Jeremiah 51 - 33-36

Jeremiah 51:33-36
It is time to thresh the daughter of Babylon (the churches)!
By Brother Mike (6-22-18; 40 minutes)

33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon [is] like a threshing floor, [it is] time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come .
34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out .
35 The violence done to me and to my flesh [be] upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say .
36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry .

INTRODUCTION

In these four verses, Yahweh of hosts first wants us to know that it is time for the Daughter of Babylon, who we will learn refers to all the churches, to be threshed, and that in a little while the time of her harvest will come unto damnation, for Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, who is a picture of Satan, through all the churches, has devoured me, he hath crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a dragon, he has filled his belly with my delicates, he has cast me out. But, who is the me that he has done all these things to? And, what do all these things mean?

Then, we are told that the violence done to me (whoever that is) and to my flesh [be] upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say, and my blood (whoever's blood that is) upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say, for thus says Yahweh; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. But, once again, who is the me that has endured the violence? And, exactly what do all these things mean for us today?

As we explore the answers to these questions and more, may our Lord, Jesus Christ, lift us to that higher place in Him where all our earthly problems disappear, and where we can see what He wants us to see. Amen.

Verse 51:33:

33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon [is] like a threshing floor, [it is] time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come .

In this verse, we first read, For thus saith the LORD of hosts. Here, the word translated as LORD is the word Yahweh. Although we cannot be 100% positive that the vowels "a" and "e" in the word Yahweh are the correct ones since the original Hebrew text did not reveal the vowels, we do know that they are, at least, a good educated approximation. So, we will assume that the vowels are correct, and pronounce the word as Yahweh. Yahweh is the personal name for God, and it is used more often than any other word in the Bible to refer to God. Therefore, it should hold a special place when it comes to naming our Lord God. Yes, His name is Jesus, Christ, Yeshua, in Hebrew, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit (see doctrine of the Trinity ), Lord, the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley, Prince of Peace, Almighty God, and a whole slew of other names, but His most used and personal name in the Bible is Yahweh. As I said, we know not the pronunciation of Yahweh with absolute certainty do to a lack of certainty on the vowels, but its consonants, YHWH, are certain, and we know that Yahweh is, at the least, a good educated approximation of the pronunciation of these four consonants as written.

Now, getting back to our verse, it reads, For thus saith Yahweh of hosts. The word translated as hosts can be translated as armies, and it refers not only to the armies of all the nations that He is ultimately sovereign over, but also to the armies in the spiritual realm, namely the elect on earth and in heaven, the celestial angels, and the principalities and powers. In the context of our verse, the word hosts is being used to emphasize that Yahweh is coming against Babylon, and He is the God of armies, so what Yahweh is about to say holds a lot of weight and must be listened to, for He is the God of all armies, and if you don't listen, you could so easily be destroyed.

And, not only is Yahweh the God of armies or hosts, but we read that He is the God of Israel. Spiritually, this means that He is the God of the elect who are all eternally saved in Jesus Christ, and this is most encouraging to us: to know that our God is the God of all armies both in heaven and on earth is most comforting to us when it comes to His being able to protect us and fight on our behalf. Indeed, no wonder why the apostle Paul could say the following in Romans 8:38-39:

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come ,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord .

Now, continuing with our verse, we read, The daughter of Babylon [is] like a threshing floor, [it is] time to thresh her. With respect to this verse, the first question we have is who is the daughter of Babylon? As we search the Bible, we read in Isaiah 47,

Isa 47:1 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate .

Notice that the daughter of Babylon is called a virgin. This gives us a tremendous clue as to who the daughter of Babylon is. The only ones who are ever called virgins in the Bible are God's very own people whether saved or not. Remember the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. Five of the virgins were wise, and the other five were foolish. The wise virgins represent the saved Christians while the foolish virgins represent the unsaved Christians or false Christians. These false Christians are all those who are now found in all the churches; who did not obey the Lord to depart out from their church. So, when Isaiah 47:1 says, Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, we can know that the daughter of Babylon here is referring to all those false Christians who are now in all the churches. And, when our current verse says, The daughter of Babylon [is] like a threshing floor, [it is] time to thresh her, we know that it is saying that all the churches where the false Christians now dwell are like a threshing floor, it is time to thresh them. Yes, the daughter of Babylon is all the churches, and they have been being threshed ever since Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011.

