Reading through the Bible in one Year: Psalm 57-59

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

The difficulty with Chapter 18 is that we really don't know if Babylon is speaking literally of a city of Babylon which will be rebuilt, or if it is speaking about a type of Babylon which mimics the attributes of ancient Babylon. 

Isaiah 48:1-3 (NASB95)
¹ “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel And who came forth from the loins of Judah, Who swear by the name of the Lord And invoke the God of Israel, But not in truth nor in righteousness. ² “For they call themselves after the holy city And lean on the God of Israel; The Lord of hosts is His name. ³ “I declared the former things long ago And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. ^[1]

As I read through these verses, Isaiah came to mind.  Think back on the prophecies that Isaiah and Jeremiah had made concerning the city of Babylon during their tim, here are a few:

Isaiah 13:19-22 (NASB95)
¹⁹ And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ²⁰ It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there. ²¹ But desert creatures will lie down there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there. ²² Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers And jackals in their luxurious palaces. Her fateful time also will soon come And her days will not be prolonged.

Isaiah 21:8-9 (NASB95)
⁸ Then the lookout called, “O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower, And I am stationed every night at my guard post. ⁹ “Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”

Isaiah 47:1-15 (NASB95)
¹ “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no longer be called tender and delicate. ² “Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, strip off the skirt, Uncover the leg, cross the rivers. ³ “Your nakedness will be uncovered, Your shame also will be exposed; I will take vengeance and will not spare a man.” ⁴ Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel. ⁵ “Sit silently, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For you will no longer be called The queen of kingdoms. ⁶ “I was angry with My people, I profaned My heritage And gave them into your hand. You did not show mercy to them, On the aged you made your yoke very heavy. ⁷ “Yet you said, ‘I will be a queen forever.’ These things you did not consider Nor remember the outcome of them. ⁸ “Now, then, hear this, you sensual one, Who dwells securely, Who says in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me. I will not sit as a widow, Nor know loss of children.’ ⁹ “But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day: Loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in full measure In spite of your many sorceries, In spite of the great power of your spells. ¹⁰ “You felt secure in your wickedness and said, ‘No one sees me,’ Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you; For you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’ ¹¹ “But evil will come on you Which you will not know how to charm away; And disaster will fall on you For which you cannot atone; And destruction about which you do not know Will come on you suddenly. ¹² “Stand fast now in your spells And in your many sorceries With which you have labored from your youth; Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you may cause trembling. ¹³ “You are wearied with your many counsels; Let now the astrologers, Those who prophesy by the stars, Those who predict by the new moons, Stand up and save you from what will come upon you. ¹⁴ “Behold, they have become like stubble, Fire burns them; They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame; There will be no coal to warm by Nor a fire to sit before! ¹⁵ “So have those become to you with whom you have labored, Who have trafficked with you from your youth; Each has wandered in his own way; There is none to save you.

Jeremiah 51:36-40 (NASB95)
³⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am going to plead your case And exact full vengeance for you; And I will dry up her sea And make her fountain dry. ³⁷ “Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, An object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants. ³⁸ “They will roar together like young lions, They will growl like lions’ cubs. ³⁹ “When they become heated up, I will serve them their banquet And make them drunk, that they may become jubilant And may sleep a perpetual sleep And not wake up,” declares the Lord. ⁴⁰ “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, Like rams together with male goats. ^[2]

Look at the entire chapter in Jeremiah 51.  The words from the Old Testament are sounded again as the great Babylon falls a second time.  During the first fall, it came about because the people thought they were in a state of safety, protected by water surrounding the city.  But the enemy drained off the water while the city was in a state of celebration, moved in and took them by surprise.  The city suffered from false security and pride.  The future Babylon will suffer from the same demise, as they convince the world to follow their ways, convinced that they are safe in their control of the nations. 

