Song: Psalms 117

“Praise the Lord, all you nations, extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love towards us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” 

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2).

Jesus, the king who wise men worship.

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’ When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.  ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written: ‘” But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”’ Then Herod called the wise men secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.’ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” (Matthew 2:1-12)

The one place of worship. 

In Deuteronomy 12 Moses is giving God’s law to the people of God concerning how they are to worship him once they become an established nation in the place that God has destined for his people. 

In historical biblical times God was worshipped in one place, now however the land that the people of God are inheriting from God is not a physical location but the hearts and minds of the people of nations all over the earth. That is the new promised land, an earth filled with the people of God who worship him as the only God. 

God instructs Moses to tell the people of God that when they dispossess the inhabitants of the land they are inheriting they are to “destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossess worship their gods. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places” (Deuteronomy 12:2-3). 

In modern times, while there are actual idols that people worship and gods they pay homage to besides God, it is the Name of Jesus that has done the work of wiping out the name of any other god besides him, because there is no other god like him who has been given all power and authority over heaven and earth. 

When the people of God are dispossessing modern places of worship the work that God is asking his people to do is to remove all faith in things that people place their faith in more than God. Because “Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22). 

Because the things that we worship and set above Jesus and his sacrifice are powerless to bring about what God in Jesus has promised to everyone who believes, “an eternal inheritance” and “freedom from sins” (Hebrews 9:15). 

Jesus says in John 17:1-5, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

Prayer: Jesus prays for his disciples. 

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your Name, the Name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17:6-19).

Prayer: Jesus prays for all believers. 

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made your Name known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:20-26). 

“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them’—before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim; when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when people rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint; when people are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags itself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets. Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7). 

God instructs Moses to tell God’s people that God will choose a place “to put his Name there for his dwelling and to that place you must go” to offer sacrifices as gifts of repentance (Deuteronomy 12:5-6). To that place is where the presence of the Lord your God will be and where “your families will eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to because the Lord your God has blessed you” (Deuteronomy 12:7).

Jesus is the place that God’s people return to, to seek God for forgiveness. Jesus is the way to the presence of God to access God’s faithfulness; and “what he has put his Name on”. Meaning what represents him and he says that rejoicing and blessings for the people of God who put their faith in him and come to the place he has chosen, Jesus, are what represents his Name. 

The place that God puts his Name on, what represents him is also a place of rest from all your enemies; and a place of safety (Deuteronomy 12:10). Faith in Jesus is this place that God has chosen to send his people to return to, to inherit these blessings that faith in idol worship is not able to provide. 

“You are not to do as we do here today everyone doing as they see fit” (Deuteronomy 12:8). God says through Moses to the people of God to, “be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please. Offer them only at the place the Lord will choose” (Deuteronomy 12:13-14). 

Jesus is the place that God is instructing people who believe in him to return to, to access the inheritance and promises that only he is able to provide; and God says that all other things that you worship are not only not able to do what Jesus has done but are not worthy to receive what belongs to Jesus alone, your faith and belief. Do not make saviors out of things that cannot save you, do not make providers out of things that cannot provide for you, do not make strongholds out of things that cannot provide safety. 

Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny (these things) and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life (through belief in what are not gods) will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me (sacrifices their faith in those things for their faith in Jesus) I will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose, or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the son of man will be ashamed of them” (Luke 9:23-26).

God says through Moses to his people, “The Lord your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess” (Deuteronomy 12:29). Jesus is this power of God and God says he is willing to do the work himself on behalf of people who believe in him and have faith, to remove doubt and the strength of ideologies from before his people and give his Name, Jesus, the strength that people thought their idols had. 

Jesus is saying, believe in me and live when he says, “if your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body then for your whole body to be thrown in hell” (Matthew 5:29). Meaning if your eyes are telling you that they see something else that is the way the truth and the life for you, gouge it out. If the best of your understanding refuses to humble itself and say Jesus he is the only means of salvation and protection, remove that part from you, let it die and be thrown away. That part of you is trash because it will cause your entire life to be destroyed. Destroy the part of you that does not want to have faith in God and his way of salvation. 

