God Announces Victory over Babylon PT-1 (Jeremiah 51:27-33)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/4/2014 8:23 AM

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  God Announces Victory over Babylon PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Jeremiah 51:27-33

            Message of the verses:  “27 Lift up a signal in the land, Blow a trumpet among the nations! Consecrate the nations against her, Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz; Appoint a marshal against her, Bring up the horses like bristly locusts. 28 Consecrate the nations against her, The kings of the Medes, Their governors and all their prefects, And every land of their dominion. 29 So the land quakes and writhes, For the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand, To make the land of Babylon A desolation without inhabitants. 30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting, They stay in the strongholds; Their strength is exhausted, They are becoming like women; Their dwelling places are set on fire, The bars of her gates are broken. 31 One courier runs to meet another, And one messenger to meet another, To tell the king of Babylon That his city has been captured from end to end; 32 The fords also have been seized, And they have burned the marshes 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 At the time it is stamped firm; Yet in a little while the time of harvest will come for her."”

            As we have been looking at chapters 50-51 in Jeremiah’s writings we have seen from time to time that God has pronounced a victory over Babylon, but in these last verses of chapter 51 God seems to focus in on their defeat.  The sub-title of verses 27-33 is entitled “God describes the victory,” as seen in Warren Wiersbe outline and commentary on this section of Jeremiah.

            I know that in these verses we see that the Medes are mentioned, and yet I can’t help but think that some of these verses apply to the end times.  Speaking of the Medes and the Persians who brought down Babylon in one night as seen in the book of Daniel and chapter five, I want to write a little bit about how they did this.  The Euphrates River ran through the city of Babylon and as mentioned before the walls around the city were very tall and wide, and the area inside the city was also very large, so this seems like it was seemingly invincible, and this is why the people of Babylon were very proud.   The Medes and Persians dammed up the river to make it possible to get into the city because the water became very low.  Before this happened some men from the Medes and Persians came into the city with their ears cut off which was a sign of disgrace.  However they came in to spy out the weakness of the city once the soldiers came into the city under the dammed up river.  At the same time according to Daniel there was a drunken party going on with the king and leaders and they decided to use the articles that came from the temple in Jerusalem to drink their wine from.  At this time a hand without a body wrote something on the wall which brought no little fear to the king who finally summoned Daniel to interpret the writing.  Daniel did and he also told the king that he would not live after that night.  The soldiers came into the city and mighty Babylon was captured in one night.

            In an end note Dr. Wiersbe writes “Remember, this didn’t happen when Cyrus took Babylon, for his army was in the city before the Babylonians even knew it.  He had diverted the waters of the Euphrates and entered under the gates.  It was Alexander the Great whose army destroyed Babylon in 330.”  Again it is hard to determine if some of these verses are referring to the end times and what is also described in Revelations 17-18.

            I have written all along as we have been studying about Babylon that it is not only an empire, but also a false worship system that has been around since this part of the Middle East was called Babel, and it began with the mother/son cult along with the beginning of astrology as the tower of Babel was what is known as a Ziggurat. The following is from a website on the Bible which I found when searching for Ziggurat: 

“What part did Ziggurats play in Religion?

Ziggurats were built to reach nearer the heavens. This was so the gods could be contacted and worshipped. Obviously the same can be done on ground level but on top of the ziggurat they would be "nearer the god".

“The Babylonians, and others of their religion, gave rich offerings to the gods and built splendid temples. Similarly they built ziggurats. The size and splendor of a ziggurat would show the city and king’s devotion to the particular city god being worshipped. They might have temples to other gods but they would only have a ziggurat to the city god.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire to serve the Lord and worship Him in the proper way that is described in the pages of Scripture, and not in the false whey which is “religion” and what I mean by this is that in a way where I have to work my way into heaven not knowing at the end of my life if I worked hard enough.  Christianity is knowing that I am a sinner in need of salvation, and believing that Jesus Christ paid for my sins while on the cross, and excepting His forgiveness, and then work for the cause of Christ because I am now a Christian.  There is a large difference.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to give me wisdom for an issue that is going on today.

Memory verses for the week:  Colossians 3:1-7.

1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  2 Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth.  3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in Glory.  5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.  6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God has come upon the sons of disobedience; 7 and in them you once walked, when you were living in them. 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “His disciples” (Luke 9:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “In what three languages did Pilate ‘This is the king of the Jews?’”

Answer in our next SD.

9/4/2014 9:18 AM