Two Sides Of The Same Coin
Once more as we look at the judgment of Babylon we see the
prophetic voice mixed with a call to the Hebrew people to know their redemption
is near. I find it slightly unsettling,
actually, to see at the end of Jeremiah just how much of this book ties one
nation’s judgment to another nation’s redemption.
As we get towards the end of the first ten verses, I think we can
find a nice twist on the perspective that I outlined above. There is talk about desiring to heal
Babylon’s pain or find a balm to use to comfort her, but she would not be
comforted. She would not be comforted.
You see, true healing can only come from the Lord. True healing can only come when we are
willing to acknowledge the problem with humanity. When we acknowledge our sinfulness and
embrace our need for God, then we can be healed. Babylon was not willing to do this.
Out of this thought comes a change to the perspective that I
offered up in the first paragraph. You
see, it isn’t about one nation finding redemption at the expense of a second
nation. Rather, it is about telling the
story of human humbleness and repentance.
It is not about preferential treatment.
It is about having a contrite heart before God.
Babylon is not healed because she will not repent before God. She is torn down – much like Jerusalem was –
because there was no humbleness before God.
However, a remnant of the Hebrew people will repent and will come back
into a relationship with their God. In
fact, remember from the last chapter that other nations were promised
restoration as well. This isn’t about
preferential treatment at all. It is
about learning to be humble, to embrace our human problems, and to come before
God to receive the healing that only he can offer.
Return To The Temple
I don’t want to dwell on it for very long, but notice in verse 11
that we have a comment that almost perfectly mirrors Jeremiah 50:28. Again we see that the Babylonian destruction
of the temple in Jerusalem will be avenged.
Again we see that the Babylonian refusal to be humble before God in
spite of Him being the source of their rise to power is the chief grievance
that God has against them.
God’s Sovereignty
In the middle of this chapter we have a profound description of
God’s power. Jeremiah reminds us that it
is God who created the universe. It is
God who inserts wisdom into mankind. It
is God who forms everything. It is God
who is our chief inheritance. It is God
who puts any worth at all into the things we make with our own hands.
This is a very profound way to help bring the book of Jeremiah to
a close. As we’ve dealt with the fall of
Jerusalem and now a look into the future {from
Jeremiah’s perspective} about the fall of Babylon, it is exactly the right
time to bring God’s sovereignty back into the discussion.
This book really is about the relationship between God and
humanity and the often lack of relationship between humanity and God. In Jeremiah we get a profound sense of what
really goes wrong when we as human beings forget our place in the
universe. When we think ourselves to be
great, things go catastrophically bad quite quickly! The proper focus is not upon us as people but
upon the greatness of God. When we
humble ourselves, acknowledge His greatness, and trust in the inheritance that
comes from Him – then order is restored and things are right in the universe.
Behold. We’ve come to the
end of Jeremiah to find out that the greatest problem with humanity is our
refusal to accept and submit to the sovereignty of God.
Seraiah
I’ll end my reflections on this chapter on a historical note. These words were likely given to Seraiah –
the brother to Jeremiah’s scribe, Baruch – to read in Babylon when Zedekiah
went to Babylon in his fourth year (594 BC).
Jerusalem fell in Zedekiah’s eleventh year. That means that this prophecy was likely
given seven years prior to the fall. The
question is, why would Zedekiah have traveled to Babylon?
It is likely that Nebuchadnezzar required all of his vassals to
come to Babylon just to make sure of their loyalty. This would have been during one of the few
periods where Jerusalem wasn’t revolting against Babylon. Remember that Zedekiah was put in leadership
by Nebuchadnezzar after Jehoiachin was removed by Nebuchadnezzar. So there would have likely been a short time
of peace until Zedekiah was convinced to lead an uprising of his own.
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