SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/6/2014
12:08 PM
My Worship Time Focus: God
announces Victory over Babylon PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah 51:51-64
Message of the
verses: We will first of all look at
verses 51-58 and then look at the remaining verses in this 51st
chapter of Jeremiah. Remember we have
already looked at chapter 52 so this is the last chapter we have to look at.
The Jews Speak and God Replies (Jeremiah 51:51-58): 51 We are ashamed because we have heard
reproach; Disgrace has covered our faces, For aliens have entered The holy
places of the LORD’S house. 52 “Therefore behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD,
"When I will punish her idols, And the mortally wounded will groan
throughout her land. 53 “Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens, And
though she should fortify her lofty stronghold, From Me destroyers will come to
her," declares the
LORD. 54 The sound of an outcry from Babylon, And of great destruction
from the land of the Chaldeans! 55 For the LORD is going to destroy Babylon,
And He will make her loud noise vanish from her. And their waves will roar like
many waters; The tumult of their voices sounds forth. 56 For the destroyer is
coming against her, against Babylon, And her mighty men will be captured, Their
bows are shattered; For the LORD is a God of recompense, He will fully repay.
57 "I will make her princes and her
wise men drunk, Her governors, her prefects and her mighty men, That they may
sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up," Declares the King, whose name is
the LORD of hosts. 58 Thus says the LORD of hosts, "The broad wall of
Babylon will be completely razed And her high gates will be set on fire; So the
peoples will toil for nothing, And the nations become exhausted only for
fire."”
I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that during this time
period of the Old Testament, and perhaps even in NT times that countries
thought that the reason that they could win battles was because their gods were
stronger than the gods of the people that they were fighting against. We mentioned when the Philistines captured
the Ark of the Covenant in the early chapters of 1 Samuel and thought that
their God “Dragon” was stronger than the God of the Hebrews, but when they put
the Ark in the temple of Dragon the next morning the image of Dragon had fallen
down before the Ark of the Covenant.
This happened the next day as the image was actually broken. Now as we look at the captives who had gone
to Babylon from Judah they probably did not believe that God was weaker than
the gods of Babylon, but they were ashamed that the temple of the Lord was
broken down and when they would return that they would have to rebuild it. One more thing to think about here and that
is that the reason that they were in captivity was because of their sin, and
this was the reason that Jerusalem was broken down along with the temple of the
Lord.
As we look at these verses we see that God is making it
perfectly clear that there was no future for Babylon. Now again when we look at this section I
believe that there must be some words that speak of the end of Babylon in the
end times. I have mentioned time and
again that I find it extremely difficult to understand when Jeremiah is
speaking about the Babylon of his day or when he is speaking about the future
Babylon of the end times, and perhaps some of the verses may be speaking of
both at the same time as happens many times with the OT prophets.
In the 29th chapter of Jeremiah and verses
4-14 we see that Jeremiah had told the Jews to go to Babylon, for this was what
God had decreed for them to do, and if they did it voluntarily then it would be
easier, and perhaps for some of them it was too easy for many did not want to
return to Jerusalem. The same is true
today as many Jews living in different places around the world do not want to
return to Israel, but I believe that this will change in the future as there
seems to be an increase of persecution on them in different places around the
world especially in Europe. God will
call His people back to Israel and may even use persecution to call them
back.
God is telling His people of Jeremiah’s day to get out of
Babylon when they had the chance because Babylon was going to be destroyed by
the Lord, and in this case He was going to use the Medes and Persians to
accomplish it.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes this portion of his commentary by
writing “It’s a matter of walking by faith and not by sight, trusting God’s Word
instead of our own human evaluation. The
exiles saw the high walls and huge gates of the city and concluded that such
fortifications would repel any enemy, but they were wrong. Those walls and gates would become only ‘fule
for the flames’ when the invaders arrived on the scene (v. 58, NIV).
“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city!’
(Rev.14:8) And Babylon is still fallen!”
We
will now look at the last six verses of chapter 51 as a conclusion of our study
in the book of Jeremiah: “59 The message
which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the grandson of
Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth
year of his reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster.) 60 So Jeremiah wrote in a
single scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all
these words which have been written concerning Babylon. 61 Then Jeremiah said
to Seraiah, "As soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all
these words aloud, 62 and say, ’You, O
LORD, have promised concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be
nothing dwelling in it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual
desolation.’ 63 "And as soon as you
finish reading this scroll, you will tie a stone to it and throw it into the
middle of the Euphrates, 64 and say,
’Just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again because of the calamity
that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become exhausted.’" Thus
far are the words of Jeremiah.”
I
can say that the OT prophets had a lot of guts, along with a lot of faith, and
this is an example of that in these verses as Seraiah did exactly what Jeremiah
had told him to do, and that is read the words of God that came through Jeremiah
an then through them into the Euphrates river as instructed. I wonder if Daniel had a copy of this part of
the book of Jeremiah, and perhaps if he did he may have shown it to Cyrus. Now Daniel probably did have a copy of the
book of Isaiah and probably did show that to Cyrus for his name is mentioned in
the 45th chapter of Jeremiah.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Obedience
and courage are what I get from this section of Scripture, especially the last
six verses. When you think about it we only
live on this earth for as long as God is going to use us and then those of us
whom are born-again believers in Jesus Christ will go home to be with Him, so
we do need to obey what He wants us to do.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to give me the courage to do
what He wants me to do for the cause of Christ.
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: “John the Baptist” (Matthew
3:7).
Today’s Bible
question: “Where was Pharaoh’s army
drowned?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/6/2014 12:56 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment