SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/2/2014
8:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God Speaks to Babylon
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
50:29-51:4
Message of the
verses: “29 “Summon many against
Babylon, All those who bend the bow: Encamp against her on every side, Let
there be no escape. Repay her according to her work; According to all that she
has done, so do to her; For she has become arrogant against the LORD, Against
the Holy One of Israel. 30 “Therefore her young men will fall in her streets,
And all her men of war will be silenced in that day," declares the LORD. 31
“Behold, I am against you,
O arrogant one," Declares the Lord GOD of hosts, "For your day has come,
The time when I will punish you. 32 “The arrogant one will stumble and fall
With no one to raise him up; And I will set fire to his cities And it will
devour all his environs."
“33 Thus says the LORD of hosts, "The
sons of Israel are oppressed, And the sons of Judah as well; And 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 vigorously plead
their case So that He may bring rest to the earth, But turmoil to the
inhabitants of Babylon. 35 “A sword against the Chaldeans," declares the
LORD, "And against the inhabitants of Babylon And against her officials
and her wise men! 36 “A sword against the oracle priests, and they will become
fools! A sword against her mighty men, and they will be shattered! 37 “A sword
against their horses and against their chariots And against all the foreigners
who are in the midst of her, And they will become women! A sword against her
treasures, and they will be plundered! 38 “A drought on her waters, and they
will be dried up! For it is a land of idols, And they are mad over fearsome
idols. 39 “Therefore the desert creatures will live there along with the
jackals; The ostriches also will live in it, And it will never again be
inhabited Or dwelt in from generation to generation. 40 “As when God overthrew
Sodom And Gomorrah with its neighbors," declares the LORD, "No man
will live there, Nor will any son of man reside in it. 41 “Behold, a people is
coming from the north, And a great nation and many kings Will be aroused from
the remote parts of the earth. 42 “They seize their bow and javelin; They are
cruel and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea; And they ride on
horses, Marshalled 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
hang limp; Distress has gripped him, Agony like a woman in childbirth. 44 "Behold, one will come up like a lion
from the thicket of the Jordan to a perennially watered pasture; for in an
instant I will make them run away from it, and whoever is chosen I will appoint
over it. For who is like
Me, and who will summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can
stand before Me?" 45 Therefore hear the plan of the LORD which He has planned against
Babylon, and His purposes which He has purposed against the land of the
Chaldeans: surely they will drag them off, even the little ones of the flock;
surely He will make their pasture desolate because of them. 46 At the shout,
"Babylon has been seized!" the earth is shaken, and an outcry is
heard among the nations.
“1 Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I am
going to arouse against Babylon And against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai The
spirit of a destroyer. 2 "I will
dispatch foreigners to Babylon that they may winnow her And may devastate her
land; For on every side they will be opposed to her In the day of her calamity.
3 “Let not him who bends his bow bend it, Nor let him rise up in his
scale-armor; So do not spare her young men; Devote all her army to destruction.
4 “They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, And pierced through
in their streets."”
Dr. Wiersbe begins “The first command had been ‘Declare
among the nations!’ but now the command
was ‘Call together the archers!’ God
ordered the armies of the Medes and Persians (and later the Greeks) to shoot to
kill and allow no one to escape.” I have
to say that I believe that some of the verses that we will cover in today’s SD
also speak of the destruction of Babylon that is spoken of in Revelations 17
and 18. I realize that Alexander the
Great destroyed the city of Babylon and after that there was hardly anyone
living in it, but it is hard for me to understand if that was the fulfillment
of this prophecy or if the prophecy will be fulfilled at a later point. If I had to guess I would say that it was
fulfilled after Alexander the Great destroyed Babylon. However, as I said it is hard to completely
understand when all the prophecies will of have been fulfilled. One thing for sure we know that God will
fulfill all that He has spoken of about Babylon, both the Religious Babylon and
also the governmental type of Babylon, for both are evil.
Let me give a quote from the John MacArthur Study Bible
from verse 40 of chapter 50: “What
befell Sodom (cf. Gen. 19) was sudden and total destruction, not like the Media
Persia takeover, but like an example for the future devastation that will
overtake the final Babylon (cf. Rev. 17-18).”
Now we see from verses 31 and 32 that God was against
Babylon because of their pride. In the 4th
chapter of Daniel we read about the pride of Nebuchadnezzar, and what God did
to him because of his great pride, but the problem was that others from Babylon
did not remember what the Lord did to him, and they became very prideful because
of the city that they lived in. Babylon
was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It had an early form of air-condition in it,
and the walls were very tall and very wide, and also the Euphrates River ran
through the center of it so there would always be water. Because of all of this they became prideful,
but remember Daniel chapter 5 where we read that Babylon fell in one day.
Another reason for their destruction was the way that
they treated the Jews, and we spoke about this in our last SD. We know that the Jewish exiles could not free
themselves, but the Lord could and did free them, for God is all powerful.
Verses 35-38 show the first picture of what Babylon could
expect, and that was a sword going through them cutting down the people, and it
would even attack the waters and dry them up because of their idol
worship. A former Pastor of mine studied
extensively about Babylon, and we know that Babylon is modern day Iraq, and he
learned that the people of Iraq have said that the world would come to them for
water some day.
I have mentioned before that the nations
mentioned who will attack Israel according to Ezekiel chapters 38-39 did not
include the Babylonians, or modern day Iraq.
I mention this because I think that because the Lord will destroy all of
the nations that come against Israel that He spares Babylon so that He can
destroy it at the end of the tribulation period as seen in Rev. 17-18.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: God is in charge
of the destruction of Babylon and one reason for Him destroying it is because
that total system is against God. I do
not know when this will happen, but I do know that it will happen because God
has said it will happen.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord for the work to be done on
our roof today, that it will be done to His glory.
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 the 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 will come upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also
once walked, when you were living in them.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Priests.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What was the second plague
that God placed on Egypt.”
Answer in our next SD.
9/2/2014 9:37 AM
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