When the Glory Departs Text: Jeremiah 50:39-40
Introduction: The Pride Before the Desolation
We live in an age that has forgotten what it means to be judged. Our culture, much like ancient Babylon, is drunk on its own accomplishments, puffed up with its own importance, and utterly oblivious to the storm gathering on the horizon. We have built our towers of technological prowess, our monuments to financial success, and our temples of self-worship, all while shaking our fist at the God who gave us the very breath in our lungs to do so. And like Babylon, we assume that tomorrow will be like today, only more prosperous, more enlightened, and more liberated from the old constraints of divine law.
But the Word of God cuts through this self-congratulatory haze like a thunderclap. The prophet Jeremiah is tasked with delivering a message of absolute, final, and irreversible judgment against Babylon, the great hammer of the nations. Babylon was the superpower of its day, the center of culture, military might, and economic power. It was the city that had crushed Jerusalem and dragged God's people into exile. From a human perspective, it was impregnable, eternal. But God sees things differently. He sees the pride, the idolatry, and the violence, and He declares that the very place that was once the center of the world will become a desolate wasteland, fit only for wild beasts.
This prophecy is not just an interesting historical artifact. It is a standing warning to every nation, every city, and every individual who builds on a foundation of pride and rebellion against the Most High. God is not mocked. What a man sows, that he will also reap. And what a nation sows in arrogance, it will reap in desolation. The judgment described here is not a slap on the wrist; it is a complete un-creation. It is a return to the tohu wa-bohu, the formless and void state that precedes God's creative work. When men reject the Creator, He has a way of handing them over to the un-creation they have chosen.
The parallel drawn with Sodom and Gomorrah is stark and intentional. It tells us that there are certain lines of rebellion that, once crossed, invite a particular kind of judgment, a judgment so final that it erases a place from the map of human habitation. This is a terrifying thought, and it should be. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And part of that fear is recognizing that God's patience, while vast, is not infinite. There comes a point when the accounts are called in, and the sentence is executed without appeal.
The Text
"Therefore the desert creatures will live there along with the jackals; The ostriches also will live in it, And it will never again be lived in Or dwelt in from generation to generation. As when God overthrew Sodom And Gomorrah with its neighbors," declares Yahweh, "No man will live there, Nor will any son of man sojourn in it."
(Jeremiah 50:39-40 LSB)
The New Tenants of Babylon (v. 39)
We begin with the description of Babylon's ultimate fate:
"Therefore the desert creatures will live there along with the jackals; The ostriches also will live in it, And it will never again be lived in Or dwelt in from generation to generation." (Jeremiah 50:39)
The word "Therefore" connects this declaration of judgment directly to the sins of Babylon that have been enumerated before this. This is not random chance; it is the logical, covenantal consequence of her actions. God's judgments are not arbitrary fits of pique; they are the just and righteous outworking of His holy character. Babylon's pride and cruelty have sown the seeds of its own destruction.
The imagery here is a powerful reversal of the created order. God created the world for man to have dominion over it, to build cities, cultivate fields, and fill the earth with the glory of His image. But when man rebels, that dominion is stripped away. The center of human civilization, the bustling metropolis of Babylon, is handed over to the wild things. The desert creatures, jackals, and ostriches are not just random animals; in the Old Testament, they are symbols of desolation and judgment. They inhabit places that have been cursed, places where human life cannot flourish (see Isaiah 13:21-22, which contains a parallel prophecy against Babylon).
This is a picture of complete societal collapse. The palaces will become dens for jackals. The marketplaces will become nesting grounds for ostriches. The sounds of commerce and laughter will be replaced by the howling of wild beasts in the night. This is what happens when God removes His hand of common grace. The very structures that men build in defiance of Him are reclaimed by the wilderness. Civilization is a gift, and a fragile one at that. When we reject the Giver, we forfeit the gift.