Because “all who seek you (Jesus) rejoice and are glad, those who long for your saving help always say, ‘The Lord is great!’” (Psalms 70:4). 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. 

“King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, 27 meters high and 2.7 meters wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisors, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisors, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it. 

Then the herald loudly proclaimed, ‘Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: as soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.’ 

Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, and all kinds of music, all the nations and peoples of every language fell down and worshipped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

At that time some astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews. They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, ‘May the king live forever! Your Majesty has issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the image of gold, and that whoever does not fall down, and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace. But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.’ 

Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, ‘Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?’

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.’

Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude towards them changed. He ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. 

Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, ‘Weren’t there three men that we tied up and thew into the fire? They replied, ‘Certainly, Your Majesty.’ He said, ‘Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.’ 

Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, ‘Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!’ So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisors crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. 

Then Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way” (Daniel 3:1-29). 

Jesus is God’s means of salvation and the fourth man who was walking around in the furnace, unbound and unharmed and who is able to rescue and deliver from seemingly impossible situations people who put their faith in him to prove his great Name that he is faithful, that he rescues and that he is the God who saves, that there is no other God who can save in the way that he can (Daniel 3:25). Not images made of gold. Not ideologies that kings advocate for. Not theories that governors, judges and political officials put their faith in. 

Jesus can deliver as in this case his people from the hands of people who want to discredit and destroy them, from powerful leaders, from unjust laws and from destructive situations that threaten to burn you alive and take your life.

God desires followers who will have faith in the one he has chosen to save and deliver, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had in God. They believed that they did not need to defend themselves before powerful leaders; and that the God that they serve is able to deliver and willing to deliver (Daniel 3:16-17). They believed that God is able to defend his Name as well as people who put their faith in him and to protect them from situations intended to harm them. They believed God was able to use powerful leaders to testify that the Name of God, Jesus is able to rescue and to save (Daniel 3:28). The Name of God in Jesus is even able to change laws that were meant to harm his people into decrees that defend people who put their faith in God (Daniel 3:29).  

“But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me” (Micah 7:7). 

Return to the Lord that he may return to you. (2 Chronicles 30:6-9)

After Solomon dies his son Rehoboam succeeds him as king. “He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord” (2 Chronicles 12:14). He put his faith in himself, he was king and he put his faith in the fortifications of his city. Jerusalem and the towns of Judah were protected. He put his faith in his military which had “become strong” and so “He and all of Israel (Judah) with him abandoned the law of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 12:1). Their unfaithfulness left them protected only by their ability to protect themselves, their unfaithfulness to God removed the protection of God that represents his Name. God is faithful to rescue and protect and when they rejected God to put their faith in their own strength God removed his protection “so that they would learn the difference between serving me (God) and serving the kings of other lands” (2 Chronicles 12:8). 

“Because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam. With twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and the innumerable troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites that came with him from Egypt, he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 12:2-4).  

The fortified cities of Judah fell into the hands of their enemies and God sent a “prophet named Shemaiah to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Shishak and he said to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You have abandoned me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak”’” (2 Chronicles 12:5).  

When the king and all of the leaders heard this word they humbled themselves and said, “God is just” (2 Chronicles 12:6). The God who protects and is faithful is a shield and protector to those who put their faith in him. He is not obligated to shield people who reject him. His justice looked like allowing his people to come under attack. This attack shook the leaders and they realized that they had made a mistake in putting their faith in their own strength and looked to God. 

“When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: ‘Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will soon give them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak’” (2 Chronicles 12:7). 

The Name of the Lord is a protection to those who put their faith in him, a name of compassion and mercy, forgiveness and grace to those who humble themselves and return to him. A Name of salvation that rescues all who believe; and “because Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord’s anger turned from him and he was not totally destroyed” (2 Chronicles 12:12). 

Song: Psalms 94:1-15

“The Lord is a God who avenges. O God who avenges, shine forth. Rise up, Judge of the earth; pay back to the proud what they deserve. 

How long, Lord will the wicked, how long will the wicked be jubilant? They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting. They crush your people, Lord; they oppress your inheritance. They slay the widow and the foreigner, they murder the fatherless. They say, ‘The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob takes no notice.’

