Irony? I Don't Think So

“The sword of destruction will strike the Babylonians,” says the LORD. “It will strike the people of Babylon—her officials and wise men, too. The sword will strike her wise counselors, and they will become fools. The sword will strike her mightiest warriors, and panic will seize them. The sword will strike her horses and chariots and her allies from other lands, and they will all become like women. The sword will strike her treasures, and they all will be plundered. A drought will strike her water supply, causing it to dry up. And why? Because the whole land is filled with idols, and the people are madly in love with them. [Jeremiah 50.35-38]

All of Jeremiah chapters 50 and 51 describe God's judgement of ancient Babylon. It was a terribly fearful fate.

What I found interesting today, and to no surprise, is the reason this all was to take place. That reason is found clearly written in the last part of verse 38 of Jeremiah chapter 50:

And why? Because the whole land is filled with idols, and the people are madly in love with them.

Idol worship is attributed to all of Babylon's problems.

Let me just point out once again that an idol is anything in which man puts his trust instead of God.

In the days of Hezekiah when he destroyed Nehushtan (the serpent on a stick that Moses made to save Israel from dying from snakebites in the wilderness), Israel had begun to trust the snake on a stick instead of God (Who gave it by way of Moses). Nehushtan had become an idol. See 2 Kings 18.3-5.

One doesn't have to wonder where today's symbol of modern medicine, a snake on a stick, comes from! Irony? I don't think so.

So we have a question to answer: do we believe (trust in) the science (modern medicine) or God? Is Almighty God our deliverer from diseases, or is modern medicine?

Remember that Babylon was utterly destroyed because the people were madly in love with their idols. And, before saying, "I believe God uses the science," remember that God has said more than once that He will not share His glory with anyone or anything. Do we dare risk a similar fate to Babylon?

Father, the lines are being clearly drawn in modern society between faith in You and faith in man's invention. Help me to stand strong for You and You alone.