41 “How [ap]Sheshak has been captured,
And the praise of the whole earth been seized!
How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!
42 “The [aq]sea has come up over Babylon;
She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves.
43 “Her cities have become an object of horror,
A parched land and a desert,
A land in which no man lives
And through which no son of man passes.
44 “I will punish Bel in Babylon,
And I will make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth;
And the nations will no longer stream to him.
Even the wall of Babylon has fallen down!45 “Come forth from her midst, My people,
And each of you save yourselves
From the fierce anger of the Lord.
46 “Now so that your heart does not grow faint,
And you are not afraid at the report that will be heard in the land—
For the report will come [ar]one year,
And after that [as]another report in [at]another year,
And violence will be in the land
With ruler against ruler—
47 Therefore behold, days are coming
When I will punish the idols of Babylon;
And her whole land will be put to shame
And all her slain will fall in her midst.
48 “Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
Will shout for joy over Babylon,
For the destroyers will come to her from the north,”
Declares the Lord.
In this passage, as in some of the previous ones, we see hints of things that haven’t really been fulfilled yet. That is, Babylon doesn’t exist as it once did, and when the Medes conquered her, they didn’t knock down the walls. Likewise, it wasn’t engulfed by tumultuous waves either, so it would seem that there is in these words an echo of what is to come.
If we look at the book of Revelation that came long after Babylon was defeated, there is mention again of Babylon. But how could that be if it was already defeated, unless there is a “new” Babylon. I’ll not beat around the bush much more, but it doesn’t seem much of a stretch to think that America is the new Babylon. Look at the words in vv. 46-47 for instance, where Babylon is a land of idols, and report after report of violence fills the land, and there is “ruler against ruler”.
Sound familiar? Whether you agree or not, there is no denying that this world, regardless of which culture, is trying to steal our hearts and distract us from God and His ways. And so these words in v. 45 apply very much to us today, “Come forth from her midst, My people, and each of you save yourselves from the fierce anger of the Lord.”
Lest there be any doubt, Paul used very similar words, and quoted both Isaiah and Jeremiah’s writings in his letter to the church at Corinth, “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate…” And in his letter to the Roman church, “Do not be conformed to this [a]world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may [b]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and [c]acceptable and perfect.”
Now, we can’t exactly leave this world, and that isn’t what God wants anyway, so what is the point exactly? We need to guard our hearts, and that which influences us. Again, as Paul stated, we must not be conformed to this world, but to God’s heart. That must be our aim and our desire. People around us need God, and so do we also. We need His help to be stay the course and keep our ship pointed towards Him. Otherwise, we drift all too easily, and we become the salt that is good for nothing but road gravel. Stay salty, and stay close to God!