Jeremiah (1-31) 25:12 Commentary and Bible Study

‘And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.’ So although Nebuchadnezzar has been called the servant the Lord, and Babylon has been used by God as a scourge of his people, they are not without guilt themselves. Indeed, they are going to be punished most severely, and in the Book of Revelation the fall of Babylon is made a picture of the fall of the world, and its subsequent state is made a picture of hell (Revelation 18). ‘And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.’ The king of Babylon at the time of their destruction will be Belshazzar. We learn that God forgets nothing, and though he delays long before punishing the wicked, his punishment takes everything into account. It is very rash for the wicked to conclude that God is indifferent or incapable of acting against them, just because they sin and get away with it for a time and nothing appears to happen. There are many confusing situations in this world for God’s people and such are complexities of his providence that it seems at times that he favours the wicked and acts against his people, but in the end justice will be seen to prevail.‘And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.’ The land in question is Babylon, and Jeremiah says much about the fall of Babylon in Jeremiah 50 and 51. The verse seems to say that the same judgments that Babylon inflicted on the nations will be inflicted back on her at her downfall. ‘For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.’ Many nations who have suffered at her hands will be in the position to turn the tables on her and do to her what she did to them. They, the nations, will serve themselves of them, the Babylonians, that is. The Medes and the Persians were the nations to bring about the destruction of great Babylon, but the small nations that also suffered will take their toll, and they will see it as a recompense, a repaying of the evil done to them by Babylon. But behind this will be the Lord who will recompense Babylon publicly for all her wickedness and violence. For Israel, there will be the return from captivity, due to the enlightened policy of the Medes, and the edict of Cyrus in particular. Jeremiah is then commanded to carry out a prophetic act: to prepare a cup of wine standing for the wrath of God for the nations to drink, all the nations to whom the Lord sends him. This symbolic act depicts the judgment that is determined against them, a judgment that they cannot escape. God will send that judgment on them as surely as this cup is prepared for them to drink. It is a cup that will cause them to stagger, and to be deeply troubled in their minds to the point of losing their reason out of fear. Before Babylon is judged, she will inflict these horrors on the nations.