Daily Devotions
Jeremiah
"The LORD is plundering Babylon"
Text: Jeremiah 51:55
GOD’S PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT
The Medo-Persians were raised by God to destroy the Babylonians. The power to do this comes from the LORD God Himself.
“The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
Because the LORD is plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,
Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
For the LORD is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay.
‘And I will make drunk
Her princes and wise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,’ says the King,
Whose name is the LORD of hosts.”
Jeremiah 51:54-57
1. “The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans”
a) Babylon cried out in fear and horror.
b) Great destruction had come to the Chaldeans.
2. “Because the LORD is plundering Babylon and silencing her loud voice,
though her waves roar like great waters, and the noise of their voice is uttered”
a) Babylon’s voice:
i) It was once loud with cries of victory.
ii) It was now loud because of defeat.
iii) Their cry was compared to the roaring of great waters (like a waterfall).
b) That voice of victory would now be silenced.
i) There was only disaster ahead.
ii) There was only doom that would snuff out every bit of joy from Babylon.
3. “Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon, and her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken; for the LORD is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay”
a) The plunderer was a reference to the Medo-Persians.
b) The mighty men of the Babylonians were captured.
c) Their mighty bows were broken.
d) The LORD who is called “The God of recompense”
would repay the Babylonians for their wickedness.
4. “‘And I will make drunk her princes and wise men, her governors,
her deputies, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake,’
says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts”
a) Making the Babylonians inebriated.
i) The princes and wise men
ii) The governors, the deputies and men of might.
b) They would be in a drunken stupor.
c) This was determined by the LORD of hosts, the King of kings.