behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith Jehovah, and [I will send] to 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 I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual wastes.
Judah ignored Jeremiah's warnings for twenty-three years. Now God names the army He will send against her and her neighbours — and He calls its pagan king His own servant.
The judgment is not sudden. It follows a long stretch of patience that Judah spent refusing to listen.
Jeremiah 25 closes this part of the prophecy with a general summary of God's judgments on the earth. He gives the earth into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. God judges Israel first, though He had always held the door open to her. The chapter begins by announcing His judgment on Jerusalem. She had refused to hear the call to repentance He sent her for twenty-three years. Notice here the hardness of the people's heart. They were stubborn in evil, and refused to bow the neck to God's testimony, despite all the trouble God took to warn them.
The word "servant" had belonged to Judah's own king. Here God moves it to Babylon's.
That last phrase, "My servant," is a remarkable word. It was no longer Zedekiah, My servant, but Nebuchadnezzar, My servant. The children of Israel and of Judah were about to lose their special place as His nation too. It was now a question, not of being His servant as a special honour, but merely in providence. Nebuchadnezzar, the idolatrous Gentile, could be His servant in this way as much as anyone else.
The word itself has a wide range in Scripture, and Nebuchadnezzar sits at the far end of it.
Scripture often uses the term "servant" of people God commissions to carry out some special duty for Him. It applies the word to Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David and Job — and even to Nebuchadnezzar, the first great head of Gentile rule (Genesis 26:24; Numbers 12:7; Judges 2:8; 2 Samuel 7:8; Job 1:8; Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 43:10).
The date stamped on this chapter marks a turning point that reaches far past Judah's borders.
Sovereign power over Jerusalem is for now in the hands of the Gentile nations. This state of things began in the days of Nebuchadnezzar with the Babylonian captivity. It dates from the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, when power over men, beasts and birds passed into Nebuchadnezzar's hands as the head of gold (Jeremiah 25:9-11; 27:6-7; Daniel 2:37-38). Those times will run on until the stone cut out without hands breaks in pieces the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
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God names Judah first, and the surrounding peoples follow. That order is itself a principle.
It is a universal principle that God in judgment begins with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house. And if He begins there, where can He stop? It is impossible for Him to pass by His proud enemies. So a judgment follows. It falls first on the nations that had most to do with His people. But it does not stop until He takes in all the kings, kingdoms, and inhabitants of the earth.
God can use a man without approving him. In time He judged every rod He picked up.
God might use Jeroboam to chastise Solomon and his house; He might use the kings of Assyria to chastise Jeroboam's subjects; and He might use Nebuchadnezzar to chastise Judah and its kings. But God has been obliged to judge each of these in turn. These rods of His anger (Isaiah 10:5) were no more faithful to God than the people He used them against.
The desolation announced here has a fixed length. Years later, Daniel read that number in Jeremiah's book.
To Daniel these "books" came as "the word of the Lord." He received Jeremiah's writings as inspired by God, and so authoritative. He accepted them without question. Happy are we if we follow his example and treat our Bible the same way. The passage that affected Daniel so deeply was Jeremiah 25:8-14, where Jeremiah predicted "desolations" lasting seventy years. Daniel must have realized at once that the seventy years had nearly run their course, and that deliverance of some kind was near at hand.
- Cause. God did not act on a sudden mood. Twenty-three years of ignored warnings stand behind this sentence.
- Transfer. "My servant" moves from Judah's king to Babylon's — service as providence, no longer service as honour.
- Reach. Judgment starts at the house that bears God's name, and once it starts there it cannot stop at the border.
- Reckoning. The servant is a tool, and God judges the tool in its turn. Being used by Him guarantees nothing about the user.
- Hope. Seventy years is a measured number. Daniel read it as God's word and saw the end of the desolation written into its start.
And I will cause to perish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
The sentence here falls not on armies or kings but on ordinary life: wedding songs, the grinding of grain, the lamp at night. Why would God take away a nation's simplest joys?
One writer sees Jeremiah 25 as the point the whole book is built around.
In Jeremiah, God has preserved an order which is not chronological. It is not the order of date, but an order beautifully arranged around its central event. Jeremiah 25 sets out that event — the desolation of Jerusalem, when God forsakes His shelter, His earthly centre. All the nations are overthrown as a result, while Babylon rises to supremacy. This is the solemn climax.
The list is deliberately domestic. Not one item in it is military or political.
And now the solemn verdict is announced. The northern power is coming against this land, headed by King Nebuchadnezzar, whom the Lord here calls "My servant" for the first time. He will take all mirth and joy from them; the whole land shall be a desolation, and they shall serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
One writer weighs what losing these sounds means for the land itself.
God would cause all festive occasions to vanish away from the land of His delight, on which His eyes rest continually.
The silence is not arbitrary. It comes at the end of a long stretch of refused warnings, and the reason given is idolatry held onto on purpose.
We have seen the evils of God's people, and of Judah above all, laid bare. They had refused all the patient persistence of God's warnings, which grew more solemn, and they had refused His gracious encouragements too. So, because they chose idolatry and held to it, He announces their fitting punishment at the hand of the king of Babylon. After their seventy years of captivity, the Lord must deal with the one who punished them, and with no such limit as He set for Judah. Had the instrument of divine judgment lifted itself up in pride? Then it must surely be judged itself, without mercy.
The title God gives this king is startling. Judah's own king loses it, and a foreign, idol-worshipping ruler receives it.
