Dei Break
Jeremiah 51:59 – 52:34
The scathing condemnation and prophecy of utter destruction against Babylon would travel to Babylon with Seraiah who traveled to Babylon with King Zedekiah. He was to read the scroll to the people and then throw it into the Euphrates as a symbol of the sinking of Babylon.
The last chapter of Jeremiah is devoted to a synopsis of Jerusalem's fall. The cruelty of Babylon toward Zedekiah was especially so because it assured that the last and most vivid memory of his sighted days would be the no doubt violent execution of his friends and his own sons. Chapter 39:1-10 also describes the fall of the city and the fate of the king.
Chapter 52 completes Jeremiah's story of Judah's fall to Babylon. Verses 28-30 describe three different times that Babylon exiled residents of Jerusalem and Judah, 597 (when Jehoiachin was taken), 586 (the largest which also marked the fall of the city and the capture of Zedekiah), and 581 B.C. when another rebellion from Judah was put down. There was an even earlier exile around the year of 605 B.C. when Daniel was deported along with the most promising leaders of Judah.
These multiple incursions into Judah by Babylon demonstrate the stubborn refusal of God's people to consider the truth that their sin had brought their downfall. Even though God warned them and pleaded with them to accept their time of exile and look forward to their deliverance by God, they turned to their own devices and attempted their own salvation from a hopelessly more powerful foe.
Of course, their most powerful foe was sin itself, but they could not recognize it, nor could they provide their own deliverance from it. This most important of truths they still would not admit when Jesus arrived in their midst hundreds of years later.
The following is a link to a series of YouTube videos of the very beautiful and impressive Ishtar Gate of Babylon which is now in a Berlin museum. It is the "wall of Babylon…and her high gates" of 51:58. LINK
Next time: Lamentations over the Loss
Recent Comments