It is interesting that when you look at the Old Testament prophecies concerning Babylon that it sounds just like today.  The extreme sensuality and immorality that was present during the ancient times have once again taken hold of society.  As a society, the passions, wealth and sensuality of Babylon has once again taken charge of the nations of the earth.  There are a few exceptions where nations aren't involved in the flesh-pit.  However, Revelation 18:2 could be speaking of today's society as both unbelievers and believers are following the doctrines of demons, living their lives in total compromise, living only a shadow of what God has called us to as believers.  The internet is one of the great tools that the devil uses today to draw people away from God and to entertain them in their homes.  But it is only a tool, men have to make the choice to use the tools provided.  I want to clarify though, the internet is a neutral object, it can also be used for the glory of God, we make the decision.

Revelation 18:4-5 (NASB95)
⁴ I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; ⁵ for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Jeremiah 50:4-9 (NASB95)
⁴ “In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord, “the sons of Israel will come, both they and the sons of Judah as well; they will go along weeping as they go, and it will be the Lord their God they will seek. ⁵ “They will ask for the way to Zion, turning their faces in its direction; they will come that they may join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten. ⁶ “My people have become lost sheep; Their shepherds have led them astray. They have made them turn aside on the mountains; They have gone along from mountain to hill And have forgotten their resting place. ⁷ “All who came upon them have devoured them; And their adversaries have said, ‘We are not guilty, Inasmuch as they have sinned against the Lord who is the habitation of righteousness, Even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.’ ⁸ “Wander away from the midst of Babylon And go forth from the land of the Chaldeans; Be also like male goats at the head of the flock. ⁹ “For behold, I am going to arouse and bring up against Babylon A horde of great nations from the land of the north, And they will draw up their battle lines against her; From there she will be taken captive. Their arrows will be like an expert warrior Who does not return empty-handed.

Jeremiah 51:6 (NASB95)
⁶ Flee from the midst of Babylon, And each of you save his life! Do not be destroyed in her punishment, For this is the Lord’s time of vengeance; He is going to render recompense to her.

Genesis 19:15-20 (NASB95)                                               
¹⁵ When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city. ¹⁷ When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.” ¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords! ¹⁹ “Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die; ²⁰ now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) that my life may be saved.” ^[3]

Note that the people of God will be drawn into the sensuality of Babylon.  God does not say that those who dabble in the immorality of Babylon will be lost forever, rather that they need to separate themselves from her and stand apart.  The people of God are called to separate themselves from the system holding to righteousness and rejecting the sins of Babylon.  I quoted a few verses from the Old Testament where God's people were called out of ancient Babylon, and out of Sodom and Gomorrah before their destruction. As people we are kind of weird critters, we come to God and devote ourselves to Him, but still maintain our hold on the world.   

Revelation 18:6-8 (NASB95)
⁶ “Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. ⁷ “To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’ ⁸ “For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.

Genesis 11:5-9 (NASB95)
⁵ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. ⁶ The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.^[4]

Those who feel that the world system is safe are in for a surprise.  God is returning to judge the world system, and will remove the pride from it.  Imagine what the people thought at the original tower of Babel as God confused the languages of the people when they piled up the bricks to build the tower.  In the same way, Babylon has built up a pile of sins which are stacked upon each other, making a tower before God. 

Similar to the Old Testament judgments against Babylon, it will be burned with fire.  The problem with this is how do you determine that a system is burned with fire?  It would be rather hard to burn a type or an system with fire.  It seems that a literal city would be burned with fire, so it is entirely possible that Babylon will be re-built.  One other similarity between it and the Old Testament Babylon is that it will also fall in a single day.

I am going to close here, if you wish to add to the study,  be sure to write in.

Father, as we consider ancient Babylon and the Babylon to come, give us wisdom.  Let us see when we are compromising our position and not walking according to Your word.  Call each of us personally to set ourselves apart for You.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Job 41-42

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Revelation 18:9-19 (NASB95)
⁹ “And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, ¹⁰ standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ ¹¹ “And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargoes any more— ¹² cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet, and every kind of citron wood and every article of ivory and every article made from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble, ¹³ and cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep, and cargoes of horses and chariots and slaves and human lives. ¹⁴ “The fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you and men will no longer find them. ¹⁵ “The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, ¹⁶ saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls; ¹⁷ for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!’ And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance, ¹⁸ and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What city is like the great city?’ ¹⁹ “And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid waste!’ ^[1]

The debate over whether this was a literal city or a figurative one seems to be cleared up by these verses.  It will be a great center for commerce, and when it falls in one day, ships will back up, merchants will be uspet, and the financial system of the world will suffer because of the fall of the city. 

