Jeremiah 51:34-64 - God’s Judgment Upon Babylon

<p style="text-align:center;">Jeremiah 51:34-64</p> <p style="text-align:center;">Dr. Steven R. Cook</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>     In Jeremiah 51:34-58, God continued to pronounce His judgment on Babylon. And in Jeremiah 51:59-64, Jeremiah directed Seraiah, an officer of the king, to perform a symbolic act that pictured Babylon’s destruction. Throughout this section we are reminded that God is sovereign over the nations of the world, and that He, as the primary agent of Babylon’s doom, would judge them by means of secondary agents He directed to do His will (Jer 51:1-2, 6, 11, 20-24, 29, 44, 47, 52-53, 55-56). The person operating from divine viewpoint is able to interpret God’s sovereign hand working providentially through secondary forces to accomplish His will.</p> <p>Observations</p> <p>     Jeremiah opens this section with a continuation of God’s judgment on Babylon. God’s prophet, speaking from the viewpoint of the oppressed Judahites, states, “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me and crushed me, he has set me down like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster, he has filled his stomach with my delicacies; he has washed me away” (Jer 51:34). The picture is that of a monster who, driven by an irrational and violent hunger, consumed Judah and filled his belly with their delicacies. Judah, feeling unjustly mistreated, cries out to the Lord to render justice upon Babylon, saying, “May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,’ the inhabitant of Zion will say; and, ‘May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,’ Jerusalem will say” (Jer 51:35). J.A. Thompson states:</p> <ul><li>"Nebuchadnezzar is compared with a gluttonous man devouring Jerusalem and setting her aside as one does an empty vessel whose contents have been quaffed. In a more vigorous figure still, Nebuchadnezzar is compared to a monster gulping down food, filling its belly with food that delights it and then vomiting it up. Such gluttony left torn flesh and spilt blood behind. For such unspeakable viciousnes