This passage reminds us that no empire, no matter how strong, can stand against the justice of God. It is both a warning to the proud and a reassurance to God’s people that He will always vindicate truth and righteousness in His time.
Let’s just bow in prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray that you just speak to us through your word this evening, and Lord, help us to understand the importance of who is in control. And Lord, sometimes it seems like everything is out of control and that evil is gaining the victory, but your word tells us that that is not so. Now Lord, speak to us through your word this afternoon as we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As we come to chapter 51 , in this portion of chapter , the Lord is speaking through Jeremiah to the nation of Judah.
And Judah has been taken into captivity as we’ve studied in various phases, three phases of being taken into captivity from Judah. The last time Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, Jeremiah at that particular time was taken down into Egypt, along with those that were seeking the help of Egypt instead of the help of the Lord in their deliverance from Nebuchadnezzar. The Lord wants the nation of Judah and those that are captive in Babylon, as well as the remnant.
There will be a few, although the majority of them that went down into Egypt were going to end up dying there. But we see that the Lord wants those that will remain and will return to Judah to understand that who’s in control and it’s not Babylon. And even though Babylon at this particular time, if you look at, as we talked before, the Middle East at this time, Babylon was the powerful nation.
It was more powerful than Egypt, more powerful than the Medes and the Persians at this particular time, although the Medes and the Persians were rising up in power. And we also see that Babylon was arrogant in her power and they were arrogant in their defilement of the true and the living God. A lot of times we think that people don’t know who God is because they have false gods.
And that’s evident from the text we read this afternoon, that the Babylonians, they had those that were the founders. The founders are those that would go into the foundries. A foundry is somewhere where you work with various metals or various materials and through heat you form and shape them and you make them into things.
Well, the founders of Babylon had made gods and they thought these gods were superior to any god. And remember when Nebuchadnezzar went to Jerusalem, one of the things he did is he ransacked the temple, took the instruments of the temple back to Babylon and this was to prove that the gods of Babylon were greater than the god of the Jews. Now, we know that that’s not true and Jeremiah reminds the people of Judah it’s not true because God is the God who created all things and God is the one who is over his creation.
And God can cause rain to fall. He can cause storms to come. He can cause the winds to blow.
And we talked a little bit about that last week that in the last days when Jesus comes to deliver the nation of Israel from the attack during the Ezekiel attack on Israel, no nation of the world is going to come and help them, but the Lord will help them. And we see in Ezekiel that some of the means by which he’s going to do it is hailstones, thunderstorms, lightning, other forces of nature that will cause the people to be destroyed and the armies that are coming against Israel, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Libya and Sudan, as they come against Israel, the Lord will be able to be the one that defends Israel and no army of the world. So God is in control.
If you look at the weather patterns today, guess what? There’s a big typhoon that’s headed again towards the Philippines and we need to do pray for families over there because she did say that they’re concerned about winds. They’re not so much concerned about flooding where they live, but the winds are going to be tremendous. And just pray for their safety.
But the thing is God is in control and God is the one who controls the weather. And he says that the founders don’t. The gods that the founders make are just these gods that have no power.
They’re just pieces of wood or pieces of metal that have been made. They’re graven images. They’re molten images.
And they’re nothing but a falsehood. They’re vanity when it comes to their strength because they have none. And they have no breath in them.
Now we come to Jeremiah verse 18.
They are vanity, the work of errors:
in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
And we see that that’s exactly what you see in the world today. They still have false gods that are set up by people that worship not the true and the living God, but other gods that they’ve established. And they have no power.
They pretend to have power, but they don’t. And they can’t do anything when it actually comes to delivering the people. But God can.
And he’s reminding the nation of Israel this, that he will do this. Now, as it comes down to Jeremiah verse 19, we see,
The portion of Jacob is not like them;
for he is the former of all things:
and Israel is the rod of his inheritance:
the Lord of hosts is his name.
