Day 236—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy.

    Day 236 – Jeremiah 51 – 52 (Judgment on Babylon, Recap of Jerusalem’s fall)

Jeremiah 51. The judgment and destruction of Babylon is continued in this lengthy chapter.

Jeremiah predicts Babylon’s coming destruction even as it still takes captives of the lands around it. THEN, come those encouraging words….“For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD of hosts…”  (Remember that all this was to happen WHILE the exiles of Judah were still in captivity in Babylon. It would have been terrifying to experience except for the words of prophets like Jeremiah, who told them it would happen and that they would not be forsaken by God and would be returned to their land.)

And here’s how it will end for Babylon: “The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for His Temple.”

Verses 20-23 show how God uses Cyrus of Persia (& Medes) as His war club. “You are my hammer and weapon of war: 1) with you I break nations in pieces;

2) with you, I destroy kingdoms;

3) with you, I break in pieces the horse and his rider;

4) with you, I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer;

5) with you, I break in pieces man and woman;

6) with you, I break in pieces the old man and the youth;

7) with you, I break in pieces the young man and the young woman;

8) with you, I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock,

9) with you, I break in pieces the farmer and his team;

10) with you, I break in pieces governors and commanders.   

I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in Zion, declares the LORD.”

“Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them shall sing for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers shall come against them from the north, declares the LORD. Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.”

AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER IS A NOTE FROM JEREMIAH. He wrote in a book all the disasters that would come upon Babylon, and he gave the book to Seraiah when he went with Zedekiah, king of Judah to Babylon. Jeremiah’s instructions to Seraiah were to read all the words of the book about the disasters that would come to Babylon and how the LORD would eventually–surely–cut them off.

And when Seraiah finished reading Jeremiah’s book to all the people, he was to tie a stone to it, throw it into the Euphrates River, and say, “Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her.”

(What encouragement to the wounded, bedraggled captives! Although they must wait 70 years.)

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Jeremiah 52. NOTE THE FINAL ENDS TO THE LAST TWO KINGS IN JUDAH. THEY ARE QUITE DIFFERENT!

This closing chapter recounts the fall of Jerusalem under Zedekiah, the final king of Judah. When Jerusalem’s walls are breached, and the Chaldeans pour into the city, Zedekiah, his family, and his officials escape and make a run to cross the Jordan River. They are captured in the plains of Jericho, sentenced by Nebuchadnezzar, and all are slaughtered in Zedekiah’s sight. His eyes are then put out, and he is taken to Babylon blind and in chains to rot in prison until he dies.

All in Jerusalem is broken and burned. It’s treasures are carried away, and a few of the very poorest are left to tend the fields.

Then comes Jeremiah’s paragraph of hope. It’s about king Jehoiachin, the next-to-the-last king of Judah. After three months of reign, he listened to Jeremiah’s word from the LORD and SURRENDERED to the Chaldeans. He was taken captive to Babylon.

After Nebuchadnezzar died, the next king of Babylon…..

“GRACIOUSLY FREED Jehoiachin and brought him out of prison. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table, and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king according to his daily need, until the day of his death, as long as he lived.”

What a difference in the “ends” of the two last “evil” kings of Judah! And why? Because ONE of them–just as evil as the other–obeyed the LORD.