11/05/2026
Jeremiah 50 Series, Study 1 by Chris McCann, originally aired at Day in the Word on March 24, 2013
We are going to start a new series of studies for Day in the Word. Please turn to Jeremiah 50. We are going to try to do these studies at the rate of one study per month. We want to understand this chapter as well as we can, given the new information we have learned since May 21, 2011, when we entered into the Day of Judgment.
By the way, we can expect not only to continue to learn but to learn more than we have previously. We know God opened up the Bible by unsealing the scriptures beginning at the start of the Great Tribulation. Concerning the Day of Judgment, God says in Romans 2:5:
But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
God is referring to the Day of Judgment, and notice that it not only says that it is the day of wrath but it is also the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. That means that when we enter into this prolonged judgment period, we will learn more about Judgment Day itself, and that is exactly what has happened as we came to understand that God’s judgment is a spiritual judgment, which began when God shut the door to heaven.
By the way, when the door to heaven was open, did any of you see that door? No. We could not see the door of heaven when it was open. Now God has shut the door, and some people say, “I do not see that it is shut.” If you could not see it when it was open, why would you expect to see it shut? Christ is the door. He is the entrance to the kingdom of God, and He is the one who opens and shuts that door. What Christ opens, no man can shut, and what He shuts, no man can open. I am afraid these people are desperately trying to open that door now, as if we at EBible Fellowship shut the door. We did not shut that door. We do not have that kind of power. Only God can shut the door to heaven, and He has done that. Many people are now saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us,” but God will not open the door. He simply responds, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
We are going to look at Jeremiah 50 in order to understand exactly what is meant by “Babylon,” and that will enable us to better understand the day we are living in, which is Judgment Day. Let us read Jeremiah 50:1-3:
The word that JEHOVAH spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
Who does Babylon represent? A lot of people will say that it represents the churches because we learned that years ago. Actually, when the churches fell to Satan, they did become a part of Babylon but, spiritually, Babylon was in existence before then. In order to understand Jeremiah 50 and 51, or Revelation 17 and 18, or Revelation 14 where it says that Babylon is fallen, we have to properly understand who Babylon represents.
Let us begin by looking at some verses, and then we will discuss just what Babylon represents. It says in Jeremiah 25:8-11:
Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith JEHOVAH, and Nebuchadrezzar 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, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, 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 a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Historically, God is saying that He has had enough of the rebellion of the people of the nation of Judah, and He is going to raise up the nation of Babylon, even going so far as to call Nebuchadnezzar His servant. God is going to use Babylon to come against His people of Judah in judgment. Notice that it says these nations, including Judah, shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years.
The question we want to answer is that if God is giving up Judah to the Babylonians, who does Judah represent, and who does Babylon represent? We know with certainty that Judah represents the churches and congregations. Spiritually, God identifies Israel and Judah with the New Testament church. Babylon is the nation God is using to destroy the churches for a period of 70 years. What does the 70 years typify? It typifies the Great Tribulation period. It is one of the historical figures that God uses, like the seven years of Joseph’s day; or like the 23 years from 609 B. C. to 587 B. C. (inclusive); or the seventy years from 609 B. C. to 539 B. C.. These are all historical types of the Great Tribulation.
So God brought judgment after 70 years, as it said in Jeremiah 25:11. Then it says in Jeremiah 25:12:
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith JEHOVAH, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
After the 70 years, God would punish Babylon. Did He punish Babylon during the 70 years? No. In fact God prospered Babylon during that 70 years as Babylon overcame Judah and all these nations. The nation of Babylon was increasing and expanding. It was a wonderful and glorious time for Babylon.
Now compare that to Satan. We know the king of Babylon typifies Satan and the emissaries of Satan typify his kingdom. When God loosed Satan to enter into the churches and congregations, was God judging the spiritual Babylon of Satan and his kingdom? No. Satan was rejoicing. It was a glorious time for Satan when he took over the churches of the world and began to reign as the man of sin. God was not judging Satan. God was judging the churches at that time, and He was using Satan as the instrument of judgment to bring His punishment against the churches and congregations of the world. Spiritually, God was saying to historical Babylon, “For 70 years you will be my servant to accomplish my purposes, but after 70 years I will punish you and your king.”
So the judgment of Babylon that comes after 70 years is not picturing the judgment on the churches. It is picturing the judgment that begins after the judgment on the churches. During the actual 23 years of the Great Tribulation, God was not punishing Babylon, but after that time God would turn against the ones He raised up to bring judgment on the congregations. It would be the time to judge Satan and his kingdom. That is the spiritual picture we need to understand. Babylon represents the kingdom of Satan, and the king of Babylon represents Satan himself.