Now, why isn’t Jacob like them? Now, the portion of Jacob, even though they had sinned against God, even though they had fallen into the error of worshiping the gods of the nations around them, and God judged them for that, even though they didn’t trust in the Lord when he told them about to keep the Shabbat of years and they hadn’t celebrated that, and so they were taken into captivity, and he was going to do that for years to let the land rest for that years that they should have let it rest.
And even though they’d done all of those things, they still knew. And Jacob knew it. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And we see that, as it says here,
that the portion of Jacob is not like them, for he is the former of all things, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance. The portion of Jacob is the Lord.
The Lord is the one who had called Jacob.
The Lord is the God of Jacob. When Jacob came back, at the time that he was coming back into the land, at the time of Esau, his brother was going to come against him. Jacob wrestled with the Lord, and the Lord was the one that delivered Jacob from Esau.
The Lord was the one that had made promises to Jacob, and so the Lord is the portion or the God of Jacob, not like the false gods of the Babylonians. And because the Lord is his portion, the Lord will deliver him. And the Lord will deliver on his promises.
And so he says here that Israel is the rod of his inheritance.
Now what does it mean, the rod of his inheritance?
Well, Israel, the nation of Israel was the descendants of Jacob, and they were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That was his inheritance.
His inheritance, the promises that had been given to him, was a land, a people, and a Messiah. The people is the nation of Israel. The land is the land that God had promised to them when Abraham had been given the parameters of it.
We know that it went from the Nile River all the way up to the Euphrates River. It incorporates much of Jordan today, and it’s a larger chunk than actually Israel is even today. And so that will be delivered in God’s promise when Jesus returns and establishes his kingdom during the millennium.
But the thing is, the rod of Jacob’s inheritance, the thing that proved it, was Israel. Now what does it mean, the rod of his inheritance? Well, if you go back at the time of Judah, Judah, when he really impregnated Tamar, she asked for something to prove, because he didn’t have money to pay her. She pretended to be a prostitute, and so he gave her his rod, which was the proof of who he was, and that he would give her this money.
Later on, when they came and told Judah that Tamar was pregnant, he became irate and wanted her to be dealt with, and then she brought the rod and showed it to him. And he knew that the rod was his, and that he was the one that had done this. And then he said that she was more righteous than he, because he hadn’t trusted in God enough to give her to his remaining son, because his other two sons were wicked, and God killed them because of their unfaithfulness, and so he wouldn’t give his third son to her.
The Lord said that the Messiah had to come through his line, and the Messiah would come through that, and that’s why Tamar was more righteous than Judah. But the proof of who he was was his rod, and the proof of who God’s promises to Jacob is Israel. And today, that’s why it’s so important that the nation of Israel is not abandoned by the United States or by other people, but that we honor them because they are the proof of the fact that that is the promises that God made, and God is a God of his word.
God has the power to fulfill his word, and the proof of that word is the nation of Israel. And the Lord said earlier in the prophet Jeremiah that as long as the sun shines, as long as the moon’s in the sky, as long as the stars are there, Israel will remain. They’re not going to destroy all the Jewish people, no matter how they try, but Satan wants to.
Why? Because they’re the proof of God’s promise, and that promise will be fulfilled ultimately through them in the last days. And so we see that he says that the portion of Jacob is not like them, for he is the former of all things, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance. That proves the inheritance that God had given to Jacob, and the inheritance of the Lord of Hosts is his name.
Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war:
for with thee will I break in pieces the nations,
and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; Jeremiah 51:20
Now who is he speaking of there? He’s speaking of the promises that have been given to Jacob that will be fulfilled in the Messiah that’s coming. The Messiah is the one, not Israel, that’s going to destroy the nations.
We don’t see that in Scripture, but we do see the one that’s going to destroy the nations is going to be the Messiah when he returns. And he’s going to be coming and doing it with just his word. And he says,
and with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;
and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider;with thee also will I break in pieces man and woman;
and with thee will I break in pieces old and young;
and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; Jeremiah 51:21-22
And he goes on and lists all the things that are going to be dealt with when he comes back. And he’s going to deal with all of these, and he’s going to be the judge over them.