Take notice, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise? Does he who fashioned the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see? Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge?

The Lord knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile. Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord, the one you teach from your law; you grant them relief from days of trouble, till a pit is dug for the wicked. 

For the Lord will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance. Judgement will again be founded on righteousness, and all the uptight in heart will follow it.”

Praise be to the Name of God forever and ever; wisdom and power are his. (Daniel 2:20) 

God is a God of structure and the structure that he has set in place is that Jesus is the only way to access the promises that define the Name of God. A Name that means faithfulness, a Name that means Salvation has come, a Name that bestow blessings on his children the people who put their faith in the one he has chosen. 

Jesus tells a parable about this structure that is recorded in Mark chapter 12. He is talking about people he calls tenants of a vineyard. There is a man who builds a vineyard and also surrounds it with a wall and a watchtower to protect what he has built and then he rents it to tenants (Mark 12:1). These tenants believe that the vineyard is theirs as well as the harvest. So when the owner sends people to collect some of the harvest they abuse and kill them (Mark 12:2-5). 

Jesus is describing his kingdom, the covenant that God has created through him that he watches over to ensure that people who believe in him have access to the fruit or inheritance of what he has set up. 

The kingdom of God is not a physical location. In this analogy the tenants of the vineyard God has set up are people whose lives are lived for their own fulfillment. When God, the owner, sends messengers to collect harvests from their lives, they reject them and throw them out of their lives. When God asks people who have been given life on earth for faith in him, as the harvest that God is concerned about, they reject messages and messengers who tell them that their life is not their own. When God, asks for them to honor his structure of belief in him as the one who made them and knows how to give good gifts to his children as well as bless them and provide for them, they, like the tenants, reject this message even when the owner sends the message through his Son, the heir of the kingdom of God (Mark 12:6-11). 

Jesus is the one God has chosen to have authority over all he has created who speaks about who God is, his Name, that he is faithful and a provider, a God who rescues and a God who blesses. This message from the Son, they not only reject but kill the messenger and throw him out of the vineyard, meaning they remove the notion of Jesus from their lives. 

Jesus then quotes this scripture to his disciples and all who were listening that his message of salvation is “the stone that the builder rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalms 118:22-23).  Jesus says to those who reject that Jesus is who God has chosen to build his kingdom through, don’t you know that I am the structure that he has chosen to use to bless the world? That this covenant God has created through me is a covenant to marvel at what God has done? Don’t you know that I represent the Name of God, the one who is faithful and just to forgive, to rescue and to bless. Don’t you know that this God’s faithfulness can never be broken he is faithful to keep his promises to his children, believers everyone who puts their faith in me? Don’t you know God has chosen to use me to create a way of access to him and to the inheritance of this new covenant that is a fountain of life for all who believe?

These tenants are just like his disciples who after Jesus walked among them and spoke about all that he had to suffer to bring about the new covenant God was establishing on earth upon his death through him, they had doubts that God had been with them and doubted that Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus said to them, “how foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25) 

In Biblical times whenever God’s people have forsaken him, have been unfaithful to him he has sent war and oppression even had other nations take them into captivity, and God’s word is the same. God says, through his word, whoever looks to Jesus as the structure he has chosen will have rest and security, but whoever rejects him will be rejected by God. 

This is how Jesus is a gift. Jesus is the great high priest of a new covenant. The Name of Jesus represents the will of God to save people from every form of captivity. In biblical times the people of God were taken into captivity by the nation of Babylon due to their unfaithfulness, because they rejected God. Babylon is the metaphorical place that separation from God takes everyone who rejects God and God says to Babylon that through Jesus he will destroy Babylon and make a way of escape from that place and its captivity for everyone, forever. 

“This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign. Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon—all that had been recorded concerning Babylon. He said to Seraiah, ‘When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. Then say, “Lord, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate forever.” When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. Then say, “So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall” (Jeremiah 51:59-64). 

A message about Babylon.

“This is the word the Lord spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians:

Announce and proclaim among the nations, lift up a banner and proclaim it; keep nothing back, but say, “Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror.” 

