Tonight we're gonna be looking at the remainder of Jeremiah chapter 50. We looked at the first five verses last week, spent 30 minutes really talking about the beginnings of Babylon and how it started and some history about it and several things concerning Babylon. I thought we needed to set up right at the beginning of this. And so like we've said all along, this is the last judgment against Gentile nations that the Lord gives Jeremiah to prophesy about. And it is Babylon. And he spends more time on this particular nation than any other nation that he pronounces judgment upon. Two chapters, two long chapters. In fact, I believe the next book is the longest chapter in Jeremiah, 60-something verses. But tonight, Lord willing, we're going to get through all the rest of these up to verse 46 is the last one. I'm taking several together tonight, so I'm not going to expound upon each individual verse. But we'll get through in good time. But let's look at verse 6 first of all, Jeremiah chapter 50, and this will be part number 54 of our journey through Jeremiah Bible studies. Judgment against Babylon, I guess you'd call this part 2 of that. And we'll have a part three and four of it, I'm assuming. But verse six of Jeremiah chapter 50, the Bible says, My people hath been lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for the reading of your word tonight. Lord, thank you for the good singing, the fellowship. Lord, the family atmosphere that we have here at the church, God, we're so thankful for it. Lord, we ask now that you help us in this Bible studies. We continue through Jeremiah, Lord, that you'll open up the scripture, and Lord, penetrate our heart with it, God, and just let it absorb within us. And God, we thank you and love you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Well, hear the Lord speaking about His people. They were being led around by false prophets, I guess you could call them. He calls them shepherds. He says their shepherds have caused them to go astray. A shepherd that causes you to go astray is a false shepherd. He's a false pastor, he's a false leader, one that causes you to go astray. These have purposely caused God's people to go astray. If you remember early on in our studies when Jeremiah came pronouncing the judgment of the Lord against Judah, he told them that their shepherds or their overseers and their leaders were all telling them they're false prophets, they were all telling them something that wasn't true. And he said, the truth is the Lord is going to destroy this place. The truth is you are going to be taken to captivity. Although these guys were denying all that and saying that Jeremiah was crazy and they had him arrested and everything else. But it turns out that he was exactly right. And he was one of the only prophets of God during that time. There was a few more that we know about, Ezekiel being one. But here the Lord's specifically speaking about those that mislead his people. They've turned them away on the mountains, it says. That's where they would take the sheep. They take them up on the side of the mountain where the grass is good to graze in, and they would enjoy all that. But no, not these shepherds. They've forced them away from there. They're out of their resting place. They've gone up into the hard places. Ezekiel talks about this himself over in Ezekiel 34 and 1, if you want to look at it. Ezekiel 34 and 1, That prophet, he says this, And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool. Ye kill them that are fed, but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick. Neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away. Neither have you sought that which was lost, but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them. And they were scattered because there is no shepherd, and they became meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill, yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them." Ezekiel was prophesying during the same time period as Jeremiah was, and these were the people he was talking about. How these shepherds were looking out for themselves. They weren't looking out for the people at all. Now I know he's using the analogy of sheep and shepherds, he's comparing those, He's speaking about his people and the pastors there being the shepherds of these people. They're in it for themselves. They're getting fat off the land and they're letting the flock starve to death. These shepherds are an Old Testament example of a New Testament elder. The elders, as they're called in the New Testament, or bishops are sometimes called in the New Testament. Here we call them pastors in our church and in most Baptist churches. We don't use elders and bishops really, we say pastors. Well this is a kind of an example of that only in the Old Testament and these shepherds in the days of Jeremiah were just out for themselves and they've led all the people astray. If you remember The Lord, we've already talked about it in Jeremiah already, but the Lord actually promises when he brings his children back, the children back into Judah, allows them out of captivity, he tells them he's going to give them pastors with his heart. Listen to what he said, Jeremiah 3 and 15. He said, I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. Now you can look over and I believe it's 1 Peter