Jeremiah 51:15, commentary and pictures

He made the earth by His power, settled the world in place by His wisdom, and spread out the heavens by His understanding. That work of creation marks Him out as the true and living and everlasting God, set apart from every false god that made nothing. It declares His universal dominion and His right to command obedience and receive worship, the same authority claimed in the fourth commandment and kept in memory by the Sabbath as His memorial, sign, and seal. The word stands in His burden against Babylon, spoken long before its fall, yet it reaches beyond the ancient city and empire to mystical latter-day Babylon of which literal Babylon is the type. As ancient Babylon filled up her iniquity, refused healing, and fell to rise no more, so modern Babylon will be judged in the day of the Lord, and God's people are commanded to come out of her to escape His anger (Revelation 18:4).

Setting in Jeremiah's Prophecy

Jeremiah 51:15 stands in chapters 46 to 51, the prophecies against the foreign nations surrounding Israel — Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Syria, and Babylon — pronouncing the doom of all, and especially in chapters 50-51 concerning Babylon. It belongs to the leading burden against Babylon spoken by God many years before its fall, given as divine prediction of what was to come. It is to be set against the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians who did not know the prophecy and had no design to show its fulfillment, concerning the fall of the head of gold before the silver empire takes its place in succession onward to the end.

It stands in the divine message sent through Jeremiah to ancient Babylon when it had filled the cup of its iniquity, a message of impending judgment joined with gracious warning and proffered mercy. That warning was slighted and left unheeded, so that its record remains that Babylon would have been healed but is not healed. The destruction predicted was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon but pointed to its eventual ruin, fulfilled as the city gradually decayed and became desolate. It does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by sudden destruction, but includes not merely the fall of the city but the fall of the empire, in a sudden fall while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure.

The words quoted in one place as Jeremiah 51:15 are actually from Jeremiah 51:45, while Jeremiah 51:15 itself describes God's power and wisdom in creation.

Creator Distinguishing True God

He has made the earth by His power, established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heaven by His understanding. The making of the earth is ascribed to power, the establishing of the world to wisdom, and the stretching out of the heavens to understanding. The words affirm the same threefold work of earth, world, and heaven as the act of the Lord Himself.

By this appeal to creation He is identified as the true God in distinction from all false gods of every description that did not make heaven and earth. He is thereby made known as the living God and everlasting King. Creative power is the distinguishing mark and attribute of the living God, and the proof and evidence of His existence, power, and authority that sets Him apart from all false gods. This is one of the places where inspired writers appeal to creation for that proof.

The creation language declares who He is, the extent of His dominion, and His right to rule. As Maker of earth and heavens His dominion extends over all He created as Supreme Ruler. Hence He has the right to require obedience and to receive worship. It is the language on which the fourth commandment is based, which names the Maker of heaven and earth and thus identifies His authority and dominion.

The Sabbath was given to perpetuate among men the proof and memory of those creation facts. It stands as a memorial of creation, a sign of the true God by which to know Him, and a seal to His moral law. It is a sign of the Creator's wisdom in making heaven and earth and an index of His power to uphold and keep all that He made. In harmony with the Sabbath as the sign between God and His people and the seal of His law, the verse makes God known as Creator. His name and memorial as Creator, set forth in the Sabbath as God's memorial of His creative power, endure throughout all generations.

Type of End-Time Babylon

Literal Babylon is a type of the great mystical, modern Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system ruling over the nations of the earth and the religious world of the last days located at the time and connected with events immediately preceding the day of Christ and the end of the world. The prophecy in Jeremiah 50 and 51 is therefore double, passing by sudden transition from type to antitype and referring not only to the fall of the ancient city and empire but also to antitypical Babylon, whereas the prophecy in Revelation refers to apostate Babylon alone. The command to leave Babylon to escape divine anger applies both to literal Babylon and to Mystery Babylon, with Revelation 18:4 standing as the matching call that confirms it. The words sometimes printed under the reference to this verse in that connection belong in fact to Jeremiah 51:45, while this verse itself declares God's power and wisdom in creation.

The final destruction of ancient Babylon, which refused to be healed and whose sins mounted up to heaven until judgments fell and she fell to rise no more, is a vivid portrayal of the destruction to be visited upon modern Babylon. That ancient fate, seen by comparing Jeremiah 50 and 51 with Revelation 18, portrays the day of the Lord when modern Babylon and all sinners shall be punished and God shall finally and forever close up all earthly accounts. It includes not merely the fall of the city but the fall of the empire, in a sudden fall while rulers felt secure, and it does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates followed by sudden destruction.

The latter part of Jeremiah reaches to the days of restoration under Christ, in which the faithful remnant of literal Israel serves as a type of Israel under the new covenant with God's law written in heart and spirit. The chapter containing this verse is in this way a lesson and warning for people and cities that forget and defy God. Against such defiance it affirms that God made the earth by His power, established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by His understanding, warning that places which forget Him face judgment.