A nation from the north will attack her and lay waste her land. No one will live in it; both people and animals will flee away. In those days, at that time, declares the Lord, the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the Lord their God. They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces towards it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten. 

My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, “We are not guilty, for they sinned against the Lord, their verdant pasture, the Lord, the hope of their ancestors.”

Flee out of Babylon; leave the land of the Babylonians, and be like the goats that lead the flock. For I will stir up and bring against Babylon an alliance of great nations from the land of the north. They will take up their positions against her, and from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed. So Babylonia will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill, declares the Lord. 

Because you rejoice and are glad, you who pillage my inheritance, because you frolic like a heifer threshing corn and neigh like stallions, your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who gave you birth will be disgraced. She will be the least of the nations—a wilderness, a dry land, a desert. Because of the Lord’s anger she will not be inhabited but will be completely desolate. All who pass Babylon will be appalled; they will scoff because of all her wounds. 

Take up your positions round Babylon, all you who draw the bow. Shoot at her! Spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord. Shout against her on every side! She surrenders, her towers fall, her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of the Lord, take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done to others. Cut off from Babylon the sower, and the reaper with his sickle at harvest. Because of the sword of the oppressor let everyone return to their own people, let everyone flee to their own land. 

Israel is a scattered flock that lions have chased away. The first to devour them was the king of Assyria; the last to crush their bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:

I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria. But I will bring Israel back to their own pasture, and they will graze on Carmel and Bashan; their appetite will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead. 

In those days, at that time, declares the Lord, search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found for I will forgive the remnant I spare. 

Attack the land of Merathaim and those who live in Pekod. Pursue, kill and completely destroy them declares the Lord. Do everything I have commanded you. The noise of battle is in the land, the noise of great destruction! How broken and shattered is the hammer of the whole earth! How desolate is Babylon among the nations! I set a trap for you, Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it; you were found and captured because you opposed the Lord. The Lord has opened his arsenal and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Sovereign Lord Almighty has work to do in the land of the Babylonians. 

Come against her from afar. Break open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain. Completely destroy her and leave her no remnant. Kill all your young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter! Woe to them! For their day has come, the time for them to be punished. Listen to the fugitives and the refugees from Babylon declaring in Zion how the Lord our God has taken vengeance, vengeance for his temple. 

Summon archers against Babylon, all those who draw the bow. Encamp all round her; let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets; all her soldiers will be silenced in that day, declares the Lord. 

See, I am against you, you arrogant one, declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty, for your day has come, the time for you to be punished. The arrogant one will stumble and fall and no one will help her up; I will kindle a fire in her towns that will consume all who are around her. 

This is what the Lord Almighty says: the people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to let them go. Yet their Redeemer is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name. He will vigorously defend their cause so that he may bring rest to their land, but unrest to those who live in Babylon. 

A sword against the Babylonians! Declares the Lord—against those who live in Babylon and against her officials and wise men! A sword against her false prophets! They will become fools. A sword against her warriors! They will be filled with terror. A sword against her horses and chariots and all the foreigners in her ranks! They will become weaklings. A sword against her treasures! They will be plundered. A drought on her waters! They will dry up. For it is a land of idols, idols that will go mad with terror. 

So desert creatures and hyenas will live there, and there the owl will dwell. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation. As I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighboring towns, declares the Lord, so no one will live there; no people will dwell in it. 

Look! An army is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings are being stirred up from the ends of the earth. They are armed with bows and spears; they are cruel and without mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses; they come like men in battle formation to attack you, Daughter Babylon. The king of Babylon has heard reports about them, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor. 

Like a lion coming up from Jordan’s thickets to a rich pasture-land, I will chase Babylon from its land in an instant. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? Who is like me and who can challenge me? And what shepherd can stand against me? 

Therefore, hear what the Lord has planned against Babylon, what he has purposed against the land of the Babylonians: the young of the flock will be dragged away; their pasture will be appalled at their fate. 

At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will tremble; its cry will resound among the nations.  

