Jeremiah 51 - 37-40

Jeremiah 51:37-40
Babylon has become heaps!
By Brother Mike (7-7-18; 40 minutes)

37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant .
38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps .
39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD .
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats .

INTRODUCTION

In these verses 37-40 of Jeremiah 51, we learn that Babylon (the world and all churches - remember all churches can now be called Babylon because they were given over to Satan as judgment against them on May 21, 1988 according to the proven Biblical Calendar ) has become heaps. It has become a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. What does this mean that Babylon has become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment and an hissing without inhabitant?

Then, we read that they [Babylon] roar together like lions: they yell as lions' whelps. Why are they said to do these things even though they have been made heaps? You would think that if Babylon has been made heaps (a pile of dead corpses covered over by stones) that they would not be able to roar together like lions, or yell as lions' whelps. So, why is Babylon said to roar together like lions: to yell as lions' whelps?

Then, we read that in their heat I [Yahweh] make their feasts, and I [Yahweh] make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD. What does this all mean for Babylon?

And, finally, we read that Yahweh will bring Babylon down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats. What in the world does this mean?

These are some of the questions that we will answer, and more, during this study. May our Lord accomplish in us what He had predestined from before the foundation of the world, knowing that what He has begun in us, He will complete unto the end. Amen!

Verse 51:37:

37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant .

In this verse, we first read, And Babylon shall become heaps. The word translated as shall in the sentence, And Babylon shall become heaps does not exist in the Hebrew, but was translated as such because, at the time of translation, it was obvious that Babylon would become heaps in the future, so the future tense, shall, was assumed and it was translated, And Babylon shall [in the future] become heaps. But, now that we are in that time when Babylon has become heaps, we can translate our sentence, And Babylon has become heaps. The word translated as heaps refers to a pile or heap of stones used to cover the dead (Joshua 7:26; 8:29; 2Samuel 18:17), and in that we read that Babylon has become heaps is just another way of saying that Babylon has become a ruin. We read in Isaiah 25,

Isa 25:2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built .

And, we read in 2Kings 19,

2Ki 19:25 Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps .

Notice in the first verse that an heap is further defined as a ruin as we read, For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin. And, in the latter verse, fenced cities that should be made into heaps are to be made into ruinous heaps as we read, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore, we see clearly that heaps are symbolic of ruin so that when our verse says, And Babylon has become heaps, it means that Babylon has become a ruin, which we know has taken place ever since May 21, 2011 when Judgment Day began, and all possibility of becoming eternally saved in Jesus Christ came to an end. Indeed, ever since then, Babylon has become a heaps or ruin because none can any longer be eternally saved, which means that they are all now guaranteed to remain spiritually dead in Adam, and that they are all now soon to perish on the relatively soon to come Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in. Yes, Babylon has now become a spiritual ruin, and they will relatively soon become a physical ruin as well, destroyed in the fires of annihilation on the Last Day of the Day of Judgment in which we now find ourselves.

Now, not only has Babylon become a heaps or ruin ever since Judgment Day began, but it has become, we read, a dwelling place for dragons as well. The word dragons can be translated as serpents, and serpents, in the Bible, symbolize the evil demonic beings and powers in the spiritual realm, and the people through whom they work. For instance, we read in Luke 10,

Luke 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name .
18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven .
19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you .
20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven .

And, again, we read of the scribes and pharisees in Matthew 23,

Mt 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell ?

So, we can conclude that serpents refer to evil spirits whether demonic or human, and when our verse says that Babylon has become a dwelling place for dragons, it means that this world including all the churches has become a dwelling place for evil spirits both demonic and human. And, indeed, this is what we find in Revelation 18:2,

2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird .

Now, we are further told in our verse that Babylon has become an astonishment, and an hissing. The word translated as astonishment can be translated as desolation, appalment, or even horror. So, our verse can read that Babylon has become a desolation, an appalment, or an horror. The idea is that this world and all the Christian churches (Babylon) has become a desolation, an appalment, or an horror in that no one in them can any longer be eternally saved through Jesus Christ ever since Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011. It is a horrific and terrible thing because now everyone of Babylon is guaranteed to remain spiritually dead in Adam, and everyone of Babylon is now certain to perish on the relatively soon to come Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in.