chapter 5 and Peter talks about the elders and the leaders of the church and how they're not to be in it for themselves and a filthy lucre and things like that. He speaks about the elders and the pastors of the churches. And listen, you get a false leader in the church, and it'll lead that whole church astray. I've seen it happen time and time again. Good churches used to be really good fundamental churches that stood in the doctrine and preached the right messages and did everything right, and they got a leader come in, and he was a false one. He was one that was more interested in his bank account, more interested in his name being out there, and more interested in building big buildings and things like that instead of feeding the flock. Listen, my number one objective, according to the Bible, to do as a pastor is to feed the flock the Word of God. That is my number one objective above everything else. That is what my job is to do, is to feed the flock the Word of God. And so once you stray out of that, you become a false teacher, a false leader, a false shepherd. And so when you start teaching men's philosophies and doctrines and theologies and the world's theologies, like a lot of churches are doing today, and they're filling those churches up, you can guarantee it. If I can tell you how to get you a bigger bank account or how I can get you a better job or something like that, well, I could fill this place up. telling people how they can improve themselves. You know, everybody wants to improve themselves. Listen, you want to improve yourself, you need to improve your spiritual condition. You need to improve yourself on the Word of God. That's the most important thing. This stuff down here that we enjoy here on this earth, it's all going to be left behind. We're not taking it with us. You're not taking a thing down here with you except for your soul. You're going to meet the Lord. And so we need to be more interested in spiritual and heavenly things and the Word of God than anything else. Verse 7 of our text back in Jeremiah chapter 50 says, All that found them have devoured them, and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers. We'll see what's happened. The Lord pronounced this through his prophets. Jeremiah said, the Lord is going to chasten you because you have sinned against him. And now everybody knows that. All their enemies know that. And so their enemies think, well, since they sinned against the Lord and he's letting them be punished, we'll just go ahead and we'll just have a time with them. I mean, they didn't hold back. Once they found out that these people had sinned against the Lord and that he was allowing this to happen, they really went full force against the children of Israel. They wanted to destroy them. If they couldn't destroy them, they wanted to put them into captivity. They wanted to imprison them and make them prisoners. And so they felt they were being justified to treat them badly since they'd sinned against the Lord. Verse 8 says, Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks. Well this, of course, is a call for the children of Israel and the children of Judah to be able to return back after the captivity is over. Many of them stayed. Many stayed over in the land there of Babylon even after Cyrus came and Cyrus gave the edict that they could leave. Many stayed there. They didn't come back. And so this is the call for them to come back. Be like the leaders, the he-goats of the flock that would lead the others out of there. Verse 9, it says, "'For lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country, and they shall set themselves in array against her. From thence she shall be taken. Their arrows shall be as a mighty expert man. None shall return in vain, and Chaldea shall be a spool. All that spool her shall be satisfied, saith the Lord.'" Well, the Lord here, He's saying He's going to raise up these nations against Babylon. You see, He's used Babylon as His Cup of wrath is what he's used them for his his chastening rod But now that's over with and now he's gonna allow their enemies to come in from the north the Medes and the Persians led by of course King Cyrus Cyrus he was a leader now Cyrus was a He was a real destroyer too. And so he's allowing them to come in and invade that country and make spool of it and And he says their arrow shall be as a mighty expert man. They're going to come in and just lay waste to that place. Verse 11 says, because you were glad, because you rejoiced, O you destroyers of mine heritage, because you're grown fat as the heifer at grass and bellow as bulls, your mother shall be sore confounded. She that bear you shall be ashamed. Behold, the hintermost of the nation shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert. Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate. Everyone that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished and hiss at all her plagues. Well, like I said, the Lord has been using Babylon as a chastening rod for his people. And they have taken great pleasure in being that chastening rod and destroying them. They took great pleasure in destroying Jerusalem and pulling people into captivity and the murder and everything else that went on in that land. They really enjoyed it, too much enjoyed it. And so because of this, the Lord is going to cause them to be confounded and he's going to turn their land into a wasteland. Look at verse 14. He says but yourselves in array put yourselves in array against Babylon Roundabout all you that bend the bow shoot at her spare no arrows for she sinned against the Lord Shout against her roundabout. She has given her hand her foundations are fallen Her walls are thrown down for it is the vengeance of the Lord take vengeance upon her as she has done Done due unto her cut off the sower from Babylon and him that handled at the sickle in the time of the harvest For fear of the oppressing sword, they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land." Well, this is the call for all those enemies of Babylon. Come. The Lord's calling them all to come in. He says, those that shoot the bow, bend the bow. Come, shoot those arrows. Don't spare any. She has sinned against the Lord. And a shout against her. This is a call for war. And the Lord calls for all them to set their sights on Babylon to completely destroy it. and to spare nothing, give her all she's got, captain. Verse 17, Israel is a scattered sheep. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria has devoured him, and last, this Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has broken his bones. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria. Alright, so the Lord says that his people, Israel, he's speaking about, of course, the northern kingdom at this point because he mentions Assyria like he did the king of Assyria. You see, the northern kingdom was taken into captivity about 125 years before Judah was. The Syrians, they were brutal. They were really, unless you count the Egyptians, they were really the first big world empire. And the Syrians came in and boy, they just lit up on the northern kingdoms. And it was a process of a few years and they went actually through a few kings during that time. But finally, they took the Northern Kingdom, they took them all into Assyrian captivity. And like I said, about 125 years before Judah was done that way. You can read all about that, 2 Kings 17 and 3. The king was Shalmaneser, I believe was his name. Shalmaneser. And he besieged Samaria, which was the land of the Northern Kingdoms. the capital. You know, the capital of the southern kingdoms was Jerusalem, while Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdoms. And he, of course, emptied it and then started filling it up with people out of Babylon. But then 125 years later, the fall of Judah and the captivity of all the inhabitants of that land, and it also was over a source of a few years. It didn't just immediately happen. Nebuchadnezzar tried to work with the king there and have a puppet king on the throne. Of course, he rebelled and tried to get Egypt to come in and fight against the Chaldeans. And so Nebuchadnezzar pulled him off the throne, poked his eyes out, killed his kids, everything else. And so despite the fact that God used these men to punish his people, he's going to punish them for the way they treated his people. They enjoyed it way too much. Verse 19. And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon Mount Ephraim and Gilead. In those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve." Well, this is yet another promise the Lord has given to His people that He would allow them to return to their land. Now this, I believe, to be a double prophecy. I believe He's not only speaking about the time of the captivity, but He's also talking about a future time. A future time when God will allow His people back into their kingdom, when He's going to set up His earthly millennial kingdom here on this earth. And I believe that's a picture of it that He's prophesying about here. and uh... the same thing and we'll see that in a few more instances through the rest of this chapter as well now look at verse twenty one this is go up against the land of marathon even against it and against the inhabitants of picket waste and utterly destroy after them said the lord and do according all that i have commanded the well these cities that he's uh... named off right here these are cities in the syria and babylon And the Lord is actually calling for the Medes and Persians to come down and destroy these places, come against all those lands and those people. And of course their leader, like I've been saying, Cyrus the Great. It seems like every leader was called the Great, wasn't it? Herod the Great, Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great. The reason they're called great is because they did great things, mighty things. It wasn't because they were great great men to be around, because most of them were not. But they did great mighty things, great building projects, great wars, great conquering, things like that. And so they were looked up as great men. Well, Cyrus the Great was just the man to get the job done. Cyrus and his Persian Empire, as they would come down, and it would turn out to be the biggest world empire up to that time in existence. He would conquer every single land that he entered in. And he was forging forth to conquer the entire world. And in essence, he did. He conquered the world. He owned the world until he passed on. And then, of course, Alexander the Great was the next one. He came and Alexander was even greater. And I might have Matthew teach that lesson sometime. He's been working on it, I believe, over the last year about Alexander the Great. We'll talk about that another time. Alright, look at verse 22. It says, "...a sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken? How has Babylon become a desolation among the nations? I've laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon. And thou wast not aware, thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord. The Lord has opened His armory, and has brought forth the weapons of His indignation, for this is the work of the Lord God of hosts in the land of Chaldeans. Come against her from the uttermost border upon her storehouses. Cast her up as heaps and destroy her utterly. Let nothing of her be left. Slay all her bullocks. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe unto them, for their day has come, the time of their visitation." Again, this is more proclamation of destruction that the Lord is going to do. He's caused this to happen, and it happened very suddenly. It was just almost as if it was overnight. The Cyrus came in, and of course we all have read the story in the book of Daniel, and we'll talk about that here in just a second, a little bit more. But before the Babylonians knew it, what had hit them, Cyrus had swept across that country, and he defeated and slaughtered and took everything in his path. Verse 28. The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance of his temple. Call together the archers against Babylon, all ye that bend the bow. Camp against it round about, let none thereof escape. Recompense her according to her work, according to all that she has done, due unto her, for she has been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel. Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord. Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord God of hosts. For thy day has come, the time that I will visit thee. And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him." Well, just as with nearly every single nation in history that you read about that has fallen, it was due to their pride. All through the Bible, I mean, sin is the catalyst behind sin, and I've said it a hundred times, is pride. Pride. Pride was what caused Lucifer to rebel and fall. Pride was what called Adam to take of the fruit, Adam and Eve, to take of that fruit. It was pride behind that, to be lifted up on the same terms as God. They thought they could be equal with God. It was their pride. The murder we read about in the Bible between Cain and Abel, it was pride that caused that to happen because Cain was upset because his brother's sacrifice was accepted and his was not. He was prideful, and so he killed his brother. And all down through the history of man and nations, you'll find that pride was the result and the cause of their downfall. You know what? If we could ever conquer our pride, we could live a pretty good life. I'm afraid we can't do it. We just can't do it. It's that pride that's in everyone. You know, just little things we do in our life, like when that person gets on your bumper going down the interstate, and you get all upset and mad about them, and you want to do something about it, that's your pride. You're puffed up. And you're wanting to say, well, I deserve to be on the road more than you. I don't deserve to be ridden on like that. That's our pride. And pride will cause us to fall. Pride will get us into more trouble than you ever want to be in. Verse 33, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together and all that took them captives held them fast. They refused to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong. The Lord of hosts is his name. He shall thoroughly plead their cause that he may give rest to the land and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. This is my favorite verses in this chapter. This is my favorite ones. All the enemies of Israel had tried to hold on to them. They either wanted to kill them or they wanted to imprison them. They wanted to destroy them. They hated them that much. Well, but the Bible says, but their Redeemer is strong and the Lord of Hosts is His name. You see, nobody can stand before the Lord of Hosts. Nobody can stand before the Redeemer of Israel. Nobody can stand before our Redeemer, friends. I want you to know that today. You know, the devil and the world, they hate you. They hate everything about Christianity. They hate the church. They hate anything that has to do about God. And they would love to destroy you or put you in prison, in captivity. They would love to do that. But you know what? We've got a Redeemer. We've got a Redeemer, and He is strong, and He is the Lord of hosts, and there can nobody stand up against Him. He will destroy them all, and the Bible says, with His sword, as we see in the next verses. Look at the next verses, verse 35. He says, a sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men. A sword is upon the liars, and they shall dote. A sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed. A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her. And they shall become as women. A sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed." You notice all that? One, two, three, four, five mentions of a sword in those three verses. The sword. You see, the Lord has always used the