Trust God’s Sure Justice

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are going to try to get through Jeremiah chapter 50. It's a long chapter, so we're going to have to read quickly, and I'm just going to kind of talk about it as we go quickly, and we'll get the overall picture as we go. You ready? All right, let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word.
Okay. Ooh, big reach, good job. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for caring for us and watching over us. And we pray that you would please give us your spirit. Help us to understand the words that we're reading. And Lord, we pray that you would help us to, by the power of your spirit, have them applied to our lives. Please, Lord, teach us how to walk and to live. In Jesus' name, amen.
Here we go, Jeremiah chapter 50. You can wear those. Alright, beginning at verse 1. Do you want to read verse 1? Sure. The Lord that the Lord spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet. Alright, so who's this being spoken against? Chaldeans well the land of the Chaldeans right the people the nation is Babylon against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans and who's speaking this The Prophet Jeremiah good here we go declare among the nations proclaim and set up a standard Proclaim do not conceal it say Babylon is taken Mel is shamed Maradoch is broken in pieces. Her idols are humiliated. Her images are broken in pieces. For out of the north a nation comes up against her, which shall make her land desolate, and no one shall dwell therein. They shall move, they shall depart, both man and beast.
So, interesting. Bel is shamed. and Meradach. This is their god, the Babylonian god. And so he's saying, your god is ashamed. Her idols are put to shame too. So the statues of her are put to shame. In those days and in that time, says Jehovah, the children of Israel shall come and the children of Judah together with continual weeping, they shall come and seek Jehovah their God. And they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces toward it saying, come and let us join ourselves to Jehovah in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten.
So what's going to eventually happen to God's people? And they will go to, um, to desolate? Well, no. Here, they're going to go to... Oh, the way of Tucson. Yeah, right. They want to seek the Lord. Their hearts are going to be turned back and they're going to want to go back to Jerusalem.
You want to read 6 and 7? My people, have you been lost sheep? Their shepherds have led them astray. They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place. All who found them have turned them and their advisor. and adversaries said we have not often offended because they have sinned against the Lord or the habitation of true justice. Justice. The Lord, the hope of their fathers.
Okay, so what's God saying there about his people? They were like lost sheep. They were like lost sheep, that's right. And who led them astray? The shepherds. The shepherds themselves, right.
Alright, verse 8. move from the midst of Babylon, go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be like the rams before the flocks. And behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country, and they shall array themselves against her. And there she shall be captured. Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior. None shall return in vain, and Chaldea shall become plunder. All who plunder her shall be satisfied, says the Lord."
Alright, so are the people of Chaldea, the Babylonians, is it going to go well for them? No, eventually what's God going to do? but the archers will be expert shooters. Yeah, they're going to come against them, right? Good. You want to read 11 through 13? Sure.
Because you were glad because you rejoiced you destroyers of my heritage because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain, and you blow like a bellow. Your mother shall be deeply shamed. She who bore you shall be ashamed. Behold, the least of the nation shall be a woman. wilderness as in dry land and desert because of the wrath of the Lord shall be shall she shall not be inhabited but she shall be wholly desolate and everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified and his his ate at all her plages. Plages? That's a hard one. Plagues. Plagues, right?
Alright, so they were rejoicing and happy because they destroyed God's heritage, right? His people in Jerusalem. So what's going to happen to them? They are going to get destroyed. Yeah, they're going to become ashamed and their land is going to be uninhabited.
Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around. All you who bend the bow, shoot at her, shoot no, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against Jehovah. Shout against her all around. She has given her hand. Her foundations have fallen. Her walls are thrown down for it is the vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance on her and as she has done, so do to her. Cut off the sower from Babylon and him who handles the sickle at harvest time for fear of the oppressing sword. Everyone shall turn to his own people and everyone shall flee to his own land.
Alright, so what's he saying there? What's God talking about? Yeah, that's right, good. I'm gonna read a few more, a little bit, okay? Okay, verse 17.
Israel is like scattered sheep. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him. Now, at last, this Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has broken his bones. All right, so the north was taken over by the Assyrians. The south is taken over by, Judah is taken over by Babylon. Yeah, the tribe of Judah, the southern kingdom, is taken over by Babylon, by Nebuchadnezzar, the king. And so he's saying they were like scattered sheep and the lions have come. Right? The shepherds made them lost, making them stray on the mountains. And because of that, the lions have come and eaten them.
So Judah will be saved? Well, Judah's been, he's still talking about like the city's going to be destroyed. Babylon? Jerusalem. So Jerusalem's going to be destroyed, but now Babylon's going to be judged also for destroying Jerusalem. Why is Jerusalem different? Oh, because they wouldn't follow the Lord. They broke the covenant. They wouldn't worship Him and follow Him. Yeah, they didn't keep His law.
Therefore, thus says Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria, and I will bring back Israel to his home, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan. His soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead. In those days and in that time, says Jehovah, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought But there shall be none, and the sin of Judah, but they shall not be found. For I will pardon those whom I preserve." God's going to bring them back. He's going to bring them back and He's going to forgive their sins.
