the exiles of Judah.  Three movements are in the declaration:  God declares war on Babylon (50:1-28); God assembles the armies against Babylon (50:29-51:26); and God announces victory over Babylon (vv. 27-58).”  So here we have the outline that we will be studying in the next few days.

8/31/2014 9:21 AM