Yet Another Impossible Outcome

Scripture: I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the wrong that they have done in Zion, says the Lord ...
No stone shall be taken from you for a corner
and no stone for a foundation,
but you shall be a perpetual waste,
says the Lord.
Jeremiah 51:24,26

Observation: At the time this was written, the Babylonian/Chaldean empire was the ruling empire of the known world. Babylon was a mighty city with "hanging gardens" considered one of the wonders of the ancient world. Meanwhile, Zion was burned and in ruin, Jerusalem was effectively a pile of rubble, and the entire nation of Israel and Judah had been abandoned and evacuated by force. Yet Jeremiah is declaring not only that Israel and Jerusalem will be sustained, but that Babylon will eventually be wiped from the entire face of the earth, even going beyond this by stating that Babylon/Chaldea won't even be the foundation for any future empire or race.

Today, Jerusalem is alive and well, one of the major cities of the world. Many of the major cities of ancient Israel/Judah still exist. This is true despite the 70 year exile of the Old Testament, and despite a subsequent 1,900 year time in history in which Israel did not exist. Meanwhile, Babylon is long gone. It was abandoned and ruined. It's an archeological dig site. Less than 300 years after this writing, the 'ethnicity' of Chaldean was eliminated entirely, with no people-group today recognized as direct descendants.

No contemporary of Jeremiah, looking at circumstances, would have predicted anything close to this reversal, yet it happened both decisively and permanently.

Application: I am reminded today that the very existence of faith in Yahweh is proof of the existence of Yahweh, due to the unfathomable history of earthly resistance to him and the radical survival of that faith. In Israel, we see a single family that has been sustained through Millenia while massive empires and people-groups have radically attacked them, then been erased from the face of the earth. In Christianity, we see a faith that has prospered beyond any belief system in the history of mankind, despite active and open attacks against the lives and livelihoods of its believers.

Impossible, unimaginable outcomes come to pass when it comes to God, often with God declaring that the impossible will occur in advance.

There is no cornerstone from the Babylonian empire. This is a cornerstone of my faith in the Lord God almighty found in that fact.

Prayer: Lord, you are the Lord of hosts, the Lord that sees to it, the Lord our banner, the Almighty creator. May my faith be evident this day and every day. Amen.