Reflection B.11 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / Jeremiah 51:63, Babylon As A Foreshadowing Of An ‘end-Time’ Event

In 605 B.C. the Babylonians defeated the Assyrians at the Battle of Carchemish. Babylon became the ruler of much of the civilised world.

Most of the book of Jeremiah concerns destruction by Babylon. The Babylonian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Judah and destroyed Jerusalem in 587 B.C. But the last two ‘proper’ chapters of Jeremiah concern the destruction of Babylon. Jeremiah’s last words are as follows:

When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, and say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more…’ (51:63).

For two to three hundred years after invading Judah, Babylon was the largest city in the world. But after that, what Jeremiah prophesied happened. It sank into the desert and there it remains, although a little has been excavated.

We might forget about Babylon except for one rather important thing. In Revelation, John speaks of Babylon. The Babylon that existed in Jeremiah’s day was destroyed, therefore the Babylon which John speaks of is a future Babylon, or at least, it was in the future from John’s perspective in the first century A.D. It could, I suppose, be present now. John mostly calls it ‘Babylon the Great’, so it’s clearly a significant empire or city. It appears mostly in Revelation 17 and 18, when we’re well into ‘End Times.’ ‘Future Babylon’ must have a strong similarity to the Babylon Jeremiah wrote about, or it would be meaningless for John to call it ‘Babylon’.

John takes many of Jeremiah’s prophecies that relate to ‘former Babylon’ and applies them to ‘future Babylon’. Some remain much the same. Former Babylon was very wealthy; future Babylon is too. Former Babylon largely destroyed God’s people; future Babylon persecutes them. Former Babylon suddenly fell; future Babylon will too. Jeremiah prophetically warned the Jews to ‘Flee from the midst of Babylon’. In Revelation, God tells his people, ‘Come out of her, my people’.

However, in some cases John, or perhaps God, either sharpens Jeremiah’s prophecies or gives them a slightly different meaning. Let me give you a couple of examples.

Here’s the first. Jeremiah writes, ‘Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations went mad’ (Jer. 51:7). Former Babylon pushed its ideology on all the other countries of the world. But what was that ideology? Jeremiah doesn’t say. John, however, does. John writes: ‘The woman was … holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality’ (Rev. 17:4). Former Babylon was renowned for its licentiousness but Jeremiah didn’t mention it. John, however, mentions future Babylon’s sexual immorality both explicitly and often.

Let’s have another example. In Jeremiah 51:13 Jeremiah addresses Babylon, saying, ‘O you who dwell by many waters.’ You know the song, ‘By the rivers of Babylon’? Or maybe the psalm? Former Babylon was literally by many waters: it was located on a branch of the Euphrates river. An angel tells John, ‘Come, I will show you the judgement of the great prostitute [i.e. Babylon] who is seated on many waters’ (17:1). So far, so good: it’s similar. But the angel tells John it applies in a different way to the future Babylon: ‘The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages’ (17:15). Jeremiah’s description is literal; John’s is metaphorical. Jeremiah’s prophecy has developed.

Earlier in this Reflection I quoted Jeremiah’s instruction to attach a stone to his book and throw it into the Euphrates as a symbol of what would happen to former Babylon. Funnily enough, an angel decides to follow Jeremiah’s instruction. But he does it in respect of future Babylon:

Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, ‘So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more’ (Rev 18:21).

Wow! Angels are so respectful of scripture!

But what did we learn in today’s Reflection? We are wondering, among other things, if present-day events are indicative of ‘End Times’. To do that, we need a picture of ‘End Times’. And ‘Babylon’ is part of that picture.

Have a good day!

Simon