Day 235. Jeremiah 50

It is a theme that appears in one form or another throughout the Bible--God is the one who turns the tables.
This time he turns the table on Babylon. Up until now the LORD has used Babylon as his instrument to defeat and humble the gods of other nations and to mete out punishment, but now it is the turn of Babylon and its gods to be humiliated and destroyed. "Declare and proclaim," says the prophet, "Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed" (50:2). Bel, also known as Merodach or Marduk, was the chief god of the Babylonian pantheon. God the warrior has turned his anger against his earthly rival.
This oracle was written during the exilic period before Babylon is itself taken by Cyrus the Persian, who will be God's new chosen instrument. Where it was written and exactly by whom, we do not know. It is ascribed to Jeremiah and probably belongs to a prophet of his "school." Up until now King Nebuchadrezzaar had been the enemy from the north, the destroyer of a multitude of smaller nations in the way of his war machine; now another nation "out of the north" has been appointed to make the land of Babylon "a desolation" (50:3)." "Look," the prophet cries in an ecstasy of excitement, "a people is coming from the north, a mighty nation and many kings are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth" (50:41). We will see these kings from the north again and again in apocalyptic writings from Daniel to Revelation.
But the destruction of Babylon will come as great good news for exiles from all nations.
"In those days and in that time" the people of Israel will "ask the way to Zion," and having come home, "will join themselves to the LORD by an everlasting covenant that will never be broken" (50:5). The prophet places the weight of the blame for their suffering upon "their shepherds"—their kings, priests and the false prophets—who have led the people of God astray. They were devoured by their enemies because, at the urging of those shepherds and because of their bad example, the sheep "sinned against the LORD, the true pasture" (50:6-7). But now that door is opening, they must flee from Babylon—they must "be like male goats leading the flock" (50:8). They must hurry because the unimaginable is about to happen—mighty Babylon shall be "an utter desolation" (50:13), an unpopulated wasteland. Because she "challenged the LORD" (50:24) and "arrogantly defied" him (50:29), a coalition of nations "from the north"
has been sent to besiege her and "do to her as she has done" (50:15).
Babylon's history is almost over, but Israel's history is just beginning—again. God's chosen people have been "a hunted sheep driven away by lions," says the prophet. First the King of Assyria devoured the northern kingdom of Israel, and now "at the end Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has gnawed its bones" (50:18). But the tables are about to be turned. God will punish the King of Babylon and his land, as he punished the king of Assyria." The LORD God of hosts, the warrior, "has opened his armory, and [has] brought out the weapons of wrath," because he "has a task to do in the land of the Chaldeans" (50:25). He will avenge what has been done to his temple (50:28). And having accomplished the task of destruction, he will begin the job of restoration. He "will restore [the sheep of] Israel to [their] pasture" (50:19), where [their] hunger will be satisfied. They will realize that "their Redeemer is strong. . . . [and that he is
able to] give rest to the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon" (50:34).
The Asiatic lion, now hunted to extinction, was the terror of people in Bible times. They were relatively common in the Jordan valley in Jeremiah's time. The LORD is compared to "a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan against a perennial pasture." He will chase away those people coming from the north, and "appoint over [Babylon] whoever I choose" (50:44). Who is that appointed one? God's working is mysterious—inscrutable to our minds. It is enough to say that there is no shepherd—no king—who can stand against the ferocity of the God of Israel. And he has a special plan for "land of the Chaldeans" which only history will disclose.