Today's Reading:

Jeremiah 51
Psalm 137

The Bible can be confusing with names, places, and empires. Here is a quick review of Babylon, Chaldeans, and Neo-Babylon that may help. When Jeremiah, 2 Kings, and Daniel talk about “Babylon” or the “Chaldeans”, they almost always meant the Neo-Babylonian Empire that was ruled by Nebuchadnezzar.

Babylon- The city, and most use this name for the whole empire.
Babylonia- The whole empire/region that Babylon ruled.
Leb-Kamai and Shechach- Code names for the Chaldeans and Babylon, written from Hebrew letters which when reversed became Chaldea and Babylon. Possibly to speak about the coming judgment discreetly.
Chaldeans- The people/ ethnic group who lived in southern Mesopotamia who rose to power. Another name for the Babylonians.
Neo-Babylonian- First the Chaldeans were near the Persian Gulf; they gained control and established the Neo (new) Babylonian Empire after Assyria fell. 

Nabopolassar- the founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (Chaldean/Babylon) reigned 626-605 BC. He was a Chaldean leader who rebelled against the Assyrian Empire, captured Babylon, and made a new kingdom.
Nebuchadnezzar II- The son of Nabopolassar, and the king who destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC.
Belshazzar- The last ruler from the empire (Daniel 5). He was conquered by Cyrus the Great of the Medes and Persians (known as the Medo-Persian Empire or just Persia) in 539 BC.

 

Jeremiah continued with the oracles from God against Babylon for what they had done to Judah. He would send the “spirit of a destroyer” (Persia and the Medes) to Leb-Kamai (Chaldeans) to scatter the people. He told the exiles living in Babylon to flee, as the Babylonian army would be destroyed and the streets would be full of the slain. God’s cup of wrath would pour out like vengeance for the destruction of His Temple. The Medes/Persia, who were God’s appointed tool to destroy Babylonia, lived by the many waters of the Euphrates River and natural springs. Everyone was senseless without knowledge. Their hand-made idols were worthless. “He who is the portion of Jacob” ... (the True God) is the Maker of all things, including the people of His inheritance” (51:19). God was giving Himself to the people; all they needed was Him, not the worthless idols.  “You are my war club,” the “you,” is debated by scholars, but most likely means Babylon, the hammer that God used to smash everyone, will now have the tables turned on them by the Medes/Persia. He will repay Babylon for all they had done in Zion.

God called Babylon a “destroying mountain,” meaning an empire that crushed and destroyed many nations, including Judah. He is against them and will make them a burnt mountain, a blackened heap. The destruction would be so complete that no one would be able to use the stones as a cornerstone. God wanted the allies of the Medes to be called to come “like bristly locusts” as a picture of an overwhelming army to help. They will tremble and fall in panic.

In verses 51:34-35, Judah described how Babylon came and devoured them, swallowed them like a sea monster.  Therefore, God will repay Sheshach/Babylon for what it did to His people, punishing Bel (one of Babylon’s chief gods, also named Marduk). God told His people to leave Babylon so they would not be caught up in the judgment. Babylon must fall because Israel was slain, then all of creation could celebrate that Babylon was taken down.

Jeremiah gave the message to Seraiah (the brother to the scribe Baruch) as he was traveling to Babylon with King Zedekiah. Since Seraiah was headed to Babylon anyway, Jeremiah gave him the scroll of the prophecies against Babylon. After reading the scrolls, Seraiah was to tie a stone to it and throw it in the middle of the Euphrates River. This was a visual mic-drop moment of “here is the disaster, and you will sink like the rock under God’s judgment, never to rise to power again.”

Psalm 137- In memory of Zion (Jerusalem), during the Babylonian exile, the people sat by the rivers not playing music for their captors. They vowed to be loyal to God and Jerusalem. The rivers were long and felt oppressive to the people from Judah who were used to living in hills with hardly any rivers. The canals were what made the agriculture so big for Babylon. Babylon had just conquered the city, burned down the Temple, and now taunted the Israelite exiles who were hundreds of miles from home to sing them a song. The response was a staunch NO. Their songs were for the Lord and their land; it would have felt like spiritual prostitution for them. This became a quiet resistance.

When Babylon took over Jerusalem in horror, the Edomites cheered from the sidelines. Even Obadiah called Edom out for this. The exiles wanted perfect justice (eye for an eye), a complete end for Babylon. They had shown no mercy to Judah’s children, which included “dashing them against the rocks”! This brutal reality of war was used by conquering armies to wipe out the next generation. The psalmist was not creating a new form of torture; this cruelty was already used. The raw pain was poured out, and the psalmist left the justice in God’s hands. Ultimate justice is God’s alone (Romans 12:19).

When deep injustice and cruelty leave you raw with pain, how do you pour out that honest grief to God while still leaving final justice in His hands?

Today's Discussion question:

When deep injustice and cruelty leave you raw with pain, how do you pour out that honest grief to God while still leaving final justice in His hands?

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