Daily Devotions

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 
Day 
Day 530

"They shall ask the way to Zion"

Text: Jeremiah 50:5

THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON

It was Babylon who conquered Judah and caused many small nations to perish. The Babylonians were feared and hated for their cruelty and wickedness. They would be punished by the LORD. The Babylonian empire would collapse. They would be conquered by the Medo-Persians.

“‘In those days and in that time,’ says the LORD,
‘The children of Israel shall come,
They and the children of Judah together;
With continual weeping they shall come,
And seek the LORD their God.
They shall ask the way to Zion,
With their faces toward it, saying,
‘Come and let us join ourselves to the LORD
In a perpetual covenant
That will not be forgotten.””
Jeremiah 50:4-5

1. “‘In those days and in that time,’ says the LORD,
‘the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together;
with continual weeping they shall come, and seek the LORD their God'”

a) Many from Israel and Judah were exiled to Babylon.

b) Some were scattered elsewhere in the vast Babylonian empire.

c) But after the Babylonians fell, the new Medo-Persian king
allowed the exiled people to return to their home land.

d) This was actually prophesied long before the Babylonian empire crashed.

e) The children of Israel and Judah would return to the LORD.

f) They would seek the LORD with continual weeping:

i) Tears of sorrow for their sinfulness.

ii) Tears of joy that they could return to their homeland.

2. “They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces toward it, saying, ‘Come and let us
join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten'”

a) Many did not know how to make the return journey.

b) They would have to seek help to find their way home.

c) But they were determined to do the following:

i) To join themselves to the LORD.

ii) To pledge themselves to God in a perpetual covenant.

iii) They determined that they would not forget this covenant with God.