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Encouragement for the journey from God’s Word. Today's Scripture: Jeremiah 51:54-52-34 / Proverbs 26:18-19
Well, good Friday morning to you. Here we are looking forward to the weekend again and looking forward to the Lord's Day. Hope you are and hope you'll plan to join us on this coming Sunday as we gather together.
We're studying in our adult Sunday school class the Old Testament book of Isaiah. What a blessing that book is. And then in the morning service, we're going through the book of 2 Peter and finding some truth to help us in deceptive times.
And Sunday evenings, we're focusing on the gospel of Mark. This morning though, we read the last couple of chapters of the book of Jeremiah in our scripture reading. And I want to look at chapter 52 for just a second and then back up.
So chapter 52 is kind of a rehearsal of the fall of Jerusalem, what Babylon did to Jerusalem. And it was brutal. It was brutal. I mean, you can read through that and read about how the city was destroyed, the temple and the city were plundered and burned with fire, and the number of people that were taken captive by the Babylonians and taken back to the throne, to the city of Babylon.
And it was just a devastating experience for God's people. And it can seem that when there is a power, there's a power so great that it can wield such devastation and destruction that no one can stop.
It can seem that such a power is invincible and will get away with evil like this and destructiveness, you know, unchecked, unchecked. But Jeremiah says, no, that's not the way it's going to be. In the previous several chapters, Jeremiah has been prophesying that Babylon is going to be destroyed.
When he gets done with that prophecy, he writes it all down in a book. And chapter 51 ends as Jeremiah commands an associate, Sariah, to take this prophecy to Babylon, what he's written down, to take it to Babylon.
And when he gets to Babylon, to open up the scroll and read before the people of Babylon, this is what's coming. This is what's going to happen to the empire, the Babylonian empire. And then finish reading it, roll the scroll back up, tie a rock to it, throw it in the Euphrates River.
And then Jeremiah tells Sariah, say this, say, thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her, and they shall be weary. Now when Sariah did that, and when Jeremiah wrote that, that seemed to be the farthest thing from possibility.
It just seemed to be impossible. There's just no way that that's going to happen. Eventually it did, but it just seemed like there's no way. And that's the way it can appear to us in our world as well, when God's people are becoming increasingly marginalized, and we find ourselves becoming increasingly the targets of hostility.
Maybe not necessarily physical violence, but at least rhetorical hostility, and truly indeed sometimes physical hostility as well. But it can seem like when God's people are becoming more and more marginalized, and kind of painted into a corner, if you will, and put on the sidelines of society, and told, we don't want you to have anything to do with the culture.
It can seem like that power is invincible, and we can't really do anything about it. Well, maybe we can't. But why is it that God would bring destruction upon Babylon, even though Babylon wielded such power and devastation and destruction on the city of Jerusalem, the land of Judah, of God's people?
Why would God then turn around and destroy Babylon? Because God is a God of recompense. This is what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 51, after talking about verses 52 and following. He says, The days are coming, says the Lord, that I will bring judgment upon Babylon, on her carved images throughout all her land, the wounded shall groan.
Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven, though she were to fortify the height of her strength, and she did, and she seemed invincible, the Lord says, yet from me plunderers would come to her. The sound of a cry comes from Babylon and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans, because the Lord is plundering Babylon, silencing her loud voice, because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon, and her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken.
Why?
For the Lord is the God of recompense. He will surely repay. Now that serves as a warning and an encouragement. It serves as a warning to those who in these days are expressing such hostility and animosity toward the people of God, toward those who are trying to live a godly life and to uphold the righteousness of the Word of God and the righteous standards of Scripture.
And they should take warning from this. But on the other hand, those of us who are Christ's, those of us who follow the Word of God, we can get encouragement from this, that God is a God of recompense, and He surely will repay.
It may be a long time coming, some of us may never see it in our lifetime, but this is who our God is, and He will not allow the wicked to treat His people with hostility and with vengeance forever. Let's take encouragement from that.
Our Father and our God, I pray that if there's anyone listening to my voice today who have such an attitude of hostility and hatred toward God's people, they would stop in their tracks and they would consider the warning that you are a God of recompense.
But for those of us who love you and are endeavoring to live for you, and yet feeling and experiencing the increasing hostility and rancor against your people, may we take refuge in knowing that you are a God of recompense, and you will repay.
Encourage us with that today, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well have a good rest of your Friday, hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I trust we'll gather together and worship the Lord together on Sunday.
See you then.
God bless.