But, what does it mean that all the churches (the daughter of Babylon) are being threshed? Literally, for the grains to be threshed was to beat the grains free from their stocks, which could then be separated out for use. This is a picture of what is happening to all the unsaved people of Babylon including all the churches: they are being beaten with the message that they can no longer be eternally saved, and this is separating them out and preparing them to be burned in the fires of the harvest of the Last Day of Judgment Day in which we now find ourselves when they will all be destroyed forever, for all those who are in the graves and unsaved, and all those who still remain and are unsaved will be brought forth unto eternal damnation by annihilation while all those who are in the graves and saved, and all those who still remain and are saved will be brought forth in new incorruptible and eternal bodies fit to live forever in the new heaven and earth to be created from the ashes of this earth on the Last Day. So, in this way, this present earth will abide forever, but will be transformed incorruptible into a new heaven and earth to house the elect in glory for forevermore.

Now, our verse continues, yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. Indeed, right now ever since May 21, 2011, the daughter of Babylon [all the churches] is like a threshing floor, for it is time to thresh her, and she is being threshed by the message of no more eternal salvation. But, yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. That is, after all the churches are done being threshed for a little while, then the time of their harvest will come when they will all be harvested unto damnation on the Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in. In that day, each individual grain (unsaved person) that was threshed or beaten from the stock by the message of no more eternal salvation will now be brought forth to perish forever in the flames of the fiery wrath of Yahweh; never to exist again. This is the second death because the first death was in Adam when he partook of the fruit. But, the second death is yet to come on the relatively soon to come Last Day of the Day of Judgment in which we now find ourselves. Blessed are they who will not partake in the second death! And, these, of course, are the elect who do not partake in the second death, but who partake in the second resurrection when those who are in the graves and saved, and those who still remain and are saved unto the Last Day will be resurrected into new glorious and eternal bodies. This is the second resurrection, and the first resurrection was when the elect were first born again or born from above, which insured that they would be a part of the second resurrection, which is yet to come on the relatively soon to come Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in.

Verse: 51:34:

34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out .

Here, we first read, Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon has devoured me. Historically, this is the Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in 587 BC as judgment against Yahweh's own people for their having run after false Gods. But, spiritually, Nebuchadnezzar typifies Satan himself who came up against all the Christian churches beginning on May 21, 1988 and continuing until May 21, 2011, and spiritually destroyed them with false gospels and teachings. So, when we read, Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon has devoured me, it is speaking about Satan's devouring of all the churches during the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011.

But, our verse says, Nebuchadrezzar [Satan] has devoured me. Who is the me that Satan has devoured? Since Yahweh is doing the talking in our verse, we would think that the me is Yahweh Himself. But, then, we would be saying that Satan has devoured Yahweh. Is that true? Absolutely! During the Great Tribulation, Satan did spiritually devour Christ (Yahweh) in all the churches worldwide with his false gospels and teachings. These false gospels and teachings replaced the true gospel, Jesus Christ, and they led all the churches into false gospels and false Christs which could not save but could only keep the people bound in their sins for death.

But, if the me that Nebuchadrezzar [Satan] has devoured refers to Christ in all the churches, it also refers to the elect. We can see this in the next verse, which says,

35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say . . .

Notice that it is the inhabitant of Zion that will say, the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon. Spiritually, we know that the inhabitant of Zion is the elect, so when we read, the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, the me to whom the violence has been done refers to the elect. So, getting back to our verse, when it states that Nebuchadrezzar [Satan] has devoured me, it means that Satan has devoured Christ, yes, but also that Satan has devoured the elect, and, of course, this is speaking about when Christ and the elect were spiritually devoured in the churches during the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011. They weren't physically devoured, but they were spiritually devoured with false gospels and teachings, which replaced the true gospel in all the churches, and Christ and the elect were spiritually killed by being silenced, ignored, looked down upon, and, even cast out. But, the elect were soon commanded to depart out from all churches to escape the spiritual judgment and wrath of God that had come upon all Christian churches (see Why leave all churches? ).

Now, continuing with our verse, it gives six different descriptions of what Nebuchadnezzar (Satan) spiritually did to Christ and the elect in the churches during the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011: he devoured me [them], he crushed me [them], he swallowed me [them] up like a dragon, he filled his belly with my [their] delicates, and he cast me [them] out. The first question that arises is, why are there six different descriptions of what Satan spiritually did to Christ and the elect during the Great Tribulation? Since the number 6 symbolizes works (see number 6 ), we have six descriptions to emphasize that Satan used his works gospels to do all those six things to Christ and the elect. The first thing mentioned that he did was devour Christ and the elect. The word translated as devour can also be translated as consume or destroy. So, we can say that Satan devoured, consumed, or destroyed the elect, and the way he did this was to spiritually kill them by silencing them in the churches and magnifying his false gospels and teachings. Then, second, we are told that Satan crushed the elect. This word translated as crushed can be translated as discomfited, disturbed, or vexed. So, we can say that Satan crushed, discomfited, disturbed, or vexed the elect, and, this had to do with how the false gospels and teachings of the churches vexed, disturbed, or discomfited the elect. Then, third, we read that Satan made Christ and the elect an empty vessel. Or, we could say that Satan made them a vain or purposeless vessel because they no longer played a role in getting out the true gospel in the churches, but, instead, they were silenced (spiritually killed) so that their work in the churches became in vain or empty. Then, fourth, we read that Satan swallowed up Christ and the elect like a dragon. Obviously, he swallowed them up like a dragon because he is represented as a dragon in the Bible. Then, fifth, we read that Satan filled up his belly with the delicates of Christ and the elect. The delicates of Christ and the elect are blessings that stem from the Word of God. We read in Genesis 18,

