Sports betting ads swarm my screen when I tune in to watch football. The oddsmakers predict winners and losers, often to a high degree of accuracy. But not enough for me to place a bet—I want a sure thing.

The Bible’s prophecies pay off way better than gambling on quarterbacks. A great number have already proven true, like the prophecies of the coming Messiah. Others, like the predictions of the return of that Messiah, still wait to be fulfilled. But don’t bet against them.

Jeremiah predicted the downfall of Babylon, the greatest city in the world at that time. Under King Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylon grew as large as Chicago, filled with elaborate temples, ornate palaces and surrounded by city walls wide enough for two chariots to pass each other side by side on the top.

At the height of the city’s glory the Lord sent a message through Jeremiah: Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives.

Not long after Jeremiah, Babylon fell to the Persians. A couple of centuries later a new set of invaders sacked the city, and the long slide into oblivion gained speed. Conquerors and archeologists picked the area clean.

Today a recreation of some buildings exists on the site, a cheap tourist attraction built by Saddam Hussein. But no one lives there. The once magnificent city lies in perpetual ruin, just as the scriptures predicted.

Which helps me understand that when it comes to the words of the prophets, I can place a bet with confidence.

Jeremiah 51 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Corbin Mathias