How to Regard Jeremiah 51:39, 57 and Revelation 14:10-11
Jeremiah 51:39; Jeremiah 51:57; Revelation 14:10‑11 • 1 min. read • grade level: 9
Question: How are we to regard such scriptures as Jer. 51:39, 5739In 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. (Jeremiah 51:39)
57And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts. (Jeremiah 51:57), Rev. 14:10, 1110The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:10‑11)? J. L. H.
Answer: The “perpetual sleep” is through man’s day with which the O. T. was conversant. The Chaldean Babylon should never wake. And so it has been. Rev. 14:10, 1110The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:10‑11) pierces more deeply as divine judgment on individual worshippers of God’s enemy, and “forever” has the unlimited force of the N. T. Christ has brought to light, not only life and incorruption, but the second death and everlasting judgment. “Seventy years” in no way measure Babylon’s doom, but the chastening of the land and people of Judæa; and the rejection of the Messiah has again sealed their desolations till the day of Jehovah brings them deliverance.