51 Thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I am going to arouse against Babylon
And against the inhabitants of [a]Leb-kamai
[b]The spirit of a destroyer.
2 “I will dispatch [c]foreigners to Babylon that they may winnow her
And may devastate her land;
For on every side they will be opposed to her
In the day of her calamity.
3 “[d]Let not [e]him who [f]bends his bow [g]bend it,
[h]Nor let him rise up in his scale-armor;
So do not spare her young men;
Devote all her army to destruction.
4 “They will fall down [i]slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
And pierced through in their streets.”5 For neither Israel nor Judah has been [j]forsaken
By his God, the Lord of hosts,
Although their land is full of guilt
[k]Before the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And each of you save his life!
Do not be [l]destroyed in her [m]punishment,
For this is the Lord’s time of vengeance;
He is going to render recompense to her.
7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord,
Intoxicating all the earth.
The nations have drunk of her wine;
Therefore the nations are going mad.
8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken;
Wail over her!
Bring [n]balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
9 We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed;
Forsake her and let us each go to his own country,
For her judgment has reached to heaven
And [o]towers up to the very skies.
10 The Lord has brought [p]about our vindication;
Come and let us recount in Zion
The work of the Lord our God!
Just when I thought perhaps God was done speaking of Babylon, we have yet another chapter! Here in the beginning, God speaks of the devastation, how all their warriors would fall in the streets. He speaks also of how all the nations have “drunk of her wine” and “are going mad” when suddenly Babylon is fallen and broken. God tells everyone to flee from Babylon so they are not destroyed in her downfall.
But then, right smack in the middle of all this, we have a couple verses that seem to pop out (vv. 5,10). Jeremiah reminds the people that neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken by God. Even though “their land is full of guilt” and their punishment was still to come–at the hands of these very Babylonians–God had not, and would not, forget about them.
Maybe we’d write this off as wishful thinking by Jeremiah, as he writes in v. 10, “The Lord has brought about our vindication…” Then they would reminisce about the works of God, and everything would be “back to normal”. Perhaps? After all, v. 59 tells us this was written in the fourth year of Zedekiah, which was seven years prior to Judah being taken into captivity. At this time, King Nebuchadnezzar had already conquered the land and Zedekiah’s nephew (the former king) had been taken to Babylon along with others of the royal family.
However, that wasn’t what God had told Jeremiah, and it would be a long and difficult time before they returned to Zion (or Jerusalem). Still, God would not forsake His people. They would not be forgotten or abandoned, and He would redeem them once again, despite their sin and guilt. Rather, because of their sin and guilt, God would pay the price to redeem them Himself.
They, and we, would be vindicated not just before Babylon, but from the sin that held us captive, and the enemy who seeks to destroy our souls. Even today, “Babylon” intoxicates the nations of the world, the enemy is on the prowl, and we need to flee from her lest we be ensnared as well. God has not forgotten us, His grace is extended, and we need to take His hand and follow Him through the chaos of this world. It isn’t an easy path, but it’s the best path, His path.