THE COMPLETE DESOLATION OF BABYLON

Jeremiah 51:25–26 “Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD.”

These verses reference Babylon as a “destroying mountain,” a kingdom that had been formed by wreaking destruction throughout the earth. God is declaring that He will exact judgment on Babylon. As I looked at the Hebrew, it was a statement of removing Babylon as a stronghold by destroying it with fire. This again connects with the prophesied destruction of Babylon in Revelation.

Revelation 18:8–9 “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning….”

Point is made in verse 26 that not one stone will remain that can be used to reestablish a foundation for the rebuilding of Babylon. Babylon is to be destroyed never to rise again. Again, this goes hand-in-hand with the words of the Revelator.

Revelation 18:21 “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.”

Jeremiah 51:27–29 “Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers. Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.”

The standard is a banner signaling a gathering together for war. The call is to go out to the kingdoms of Ararat (Armenia), Minni (another Armenian province), Ashchenaz (descendants of Japheth around the Black Sea), and the kings of the Medes (though a combined kingdom of Media-Persia, the Medes held the kingship when Babylon way conquered by Cyrus the Persian). I think these all identify stronger factions of those comprising the Medo-Persian empire.

Verse 29 declares that the land will “tremble and sorrow” in response to the judgment that comes at the hands of these conquerors. The fact that this judgment ends with Babylon desolated and without inhabitant tells me that the prophet is speaking with both near and far fulfillment—much as Isaiah did in chapter 61 in the section that Christ read from in the synagogue. When Babylon was conquered at the end of the 70-year captivity of the Jews, the land did not become desolate or without inhabitant. This part of the prophecy has to be referencing the future destruction described in Revelation 17-18. I have wondered when studying other sections of scripture whether the Medes might once again play a part when God executes that future judgment of Babylon.

Jeremiah 51:30–32 “The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken. One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.”

I think the NLT is a bit easier to understand: Her mightiest warriors no longer fight. They stay in their barracks. Their courage is gone. They have become as fearful as women. The invaders have burned the houses and broken down the city gates. Messengers from every side come running to the king to tell him all is lost! All the escape routes are blocked. The fortifications are burning, and the army is in panic.

Chuck Smith’s commentary on this section was interesting: “... this is a fascinating prophecy, because though Belshazzar was in the city of Babylon, his father was in charge of the Babylonian troops that were out in the fields and was not in the city of Babylon. Of course, when Babylon fell, they had to carry the news to him that the city was destroyed. And, of course, it totally demoralized him and his troops and the Medo-Persian conquest was then complete. But here he tells of how the news will be carried to the king by, of course, these messengers, one running to meet the other and carrying the post and the message.”

Jeremiah 51:33 “For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.”

This verse is another statement of the LORD’s intention to judge Babylon. She is pictured as a threshingfloor, a place where the chaff of the grain is blown away after the harvest, but the time of the harvest is yet future. I think the reference to the “daughter of Babylon” is a reference to the city of Babylon as the center of the kingdom, the “apple of the eye.”

Jeremiah 51:34–35 “Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.”

These verses are expressing the view of the Jews who had suffered greatly at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and his armies. It expresses their desire that Babylon be made to suffer in the same way that she has caused the Jews to suffer.

Jeremiah 51:36–40 “Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps. In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.”

Again we encounter this strange dichotomy. Babylon is serving God in bringing judgment upon His people, yet He declares He will avenge the treatment His people have received at the hands of the Babylonians. This goes hand-in-hand with God’s omniscience and how He formed His plans and purposes to work within the framework of choice with which He had gifted man. Even though acting in accordance with God’s purposes, they were also acting according to their own sinful desires. They were still accountable for their actions. The LORD declares that Babylon will yet be brought to a place of utter destruction without a single human inhabitant. Point is made that He is ever in control; HE will bring them like lambs to the slaughter to meet their destruction.

Adam Clarke summarized nicely the near application of this portion of the prophecy: “It was on the night of a feast day, while their hearts were heated with wine and revelry, that Babylon was taken; see Daniel 5:1-3. This feast was held in honour of the goddess Sheshach, (or perhaps of Bel,) who is mentioned (Jeremiah 51:41) as being taken with her worshippers. As it was in the night the city was taken, many had retired to rest, and never awoke; slain in their beds, they slept a perpetual sleep.”

How blessed to know that we can trust in the character of God as we see history unfold. We know that evil actions of men are a result of rejecting the Lordship of our Creator—from following the desires of the flesh and falling for the deceptions of the enemy. In spite of seemingly overwhelming odds, the LORD has promised that the one who places faith in Him can claim His promise that He will work everything that He allows to touch their lives for good.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

(to be continued...)