sword as being the ultimate weapon against the enemies of God. Now, it's not always talking about the edge of a sharp sword like we would think of that Matthew collects swords. I don't know if you knew that or not. Don't ever go in his room and scare him because he'll cut your head off. But a sword the Lord uses. But I want you to know the Lord, you know we have available to us every day, we've got our own sword. Do you know we have the word of the Lord right here in our hand? Do you know this right here can do more than we could ever think about using weapons? The word of God is powerful, it's quick. I'll tell you what friends, we've got a weapon here with us, we've got a tool to use and it's a sword. The Lord deals with his enemies with a sword. That's how he would deal with them when he comes back in his second coming. You see, on his second coming, he's not coming back as a little baby in Bethlehem. He's not coming back as a meek and lowly servant. He's not coming back to be spit upon. He's not coming back to be crucified again. He's coming back as a mighty conqueror. You know what he's gonna do? Listen to what the Bible says. Over in Revelation 19, 11, the Bible says, and I saw, this is John speaking. John's seeing this all in a vision the Lord's allowed him to have. And he gets to see what's going to happen in future times and John said this, he said, I saw heaven open and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with the vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, and with it he should smite the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I tell you what, friends, the Lord, when he returns, it's not going to be a pretty sight for those that's never trusted Jesus. Those enemies against God, it's going to be a sword. It's going to be a sword. Further on down there in that same chapter, verse 21, it says, And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, with which sword proceedeth out of his mouth. And all the fowls were filled with their flesh. The very words of Jesus can slay these people, these enemies of God. just from the words of his mouth, the sword of the Lord. Verse 38 says, a drought is upon our stars. We're back in Jeremiah 50. A drought is upon our waters and they shall be dried up for it is the land of graven images and they are mad upon their idols. These Chaldeans, they were so steeped in their idol worship, their pagan disgusting worship style that they did, that they had completely gone mad. That's what he's saying right here. He said they're mad upon their idols. That don't mean they were angry. That means they'd lost their minds. They're mad about their idols. You know what? One of these days, and I've got a message I'm working on, you know what it's called? America mad upon their idols. I've got it. It's coming. Be ready for it. It would suit this country to a T. People get more excited about a football game than they do coming to the house of God. They would rather hear some pervert up on a stage singing some nasty song with bad lyrics than to come in and hear a good hymn. That's just the truth today. They would rather hear some profane nasty pop song, some wicked sex addict, than they would come into the house of God. And that's what's become of America today. You know why? Because it's mad upon their idols. That's what America is. I'm telling you, friends, America is mad. We'll preach that sometime. Verse 39, therefore, the wild beast of the desert with the wild beast of the island shall dwell there and the owl shall dwell therein and it shall be no more inhabited forever. Neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. The Lord will decimate the kingdom of Chaldeans. And it won't even be good enough for human habitation. The Lord is going to destroy it that badly. He says in the next verse there, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, saith the Lord, so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein. And listen, if he starts comparing your destruction with Sodom and Gomorrah, it don't get much worse than that. The only worse place than that that I read about in the Bible is called a lake of fire. And so I want you to know when the Lord starts pronouncing judgment upon a nation and says that, and compares them with Sodom and Gomorrah, then it's bad. And while I'm on the subject, I'm not on the subject, but I am now. What did those churches do when they were watching a Super Bowl in their church and that woman become naked on the screen during the halftime show? What did they do? That happened just a few years ago. I don't know what they did, but I want you to know something. We're not going to be watching those Super Bowls in the church. America and her idols, they're mad on their idols. I'm going to have to preach that sooner than I thought. Verse 41, Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coast of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance. They are cruel and will not show mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle against the old daughter of Babylon. Well, the fierceness of the Medes and Persians is going to be overwhelming to the Chaldeans. It would be like no other enemy they'd ever faced before. Egypt was a pretty good enemy, but I want you to know they paled in comparison to the Persians and the Medes that came down. And