But, we are told that Babylon (this world including all churches) has also become an hissing, and what this means we find in Jeremiah 19 where we read in verse 8,

Jer 19:8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof .

That is, this world including all the churches (Babylon) has now become an hissing in that as we look at their situation and see that they now have no eternal hope but only sure and soon destruction, we hiss in horror with exhaled breath as billions of people will never experience eternal life, but they will all relatively soon be destroyed forever for their sins in the fires of annihilation on the Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in.

Now, finally, in our verse, we are told that Babylon has become without inhabitant. How can this be? I mean, we don't see the world and all the churches (Babylon) having no people in them. So, how can it be said that Babylon has become without inhabitant? Well, like so much of the Bible, we need to see things spiritually. And, when we do this, we realize that all those of this world including all the churches are now already spiritually dead in Adam. So, spiritually, none of them are living, which is why none of them can be said to be inhabiting Babylon, for only a living person can inhabit a place while the dead can inhabit nothing as they are considered to nonexist. So, spiritually, Babylon is already without inhabitant, but physically it currently has billions of inhabitants. Yet, because these physical inhabitants will relatively soon be destroyed on the Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in, Babylon can already be considered without physical inhabitant as well as without spiritual inhabitant as our Lord calls those things which be not as though they were (Romans 4:17).

Verse 51:38:

38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps .

Here, we first read, They shall roar together like lions. The word they in the sentence, they shall roar together like lions refers to Babylon in the previous verse, and the word shall in the same sentence, they shall roar together like lions is not in the Hebrew text, but it was written as such in the future tense because, at the time of translation, it was recognized that they would roar together like lions at some time in the future. But, now that we have reached that time in the future during Judgment Day, our verse can be translated as, They roar [presently] together like lions. So, our verse now reads,

38 They [Babylon] roar [presently] together like lions . . .

But, what does it mean that Babylon roars together like lions during Judgment Day that we are now in? Since lions' roars represent the strongest of predators who are out to devour their prey, that they [Babylon] roar together like lions means they are out together to destroy their prey, and their prey has particularly been all the churches ever since the Great Tribulation began on May 21, 1988, and their prey has been the entire world as well. Indeed, they (Babylon) have led all the churches and the world away into false gospels and teachings that cannot eternally save. But, now, as judgment against all the churches and the world for their sins, Yahweh has removed eternal salvation from their midst so that none can any longer be eternally saved. Nevertheless, the lions still roar together to destroy prey in the churches and the world. Yes, the churches continue to propagate their false gospels and teachings as does the world. They roar together like lions even though they are now in Judgment Day, and God's wrath has come upon them. In fact, they are oblivious to God's wrath being upon them, and they know not that they no longer have any hope for eternal salvation. So, they continue to roar like lions even though they have already lost the battle. They have ultimately been out to keep any of the elect from becoming saved, but it is now too late to do this as all of Yahweh's elect have been saved ever since May 21, 2011. Yet, they do not recognize that all the elect have been saved, so they continue to roar like a lion.

And, they (the world including all churches) not only roar like a lion in Judgment Day, but, we read, they yell as lion whelps as well. What is this telling us? Well, since lion whelps are the offspring of lions, and the reason that they yell is usually because they are hungry, we are being told that Babylon (this world including all the churches) is hungry for the milk and food of their mothers. That is, the peoples of the world and all the churches are hungry for the food (the false gospels and teachings) of their mothers (the ones who have been feeding them the false gospels and teachings). So, not only are the lions roaring to devour their prey with false gospels and teachings during Judgment Day that we are now in, but they are yelling to be fed on the false gospels and teachings of their leaders. And, when we look at the churches and the world, this is exactly what we see: we see the lions of the churches (the leaders) still roaring to get out their works gospels and false teachings, and we see the spiritual offspring of the leaders (all the others in the church) still going to church to feed on the false gospels and teachings of their leaders. So, what we see are lions (the spiritual leaders of the churches) spiritually destroying the younger lions (the offspring of the spiritual leaders of the churches) by roaring out false gospels and teachings to them, and we see the younger lions (the offspring of the spiritual leaders of the churches) being spiritually destroyed as they cry out or yell to feed on the false gospels and teachings of the lions (the spiritual leaders of the churches). All this is why the lions (the elect) who follow the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Christ) were commanded to depart out from all churches during the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011 that they not be spiritually destroyed by false gospels and teachings that are so close to the truth, and with signs and wonders, that they could deceive the elect if that were possible as we read in Mark 13:22:

Mr 13:22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect .

