Babylon

I will cover what I describe here in greater detail on Sunday, so look forward to that. I'll begin with Jeremiah 25:8-11:

Therefore the LORD Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the LORD, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 

The Chronological Bible doesn't state it specifically, but this prophecy was made in 605 BC, which is when Nebuchadnezzar assumed power in Babylon. That year was also the first in which he began to harass the people of Judah, the main reason being that the two other regional powers that kept Babylon in check, Egypt and Assyria, were waning in power. This prophecy wouldn't be completely fulfilled for about another 15-20 years, but look at the specificity--God tells the people who will overrun them, what the results will be, and how long it will last. Pretty impressive stuff, since Job #1 of every prophet is to be correct.

But Nebuchadnezzar would have been wise to pay attention to the verses that came immediately after. Jeremiah 25:12-14 states:

“But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the LORD, “and will make it desolate forever. I will bring upon that land all the things I have spoken against it, all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.” 

God will use Babylon to fulfill his purposes, and when those 70 years are up, well, Babylon will be about up as well. Consider the phrase "I will make it desolate forever"--whenyou think of Iraq, do the words "verdant" or "lush" come to mind? Likely not--again, another prophecy of amazing specificity that was fulfilled to the smallest detail. God's will WILL be done, in his way, in his time, in his manner, and for his purposes. If he wants, he'll even tell us exactly how that will occur, although that's not always a given. For any prophecy that we'll run across that has yet to be fully completed, we won't have to worry about the when or how, but concentrate instead on the THAT. We don't need to know when God's will will be done, we don't need to know how, we can be content to know THAT God's will will be done. With any luck, maybe he'll let us play a role.

Scott