these Medes and Persians, they'll show absolutely no mercy at all. No mercy. You know, a lot of times when army comes in and invades, they show mercy upon maybe the women and the children and things like that, and they don't destroy everything. They may leave something behind. No, it's not going to happen this time. They're going to completely wipe that place out. Verse 43, and we get a look at it here. The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble. Anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail." Well, we all know what happened there, don't we? We read about it in the book of Daniel. Over in Daniel, chapter 5, verses 5 and 6, if you remember, Belshazzar, the final king there of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar's been dead for a long time up to that point. But Belshazzar's there, and he's got all his people around, they're throwing a big nasty orgy in the king's palace there, and they go and they get all the elements that they'd taken out of the temple of God, and they start drinking out of them and having their wild parties. And if you remember what happened, there was a hand started writing on the wall, mini-me, teakle, upfarson. And he didn't know what in the world it was, but listen to what the Bible said, Daniel 5 and 5. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another. Friends, that's being a shook up person right there. There's been a few times in my life I've been scared enough my knees knocked together. One was when I saw a bear in the road and I almost hit it and my knees and something in the truck was going like that. But I want you to know when you get so upset your knees are knocking together, you about come undone. Well, the king of Babylon here, Belshazzar, he has come undone. Just like he said in Jeremiah would happen, he waxed feeble and anguish took hold of him and he had pains as a woman in travail. They say that labor pain is pretty severe and the only thing that a man can come halfway to knowing about is if he has a kidney stone, is what they say. I don't know, I've never had one and I don't want one. This king is pretty upset. Look at verse 44. Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swaddling of Jordan, under the habitation of the strong. But I will make them suddenly run away from her. And who is the chosen man that I may appoint over her? For who is like me? And who will appoint me the time? And who is that shepherd that will stand before me? These words are very reminiscent of what we read back in Jeremiah chapter 49 when the Lord was talking about Nebuchadnezzar going up against Edom. He said the same thing, that he was coming up like a lion out of the Jordan. Well, he's using this same terminology referring to King Cyrus now. He's not talking about Nebuchadnezzar, he's talking about Cyrus. Cyrus is coming up from the swelling of the Jordan like a lion. He's coming up on them. A lion is the fiercest animal in the jungle, they say. He's the king of the jungle. That's why he roars and he takes place. Well, this right here I also believe to be Some double prophecy referring to yet another line that we read about in the Bible That will come up against his enemies and that would be the line of the tribe of Judah If you remember John, also in his vision there in the book of Revelation, as he looks and God has a book in his right hand. And there's no one there worthy enough to open the seals of the book. And he begins to weep. And then suddenly they say, hey, John, quit weeping. There is one here. And who is it? It's the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And he comes and takes the book out of God's right hand, and he starts breaking those seals on that scroll. And I tell you what, friends, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, one day, he will come upon their enemies, It's like from the swelling of the Jordan, like a lion. Verse 45, therefore hear you the counsel of the Lord that he hath taken against Babylon and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of Chaldeans. Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out. Surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them. At the noise of the taking of Babylon, the earth is moved and the cries heard among the nations. Well, it says here the Lord has purposed, he's talking about he's purposed his wrath against the Chaldeans. He has purposed in his heart he will have wrath against the Chaldeans. And let me tell you something, the one place you don't want to be is in the purpose of God's wrath. You get in the purpose of God's wrath and there's nothing that can be done for you. That's it. And the Lord in his wrath, and when he purposed against something, friends, you might as well say goodbye to it. Well, Chapter 51 is much like Chapter 50. It's rather long, and we will get through it quickly like we did tonight. We got through that pretty fast, regardless of being 40 verses we went through. But hopefully in the next few lessons we'll get through with it, and then we'll get to Chapter 52, which is kind of a recap of the taking of Jerusalem, which should be interesting, and we'll talk about that in that time. And then we'll move on to a new Bible study, which I'll reveal at that time. All right, well, does anybody, or let's have prayer tonight. Let's come up to the altar.