Verse 21. He's going to freshen them up. What's that? He's going to freshen them up. Alright, verse 21. Go up against the land of Marathim, against it, and against the inhabitants of Pechon. Waste and utterly destroy them, says the Lord, and do according to all that I have commanded you.
The sound of battle is in the land, and the great destruction, how the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken, how Babylon has become a desolation among the nations. I have laid a snare for you. You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon, and you are not aware. You have been found and also caught because you have contended against the Lord. Jehovah has opened his armory and has brought out the weapons of his indignation. For this is the work of Jehovah, God of armies, in the land of the Chaldeans.
Come against her from the furthest border. Open her storehouses, cast her up as heaps of ruins, and destroy her utterly. Let nothing of her be left. Slay all her bulls. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment. The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon declares in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance of His temple.
Verse 28. God is going to take vengeance. You want to read 29 through 32? Sure. called to gather her the archers against Babylon. All you who behold and the ballow ex-encamped against it all around. Let none of them escape. It repay her according to her work. according to all she has done due to her, for she has been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel. Therefore, all you young men shall fall in the streets, and all her men will All shall be cut off in that day, says the Lord.
Behold, I am against you, O most fearful one, says the Lord. Says the Lord or God of hosts you for you that day for your day has come The time that I will punish you the most proud shall Stumble and fall and not one will rise Him up or raise him up. Yep. Huh? I will kill and I candle fire in his cities, and I will deliver all..." Try that again. "...and devour all around him." Right, and it will devour all around him.
Yeah, right, so notice why this is happening. For she, this is Babylon, right, for she has been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel. She fought against the temple and destroyed it. because she hated God himself. So that's why all this judgment is coming.
Okay, let's go ahead and, I'm gonna finish this up, okay? 33 to the end. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the children of Israel were oppressed. along with the children of Judah. All who took them captive have held them fast. They have refused to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong. The Lord of Hosts is His name. He will thoroughly plead their case, that He may give rest to the land and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
A sword is against the Chaldeans, says the Lord, against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her princes and her wise men. A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools. A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed. A sword is against their horses, against their chariots, and against all the mixed people who are in her midst, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed. A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is the land of carved images, and they are insane with their idols. Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals, and the ostriches shall dwell in it. It shall be inhabited no more forever. nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, says the Lord, so no one shall reside there, nor son of man dwell in it."
You can read 41 and 42. Behold, a people shall come from the north, and great nations and many kings shall be raised up for the ends of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance. Cruel and shall not show mercy the voice shall are like a the sea the fish they shall ride on horses set in a array like a man for the battle against you Oh daughter of battle
All right. The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, and his hands grow feeble. Anguish has taken hold of him. Pains of a woman in childbirth. 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 with who, who will withstand me?
Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, that he has taken up 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. And the noise of the king of Babylon, the earth trembles, and the cry is heard among the nations.
Alright, so we've read a lot. That was a big chapter. What do you think that was about? I think it was about them getting punished. Who's they? The Babylonians. Yeah, the Babylonians getting punished. Good. Let's just go ahead, because we're running late on time, let's talk about what do you think this calls you to do, or how does this point you to Jesus Christ? Not to not to disobey Him, not to destroy His temples. Okay, yeah. So maybe like God takes His holiness seriously, stuff like that?
Yeah, but I want to talk about the people of Israel, right? They were sinful, and they even followed the sinful shepherds who failed them and led them astray. And yet, did God ever turn His back on them? Did God Like, okay, you guys are gone forever? How does God treat his people? He said he would bring them back. He's gonna bring them back. He will let them eat karma. on Mount Caramel. So that's a mountain by the Mediterranean Sea. Oh, I thought it was Mountain Caramel. Yeah. But the point being, right, guys can wipe away their sins. He's taking away them, right? They're there to follow him, but he's the one who's still taking care, showing them grace.
Babylon, he let Babylon destroy, but that didn't mean Babylon gets away with it. God's the one who brought the Babylonians, God's the one who brought the Assyrians, but that doesn't mean they just get to be evil and get away with it. He'll judge them for their evil. They'll get destroyed. Yeah. So even when people may persecute and kill and hate Christians, do we need to think that, oh, well, God's just letting them get away and they'll never be punished? Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. The martyrs in heaven cry out, how long, O Lord, when will you avenge us? So we can trust that God takes care of His people. His business is taking care of world history. Our business is trying to love the Lord and walk in His ways.
All right, let's pray. God, it's a long passage today, but you have proved yourself faithful. And Lord, we know that the Israelites did go back to the land of Jerusalem. And even though that story ends in a different way with unfaithfulness by so many Israelites, we know that the lion who came up from the floodplain, Jesus Christ himself, is the one devouring even the Babylon of this world now. Lord, the King reigns.
So Father, we pray that you would please help us to walk in your ways. Help us to trust you. Not just with our lives, but with all world history. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. May God bless you. May you rest in knowing that the Lion of the tribe of Judah is your King and cares for you. We'll see you next time. Bye.