Of course, it is not possible to deceive the elect due to the protection we have in Christ, which is why we have long since fled all churches in obedience to our God and Savior (see Why leave all churches? ).

Verse 51:39:

39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD .

In this verse, we first read, In their heat I will make their feasts. The word translated as heat can be translated as hotness, and the verb translated, I will make, can be translated, I appoint. So, our verse reads like this: In their hotness I appoint [make] their feasts. Their hotness has to do with their being zealous and fervently excited about what they believe, and, since their hotness refers to the hotness of what Babylon (the churches) believe, it is referring to the false gospels and teachings of all the churches. Therefore, when our verse says, in their heat I will make their feasts, it is saying that in the zealousness and fervent excitement of all the churches about their false gospels and teachings, Yahweh will make or appoint their feasts. And, their feasts would be those times when each church comes together to feast on their false gospels and teachings. So, we are being told that when all the various churches worship their false gospels and teachings in their zealousness and excitement (their heat), Yahweh will be at their feasts as He is the one who made or appointed them.

Then, as Yahweh is involved in the feasts of the churches, we read, and I [Yahweh] will make them drunken. What an ominous statement! Yahweh is not saying that He would make them physically drunk, but spiritually drunk. That is, what Yahweh has done leading up to and during Judgment Day that we are now in is He has made all the churches spiritually drunken on all their false gospels and teachings. And, they love their false gospels and teachings so much that they want to drink more and more of them so that they have become, indeed, spiritually drunken.

Now, why has Yahweh made all the churches spiritually drunken with false gospels and teachings? We read, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake. That is, Yahweh has made the daughter of Babylon (all the churches) spiritually drunken so that they may rejoice in their false gospels and teachings, yes, but also so that they sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake. In other words, Yahweh has caused all the churches to be spiritually drunken and asleep so that they can no longer discern the truth of what is going on. They are living in their own dream world: they have no idea that the wrath of God abides on them, and they do not recognize that we are in Judgment Day. They also have no insight into the fact that the Church Age has ended; nor that all God's people have been commanded to depart out from all churches. Indeed, they are asleep and drunk on their false gospels and teachings so much so that they think they are saved or being saved even though they are not. It is a sad, sad commentary for all the people in the churches of our day! Nevertheless, it is Yahweh's righteous judgment that has come upon these people because they have run after false Gods and teachings for a very long time, and they deserve what they are getting. And, notice that the sleep that Yahweh has brought upon all the churches is a perpetual sleep. It is not just a sleep for a time, and then it's over, but it is a perpetual sleep; that is, an eternal sleep from which they will never wake. Therefore, the people of the churches are never going to come to their senses; they are never going to see that the Christ they are worshipping is a false Christ. But, they will continue as they are right on up to the Last Day when they will all be destroyed forever for their sins.

Then, finally, our verse wants to make it clear how certain all these things are by saying, saith the LORD, or more literally, saith Yahweh. That is, it is not just a man saying of the churches that In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, but it is God, Almighty and powerful, Himself who makes this pronouncement. So, we can know with absolute certainty that these things would happen to the churches (Babylon), and, now, from our vantage point of being in Judgment Day, we can see that these things have been fulfilled just as our Lord said they would. The churches have, indeed, become drunken on their false gospels and teachings, and they are asleep in their own dream world with no understanding of what is happening in the real world, namely that they are under the wrath of God with no possibility of any of them becoming eternally saved. They continue to rejoice while they sleep an everlasting sleep from which they will never wake.

Verse 51:40:

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats .

Here, once again, we read, I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats. When our verse says, I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, it means that Yahweh would bring Babylon down like lambs to the slaughter during Judgment Day. And, since we are now in Judgment Day, our verse is telling us that Yahweh brings Babylon down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and he-goats ever since Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011. But, why does Yahweh say that He brings them [Babylon] down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and he-goats? Since lambs and rams with he-goats in the Bible were brought down to slaughter to pay for the sins of the Israelites during Old Testament times, for Babylon to be brought down like lambs and rams with he-goats is to be brought down to pay for sins. But, instead of paying for the sins of the Israelites as during the Old Testament times, they must pay for their own sins because, unlike the elect, whose sins were paid by the slaughter and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the people of Babylon have no payment for their sins, so they must pay for their own sins. So, when Yahweh says that He brings Babylon down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats, it means He brings them down to be slaughtered for sins, but these are not the sins of other people, but they are the sins of themselves.

