Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 25

Verses 1-38

Chapter 25

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim ( Jeremiah 25:1 ).

So now we're going back in time. This was before Zedekiah was king. This was when Jehoiakim was king. Jehoiakim reigned for eleven years. He was a very evil king, but he was the son of Josiah who reigned for thirty-one years. Jeremiah was called to prophesy in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign. So Josiah is now dead. He's been dead for four years, so it happened in the fourth year of Jehoiakim.

the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon ( Jeremiah 25:1 ).

So he's giving you the time of this prophecy.

The which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem ( Jeremiah 25:2 ),

So this is just a separate prophecy of Jeremiah and it's isolated from the others. It sits here by itself. "Which Jeremiah the prophet spake to all the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem."

saying, From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the twenty-third year ( Jeremiah 25:2-3 ),

So God called Jeremiah to prophesy in the thirteenth year that Josiah was reigning. Jeremiah has now been prophesying twenty-three years. They figure that he was probably seventeen years old when God called him to prophesy and so he has been prophesying now for twenty-three years. It means that Jeremiah is about forty years old at the time of this particular prophecy.

the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened ( Jeremiah 25:3 ).

I've been speaking to you for twenty-three years, but you haven't listened to me yet.

And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever ( Jeremiah 25:4-5 ):

Just live right and you can stay here. Serve God and He'll keep you here.

Do not to after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. But you've not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because you have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about you, and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of merriment, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years ( Jeremiah 25:6-11 ).

And so here Jeremiah is predicting that the Babylonian captivity will last for seventy years. Now you read in the book of Daniel, chapter 9, that Daniel said, "And after the reading of the prophets I realize that the seventy years of captivity were about over. I sought to inquire of the Lord." So Daniel, no doubt, had these prophecies of Jeremiah. He had been reading them. And he understood by the writings of Jeremiah that their period of captivity in Babylon would be seventy years. Here Jeremiah declares that in this particular prophecy. Daniel had this prophecy and guided his affairs by the Word of God. "I know that the seventy years are about up," so he sought the Lord to see if God had any special ministry for him in the repatriation.

"They shall serve the king of Babylon for seventy years." Now the seventy years was because they had been dwelling in the land since the time of Joshua 490 years. And God had told them in the law that every seventh year you're to let the ground rest. The ground is to have a sabbath. Don't plant anything in the seventh year. Just in the sixth year, gather up and what you gather in the sixth year will be enough food to get you through the seventh year. You can eat that which grows of itself, but don't till the land, don't plant the land. Let it just grow of itself in the seventh year.

Sort of a plant rotation of crop kind of thing that the farmers have realized now is so valuable. I was up in Canada a while back and went out to the forage farms, and they took me out to this huge wheat farm. And a lot of it they had not planted. And he said, "No, we let the ground rest just like the Bible says. We find that we get much better crops." And so he said, "We of course have..." They still plant every year, but a section of the ground is always set aside that every seventh year they just let it rest. They don't plant anything in it. They just give the ground a rest. And he said, "We find that we get much better crops by giving the ground rest."

Now they had been in the land for 490 years, but they had not obeyed the commandment of God. They hadn't given the ground the sabbath. The ground hasn't rested in 490 years. So God says, "Okay, you don't give it its rest, I'll give it its rest. I'll put you out of the land for seventy years and the ground will just get its whole sabbath." So you divide the 490 by seven and you find out then comes the seventy years that the ground have been robbed for seventy different sabbaths, the ground had been robbed of its rest. So God says, "Oh, no, I'll get My dues." You know, God will always get His dues. You just. It doesn't pay to try and take away from God. God will get His dues one way or another. And just figure on that.

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it a perpetual desolation. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands ( Jeremiah 25:12-14 ).

So Babylon will be punished after the seventy years. God will bring His judgment against Babylon because of their iniquities. God will use Babylon as His instrument to bring judgment against Israel. But later God's judgment will come upon Babylon itself.

Now at this point we jump on out to the Great Tribulation of the future. So take a leap through the time capsule.

For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it ( Jeremiah 25:15 ).

Now there's a cup of the wrath of God's wine in His hand. If you'll turn to Revelation chapter 14, you will find corresponding verses beginning with verse Jeremiah 25:9 , "And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, 'If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.'" Verse Jeremiah 25:19 , "And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered," this Isaiah 14:19 ,"he thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs." And so the cup of indignation, here God introduces it to Jeremiah.

