“For the time is surely coming when I will punish this great city and all her idols. Her whole land will be disgraced, and her dead will lie in the streets. The heavens and earth will rejoice, for out of the north will come destroying armies against Babylon,” says the Lord.
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Babylon was destined to fall. Even though Babylon’s final demise was years in the future, Jeremiah could see through his prophetic eye that the time for Babylon’s fall had come (Jeremiah 51:13). God had used Babylon to destroy Jerusalem, and for many years the Babylonians ruled over the Jews to the glory of their false god. Now the time had arrived for the Medes to be stirred up to attack the seemingly invincible city of Babylon. History records that the Medes diverted the Euphrates River, which ran through the city of Babylon, and were able to penetrate the massive city walls in one night. When God gets ready to judge a proud nation, the curtain of history has closed for them! John the Revelator foretold the same collapse for the future economic empire called Babylon: “How terrible, how terrible for Babylon, that great city! In one single moment God’s judgment came on her” (Revelation 18:10). It doesn’t matter how great, lofty, and mighty the world’s empires are—they will all fall before Jehovah God. His awesome power is described this way: “The Lord is king! Let the nations tremble! He sits on his throne between the cherubim. Let the whole earth quake!” (Psalm 99:1). We, too, should tremble, remembering what happened to the great Babylon.