God Uses the Rulers of Nations to Accomplish His Tasks - Jeremiah 47-52

Jeremiah 51:20-24 (ESV)

“You are my hammer and weapon of war:

with you I break nations in pieces;

with you I destroy kingdoms;

with you I break in pieces the horse and his rider;

with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer;

with you I break in pieces man and woman;

with you I break in pieces the old man and the youth;

with you I break in pieces the young man and the young woman;

with you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;

with you I break in pieces the farmer and his team;

with you I break in pieces governors and commanders.

“I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in Zion, declares the LORD.

For all the history we have in the Bible about nations fighting nations most Christians are oblivious to the way God works among the nations.   In this long section of Jeremiah we read about all the punishment God will bring upon the nations that attacked, injured and/or maligned His people, Israel/Judah.   The main nation He used to bring Israel and Judah into discipline was Babylon.   Now in chapter 51 we read that God will use the Medes (and Persians) to defeat Babylon.    God used Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, to defeat Israel, but now will use the Medes to defat Babylon.    The above passage are the words of Jeremiah to describe how God is using them.   The Medes and the Persians are as wicked as the nation of Babylon.  Yet God uses them as His war club.    We don’t always see our geo-political framework through the lens of how God is moving in the midst of the nations to accomplish His plans and will.  God is using the leaders of these nations to set up His eternal kingdom when Jesus Christ will reign forever and ever.    These nations are but puppets in the hands of God.   The above lines show how God uses each person on this earth as a tool in His hand to craft the nations the way He desires.   We might get anxious about what is happening in the world and about how the nations rage against each other.  But God is using their rage and sinfulness and wickedness to accomplish His purpose and to usher in His glory.