And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the LORD'S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me: To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse; as it is this day; Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, the land of Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon, and all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea, Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners, And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert, And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes, And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of [Babylon, Sheshach is another name for Babylon] Sheshach shall drink after them. Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink, and be drunken, and vomit, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; You will certainly drink. For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts ( Jeremiah 25:16-29 ).

The Great Tribulation period. Now do you think that God would punish Jerusalem for their iniquity and allow us to go unpunished? Surely our iniquity is no greater than that of Israel. A nation that has forsaken God. A nation that is living after pleasure. A nation that has forsaken righteousness. A nation that has ordered prayer out of its school. A nation that has lived by godless humanism and is controlled by godless humanism in our courts, in our educational systems. You think we can go unpunished? Oh no, God says, "Take it. You're going to drink of it, too. All of the earth." God's great judgment is coming upon all of the earth. "You will certainly drink for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts."

Therefore prophesy against them these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD ( Jeremiah 25:30-31 ).

Notice that? He will "give those that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord." But what about those who are righteous by their faith in Jesus Christ?

You remember when God was ready to judge Sodom and Gomorrah and the angel of the Lord was on his way. And Abraham invited him to come in, prepared a meal. They said, "Shall we reveal unto Abraham what we're doing?" They said, "We're heading down to Sodom. That place is so horrible, so rotten that we're going to destroy it. God is bringing His judgment against them." Abraham said, "Wait a minute, isn't God fair? Isn't the Lord of the earth just? What if there are righteous people living in Sodom? Would it be fair to destroy the righteous people with the wicked? Maybe there's fifty righteous people." The Lord said, "If there is fifty righteous people, we'll spare the city." "Oh? Well, you know, what if there is just ten less than fifty? What if there are only forty?" "We'll spare it for forty." "How about thirty?" "Yes." "Would you believe twenty?" "Yes, we'll spare it for twenty." "Let me talk once more and after this I won't ask anymore. How about ten?" Father Abraham. Be careful how you deal with his descendants. You'll get the best bargain they can. "How about ten?" I love them. They're God's people. They really are and I love them. And I bless them in the name of the Lord. The Lord said, "I'll spare it for ten."

You mean, the whole wickedness of Sodom will be allowed to go on if there are ten righteous people? That's right. For the sake of the ten God will not bring His judgment. You're the salt of the earth. You are the preserving influence. People may scorn you. They may deride you. They may say cruel and cutting things, but they better be thankful you're around. For if you weren't around, this place wouldn't be. God's judgment would have already fallen. But for the righteous' sake God withholds.

The angel came to Sodom he could not find ten righteous. He found one righteous man. And the angel said, "Get out of here, we're going to destroy this place. Don't look back." And the angel led Lot and his wife and his two daughters. But his wife turning back turned to a pillar of salt and so only Lot and his two daughters escaped. He was that. And Peter said that righteous man. He was the only one there. But notice, God did not bring judgment upon Lot, but delivered him before the judgment came. Peter uses that as an example to show that the church will not go through the Great Tribulation. "For God knows how to deliver the righteous, but to reserve the ungodly for the day of judgment" ( 2 Peter 2:9 ). So here talking about the Great Tribulation of His coming, God is going to bring His sword against all that are wicked, saith the Lord. But those that are righteous the Lord will have caught out in the rapture of the church.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the eaRuth ( Jeremiah 25:32-33 ):

Finally found the place where they're slain in the Spirit. All right. All over the place. From one end of the earth to the other.

they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground. Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for the LORD hath spoiled their pasture. And the peaceable habitations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the LORD. He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion: for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger ( Jeremiah 25:33-38 ).

That Great Tribulation, the time of God's judgment that shall fall upon the earth. Thank God that we as the church do not have to face that horror and terror that is coming. Revelation chapter 6 through 18 give detailed description of this period of time of three-and-a-half years. You can read about it there.

Father, we thank You again for the opportunity of gathering to learn of Thee and to study Your Word and to gain insight to ourselves as Your Holy Spirit takes Thy Word and probes our hearts and our lives. As we can look at ourselves, God help us that we will not go away and forget quickly what the Spirit has shown to us tonight. But oh God, may we indeed forsake the way of the flesh and may we walk after the Spirit. And may we live after righteousness and live after Thee, O Lord, serving Thee, loving Thee. And so Father, in Jesus' name, let now Thy Spirit imbed upon our hearts Thy truths and we thank You for it. Amen. "