Jeremiah 50:1 - Meaning and Application

This is a word against Babylon, spoken by the one whose actions always match his words, and whose words never fail. Babylon’s king had shown kindness to Jeremiah, yet Jeremiah still had to announce that kingdom’s ruin. God’s prophets must not be ruled by personal favor or affection. If people are our friends, but still God’s enemies, we must not speak peace to them.

The destruction of Babylon is spoken of here as if it has already happened. Let it be announced to the nations as true news, great news, news that concerns them all. Let it be spread everywhere, as people would raise a flag on a day of victory. Babylon is taken. Let God receive the honor for it, and let his people find comfort in it, so the news must not be kept back. It should be known, so the Lord may be known through the judgments he carries out (Psalm 9:16).

The downfall is also described as complete. First, Babylon’s idols, which the people tried to guard and from which they expected help, will be destroyed. Bel and Merodach were their main gods, and they will be shamed, with their images broken apart. The land itself will be laid waste (Jeremiah 50:3). The attack will come from the north, from Media, which lay north of Babylon, and from Assyria, through which Cyrus marched into Babylon. From there will come the nation that makes her land desolate. Babylon had brought trouble on lands to the north, so she was often warned of evil from the north. God can find nations even farther north to punish her. In the same way, the power and splendor of old Rome were later brought down by northern peoples, the Goths and Vandals.

There is also a word here for God’s people, both Israel and Judah, for many from the ten tribes joined the two tribes in returning from Babylon. The first promise is that they will return to God before they return to their land. Their conversion and renewal make room for every other promise (Jeremiah 50:4, Jeremiah 50:5). They will come weeping after the Lord, as the whole house of Israel once did in Samuel’s time (1 Samuel 7:2). These are not the tears of hopeless sorrow, like the tears they shed when they went into captivity. They are tears of repentance for sin, and tears of joy over God’s goodness as deliverance begins to dawn.

They will also seek the Lord. They will not sink under their grief, but will make effort to find the comfort they need. They will go weeping to seek the Lord their God. Those who seek the Lord must seek him with sorrow, as Christ’s parents sought him (Luke 2:48). And those who sorrow should seek the Lord, for then their sorrow will soon turn to joy, because he will be found by those who seek him in that way. They will seek the Lord as their own God, and they will have nothing more to do with idols. When they hear that Babylon’s idols are broken and shamed, it will be the right time to ask after their own God and return to him who lives forever. God often allows people to be disappointed in false gods so they may trust the true God alone.

They will also begin to think seriously about returning to their own country. They will see it not only as a mercy, but as a duty, because Zion, the holy hill where the Lord’s house once stood, is there (Jeremiah 50:5). They will ask the way to Zion with their faces turned toward it. Zion was the city of their sacred gatherings, and they often remembered it deeply in captivity (Psalm 137:1). Now that Babylon’s ruin gives hope of release, they can talk of nothing but going back to Zion. Their hearts were already set on it, and now their faces are turned that way too. They long to be there, they set out for Zion, and they refuse to stop short of it. The journey is long, and they do not know the road, but they will ask the way, because they mean to keep going until they arrive. They are determined not to turn back, and they are careful not to miss the path.

This also pictures the return of poor sinners to God. Heaven is the Zion they aim for. Their hearts are fixed on it, and their faces are turned toward it, so they ask the way there. They do not ask the way to heaven while setting their hearts on the world. Nor do they simply point themselves toward heaven and wander forward without seeking the path. In every true convert there is a real desire to reach the goal, and a steady care to stay in the right way. It is a beautiful thing to see people asking the way to heaven with their faces set toward it.

They will also renew their covenant, binding themselves to walk more closely with God in the future: “Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a lasting covenant.” They had broken covenant with God and, in effect, separated themselves from him. Now they decide to join themselves to him again and freshen their commitment to belong to him. When backsliders return, they must do their first works again and renew the covenant they once made. It must be a lasting covenant, one that is never broken. To keep it from being forgotten, they must often remember it, because steady remembrance helps steady obedience.

Their present condition is then described as very sad, and as having been sad for a long time. “My people,” he says, claiming them again as his as they return to him, “have been lost sheep” (Jeremiah 50:6). They have wandered from mountain to hill, driven from place to place, and have found no pasture. They have even forgotten their resting place in their own country and cannot find their way back. Their misery was made worse because their own shepherds, their rulers and priests, led them astray. They turned the people from their duty, and so brought down God’s judgment that drove them from their land. It is a terrible thing when those who should guide a people into safety instead lead them into error.

When they wandered, they were exposed to wild beasts, who treated them as if they were ownerless, like lost animals with no one to claim them (Jeremiah 50:7). It was like a flock of sheep on the move, where everyone who found them devoured them and made a prize of them. And when people did them the worst harm, they mocked them and said that their own prophets had long warned them they deserved it.

That excuse did not make the wrongdoers innocent. They tried to justify their cruelty by saying, “We are not guilty, because they have sinned against the Lord.” But they could not honestly say that the Babylonians had been personally wronged by them. Even so, the judgment against Judah was real, because they had sinned not against a mere human ruler, but against the Lord, the true and living God.

The source describes him as the dwelling place of justice and the hope of their fathers. Judah had shown contempt for the temple and for the faith handed down from their ancestors, and that made their guilt greater. This did not excuse their enemies, but it did show why God’s judgment was just, because they had abandoned the place of justice and the God their fathers trusted.

They are then called to leave quickly, as soon as the way of freedom is open to them (Jeremiah 50:8). They are told to move out, not only from Babylon’s borders, but from the city itself. Even if they were settled there, they must not stay, but hurry back to Zion and go ahead like the male goats before the flock. It is fitting to be first in a good work, and to lead others by a good example. A male goat is graceful when he goes first (Proverbs 30:31).