Jeremiah 25:8 - Meaning and Application

This is the sentence built on the warning just given: “Because you have not listened to my words, I will deal with you in another way” (Jeremiah 25:8). When people refuse to pay attention to the judgments spoken by God’s mouth, they should expect to feel the judgments of his hand. They would not hear the word, so they must hear the rod. The sinner must either turn away from sin or perish in it. Wrath comes without any remedy only against those who keep sinning without repentance, that is, without turning back to God. It is not so much a wrong turn that ruins people, but their refusal to return.

I. The ruin of Judah by the armies of the king of Babylon is here decreed (Jeremiah 25:9). God had sent his servants the prophets to them, but they were ignored. So now God will send for his servant, the king of Babylon, whom they cannot mock, despise, or persecute as they did the prophets. The messengers of God’s wrath are sent against those who would not receive the messengers of his mercy. In one way or another, God will be heeded, and he will make people know that he is the Lord.

Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, though a stranger to the true God and even an enemy to him, was still God’s servant in this attack on Judah. He carried out God’s purpose, even while he thought he was only serving his own plans. That is why God rightly calls himself the Lord of hosts (Jeremiah 25:8), because this shows his rule not only over people, but over the armies of the earth. He uses them as he pleases. The most powerful kings are still his servants. Nebuchadrezzar was an instrument of God’s wrath, just as Cyrus later would be an instrument of God’s mercy.

Because the land of Judah was to be made empty, God gathers the army that will do it. He brings together all the families of the north, if he needs them, and leads them as commander in chief. He brings them against this land and gives them success, not only against Judah and Jerusalem, but against all the nations around them. In this way, no one could depend on those neighbors as allies or helpers against that threatening power.

The complete destruction of Judah and the surrounding lands is described here (Jeremiah 25:9-11). It will be total. The whole land will become a desolation, not merely a land that is empty, but desolation itself. City and countryside will be laid waste, and all their wealth will be taken as spoil. It will also last a long time, even as a “perpetual” desolation. They will lie in ruins so long, and relief will seem so far off, that everyone will speak of it as permanent.

This ruin will also destroy their reputation among the nations around them. It will bury their honor in the dust and make them an object of horror and mockery. People will be astonished at them and hiss at them in shame, because they abandoned a God who would have protected them for false helpers who would surely destroy them. The judgment will also take away all comfort from among themselves. It will end all their joy. God says, “I will take away the voice of gladness.” They will have no reason for joy and no heart for it. They would not hear the voice of God’s word, and so the voice of joy will no longer be heard among them.

They will also lose their food supply. “The sound of the millstones” will not be heard, because once the enemy has taken their stores, grinding will be quiet (Ecclesiastes 12:4). Their business will come to an end as well. No one will see the light of a lamp, because there will be no work worth doing by lamplight. And last of all, they will lose their freedom: these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

Fixing the length of the captivity was very useful. It confirmed the prophecy, because the event, which no human wisdom could have predicted, would match the prediction exactly. It also gave comfort to God’s people in their misery and encouraged faith and prayer. Daniel, who was himself a prophet, paid attention to this time (Dan. 9:2). God also had it in view (2 Chronicles 36:22), for he stirred up Cyrus so that the word spoken by Jeremiah would be fulfilled. God knows all his works from the beginning of the world, and this is shown by the fact that, when he chooses, he makes some of them known to his servants the prophets and through them to his church.

II. The ruin of Babylon itself is also foretold here, as Isaiah had long before said (Jeremiah 25:12-14). The destroyers must themselves be destroyed, and the rod must be thrown into the fire when its work of correction is done. This will happen when the seventy years are finished, because Babylon must be destroyed to make room for the captives’ release.

There is some question about when these seventy years begin. Some date them from the captivity in the fourth year of Jehoiakim and the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, while others begin them from the captivity of Jehoiachin, eight years later. I lean toward the earlier date, because then these nations began to serve the king of Babylon, and because God usually marks the earliest point from which to count the fulfillment of a promise of mercy. That is seen in the counting of the 400 years of servitude in Egypt. If so, then eighteen or nineteen years of the seventy had already passed before Jerusalem and the temple were fully destroyed in the eleventh year of Zedekiah. Even so, when the set time comes to favor Zion, the king of Babylon must be judged, and every act of his cruelty must be brought into account. Then that nation will be punished for its guilt, just as other nations were punished for theirs.

That land must then become a lasting desolation, just as they had made other lands desolate. The Judge of all the earth will do what is right and will avenge wrong, as King of nations and King of saints. Let proud conquerors and oppressors be careful in how they use their power and success, because in time their own turn to suffer will come. Their day of falling will come. In this destruction of Babylon, which was to come by the Medes and Persians, we should notice two things. First, it will happen in line with what God had said: “I will bring upon that land all my words,” for all the wealth and honor of Babylon will be given over to the truth of God’s predictions, and all its power will be broken rather than one part of God’s word fail. The same Jeremiah who foretold the destruction of other nations by the Chaldeans also foretold the destruction of the Chaldeans themselves, and this must come upon them (Jeremiah 25:13). It is with this event in view that God says, “I will confirm the word of my servant and perform the counsel of my messengers” (Isaiah 44:26).

God will repay them for what they have done (Jeremiah 25:14). He will punish their deeds, which broke his law, even while they were being used to carry out his purposes.

They had made many nations serve them and had trampled on them with the worst kind of pride. Now, after their guilt has reached its full measure, many nations and great kings will join with Cyrus, king of Persia, and will turn the tables on them. These allies will take their land, enrich themselves with their wealth, and use them as steps toward a world empire. They will use them as servants and soldiers.

This is the rule: the one who leads others into captivity will himself go into captivity.