Let us look at another point we find in Jeremiah 29:1-10:
Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon; (After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;) By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying, Thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto JEHOVAH for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. For thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith JEHOVAH. For thus saith JEHOVAH, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
Again, it says in Jeremiah 29:4:
Thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
Before we answer our question, let us also look at Jeremiah 24 where the Lord gives an illustration of good and bad figs. It says in Jeremiah 24:4-10:
Again the word of JEHOVAH came unto me, saying, Thus saith JEHOVAH, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am JEHOVAH: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith JEHOVAH, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt: And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.
God said that if they went to Babylon, they are the good figs, or good fruit. If they remained in Judah, they are evil fruit, and they can expect the wrath of God. Judgment will come upon them. That relates to God’s command for us to come out of the churches, as Judah represents the churches. God commanded us to come out of the midst of Judaea (the churches) and flee to the mountains. He did so for our benefit because He was no longer working in the churches of the world, but He would send forth the latter rain to save the great multitude outside of the churches.
Here in Jeremiah 24, Judah clearly represents the churches, and God commands His people to go to Babylon, so how can Babylon also represent the churches? God was not commanding us to flee Judaea (the churches) and go to Babylon (the churches). That makes no sense. So Babylon cannot be representing the churches in this passage in Jeremiah 24 or in Jeremiah 29. We understood it to mean the world when God told us to flee Judaea. We left the churches and went out into the world; we were no longer members of a congregation. We were no longer under the spiritual authority of the churches and its leaders.
So what does Babylon represent? It represents the world, and this is consistent with what we read in Jeremiah 25:12:
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation…
The king of Babylon is Satan, and his kingdom was the world, and that included the churches and congregations after God delivered them into Satan’s hand. They became part of the kingdom of Satan.
Remember, Babylon is called a harlot in Revelation 17:4-5:
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
To look at this another way, what does God say happens when you join together with a harlot? You become one with the harlot. God makes that connection in 1Corinthians 6:15-16:
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
The world is the “harlot,” and Satan and his kingdom of darkness are the “mothers of harlots.” The churches began to “play around” with the world as they went after the things of the world, and they became a harlot.
God makes that point in Isaiah 1:21:
How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
How did the Christian churches become a harlot and part of Babylon? The answer is that righteousness had lodged in it, and the Lord Jesus is righteousness, according to 1Corinthians 1:30. Righteousness was no longer lodging there when Christ came out of the midst of the churches. The instant that Christ departed out and Satan entered in, she immediately became a harlot.
By the way, we know that every church in the world is spiritually dead, regardless of what they may teach. If they do not have the Lord Jesus (who is righteousness) in their midst, they are dead. God has clearly declared that the Holy Spirit has left the congregations, and there is no Comforter. That is how the churches became a harlot, but the harlot already existed because the harlot is the kingdom of Satan. This is the second point: When God commanded His people to leave Judaea and flee to Babylon, Babylon can only typify the world.
Let us consider a third point in Isaiah 13. Maybe you had noticed this before, or maybe you have never thought about it, but it says in Isaiah 13:1:
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
God uses this kind of language frequently, and He will normally go on to talk about the nation in view. For instance, look at Isaiah 15:1:
The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste….
Then as we read the chapter, we read several references to Moab in verses 2, 4, 5, and 8. The Lord is discussing Moab.
Then look at Isaiah 19:1:
The burden of Egypt…
Likewise, the Lord goes on to discuss Egypt in this chapter, and it is a chapter that speaks of Pharaoh and Zoan, which pertain to Egypt. The Lord goes on to discuss the message to Egypt.
Also, we see in Isaiah 21:13:
The burden upon Arabia…
And in verses 16 and 17 it mentions Kedar, which identifies with Arabia.
We read in Isaiah 23:1:
The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish…
Then the whole chapter is devoted to speaking of Tyre and Tarshish.
So when God uses this language of the burden of a particular nation, He continues to talk about that nation throughout the chapter. So when we go back to Isaiah 13 and read of the burden of Babylon, we read in Isaiah 13:4-11:
The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: JEHOVAH of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even JEHOVAH, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. Howl ye; for the day of JEHOVAH is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of JEHOVAH cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
It began with “the burden of Babylon,” and then God talks about Judgment Day, the day of the Lord. Notice the darkening of the sun and the moon causing her light not to shine. When would this happen, according to Matthew 24:29? It would be “immediately after the tribulation…” What did God say about Babylon? He said that after 70 years he would punish the king of Babylon and that nation.
Now He is talking about the burden of Babylon, and He is giving us language that identifies with the time immediately after the tribulation of those days when He is punishing the world. Do you see how they fit together?
If we continue reading in Isaiah 13, it says in Isaiah 13:13-19:
Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of JEHOVAH of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land. Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew S***m and Gomorrah.
