Slices
Prepare
Are you disheartened and depressed by all that is wrong in the world? Remind yourself that God will bring justice and make all things right.
Bible passage
33 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:
‘Daughter Babylon is like a threshing-floor
at the time it is trampled;
the time to harvest her will soon come.’
34 ‘Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us,
he has thrown us into confusion,
he has made us an empty jar.
Like a serpent he has swallowed us
and filled his stomach with our delicacies,
and then has spewed us out.
35 May the violence done to our flesh be on Babylon,’
say the inhabitants of Zion.
‘May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,’
says Jerusalem.
36 Therefore this is what the Lord says:
‘See, I will defend your cause
and avenge you;
I will dry up her sea
and make her springs dry.
37 Babylon will be a heap of ruins,
a haunt of jackals,
an object of horror and scorn,
a place where no one lives.
38 Her people all roar like young lions,
they growl like lion cubs.
39 But while they are aroused,
I will set out a feast for them
and make them drunk,
so that they shout with laughter –
then sleep for ever and not awake,’
declares the Lord.
40 ‘I will bring them down
like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and goats.
41 ‘How Sheshak will be captured,
the boast of the whole earth seized!
How desolate Babylon will be
among the nations!
42 The sea will rise over Babylon;
its roaring waves will cover her.
43 Her towns will be desolate,
a dry and desert land,
a land where no one lives,
through which no one travels.
44 I will punish Bel in Babylon
and make him spew out what he has swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him.
And the wall of Babylon will fall.
45 ‘Come out of her, my people!
Run for your lives!
Run from the fierce anger of the Lord.
46 Do not lose heart or be afraid
when rumours are heard in the land;
one rumour comes this year, another the next,
rumours of violence in the land
and of ruler against ruler.
47 For the time will surely come
when I will punish the idols of Babylon;
her whole land will be disgraced
and her slain will all lie fallen within her.
48 Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
will shout for joy over Babylon,
for out of the north
destroyers will attack her,’
declares the Lord.
49 ‘Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain,
just as the slain in all the earth
have fallen because of Babylon.
50 You who have escaped the sword,
leave and do not linger!
Remember the Lord in a distant land,
and call to mind Jerusalem.’
51 ‘We are disgraced,
for we have been insulted
and shame covers our faces,
because foreigners have entered
the holy places of the Lord’s house.’
52 ‘But days are coming,’ declares the Lord,
‘when I will punish her idols,
and throughout her land
the wounded will groan.
53 Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens
and fortifies her lofty stronghold,
I will send destroyers against her,’
declares the Lord.
54 ‘The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
the sound of great destruction
from the land of the Babylonians.
55 The Lord will destroy Babylon;
he will silence her noisy din.
Waves of enemies will rage like great waters;
the roar of their voices will resound.
56 A destroyer will come against Babylon;
her warriors will be captured,
and their bows will be broken.
For the Lord is a God of retribution;
he will repay in full.
57 I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
her governors, officers and warriors as well;
they will sleep for ever and not awake,’
declares the King, whose name is the Lord Almighty.
58 This is what the Lord Almighty says:
‘Babylon’s thick wall will be levelled
and her high gates set on fire;
the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing,
the nations’ labour is only fuel for the flames.’
59 This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign. 60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon – all that had been recorded concerning Babylon. 61 He said to Seraiah, ‘When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. 62 Then say, “Lord, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate for ever.” 63 When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. 64 Then say, “So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.”’
The words of Jeremiah end here.
Explore
As Jonah was swallowed and vomited out by a large fish, so the exiles have experienced life as captives in the serpent Babylon (v 34). Biblical imagery is seldom chosen carelessly; the serpent has appeared before, as Satan in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1–15). And so, Babylon is meant to represent evil on a cosmic scale here (v 49).
Jeremiah’s word from God on the matter of evil here gives three reasons to be hopeful. The first is that God hates it more than anyone, as you can see from the gory retribution lined up for Babylon (vs 36–44). The second is that God’s people will be saved from the wreckage (vs 45,46). The third is that, under our true King, ‘whose name is the Lord Almighty’ (v 57), evil will one day come to an end: Babylon will ‘sink to rise no more’ (v 64).
It can feel like evil has free rein on earth and that there is no end in sight to the suffering of both people and planet. But there is a time coming when ‘heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy’ (v 48). We just have to hold on with patience and faith.
Respond
‘Lord, I will wait for you. I will be strong and take heart, and I will wait for you. Amen.’
Deeper Bible study
Dear Lord, raise up an army of fearless prophets who will declare your word to every person in this generation: young and old, rich and poor, prince and pauper alike.
At first glance, there is a level of absurdity in this passage, as there would seem to be throughout the book of Jeremiah. We have an obscure and unofficial prophet of a tiny nation whose God seems to have been crushed and his Temple stripped, his people either killed or taken into slavery in exile. The survivors feel confused, disgraced, insulted, ashamed, as if they had been swallowed up by some giant snake, digested and then regurgitated because their Temple lies in ruins (vs 34,51). Babylon and its idols have triumphed; the Babylonians feel secure and inviolable. And yet, and despite apparent evidence to the contrary, Jeremiah dares to speak authoritatively to the emperor of the world’s superpower, saying that the God of Israel will turn the tables on Babylon and destroy it. Unimaginable, but true. The destruction will be complete; the society and its leadership will disappear; and the army, the buildings and even the protective wall will all collapse and lie desolate. Indeed, Babylon will be ‘an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives’ (v 37).
Jeremiah’s confidence to speak truth to power lies in the fact that the God of Israel is none other than the Lord Almighty, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. He is sovereign and speaks authoritatively into any and every situation. Besides, the Babylonians had dared to slaughter and thus destroy his people Israel (v 49), from whom the desire of all ages, the Messiah of all the earth, would later be revealed. What the Babylonians declared as acceptable colonial strategies of the empire have been recast as genocide, with grave consequences.
Tragedies (personal, national or international) can destroy hope. God, however, is neither powerless nor indifferent. Appeal to him and he will surely act.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Nahum 1–3; Revelation 14
Pray for Scripture Union
This term we have had three new Revealing Jesus Pioneers and one Sports Mission Pioneer start working in the North of England. Pray for them in their new roles and that through them we will see many churches engage with Revealing Jesus.