This is what the Lord says: See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Babylonia. I will send foreigners to Babylon to winnow her and to devastate her land; they will oppose her on every side in the day of her disaster.

Let not the archer string his bow, nor let him put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; completely destroy her army. They will fall down slain in Babylon, fatally wounded in her streets. 

For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the Lord Almighty, though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel. 

Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins. It is time for the Lord’s vengeance; he will repay her what she deserves. 

Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand; she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drake her wine; therefore they have now gone mad. Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken. 

Wail over her! Get balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to our own land, for her judgement reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the heavens. 

The Lord has vindicated us; come, let us tell in Zion what the Lord our God has done. Sharpen the arrows, take up the shields! The Lord has stirred up the kings of Medes, because his purpose is to destroy Babylon. The Lord will take vengeance, vengeance for his temple. 

Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon! Reinforce the guard, station the watchmen, prepare an ambush! The Lord will carry out his purpose, his decree against the people of Babylon. 

You who live by many waters and are rich in treasures, your end has come, the time for you to be destroyed. The Lord Almighty has sworn by himself: I will surely fill you with troops, as with a swarm of locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you. 

He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses. 

Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. The images he makes are a fraud; they have no breath in them. They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgement comes, they will perish. 

He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including the people of his inheritance—the Lord Almighty is his name. You are my war club, my weapon for battle—with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms, with you I shatter horse and rider, with you I shatter chariot and driver, with you I shatter man and woman, with you I shatter old man and youth, with you I shatter young man and young woman, with you I shatter shepherd and flock, with you I shatter farmer and oxen, with you I shatter governors and officials. Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wrong they have done in Zion declares the Lord. 

I am against you, you destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth, declares the Lord. I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burnt-out mountain. No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone, nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever, declares the Lord. 

Lift up a banner in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations for battle against her; summon against her these kingdoms: Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her; send up horses like a swarm of locusts. Prepare the nations for battle against her—the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the countries they rule.

The land trembles and writhes, for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand—to lay waste the land of Babylon so that no one will live there. Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting; they remain in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become weaklings. Her dwellings are set on fire; the bars of her gates are broken. One courier follows another and messenger follows messenger to announce to the king of Babylon that his entire city is captured, the river crossings seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers terrified. 

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Daughter Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come. 

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us, he has thrown us into confusion, he has made us an empty jar. Like a serpent he has swallowed us and filled his stomach with our delicacies, and then has spewed us out. May the violence done to our flesh be on Babylon, say the inhabitants of Zion. May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia, says Jerusalem. 

Therefore this is what the Lord says: See, I will defend your cause and avenge you; I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry. Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives. 

Her people roar like young lions, they growl like lion cubs. But while they are aroused, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk, so that they shout with laughter—then sleep forever and not awake, declares the Lord. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats. 

How Sheshak will be captured, the boast of the whole earth seized! How desolate Babylon will be among the nations! The sea will rise over Baylon; its roaring waves will cover her. Her towns will be desolate, a dry and desert land, a land where no one lives, through which no one travels. I will punish Bel in Babylon and make him spew out what he has swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him. And the wall of Babylon will fall. 

Come out of her, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the Lord. Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler. 

For the time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be disgraced and her slain will all lie fallen within her. Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for out of the north destroyers will attack her, declares the Lord. 

Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon. You who have escaped the sword, leave and do not linger! Remember the Lord in a distant land, and call to mind Jerusalem. 

We are disgraced, for we have be insulted and shame covers our faces because foreigners have entered the holy places of the Lord’s house. 

But the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan. Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens and fortifies her lofty stronghold, I will send destroyers against her declares the Lord. 

The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians. The Lord will destroy Babylon; he will silence her noisy din. Waves of enemies will rage like great waters; the roar of their voices will resound. A destroyer will come against Babylon; her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken. 

For the Lord is a God of retribution; he will repay in full. I will make her officials and wise men drunk, her governors, officers and warriors as well; they will sleep forever and not awake, declares the King, whose name is the Lord Almighty.This is what the Lord Almighty says: Babylon’s thick wall will be levelled and her high gates set on fire; the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames. (Jeremiah 50:1-46; 51:1-58)