A Last Look at the Nations

by: Michael Wilcock

As at the beginning and in the middle, so now at the end of his book, Jeremiah looks beyond the affairs of Israel to the international scene. As a prophet of the God of all the earth, he is also called to address the affairs of the nations around.

For much of Jeremiah’s life the world superpower has been Babylon (“Sheshach,” as it is sometimes called in the Old Testament). Now, having addressed half a dozen other nations, he ends with two entire chapters (50-51) that contain God’s word for that great empire.

God used Babylon first as an instrument of punishment for his unbelieving people Israel, and then as a haven for the believing remnant among them till the time came to return to their own land. Here he uses Babylon as a symbol of the whole world-system that organizes itself without reference to him. When Jesus returns, this “Babylon” will be swept away – much of Jeremiah 51 reappears in Revelation 18 – and replaced by God’s city, the heavenly Jerusalem. Meanwhile, in both chapters he calls his people out of the condemned city. Not physically (for that can’t be done, and anyway he wants us in the world to witness to it). We are called to come out of Babylon spiritually, to distance ourselves from its life-style and principles and assumptions – just as Jeremiah himself repeatedly said a courageous “No” to the godless policies of those last kings of Judah.