50 The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:
2 “Declare and proclaim among the nations.
Proclaim it and lift up a standard.
Do not conceal it but say,
‘Babylon has been captured,
Bel has been put to shame, [a]Marduk has been [b]shattered;
Her images have been put to shame, her idols have been shattered.’3 For a nation has come up against her out of the north; it will make her land an object of horror, and there will be no inhabitant in it. Both man and beast have wandered off, they have gone away!
4 “In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord, “the sons of Israel will come, both they and the sons of Judah as well; they will go along weeping as they go, and it will be the Lord their God they will seek. 5 They will ask for the way to Zion, turning their faces [c]in its direction; [d]they [e]will come that they may join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.
6 “My people have become lost sheep;
Their shepherds have led them astray.
They have made them turn aside on the mountains;
They have gone along from mountain to hill
And have forgotten their resting place.
7 “All who came upon them have devoured them;
And their adversaries have said, ‘We are not guilty,
Inasmuch as they have sinned against the Lord who is the habitation of righteousness,
Even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.’
After seeing all the nations Babylon (and others) would conquer in the previous chapter, it seems Babylon itself is not to endure either. We’ll see more about that in the messages delivered to Daniel, and there have also been previous messages to Jeremiah of the same effect, especially as it relates to God’s people returning home after seventy years (chapters 25 & 29).
The downfall of Babylon would be carried out by this people from the north, the Medes specifically. Again, that is a matter of history, and came well after Jeremiah’s lifetime, but we aren’t that far yet. As the message goes on, it speaks of Israel and Judah once more returning to Zion, that they may join with the Lord in an everlasting covenant.
Now, this wasn’t fulfilled when they returned to their homeland, but only when Jesus brought a new covenant, words he literally used during the “last” supper. There is a lot more to come, but at the end of v. 7, we see a strange irony. For they sinned against the Lord, who was the hope of their fathers. In spite of that rebellion, He would be their hope also, and the one who would create that everlasting covenant.
Sometimes, people will say or think that they are not worthy, that they are too far gone, they’ve done too many wrong things for God to rescue them. Nothing could be further from the truth, and Israel is prime evidence for that reality. Our culture does many of the same things, though we give them nicer and more palatable names, yet I don’t think any of us can claim to be worse.
For each of us then, there is only one Hope, one salvation, one Way to the Father. The same One that created the new covenant “in his blood” (Luke 22:20), offers us hope still today. Seek Him today, with weeping and humility for our sin and rebellion, but seek Him still. There is in this day a new Babylon, and there will be a final judgment poured out on her, yet still God’s grace stays that day.
In the words of Isaiah before, “Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.” That’s a message not just for those who are lost (though it is), but for believers also, to not rest on our laurels, but seek Him in Spirit and in Truth all our days.