It was no longer Zedekiah, My servant, but Nebuchadnezzar, My servant. The children of Israel and of Judah were about to lose their special place as His nation too. It was now a question, not of being His servant as a special honour, but merely in providence. Nebuchadnezzar, the idolatrous Gentile, could be His servant in this way as much as anyone else.
God sets a time limit on the silence. One reader of Jeremiah found that limit and acted on it.
After seventy years it would be God's mind that they should return to Jerusalem. This shows how important it is to make sure of the mind of God for us at this moment. It was clearly from these very verses that Daniel gathered God's mind about this return, and it set him praying with his whole heart.
The same list — millstone, lamp, bridegroom and bride — returns in Revelation, over the great city there. One writer reads each item as a strand of what that city offers.
In the sight of men it is an imposing system, called a "great city." There is everything in it to appeal to the natural man. Within it you find the millstone, which speaks of the commerce by which it has enriched men with material wealth. You find the artificial light of the lamp, which speaks of its appeal to natural sentiment. And you find the voice of the bridegroom and the bride, which speaks of natural joy.
- Warning first. The sentence falls only after long patience. Refused warnings and chosen idolatry bring the fitting punishment at Babylon's hand.
- Then silence. God removes normal life, not grandeur: mirth, weddings, grinding, lamplight. These festive occasions vanish from the land His eyes rest on.
- By His servant. The title once worn by Judah's king passes to Nebuchadnezzar. An idolater can be God's servant in providence, though not as a special honour.
- Within a limit. Seventy years is a boundary God sets, not an abandonment. Daniel found that limit and turned it into wholehearted prayer. When it ends, the punisher is judged in turn.
- And again. The same millstone, lamp and wedding voice fall silent over the great city in Revelation — its commerce, its sentiment, its natural joy, all gone.
And this whole land shall become a waste, an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
This verse fixes two things at once: the ruin of Judah, and how long it will last. Two questions press. Why would God hand His own land over to a foreign king? And why seventy years?
Jeremiah warned and pleaded through the last days of the kingdom. When the sentence came, it carried an exact length.
Jeremiah prophesied during the closing days of the kingdom. He kept warning his people that the coming judgments were certain. He kept pleading with them to repent and humble themselves before the God whose anger they had provoked by their wickedness and folly… First, Cyrus is named long years before he was born into this world. Later, while announcing the coming captivity of the people, Jeremiah proclaims the exact length of their exile.
In this chapter God calls the king of Babylon His own servant. That title had belonged to someone else.
It is a remarkable word. It was no longer Zedekiah, My servant, but it was Nebuchadnezzar, My servant. The children of Israel and of Judah were about to lose their special place as His nation, too. It was now a question, not of being His servant as a special honour, but only in providence. Nebuchadnezzar, the idolatrous Gentile, could be His servant in this way as much as anyone else.
Commentators see this handover as the start of a long era, not a passing episode. The Gentiles are the nations outside Israel.
The times of the Gentiles began with Nebuchadnezzar. God allowed him to make Israel pay tribute. He dethroned Judah's king and carried the people away captive. From then until the Lord comes to reign, "the times of the Gentiles" run their course. It is worth seeing why God allowed this. It began because of Israel's idolatry. It continued later because of their great sin in rejecting their Messiah.
"These nations" puts Judah in the same sentence as the peoples around it. God's judgment starts with His own, and then it spreads.
It is a universal principle that God in judgment begins with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house. And if He begins there, where can He stop? It is impossible for Him to pass by His proud enemies. So this judgment falls first on the nations that had most to do with His people. But it does not stop until He takes in all the kings, kingdoms, and inhabitants of the earth.
There is another reason the land had to lie empty. The law gave the land a rest year, one in every seven, and Israel never kept it.
There is no record of the Sabbatical year or the year of Jubilee ever being kept. Leviticus 26:34-35 predicts what would happen if the Israelites did not let the land keep its sabbaths. It reads almost like a prophecy: the land would lie desolate because it did not rest in its sabbaths. Jeremiah 25:11-12, Jeremiah 29:10 and Daniel 9:2 give the actual desolation as seventy years. The land was to have rested one year in every seven. So the 70 years answer to 70 × 7 = 490 years… It seems that in this, as in everything else, they failed to obey. But the Jubilee will be made good to them in grace when they own their Messiah.
God set the length Himself. Both ends of the number matter.
Jehovah measured the stay of seventy years in Babylon. It was long enough to complete His chastening. It was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and to leave room for a greater display of Himself.
One man in exile took his comfort from that limit.
Daniel is acting here in faith. He had the comfort of knowing more. When God pronounced the judgment of captivity on His people, He had also declared its limit. Jeremiah had predicted that it would last seventy years. He had also predicted that afterwards God would judge Babylon by the hand of Cyrus. So Daniel was wrapped up in the interests of the people of God, and his thoughts were on this promised deliverance.
- Cause. Israel's idolatry brought the sentence. Jeremiah warned and pleaded for years before it fell.
- Instrument. The title "My servant" passes from Judah's king to Nebuchadnezzar. Rule moves into Gentile hands, and the times of the Gentiles begin.
- Measure. Seventy years matches the seventy rest years the land never got. God collected in one stretch what Israel withheld across 490 years.
- Limit. The number is mercy inside judgment: long enough to do the chastening, short enough to show His tenderness.
- Result. God's stated limit gave Daniel something firm to hold in exile. And the judgment in this chapter runs past Babylon to all the kings and nations of the earth.