The finality of the judgment is underscored by the phrases "it will never again be lived in" and "dwelt in from generation to generation." This is not a temporary setback. This is not a recession that Babylon will eventually recover from. This is a permanent erasure. God is not just knocking down their sandcastle; He is washing it out to sea. The memory of its glory will remain only as a cautionary tale. This is a sobering reminder that no human empire is too big to fail. When a nation sets itself against the throne of God, its expiration date has already been set.
The Sodom Seal (v. 40)
To ensure we do not misunderstand the severity and the nature of this judgment, God provides a historical anchor, a benchmark for utter destruction.
"As when God overthrew Sodom And Gomorrah with its neighbors," declares Yahweh, "No man will live there, Nor will any son of man sojourn in it." (Jeremiah 50:40 LSB)
This is the Sodom seal of judgment. By invoking the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, God is categorizing Babylon's sin and its subsequent punishment. Sodom was not just judged; it was annihilated by a direct, supernatural act of God. Fire and brimstone rained from heaven, wiping those cities off the face of the earth. The Dead Sea remains to this day a salty monument to that final judgment. To compare Babylon's fate to Sodom's is to say that this destruction will be just as complete and just as divinely orchestrated.
The sins of Sodom were pride, abundance, idle ease, and a refusal to help the poor, which culminated in haughty, abominable sexual perversion (Ezekiel 16:49-50). Babylon was guilty of a similar brand of arrogant pride. They trusted in their wealth, their military, and their idols. They had grown fat on the plunder of nations and had become a law unto themselves. When a society reaches a certain point of high-handed, unrepentant rebellion, it becomes like Sodom, ripe for a Sodom-like judgment.
Notice the authority behind the statement: "declares Yahweh." This is not Jeremiah's opinion. This is not a geopolitical prediction. This is the sworn word of the covenant Lord of history. The one who spoke the world into existence is now speaking Babylon out of meaningful existence. His word is performative. When He declares it, it is as good as done.
The verse concludes by doubling down on the finality. "No man will live there, Nor will any son of man sojourn in it." Not only will it be uninhabited, but it will not even be a place where travelers pass through. It will be a place to be avoided, a no-go zone, a cursed land. It will be so desolate that even a temporary stay is out of the question. This is the ultimate end of all humanistic projects that seek to build a world without God. They promise paradise and progress, but they deliver a wasteland. They promise a glorious city of man, but the end result is a haunt for jackals.
Conclusion: The Tale of Two Cities
The story of Scripture is fundamentally a tale of two cities: Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon represents the city of man, built on pride, rebellion, and self-glorification. Its end is always destruction, desolation, and the howling of wild beasts. It is the archetypal enemy of God and His people throughout the Bible, culminating in the great harlot, Babylon the Great, in the book of Revelation, whose fall is cause for rejoicing in heaven (Revelation 18-19).
The other city is Jerusalem, the city of God. It is the place where God chooses to put His name. And though the earthly Jerusalem fell into sin and was judged, it always pointed to a greater reality, the New Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband. This is the city whose builder and maker is God. It is a city that will never be desolate, for the glory of God is its light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
The warning of Jeremiah 50 is therefore a call to choose our citizenship wisely. Every nation today that walks in the path of Babylon, that legalizes abomination, that scoffs at the law of God, that trusts in its own might, is putting itself under a Sodom-like sentence. We should not be surprised when we see the foundations of our own civilization begin to crumble, when we see the wilderness encroaching on the once-ordered structures of our society. This is the predictable result of turning our back on the Creator.
But for the people of God, the message is not one of despair. It is a call to look away from the crumbling city of man and to fix our eyes on the city that has foundations. We are citizens of a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28). While the Babylons of this world rise and fall, the New Jerusalem is our eternal home. The judgment on Babylon is a back-handed promise of our own security in Christ. The same God who is a consuming fire to His enemies is a warm and protecting fire to His children.
Therefore, let us not put our trust in princes, in political solutions, or in the fleeting power of any earthly Babylon. Let us heed the call of Revelation: "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues" (Revelation 18:4). Our allegiance is not to a flag or an empire, but to the King of kings, Jesus Christ. He is building His city, the Church, and the gates of Hell, and certainly the ruins of Babylon, will not prevail against it.