Scripture Daily

Context No. 3982 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 51:1-16: in context

1The LORD says: “Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Lebkamai, a destroying wind. 2I will send to Babylon strangers, who will winnow her. They will empty her land; for in the day of trouble they will be against her all around. 3Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow, also against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. Don’t spare her young men! Utterly destroy all her army! 4They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets. 5For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, by the LORD of Armies; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. 6“Flee out of the middle of Babylon! Everyone save his own life! Don’t be cut off in her iniquity, for it is the time of the LORD’s vengeance. He will give to her a recompense. 7Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, who made all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad. 8Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed! Wail for her! Take balm for her pain. Perhaps she may be healed. 9“We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let’s each go into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. 10‘The LORD has produced our righteousness. Come, and let’s declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.’ 11“Make the arrows sharp! Hold the shields firmly! The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple. 12Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon! Make the watch strong! Set the watchmen, and prepare the ambushes; for the LORD has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. 13You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness. 14The LORD of Armies has sworn by himself, saying, ‘Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts, and they will lift up a shout against you.’ 15“He has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom. By his understanding he has stretched out the heavens. 16When he utters his voice, there is a roar of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and brings the wind out of his treasuries.

This long oracle announces the coming fall of proud Babylon, the empire that had conquered Judah. But in the middle of the pronouncement of Babylon's doom comes a tender word about God's own people: Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD of hosts, though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

Two truths are held together here. God's people were genuinely guilty; their land was full of sin against the Holy One, and that is not excused. And yet, God had not forsaken them. Even in their guilt, even in the midst of the exile their sin had brought on them, God still called them his own and was working for their deliverance. There is deep comfort in this for anyone weighed down by their own failures. Our guilt is real; God does not pretend otherwise. But guilt is not the same as being forsaken. God does not abandon his people because they have sinned; he disciplines, he calls to repentance, but he does not cast them off.

When I am weighed down by my own guilt and failure, do I hold to the truth that God does not forsake his own even when they have sinned, so that my guilt, honestly faced, does not put me beyond the reach of his faithful love?

Sources