Reading

• Jer. 50:41-46; 51:1-64a; 49:34-39; 34:8-22

Devotional

In continuing His prophecy regarding the fall of Babylon, Jeremiah writes the following word from GOD:

⁴¹ “ Behold, a people shall come from the north, And a great nation and many kings Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth. ⁴² They shall hold the bow and the lance; They are cruel and shall not show mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea; They shall ride on horses, Set in array, like a man for the battle, Against you, O daughter of Babylon. ⁴³ “The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, And his hands grow feeble; Anguish has taken hold of him, Pangs as of a woman in childbirth.

⁴⁴ “Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the Jordan Against the dwelling place of the strong; But I will make them suddenly run away from her. And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her? For who is like Me? Who will arraign Me? And who is that shepherd Who will withstand Me?” ⁴⁵ Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that He has taken against Babylon, And His purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; Surely He will make their dwelling place desolate with them. ⁴⁶ At the noise of the taking of Babylon The earth trembles, And the cry is heard among the nations.
(Jer. 50:41-46 NKJV)

¹¹ Make the arrows bright! Gather the shields! The LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it, Because it is the vengeance of the LORD, The vengeance for His temple. ¹² Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon; Make the guard strong, Set up the watchmen, Prepare the ambushes. For the LORD has both devised and done What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. ¹³ O you who dwell by many waters, Abundant in treasures, Your end has come, The measure of your covetousness. ¹⁴ The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts, And they shall lift up a shout against you.”
(Jer. 51:11-14 NKJV)

²⁷ Set up a banner in the land, Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her, Call the kingdoms together against her…Appoint a general against her; Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts. ²⁸ Prepare against her the nations, With the kings of the Medes, Its governors and all its rulers, All the land of his dominion. ²⁹ And the land will tremble and sorrow; For every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant. ³⁰ The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting, They have remained in their strongholds; Their might has failed, They became like women; They have burned her dwelling places, The bars of her gate are broken.

³¹ One runner will run to meet another, And one messenger to meet another, To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides; ³² The passages are blocked, The reeds they have burned with fire, And the men of war are terrified.
(Jer. 51:27-32 NKJV)

After Jeremiah had written all of the words of GOD’s message upon a scroll, he sent Seraiah, the king’s messenger, and told him to read the scroll aloud to the captives in Babylon. After he finished reading, he was to tie a stone to it and throw the scroll into the Euphrates River. Then he was to say, “So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will fall.”