12/4/12
Jeremiah 50-52
Jeremiah continues to speak the Words of prophecy given him by the Lord.  Ch. 50-51 are the words against Babylon.  Babylon under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar was the world power at that time.  She was fierce and wealthy and powerful.  But God calls her " 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"
God's plan and purposes for Babylon were completed.  But she was not innocent for the evil that she was doing.  The sins of arrogance, pride, idolatry, wickedness... will be punished.  Babylon the destroyer, was destroyed. "As she has done to others, so do to her"  ( 50:15)  This is the Lord's vengeance.
All that Jeremiah had prophesied happened. He wrote it all down and witnessed it with his own eyes.
What a difficult and horrible thing to live through.  Yet, Jeremiah also had a wonderful, deep understanding of God.  Over and over he reminds himself and us that God , who made the earth, established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heavens, that He is the Lord of hosts and that what He has said.. He will do.  And there would come a day when Israel would return to Zion. They would again seek the Lord. They were not forsaken.  "The Redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is His Name." (50:34) 
The Redeemer gaal - the next of kin, the kinsman who buys back the relative, purchases, ransoms, and redeems.  Our Redeemer Lives! He has not changed and none is like Him!

In our nation there is much arrogance, pride, idolatry .. and we will not go unpunished.  Even if we are witnesses to the destruction of life as we know it... even if it goes that far... God , the Lord of hosts, Our Redeemer is Strong.  Praise His holy Name!