By the way, why would He stir up the Medes against them? It is because of what the Bible of Cyrus, the king who came against Babylon immediately after the 70 years. God actually gives us a record of that in Daniel 5 where the king of Babylon and his lords were having a party, a banquet of w**e. They had no idea that the enemy nation of the Medes and Persians were marching against them. If they had known, they would have been on the alert, and they would not have been in a banquet hall where the king saw “the writing on the wall.” What happened? Look at Daniel 5:1:
Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank w**e before the thousand.
They were drinking from the vessels they took from the temple in Jerusalem. Then God wrote on the wall, and Daniel interpreted the writing in Daniel 5:28-31:
PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.
How could that have happened? If you read some theologians’ commentaries, they speculate on there being a dry river bed, and the Medes and Persians came right down the dry river bed. They stopped up the river’s flow, and that allowed them access to the city, which they then took without a battle. God actually says in Jeremiah 51:30-32:
The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken. One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, And that the passages are stopped…
The king of Babylon and his nation were taken suddenly just like when Christ came as a thief in the night. Cyrus came in the night and took the kingdom of Babylon, and there was not even a fight. That happened in the year 539 B. C., after a full 70-year period. God fulfilled what He had said in Jeremiah 25:12:
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation…
What does that represent? It points to immediately after that 23-year period of the Great Tribulation. Then God would punish Satan and his kingdom of darkness. How does God punish Satan? After all, we are still here and the world continues. But remember that Satan was given the rule over the churches for a certain period of time, which is defined as “forty and two months,” according to Revelation 11, and that is another figure for the entire Great Tribulation period. But after the 42 months, he was put down and ceased to rule over the churches and over the world. Christ took over Babylon on May 21, 2011. Believe it or not, Christ is the One who now reigns as He was victorious on that date when the Day of Judgment began.
I know there are people hearing this who would respond, “Are you kidding? Things have been so difficult and there has been such severe testing since that date, so how can you say that Christ took the kingdom?” To answer that, what happened to believers like Daniel when we get into the next chapter, Daniel 6? Cyrus was now the king over Babylon, and he not only liked Daniel but he highly respected Daniel and did not want any harm to come to him. But it so happens that according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, Daniel was thrown into a lion’s den. Was Daniel being tried and tested during that period of time? Yes. We can see how that relates to our present day when God is testing His people. We are living under the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet it is according to His will and design that we be tried before He brings us into the kingdom of heaven.
That is what God did with the Jews after He brought them out of Egypt. They came out of Egypt after a great deliverance. But do you think the wilderness experience was what the Jews were expecting after they had been freed from bo***ge? They were not expecting to be severely tried but God tried them for 40 years, and most of them failed the test before God permitted them to enter into the promised land of Canaan.
Let us go back to Isaiah 13 where God said He would stir up the Medes against Babylon. The Medes were ruled over by Cyrus, and God says of Cyrus in Isaiah 45:1:
Thus saith JEHOVAH to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him…
The word “anointed” is the word for “Messiah,” so Cyrus is clearly a picture of Christ, and he is the one who took the kingdom of Babylon. Remember, it said in Isaiah 13:17-18:
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
You know, the Bible says that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and the people of God take no pleasure in saying that the door (to heaven) is shut. When we understand the door is shut, it means that God’s salvation is no longer available. That is a hard thing. It says here that when Cyrus (Christ) and the Medes take Babylon they have no pity on the fruit of the womb or children.
Then it goes on to say in Isaiah 13:19-20:
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew S***m and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited…
That confirms it. God has followed the same pattern. In the burden of Babylon, God is discussing Babylon throughout the chapter, and He confirms in verse 19 that when we are reading about the punishment of the world, it is the punishment of Babylon. We will see as go on in our study why this is so important because Babylon is punished after the Great Tribulation, and those are the days we are currently living in after that tribulation.
Let us read, again, Jeremiah 50:1:
The word that JEHOVAH spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
I just want to mention that the Chaldeans are the people that inhabit Babylon. They are one and the same as the Babylonians. Remember that Abram came out of Ur of the Chaldees, which is basically Babylon. That was a historical prefigure of what God intended to do when He would command His people to flee Babylon. We find the Chaldeans mentioned in Jeremiah 21:4:
Thus saith JEHOVAH God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.
Also, it says in Jeremiah 21:7-9:
And afterward, saith JEHOVAH, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy. And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith JEHOVAH; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.
The Chaldeans are synonymous with Babylon, and God commanded us to leave Judaea and flee to Babylon. This command remains in effect because God never rescinded the command to leave the churches. We all know individuals who have returned to the churches, and that is the last thing anyone should do because it is the worst place imaginable. The churches remain an “image to the beast,” even though Satan has been deposed from his rule there. When God ended His relationship with Israel, would it have been obedient to go back to temple worship? It would be the same thing if we went back to the churches. God was finished with the nation of Israel, and then God ended His relationship with the New Testament churches, and they are no longer His representatives on the earth. Going back to the churches would be like going back to the synagogues. We were called to go out into the world, and that is where we must remain until the Lord takes us to heavenly Jerusalem above.
