We got this lesson yesterday, but Jeremiah gives it to us again today, with even more vigor. Babylon’s armies were victorious in battle after battle, bringing devastating judgment on all the sinful nations round about. But this doesn’t mean that Babylon itself was innocent: and it especially doesn’t mean that Babylon’s victories will be permanent.

It was God who brought the judgment on the nations, and Babylon was simply the means by which God chose to do it. “Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine, and so the nations went mad. Suddenly Babylon is fallen and is shattered” (Jeremiah 51:7-8). “I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the wrong they have done in Zion, says the Lord” (51:24). “Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, a den of jackals, an object of horror and hissing, without inhabitant” (51:37).

Decades later, when the opportunity came to return to the land of Israel, it would turn out that many of the children and grandchildren of the exiles would have become assimilated to Babylonian culture, and would choose to stay in Babylon rather than make the arduous journey back to Jerusalem. We can see how Jeremiah anticipated this possibility with his call not to remain in the midst of a city doomed to destruction: “Flee from the midst of Babylon, save your lives, each of you!” (51:6). “Come out of her, my people! Save your lives, each of you, from the fierce anger of the Lord!” (51:45).

Here is a verse we should all memorize: “Everyone is stupid and without knowledge” (51:17). Moreover, we should recognize the deep truth of it: the ancient Israelites, the Babylonians, Jeremiah himself, our enemies, our politicians, and we ourselves as well: there’s plenty that we don’t know, and we are so often quite bad at applying the knowledge we do have. To help reverse our lack of knowledge, we should note that Jeremiah has given us two contrasting lessons: at a given time the call of God in a terrible situation could be to work to make things better (29:5-7); but at another moment the call of God might be to recognize that the situation is about to fall apart completely, so you should just get out, because Babylon is going to sink, to rise no more (51:64).

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In our own exiles, personal or corporate, we sometimes feel so lost, O Lord, stupidly unable to know how long we will remain stuck there. We pray for discernment: to work for the welfare of the strange land where we find ourselves, when the time is right for that; and to leave the place of exile and make our way back to the promised land, when the time is right for that.

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