Remember when 911 hit?  The way that the United States mourned the passing of the folks in the twin towers, and the way that commerce stood still momentarily.  Remember the way that the air traffic was messed up and the ships that were to dock at the ports backed up for miles out to sea?   That is only a taste of what will happen.  When Babylon falls, the entire world will be upset over its passing. It will be a great commercial center, one which will be steeped in luxury, and one which will fall suddenly.  The only similarity between the New Testament Babylon and the one of Old is that they both fall quickly.  Babylon in the Old Testament fell in one evening as the people of the city partied and feasted.  Babylon in Revelation will fall in one hour, the smoke is probably a literal smoke, which will be seen by all the sea merchants. 

Revelation 18:20-24 (NASB95)
²⁰ “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.” ²¹ Then a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer. ²² “And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer; and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer; ²³ and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery. ²⁴ “And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.”^[2]

The judgment which comes upon Babylon will be complete and it will be fast.  The note regarding the saints and heaven rejoicing, then later the reference to the blood of the prophets and saints, probably refers to the slaves that are spoken of in verse 13.  It seems to be indicated that the idea of slaves and human lives in the Roman times, meaning that they were used not only for labor, but also for slaughter for the entertainment of the masses.  Up to this time, the people most likely to suffer from this fate will be believers.

Jeremiah 51:63-64 (NASB95)
⁶³ “And as soon as you finish reading this scroll, you will tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates, ⁶⁴ and say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become exhausted.’ ” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.^[3]

The parallel between the quick fall of ancient Babylon compared to the rapid fall of Revelation Babylon continues.  Ancient Babylon was predicted to sink like a stone, yet the future Babylon is prophesied to sink like a mill stone into the sea.  It would be easy to retrieve a small stone from the sea, but very hard to retrieve a mill stone from the sea.  This stone was the type that donkey's turned.

Isaiah 13:20-22 (NASB95)
²⁰ It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there. ²¹ But desert creatures will lie down there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there. ²² Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers And jackals in their luxurious palaces. Her fateful time also will soon come And her days will not be prolonged.^[4]

We return again to the Old Testament Babylon, look at the parallel between its fall and the one in Revelation.  The desolation described in Rev 18:22-23 is matched by the desolation from Isaiah.

Jeremiah 25:10 (NASB95)
¹⁰ ‘Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. ^[5]

Again, John recalls the demise of Ancient Babylon, and compares it to the fall of the future Babylon.  It is clear that there will not be joy in the city, no more weddings, no more parties.  There will not even be the sound of labor or a lamp to indicate habitation.  Total and complete desolation will permeate the city.

Isaiah 47:8-9 (NASB95)
⁸ “Now, then, hear this, you sensual one, Who dwells securely, Who says in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me. I will not sit as a widow, Nor know loss of children.’ ⁹ “But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day: Loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in full measure In spite of your many sorceries, In spite of the great power of your spells. ^[6]

Look at the parallel in these verses between the character of Ancient Babylon compared to the character of the new Babylon.  John refers to Babylon as one who seduces the nations with her sorcery, Isaiah does the same. 

It is interesting the way that God used ancient Babylon to give us a picture of how the future Babylon will rise to glory and fall suddenly.  The most important thing that we have pictured for us is the way that God avenges the blood of His people.  The prophets and saints who stand for God are very special to Him, they are His kids.

Father, as we consider Your word today, enable us to understand the future prophesies and see how that we can apply them to our lives.  Open the opportunity for each of us to share our faith with others.

In Him,

Joe Turner.