Ge 18:12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure [delicates], my lord being old also ?

Here, Sarah, Abraham's wife, speaks of the pleasure or delicates that she would receive by giving birth to Isaac as foretold by the Word of God. So, her delicates or pleasure (the baring of Isaac in her old age) could be defined as blessings that stemmed from the Word of God. Also, we read in Psalm 36,

Ps 36:8 They [the children of men] shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures [delicates] .

Here, the river of thy pleasures or delicates is symbolic of the river of the gospel going forth with all the blessings that come from it. So, once again, we could define delicates as blessings which stem from the gospel or Word of God.

And, now, returning to our verse, when it says that Satan filled his belly with the delicates of Christ and the elect, we know we are being told that Satan filled his belly with the blessings that come from the Word of God or gospel during the Great Tribulation when he ruled over all the churches and brought into them his false gospels and teachings. Then, sixth and final, we read that he [Satan] has cast me [Christ and the elect] out. This has to do with when Satan spiritually killed Christ and the elect during the Great Tribulation by silencing them in all the churches in whatever way they could. It was tantamount to casting them all out because they could no longer bring the truth in the churches as if they were no longer in them but had been cast out. And, indeed, in some cases, they were physically cast out of the Church.

Verse 51:35:

35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say .

In this verse, we first read, The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say. We already mentioned this verse earlier in our study, but let's look at it a little more closely. First, the word translated as violence can be translated as wrong or injustice. So, our verse can read, The wrong [injustice] done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say. Also, the word translated as me refers to the inhabitant of Zion since it is they who are to say, the wrong [injustice] done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon. Furthermore, since the inhabitant of Zion spiritually refers to the elect, we are being told that the wrong [injustice] done to [the elect] and to [their] flesh be upon Babylon. And, what is the wrong or injustice that was done to the elect and their flesh? Well, it was the wrong or injustice done to them during the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011. During that time, they were spiritually killed by being silenced in all the churches worldwide. They were looked down upon, shunned, and ignored in all the churches, and this spiritual killing of the elect was as if they had all been cast out of their own church as they no longer had any influence over what was being taught in their church.

But, if the wrong done to me and to my flesh refers to the wrong done to the elect and their flesh, it also refers to the violence done to Christ and His flesh. Indeed, if the elect were spiritually killed and so silenced in all the churches, so was Christ as He dwelt in the elect, which means that if the elect were spiritually killed, so was Christ. Yet, our verse says that the wrong was also done to Christ's flesh. How can this be since Christ was only present in the elect as a Spirit and not as flesh? Well, this is because the flesh of Christ is the bodies of the elect so that to harm or wrong the elect is one and the same as harming or doing wrong to Christ. We, the elect, are His flesh and blood. We are the living temple which houses Christ by the Holy Spirit that is in us. So, to wrong us in any way is to wrong Christ Himself. And, since we were greatly wronged in all the churches during the Great Tribulation by being spiritually killed and so silenced and cast out through the power of Satan, so was Christ greatly wronged in all the churches by also having been spiritually killed and cast out. Christ and the elect cannot be separated. What happens to one, happens to the other. And, what happens to the other, happens to the one. We are eternally inseparable from Christ, and He from us.

Now, our verse continues, and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. Here, since we are now in Judgment Day, the sentence, shall Jerusalem say is better translated in the present tense as, is Jerusalem saying. So, it is Jerusalem that is now saying, and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea. Furthermore, it is commonly known that Jerusalem spiritually refers to the elect. Therefore, it is the elect who are now saying in Judgment Day that my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea. And, why is the elect's blood to be upon Chaldea? Well, because it was the false Christians (spiritual Chaldea) that were used by Satan and his demons to spiritually kill the elect during the spiritual Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011 even as the ancient Chaldeans killed God's chosen people, the Israelites, during the ancient Great Tribulation from 609 BC to 539 BC. So, the elect's blood is to be upon the false Christians who now reside in all the churches because it was these Chaldeans that were a part of spiritually killing the elect in all the churches during the Great Tribulation. This is why that Yahweh's wrath has now come upon all the churches ever since Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011: it is because the elect were spiritually killed by the false Christians who now abide in all the churches so that God's wrath has now come upon these false Christians by their now not having any possibility of being eternally saved, and by their soon destruction to come on the Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in.