Let us look at one more verse that mentions Chaldeans in Jeremiah 22:25:
And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Whenever we see Chaldeans, or Chaldees, we can think of Babylon because they are one and the same.
It says in Jeremiah 50:2:
Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken,
If God is indicating that Babylon represents the world, and if His judgment comes upon them after the Tribulation, then the Lord is speaking to us. What is He telling us to do? “Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken.” Talk about a strong emphasis! Perhaps we need to hear it because we have been “sitting back,” as it were, and we have been quiet for a while after May 21, 2011. I am sure that was all part of the Lord’s plan but believers are always called upon to share truth, and that is one reason we want to continue to publish the teachings of the Bible.
Secondly, we are called upon in these days to “feed the sheep.” The sheep are the elect, and they are a great multitude that is found all over the world. Do you know who is a sheep? Previously, we never knew who the elect of God were in the day of salvation, so we published the Gospel to all the world so that God could seek and find His lost sheep. Now Christ commands us to feed His sheep. We do not know who they are or where they are located, so we must publish the truth, including the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. We publish these things to the world so that they hear, and the elect among the nations will be fed. There is no way around that, and God is emphasizing this in a big way when He says, “Declare ye among the nations…”
The word “declare” is found in Isaiah 48:20-21:
Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, JEHOVAH hath redeemed his servant Jacob. And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
Again, this is in the context of going forth from Babylon. By the way, this relates to salvation as we “leave the world” when God brings us safely into the sheepfold. Or we can picture Noah and his family entering the ark. They left the world for the safety of the ark. When God says, “Go ye forth of Babylon,” it has to do with becoming saved. We were to seek the Lord before the day of His anger came upon us.
It said, “Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth.” God is telling us in four different ways to emphasize that we are to declare these things.
Regarding this word “publish” in Jeremiah 50:2, we also see this word used in Esther 1 where Vashti was commanded to no longer come before the king. It says in Esther 1:20-22:
And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small. And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan: For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people.
It is evident that God means “to be published” is to be made known and shared with others.
We also see the word “standard” in Jeremiah 50:2. This word was also used in Isaiah 13, which we read previously. It says in Isaiah 13:1:
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
In our passage in the context of the Lord describing the judgment upon Babylon, He is says to lift up a banner, or standard, and it is to be displayed upon the high mountains, as it were, so everyone can see it.
Finally, it says in Jeremiah 50:2 to “conceal not,” and these words are found in Job 6:10:
Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.
We are not to conceal the Word of God. We are not to hide it. We are to do the opposite, and we are to share it as widely as possible.
Let us turn to one more place. I am still looking into this, but I just want to share an idea that you may have heard before, but we want to look at it in the light of this. It says in Revelation 10:7:
But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound…
By the way, the word “begin” should be translated as “about.” It is the same word used in Revelation 10:4:
… I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
Did he write? No. He was about to write. He had put pen to paper, and God told him not to write.
So in Revelation 10:7 the seventh angel was about to sound, and then it goes on to say in Revelation 10:7-8:
…the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
It said earlier in Revelation 10:2:
And he had in his hand a little book open…
The Greek tense indicates that it should be translated as “having been opened…” This indicates that the book, which is the Bible, has already been opened, which God did at the beginning of the Great Tribulation. Then it says in Revelation 10:9-10:
And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
The book is the Bible. We can understand why it is in our mouth as sweet as honey. God likens His Word to honey. And it is sweet, no matter what we read. All scripture is wonderful and beautiful to the true believer, whether it is talking about God’s love or God’s wrath because we love the Word of God. On the other hand, why was it said to make his belly bitter? What normally comes out of the belly? Look at John 7:37-38:
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
When the believers shared the Gospel throughout most of history, we could expect that God might bless His Word to one person or another, and He would save certain ones. It was “living water.”
But in Revelation 10 it was honey in his mouth but it made his belly bitter. We read in Revelation 8:11:
And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
The water of the Word of the Gospel is being described in Revelation 8. Why did they later become bitter? It is because God judged the churches and congregations by removing His Holy Spirit, and He took away the power of the Bible to save within the churches. The waters within the congregations became bitter water, and no one could become saved there throughout the 23 years when God was judging the congregations during the Great Tribulation period.
The waters became bitter. John was told to eat the book, the true Word of God. It is honey in our mouths, but in our bellies it is bitter because we realize that God has shut the door of heaven. There are no more glorious rivers of water in desolate lands. The waters have dried up, and there is no more salvation for the people of the earth.
It says in Revelation 10:11:
And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
In the context of our bellies being bitter, God says to prophesy again, and that fits with what we read in our verse in Jeremiah 50:2
Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not…
