of these Babylonian no-gods.a—Jer. 51:47.

Certainly, as interested observers of the progress of Zion’s legal case, the angels of God would rejoice over Zion’s legal victory. The earth, that is, God’s people on the earth, would join in this joyful cry for his recompense against Babylon for the slain ones of Israel as well as the many thousands of others she had slaughtered in carrying on her war of world conquest against the nations, being bloodguilty for the slain ones of all the earth.—Jer. 51:48, 49.

In anticipation of the decree of release that Jehovah would put it in the heart of Cyrus to issue, Jehovah says to his protected and spared people: “You escapees from the sword, keep going. Do not stand still. From far away remember Jehovah, and may Jerusalem herself come up into your heart.” (Jer. 51:50) By the mode of transportation existing in that day Zion or Jerusalem was very far away from Babylon, a journey of four or five months, and that over the most difficult kind of terrain. But the Israelites were not to be like the wife of Lot and look back. They were to be keen in their desire to return to the holy mountain of Jerusalem to worship and to get away from Babylon as far as possible.

The weightiest reason for Jehovah’s issuing his judgment against Babylon was expressed in Jeremiah 51:51, where Jehovah’s people speak of the shame that they had been put to by the enemy, mainly when strangers came against the holy place of the house of Jehovah that had been brought by its desecration at Babylonian hands. This called for direct vengeance, not only against the uncircumcised Babylonians who acted this way against God’s temple, but also against the gods whom they served and who thus seemed to overpower Jehovah. For this reason the idol-serving Babylonians would be pierced and their death throes would be heard throughout all her land. Her idol images would be profaned and broken, unable to save her children.—Jer. 51:52.

Oh, yes, Babylon felt she could scoff at God. Even through her fears at the reports about Cyrus, she felt she was at the pinnacle of power over the earth and that her gods at the tower of Babel and her walls could protect her from anything. But she overlooked the fact that she was dealing with the Most High God. (Jer. 51:53) Yes, her voice had been very great and boastful and she was boisterous with praise to her gods, joined in by the thousands of Babylon’s population. What a cry she would make when she was so quickly and surprisingly thrown down! Her princes, governors and mighty men would come under this judgment as they fell into a sleep, the sleep of Sheol or the grave of all mankind rather than just a temporary sleep of drunken revelry. In course of time that great city was to be destroyed so completely that only the silence of death would reign over her moldering ruins, over a dead city.—Jer. 51:54-57.

Babylon had people of many nations working in her interests, building her walls and temples, and now all their toil was wasted. They merely built something to be burned up. And any who would try to revive her to her former status or make her endure forever would merely tire themselves out. Her gates, the part which was wood, would be set aflame, and the copper of these gates would vanish. The outer walls may have been destroyed by Cyrus, and Darius I may have effected further demolition, but at any rate they eventually came to the condition as uncovered by archaeologists that shows they fell into complete ruin.—Jer. 51:58.

FALL OF MODERN-DAY BABYLON ILLUSTRATED

During the reign of King Zedekiah the prophecy of Jeremiah here under study was used in a way that well illustrated Babylon’s fall to come seventy-five years in the future. Jeremiah’s prophecy, from Jer 50:2—51:58 chapter fifty, verse two, to chapter fifty-one, verse fifty-eight, was written down by him and the command was given by Jeremiah to Seraiah, the king’s quartermaster and apparently the fleshly brother of Jeremiah’s secretary Baruch, to take this writing to Babylon and to read all the words aloud. Then he was to take the book and tie a stone to it and pitch it into the Euphrates, saying: “This is how Babylon will sink down and never rise up because of the calamity that I am bringing in upon her; and they will certainly tire themselves out.” (Jer. 51:61-64) After reading aloud this inspired scroll, Seraiah was to address himself to Jehovah as the speaker of the words written down on the scroll. Hence it appears that Seraiah read the scroll aloud alongside the Euphrates River with no one hearing the reading but Jehovah God himself. Of course, it would have been dangerous to read it in the hearing of Babylonian ears. Nevertheless, Seraiah would remember much of what he had read, and could comfort the Israelites there in captivity by telling them of the hopes given them by this prophecy of Jeremiah.

So Jehovah’s woman won her case and her Husband, the Supreme Universal Judge, acted with full justice in the decision and the judgment he carried out. This carries a fine illustration and pattern for all those who love righteousness today and who would like to see justice carried out against the great empire of false religion because of her responsibility for so much of the bloodshed in the earth and particularly for her enmity against God and his Kingdom proclaimers. Revelation 18:20, 21 shows us that this was a pattern: “ ‘Be glad over her, O heaven, also you holy ones and you apostles and you prophets, because God has judicially exacted punishment for you from her!’ And a strong angel lifted up a stone like a great millstone and hurled it into the sea, saying: ‘Thus with a swift pitch will Babylon the great city be hurled down, and she will never be found again.’”

It is easy to see that this prophecy could not have application to the literal city of Babylon in Mesopotamia, for it had fallen from world power six hundred years previously and, by the time that Revelation’s prophecy of things yet future has complete fulfillment, literal Babylon will have lain in absolute ruin for years. We need to expect a much greater fulfillment. Therefore it is beneficial to us to continue examining Bible prophecies on Babylon, for it helps us to see the meaning of important world events taking place before our eyes in this twentieth century.

‘Beautiful Services’ but They Need God’s Word

A letter to the magazine Church and Home, published by the Evangelical United Brethren Church, was printed in its issue of July 1, 1964. The letter said: “Many of our leaders and some of our people seem to feel that the answer to our decline in numbers is a simple merger with the Methodist Church. Combining two dead churches will help neither of us but only require a larger grave for burial. We don’t need more programs, committees, suppers, . . . All of us need to study God’s Word more. . . . Many of our services are beautiful but so are funerals.”