Verse 51:36:

36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry .

Here, we first read, Therefore thus says the LORD. As usual we will translate the word translated as LORD as Yahweh for reasons discussed in the first verse of this study. So, it reads, Therefore thus says Yahweh. Knowing that Yahweh is about to speak to us should motivate us to pay very close attention.

Then, we read, Behold, and we are once again reminded to tune in and pay very careful attention to what Yahweh is about to say.

Then, we read, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee. And, of course, we are speaking about the cause of the elect. And, the cause of the elect is that those who spiritually destroyed the churches - the kingdom of Satan including all the false Christian who now abide in all the churches - receive their just reward for the evils that were inflicted upon the elect and all the churches during the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011. And, what were the evils inflicted upon the elect and all the churches during the Great Tribulation? Why, they were overcome with false gospels and teachings, and the elect were spiritually killed (silenced) from being able to bring the truth. Yes, the elect were shunned, ignored, looked down upon, and even spiritually, or, in some cases, physically, cast out from the churches that Christ gave his life for to create. But, now, ever since Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011, Yahweh is pleading the cause of the elect, and taking vengeance on all the churches for the elect.

But, what is the vengeance that Yahweh has brought against all the churches? The answer to this question is given in the rest of our verse. It reads, and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. Let's first look at the sentence, and I will dry up her sea, and then we will look more closely at the sentence, and make her springs dry. To understand what the sentence, and I will dry up her sea means, we must know what the sea in the Bible symbolizes. And, when we search this word out in the Bible, we find that the sea symbolizes the world itself, or the unsaved people of the world. For instance,

Ps 98:7 Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein .

And,

Isa 57:20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt .

So, since the word sea symbolizes the world, when our verse says, and I will dry up her sea, it means that Yahweh will dry up Babylon's world, and to dry it up means to take away any of Babylon's water. The water of Babylon, of course, typifies eternal salvation so that to dry up Babylon's world is to take away from her world eternal salvation. This is how Yahweh has taken vengeance upon all those who have remained in all the churches: He has removed eternal salvation from their midst so that none can any longer be eternally saved. He has dried up Babylon's sea.

Yet, we not only read that Yahweh will dry up her sea, but He will also make her springs dry. Now, springs are places from where the waters gush forth so that to dry up Babylon's springs is the same as saying that no water is any longer gushing forth for Babylon (for the world and all the churches). And, since as we said before: that the water is symbolic of eternal salvation, to dry up the springs is to dry up eternal salvation. So, once again, we are being taught that eternal salvation would end for those who are in the churches and the world when Yahweh dries up Babylon's sea, and makes her springs dry, which we know took place on May 21, 2011. We have here, then, in this verse, more evidence that eternal salvation has ended for all those in the churches and the entire world.

CONCLUSION

We were first told that the Daughter of Babylon, who we found refers to all the churches, is like a threshing floor, and it is time to thresh her, which we have been doing as we proclaim judgment against all the churches with the removal of any possibility for their eternal salvation. Then, we were shown why it is time to thresh all the churches: it is because Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, who typifies Satan himself, used all the unsaved in the churches to spiritually destroy Christ and the elect in them during the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011. There are six things listed that Satan did to Christ and the elect during this time to emphasize that he overcame them with a works gospel with false teachings. He also spiritually killed both Christ and the elect by silencing them from bringing truth in all the churches. It was as if Christ and the elect had been cast out from the churches because they no longer had any influence on what was being taught.

Then, as a result, the elect were to say, the wrongs done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, which meant that Babylon (all the churches) and the inhabitants of Chaldea (all the false Christians in all the churches) would be responsible for the wrongs they had done to Christ and the elect while they were in all the churches, which leads us to our last verse in this study that states, Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee. In other words, Yahweh will bring vengeance upon all the churches for the wrongs that they had done to Christ and the elect. And, what vengeance did Yahweh bring to the churches? We found the answer to this question where Yahweh says, and I will dry up her [Babylon's] sea, and make her [Babylon's] springs dry. This, we found, meant that Yahweh would take eternal salvation away from all the churches. No longer can anyone in a church be saved because Yahweh has dried up her sea and made her springs dry.

Now, until next time, may Yahweh through our Lord Jesus Christ, bless thee, and keep thee: Yahweh make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: Yahweh lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace .