of hosts is his name. 20 Thou art my battle ax and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; 21 And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider; 22 With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; 23 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers. 24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD. LECTURE 1266. The great value of God's people in his sight. Though the first taking of Babylon by Cyrus gave a death blow to the empire of which it was the head, the city itself stood for a long time afterwards, and was more than once besieged and taken with dreadful slaughter by other conquerors. It is not improbable that the repetition of the summons to an invading host, which we meet with in this chapter, refers to these repeated sieges; though it is evident that the first and most important one, that in which Cyrus first took the city, is the event most prominently brought forward. And all this was brought to pass by the Lord, partly as a just judgment for the idolatry of Babylon, that He might give a lesson to idolaters throughout the world, shewing them the sovereign power and authority of the one living and true God; and partly out of regard to his people, the children of Israel, whom the Babylonians had oppressed, but whom He had not forgotten, for whom He thought it meet to exact vengeance, and as whose portion, and whose God, He would shew Himself infinitely superior to the false divinities of the heathen. And it is to them therefore that we may conceive that God addresses the concluding verses of this passage, speaking to them as his battle axe and weapons of war, wherewith the mighty of the land were to be defeated and the inhabitants of the country despoiled. We have the like view elsewhere given us in Scripture, of the important influence, which those who know and serve the true God exercise, in regard to the events which befal the multitude of unbelievers around them. Cities and states are saved, or are destroyed, for the sake of the righteous whom they harbour or oppress. And this view of God's dealings with nations, this notion of his giving up to destruction a place and country so populous as Babylon, for the sake of a people comparatively so few as the Jews, may perhaps profitably help us to apprehend, how it will hereafter redound to his glory, to save them that shall be saved, notwithstanding that multitudes by the same righteous judgment must be sentenced to perish everlastingly. Several particulars in the overthrow of Babylon. 25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. 26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD. 27 Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars. 28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. 29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. 30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned their dwelling places; her bars are broken. 31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, 32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. 33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. 34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out. 35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. 36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. 37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. 38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps. 39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD. 40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats. 41 How is Sheshach taken ! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! 42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. 43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby. 44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. LECTURE 1267. We ought to reckon more than we do on God's righteous providence. We ought to bear in mind, that when these prophecies were written, Babylon was by far the most mighty nation on the face of the earth; its armies having made the most extensive foreign conquests, and its walls being the most lofty, broad, and strong, that probably ever were built for the defence of any city since the world began. This reflexion will help to convince us, how highly improbable, humanly speaking, were the events which Jeremiah here foretold, and which, as we know from history, most exactly came to pass. The nations are mentioned by name that would be confederate in the assault upon this mighty empire. The singular circumstance is foreshewn, that the warriors, so long used to victory, would forbear to fight, would shut themselves up, as we know they did, within their walls, and would there be taken by surprise. The running of the posts, to tell the king that his city is taken at the extremity, the drying up of the waters, the surprise taking effect at a time of feasting and drunkenness, the astonishment of all the world at this signal success, and the entire desolation which would afterwards prevail in a spot which was once the praise of the whole earth; all these things are here set down in prophecy just as they took place in process of time. Now these were things which no human being could possibly have guessed when these prophecies were written by Jeremiah. Nay, they were the very opposite to those conclusions which men would generally have drawn on the aspect of affairs then present. And as if for fear that it should prove hard to believe things apparently so unlikely, the reason of their happening is set down, "Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord;" and again, "every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon;" and again, "I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up." We see then that in our estimate of what is likely, God's power and his righteous purposes must be taken into account, or we may easily come to a wrong conclusion. Might and dominion, riches and renown, are no signs of permanent prosperity, where there is abominable sin provoking the great God of heaven and earth to cut off and to destroy. Should we not do well to take into account considerations such as these more frequently than we do, in our judgment both of public and of private affairs? Should we not judge more wisely, as well as more devoutly, if we were more apt than we are to expect, that iniquity, though it prosper for a time, must soon end in lasting shame? The prophecies against Babylon are committed to Seraiah. 45 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LoRD. 46 And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. 47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. 48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD. 49 As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. 50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. 51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for stran gers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house. 52 Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images and through all her land the wounded shall groan. 53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD. 54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: 55 Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered: 56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite. 57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the king, whose name is the Lord of hosts. 58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary. 59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince. 60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. 61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; 62 Then shalt thou say,OLORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. 63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: : shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. LECTURE 1268. 64 And thou shalt say, Thus The duty of coming out from the Babylon of Christian times. We must not close this striking prophecy of the fall of Babylon, without again remarking, how manifestly some part of it is alluded to, or rather is almost quoted and adopted by S. John, in the Book of Revelation. And especially the prophet's directions to Seraiah, as to casting this prophetic book "into the midst of Euphrates," and as to what he should say on the occasion, cannot fail to remind us of the mighty angel seen by the apostle, who "took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." Rev. 18. 21. ever that prophecy of S. John may mean, there can be little doubt that these words of Jeremiah refer to the same terrible judgments. The Babylon which flourished, and which perished, as an empire in Asia, was doubtless a meet resemblance, both in its sins, and in its judgments, of the power at whose fall all heaven is in after times represented as rejoicing. And that which in a literal sense was truly prophesied, and has been actually fulfilled, in regard to the one, has been no less truly here foretold, and either has been or will be no less certainly fulfilled, in regard to the other. What It is our duty to ascertain what is meant by the Babylon thus prophetically described, for this reason especially amongst others, namely, that here we are thus solemnly exhorted, "My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord;" and in the Revelation thus, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. 18. 4. Let us fix then our thoughts on that corruption of the Gospel, which has exerted a more baneful influence on the Christian Church than any other, for a longer time, and over a larger number of mankind. Let us observe how the great head and fount of this corruption, the Babylon of the Gospel, has been always addicted to idolatry and to persecution. And let us give thanks to God that we have been born out of the reach of its iron yoke. But let us at the same time watch, that we fall not beneath the influence of its more secret spells. If we are contentious, or rebellious, arbitrary, or oppressive to each other, if we make to ourselves idols of the world or of the flesh, if we are sensual instead of spiritual, superstitious for devout, and formal when we ought to be sincere, in vain do we protest against Romish errors; we have no ground for hoping to escape the judgments which we believe to be threatened against Rome. |