Jeremiah 51:21
And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider; And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider;
With thee God will break in pieces the horse and his rider and the chariot and his rider, shattering Babylon's military strength as part of its overthrow for its sin and pride against the Lord until it is left desolate. He performs this by calling its enemies, even the Medes, to destroy Babylon in vengeance for His temple and in defense of His people. The word was fulfilled when the Babylonian empire, not the city alone, fell suddenly while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure, the head of gold giving way to the Medes and Persians, and its later gradual decay into heaps by the Euphrates bears witness to its literal completion. Literal Babylon in Jeremiah's day is a type of the great mystical Babylon of the last days, the apostate confused religious world ruling over the nations before the day of Christ, whose final destruction closes all earthly accounts. Its lesson therefore reaches beyond ancient Babylon to all cities and peoples that forget and defy God, whose wickedness invites the same judgment and whose warning calls for a settled principle of doing right.
Judgment Against Ancient Babylon
With thee God will break in pieces the horse and his rider and the chariot and his rider, shattering military power as part of the overthrow of Babylon. That breaking belongs to the judgment upon Babylon for its sin and pride against the Lord. The judgment ends in desolation.
The verse stands within a divine message of impending judgment joined with gracious warning and proffered mercy, sent when Babylon had filled the cup of its iniquity. That message was slighted and went unheeded. Yet the record remains that Babylon would have been healed, but she is not healed. God uses the enemies of Babylon to shatter its forces, calling the Medes to destroy Babylon in the Lord's vengeance for His temple and in defense of His people.
The prophecy is of utter desolation, that the city would become heaps and be left without inhabitants. It was illustrated when Seraiah read the scroll, tied a stone to it, and cast it into the Euphrates as a sign that Babylon would sink and not rise from the evil brought upon it. The verse is part of the great burden of prophecy against Babylon, predictions uttered many years before its fall. Those predictions foretold in detailed particulars the destruction and overthrow of the flourishing city and kingdom.
Fulfilled in History
The prophecy concerns the fall of the Babylonian empire, not of the city alone, and it was fulfilled in sudden overthrow while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. Babylon was taken on every quarter when the Persians captured the city in Belshazzar's reign. Then the head of gold fell before the silver empire took its place in succession, a fulfillment shown by the dispassionate testimony of heathen historians.
That destruction was not completed when the Persians overthrew Babylon, for the prophecy concerned its eventual fate. Babylon afterward declined gradually and became desolate, fulfilling literally the foretold utter desolation that the flourishing city and kingdom would become heaps and be left without inhabitants. Its great ruins by the Euphrates bear witness to the fulfillment of those detailed particulars. The certainty of that sinking to rise no more from the evil brought upon it was illustrated when Seraiah read the scroll, tied a stone to it, and cast it into the Euphrates.
The breaking in pieces means that God numbered and finished Babylon's kingdom, weighed it in the balances and found it wanting, and divided it and gave it to the Medes and Persians. This was the fruitage of Babylon's own sowing of error, confusion, destruction and death. Once that sentence came, no human might or scheme or power or wealth could save a city or nation.
Type and Warning Today
Literal Babylon in Jeremiah's day is a type of the great mystical Babylon of the last days. The ancient kingdom was a great world empire, and its fall foretold is not of the city alone but of the empire in sudden overthrow while Belshazzar and his lords felt secure. By double application the same breaking of horse and rider and chariot and rider foretells also the fall of antitypical Babylon, the great apostate harlot-system that rules over the nations of the earth. That antitype is the religious world of the last days, the great confused Christendom of the time immediately preceding the day of Christ and the end of the world. Its final destruction is the destruction revealed in Revelation, visited in the day when God shall finally and forever close up all earthly accounts.
The breaking in pieces applied first and typically to the fall of ancient Babylon, and by sudden transition from type to antitype it applies emphatically and finally in the day of the Lord to the punishment of modern Babylon and all sinners, the final punishment of the ungodly. The chapter's prophecy against Babylon describes the judgment and fall of the churches after they reject the first angel's Advent message. It does not foretell a rebuilding of old Babylon on the Euphrates River followed by a subsequent sudden destruction.
The warning of doom, that God breaks the horse and rider and the chariot and rider and uses Babylon's enemies to shatter its forces, applies beyond ancient Babylon to cities and people that forget and defy God. Their wickedness invites judgment, as San Francisco's catastrophe shows in comparison with the fate invited by Babylon's and Tyre's wickedness. The unheeded warning and doom of Jeremiah 51 remains a lesson for such cities and people. The call is for more than an impulse to improve, but for a settled principle of doing right.