In these studies in the second half of the book of Jeremiah,  we will see God’s word coming through Jeremiah and being rejected again and again. We will see the difficulties of Jeremiah but also the way he is saved through it all. Jeremiah is God’s reporter on the spot, in the midst of one of the most tumultuous periods in Israel’s history.

For those who may wish to ‘study’ these (part) chapters, and the particular theme, as with studies elsewhere, each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read on the main Bible page.

Word to Babylon

Jer 50:1-3, 51:59-64

This is the word the Lord spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians^[a]:

² “Announce and proclaim among the nations,
    lift up a banner and proclaim it;
    keep nothing back, but say,
‘Babylon will be captured;
    Bel will be put to shame,
    Marduk filled with terror.
Her images will be put to shame
    and her idols filled with terror.’
³ A nation from the north will attack her
    and lay waste her land.
No one will live in it;
    both people and animals will flee away.

⁵⁹ This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign. ⁶⁰ Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon—all that had been recorded concerning Babylon. ⁶¹ He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. ⁶² Then say, ‘Lord, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate forever.’ ⁶³ When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. ⁶⁴ Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.’”

The words of Jeremiah end here.

A. Find Out

1. What would happen to Babylon? 50:2
2. How? 50:3
3. Where was message to be taken? 51:59
4. What was the messenger to do and say first? v.61,62
5. Then was he to do and say? v.63,64

B. Think:

1. How had the Lord used Babylon?
2. But what did He clearly feel about Babylon?
3. What does this teach us?

C. Comment:

As we come to the last words of Jeremiah we see something quite amazing. His last words from God are against the nation He has been using.  Again and again we have seen the Lord proclaiming the end of Jerusalem through these Babylonians if Israel would not repent. Eventually the city was breached and destroyed.

Now the Lord speaks against the instruments He has been using.  What does this say to us?   It says, merely because the Lord takes and uses the godless, unrighteous intentions of men for His purposes, it doesn’t mean that He excuses the ones He uses. 

The Babylonians were godless and unrighteous but the Lord had used them to chastise Israel. He didn’t excuse Babylon their godlessness and unrighteousness and, indeed,  now He calls them to account for their wrongs.

Although Jeremiah had been seen to have been prophesying victory for the Babylonians that doesn’t mean the Lord is for them!  Their end is decreed.  Today Babylon, in Iraq, is no longer!  God’s word was fulfilled.  The servant of God who dares to speak the word of God has to understand both the Law of God and the ways of God.

D. Application:

1. Do we understand that God DOES use ungodly and unrighteous people for His purposes?
2. Do we understand that He will not excuse us if we wilfully persist in wrong?