Day 208: The End of False Religion

Jeremiah 51:34-40

“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me.
He has crushed me.
He has made me an empty vessel.
He has, like a monster, swallowed me up.
He has filled his mouth with my delicacies.
He has cast me out.
May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon!”
the inhabitant of Zion will say; and,
“May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea!”
will Jerusalem say.

Therefore Yahweh says:
“Behold, I will plead your cause,
and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea,
and make her fountain dry.
Babylon will become heaps,
a dwelling place for jackals,
an astonishment, and a hissing,
without inhabitant.
They will roar together like young lions.
They will growl as lions’ cubs.
When they are inflamed, I will make their feast,
and I will make them drunk,
that they may rejoice,
and sleep a perpetual sleep,
and not wake up,” says Yahweh.

“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams with male goats.

God doesn’t have nice things to say about Babylon. Since God was the one to who told Babylon to destroy Jerusalem, there must be more to the story. We know that God doesn’t enjoy destroying people because that would be inconsistent with what the Bible says in other places. That leaves only one option that I can see and that is that Babylon was an enemy of God. That’s what we read earlier so it is not a new thing but it’s important to know that had Babylon merely obeyed God and destroyed Israel, they would have been commended, but because Babylon didn’t do it for the right reasons they were going to be destroyed.

Non-biblical history tells us that Babylon was a center of idolatry. It’s not a surprise that they wanted to destroy Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a place where only one God was welcome. Babylon was a supporter of religious diversity. Jerusalem was a problem to be removed, not a blessing to be adopted. That kind of sounds familiar today doesn’t it?

From the sound of this passage, it’s as if God was going to make Babylon’s successes lead to their downfall. He compares them to lion’s cubs that feast and then get drunk and fall asleep, never to wake up again. He also compares them to sacrificial animals. Perhaps, God is telling us that He plans to use Babylon as an example to the world. Just as sacrifices are intended to ceremonially represent someone else, Babylon does represent the existence of false religion in our world. That’s how it is often represented in the Bible. God’s destruction of Babylon could be seen to represent what will happen to all false religion in the world. That’s what we read about in Revelation. Someday, God will cause all false religion to die and never come back.

Day 104: The Folly and Horror of False Prophets

Jeremiah 23:13-15

“I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria.
They prophesied by Baal,
and caused my people Israel to err.
In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing:
they commit adultery and walk in lies.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one returns from his wickedness.
They have all become to me as Sodom,
and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”

Therefore Yahweh of Armies says concerning the prophets:
“Behold, I will feed them with wormwood,
and make them drink poisoned water;
for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”

Back when we were reading through the history books in the Old Testament, we read about how the kingdom of Israel was divided at the time of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. That’s when Jeroboam took all but two of the tribes of Israel and became their leader. As a part of his leadership, he set up an alternate religious system complete with its own sacrifices and priests. He set up Samaria as the religious center of his kingdom. Here we learn that there were also prophets in Samaria and they were prophesying for Baal. This was a completely wicked replacement for the true God of Israel and God calls that out here, but He doesn’t stop with the northern kingdom of Israel.

God also calls out the prophets of Jerusalem. That was the supposedly good kingdom of Judah. God says that they were committing adultery. Evidently, they were overcome with personal sexual problems and were living lies. That sure sounds familiar doesn’t it? We see this same thing happening in the religious denominations in the United States today. Notice that this kind of lifestyle was leading these prophets to encourage the people to go on doing wicked things and not feel bad about them. They were encouraging people to be proud of their ungodly sexual behavior. They became like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Behavior like this among those who are supposed to be spiritual leaders has significant consequences. Here we read that God is committed to feeding them poison. God also has a message to those who hear them as we read next.