Now, before leaving this verse, we ask the question, how has Yahweh brought Babylon down to slaughter in this Day of Judgment? Well, He has brought eternal salvation to an end for them so that none of the people of Babylon can any longer be eternally saved in Jesus Christ. This means that they are now all guaranteed to remain spiritually dead in Adam, and it also insures that they will all now be destroyed forever on the relatively soon to come Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in. So, in this way, Babylon has been brought down to slaughter like lambs and rams with he-goats to pay for their own sins.

CONCLUSION

We first began this study with Yahweh saying that Babylon has become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. And, we asked the question, what does all this mean? In reply, we first found that for Babylon (for this world including all churches) to become heaps means that they have been ruined as if they have all been destroyed and covered with stones. This is because they are all now guaranteed to remain spiritually dead ever since May 21, 2011, and they are all now certain to perish on the relatively soon to come Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in.

But, we were told that Babylon has not only become heaps in this Day of Judgment, but they have become a dwelling place for dragons. Because the word dragons can be translated as serpents, and serpents in the Bible symbolize evil spirits whether celestial or human, that Babylon has become a dwelling place for dragons means they have become a dwelling place for evil spirits. And, further, since Babylon can represent both the world and all the churches, we are being told that the world and all the churches have become a dwelling place for evil spirits.

Then, we also learned that Babylon (this world including all the churches) has become an astonishment and an hissing. It has become an astonishment because as we spiritually consider the world and all the churches, we are spiritually astonished, appalled or in horror as we realize that they are all certain to be relatively soon destroyed with no hope of eternal life. And, in this respect, they are a desolation, an appalment, and a horror, all possible translations of our word astonishment in our verse. Furthermore, Babylon has become a hissing because as we contemplate Babylon's (the world's and churches') most horrible plight, we exhale in a hiss to express how terrible and horrible it has become for Babylon in this Day of Judgment that we now find ourselves.

And, then, at the end of our verse, we read that Babylon has become without inhabitant, and we wondered how this can be. And, we found that it is so because everyone of Babylon is now spiritually dead, and none of them will ever come to spiritual life again. This means that, spiritually, Babylon is full of dead people, so, spiritually, we can say that Babylon is without inhabitant because they are all spiritually dead, and spiritually dead people are incapable of spiritually inhabiting anywhere. Therefore, Babylon can be said to be without inhabitant.

But, now, in the next verse we are told that Babylon roars together like lions: they yell as lions' whelps. What does this mean? With respect to Babylon referring to all the churches, we found that this meant that the churches would be continuing to propagate and teach (roar out) their false gospels and teachings to the world even during Judgment Day, and those in the churches (Babylon) will continue to yell out like the offspring of lions to be fed by these false gospels and teachings as well.

Then, in the next verse, we read that in their [Babylon's] heat Yahweh would make their feasts, and make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake. This, we found with respect to the churches, meant that in the churches' excitement and zeal (in their heat) for false gospels and teachings, Yahweh would make it to their feastings on these false gospels and teachings, and He would make them spiritually drunk so that they will rejoice, but sleep an everlasting sleep in a dream world in which all seems well when it is not. In their sleep they believe that they are being saved and walking with God, but, in the real world, they are not. And, they will never wake to see the truth, but will perish in their false gospels and teachings on the relatively soon to come Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in.

Then, finally, our last verse read, I [Yahweh] will bring them [Babylon} down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats. This, we found meant that Yahweh brings Babylon (all the churches) down to be slaughtered for their sins ever since May 21, 2011 when Judgment Day began by removing any possibility of any of their eternal salvations. They are now guaranteed to remain spiritually dead, and they are certain to be slaughtered on the relatively soon to come Last Day of Judgment Day that we are now in. Yes, Babylon (all the churches) has been brought down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats because, like them, the churches have been brought down to be slaughtered to pay for sins, but not for the sins of other people, but for their own sins.

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 .