And I will render unto Babylon
and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea
all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the Lord.
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. Jeremiah 51:21-24
And so what he’s going to do is, judgment is coming on Babylon. And it’s going to be in the sight of, the judgment that’s coming on Babylon is going to be able to be seen by some of the people that have been taken into captivity.
We know that this occurred because the Babylonian Empire fell to the Medes and the Persians, while many were still living that had been taken into captivity. And they were allowed to go back to Jerusalem basically by the Medes. And so we know that God’s fulfilling his word here, and that they will see that Babylon isn’t the power.
Babylon isn’t the one that’s controlling things. And Babylon will be judged for what they did against Judah, and what they did against the Lord’s temple. And so they will be destroyed, and it will be utter destruction.
Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord. And the destroying mountain is Babylon in this case. And he says, which destroyeth 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. In other words, judgment will come upon them. And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but thou shalt be desolate forever, saith the Lord.
Now, what is the significance of a stone for a corner and a stone for a foundation? Well, when you build, the important things that you build on are, number one, the cornerstone. Remember, Jesus is our chief cornerstone, and the foundation for the Christians is the teaching of the apostles and the prophets. Well, he’s saying, we’re not going to be taking anything of Babylon for a cornerstone or a foundation.
What does that mean? Well, if you look at the world today, you see that many of the philosophies of Babylon have lived on, which we see in the book of Revelation, that Babylon is going to raise its head again through the second resurrection of the Roman Empire, the second appearing of the Roman Empire in the last days, and that the world will gladly place that as their cornerstone and that as their foundation. Everything that they base it upon will be built upon the beliefs of Babylon. But God says, that’s not going to be the case.
It’s going to be utterly destroyed. Well, how can that be when we see the spirit of Babylon still exists today? Well, Babylon, the city itself, has been destroyed, and God will ultimately even destroy all the philosophies and teachings of Babylon that the world hangs onto and builds all of their false religions on, all of their false ideologies on, are built on these. Instead of Jesus being the chief cornerstone, which gives direction and guidance and layout of how the buildings are going to be structured, and the teachings of God being the foundation that holds the structure up, he’s saying the world is going to try and build it on this, but it’s never going to happen because it’s going to be removed and destroyed.
We haven’t seen that completely happen yet, but that’s coming. And we know that it’s coming because in Revelation it talks about both the commercial and religious Babylon will ultimately fall and be judged, and we know that the false prophet and the beast or the Antichrist will be the leaders of the Babylonian spirit in the world, and they will be utterly destroyed and ultimately cast into the lake of fire. And the spirit of Babylon will be removed once and for all from the world.
At the end of the Millennial Kingdom there will be no spirit of Babylon left. During the Millennial Kingdom righteousness will prevail, but sin can still occur in people’s hearts, and once the final great white throne judgment comes at the end of the Millennial Kingdom and God creates a new heavens and a new earth, the Babylonian spirit is gone forever as Satan is cast into the lake of fire as well. And he is the founder of the Babylonian spirit and the Babylonian teachings.
And if you look at all the false religions of the world have the same foundation, and that’s the foundation of the Babylonian spirit which is given by Satan, which is vanity and emptiness based on false gods and a false religious system. And so he is saying that Babylon itself is going to be desolate, nothing will be built upon that city, but as we see later on remember prophecy speaks both to the day and to the current people, but it can also speak to the future. And he is speaking to the future where that will utterly be destroyed.
Set ye up a standard,
now he is going to talk about how is he going to destroy the city of Babylon. How is God going to destroy it? God could have destroyed it in any number of ways. We know that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with just a great catastrophic event that just consumed them in fire.
We know that God destroyed the world at the time of Noah with a flood. We know that God destroyed the armies of the Assyrians when they came against Jerusalem with an angel of the Lord. So how is he going to destroy Babylon? Well, he says I am going to have you gather together an army to come against her.
Now at the time of Daniel you will see as we have gone through the book of Daniel that the city of Babylon initially was invaded, the city itself was invaded by the Medes and the Persians at the time that Belshazzar, the acting king, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and the son of the real king who was off on business, he was a co-regent according to history and he was the one that was in Babylon. He was holding an orgy and he was using God’s instruments from the temple to celebrate his gods. And that’s the point of judgment that came against him and the beginning of the downfall of Babylon.
Babylon itself didn’t follow the whole empire in that night, but the capital city itself did. And what happened is it wasn’t just the Medes and the Persians. God tells us what he is doing.
He says set up a standard in the land.
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. Jeremiah 51:27
Appoint a captain against her because the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars. Now, these three nations were three nations that the Medes and the Persians had conquered already.
These three nations lay north of where the Medes, their land was in what is northern Syria, northern Lebanon and northern Turkey or northeastern Turkey is where the land of the Medes was.
And the land of the Persians, of course, was in Iran. And then the Medes also went over into what is some of Iraq today. But where Iraq is today, that was really the Babylonian kingdom and Babylon was located there.
And we see that God saying he’s calling these three nations that the Medes had already conquered. And these three nations were all north of where the Medes or the Kurds had their nation and still are residing today. And Ashkenaz is towards Europe.
You’ve probably heard of Ashkenazi Jews. Well, that means European Jews. Ashkenaz was one of the descendants who inherited the land.
If you go into the list of the nations, he’s listed there. And that nation was north and so were the other two. And the Medes had conquered them.
And so he’s saying put up a standard. Now, putting up a standard is something you do when you call the warriors to battle. So they know who they’re supposed to follow and where they’re supposed to go.
The Bible tells us that we’re supposed to follow the standard of Christ. Well, the standard that they were putting up was a standard that the Medes are putting up, calling these three nations to join them in battle. And he says set a captain that will lead them.
And they’re to come against the Babylonian kingdom. And so the Medes, along with these three nations, were going to come and they were going to end up conquering Babylon. And it was also going to be able to enable Cyrus to give his decree for the nation of Judah to go back to Jerusalem.
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.Jeremiah 51:28-29
And Jeremiah gave this prophecy at least years before the events actually occurred. And that’s why many people want to say, well, this particular chapter, Jeremiah, must have been written after these events occurred.
Just like many people say, well, Daniel couldn’t have been written because it talks about these four kingdoms that are coming and it’s the exact order they came in. It talks about the exact characteristics of them. And as we get into it, it’s going to talk about specific events that happened.
And they say, well, that can’t be, so it must have been written hundreds of years after Daniel lived. This must have been written after Jeremiah lived. No, these were prophecies given by God because He is the one who is what? We saw the beginning of the message.
The one who is in control of things. He controls the weather, He controls the events, and He can control the events of history. And He is the one that is telling Jeremiah, these are the nations which I shall use to destroy Babylon and they’ll be led by the Medes.
And so He says, prepare these kingdoms to go up, these kings to go up with the kings of the Medes. And in verse , Now, what had the Babylonians done when they took Judah away? Well, God had said that He was going to judge the land and the land would remain barren and it would remain desolate until the Jews returned. Babylonians aren’t returning to Babylon.
It says it’s going to be a desolate land for how long? Forever. If you go to Iraq today, it is a fairly, it’s not blooming in the desert like Israel. It is a desert.
And it’s got some cities in it, but it is nothing like Babylon was. And so we see that God’s word is true here. And Babylon itself has never been rebuilt, although Saddam Hussein tried to rebuild it during his reign.
But it hasn’t been rebuilt. And so we see that God is foretelling the events and He’s encouraging Judah and saying, you are the rod that is the mark that the Messiah is who He says He is. You are the one that is the mark of the promise given to your father Jacob.
And the Lord will fulfill His word to you and He hasn’t forgotten you. Let’s just close in prayer. Help us to understand these verses.
Help us to apply these verses to our lives, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.