Jeremiah 50:11-16 – What we sow is what we will reap

Gleefully and maliciously, Babylon plundered Judah. She was obnoxiously arrogant, self-confident, and cocksure as she threshed the people of God, His very own heritage. Where did they find the gall to treat the apple of God’s eye with such audacity?  So God in Jeremiah 50:11-16 detailed her outcome. He would humiliate Babylon in His anger. The city of Babylon referred to as her “mother” would be put to shame and become entirely desolate. Babylon, God warned would become “…the least of the nations, a wilderness, a parched land, and a desert” and will be uninhabited. Her deplorable condition would be a horrible scene and would cause those who looking at her plight to whisper disapprovingly about them.  The rooster had returned to roost.   

In verses 14-16, God addressed attackers and goaded them to unleash their assaults mercilessly on Babylon. They were urged to bend their bows and shoot their arrows unsparingly. Why? For they had sinned against the Lord. Nowhere in Babylon was to be let off. Archers were told to surround everywhere and attack it. Every place in Babylon was to be torn down, her pillars to be destroyed, and walls to be broken. What they had done to others would be done to them.  This would enable the captives they had captured from other nations to flee and return to their own homeland.

 

Jesus taught in Matthew 7:12 saying, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you….” Another way of putting this would be: “Don’t do to others what you don’t want others to do to you.” Never forget the law of reciprocity. Whatever we choose to do will always have an effect. What we sow we shall also reap. Here’s a quote from Stephen Covey’s book - The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People -  “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”  So be careful what we sow!