02.10. Babylon: Her Coming Restoration and Her Fall
X BABYLON: HER COMING RESTORATION AND HER FALL
I THE great British advance in Mesopotamia, involving the capture of Bagdad, interested students of prophecy even more than what was transpiring on the western front of the seat of war. The proclamation of General Sir Stanley Maude to the inhabitants of that city read .1ike an address of a victorious king of Israel or Judah to the same peoples in an earlier day.
Speaking of the trade prospect now opened before Mesopotamia, and for that matter before the whole world, a member of the British House of Commons said: "It will mean eventually putting down something like a new Hamburg in the world. There are rich oil-fields near by, and the ’black country’ of Mesopotamia may rise here, and the demands on European manufacturers for machinery and other things become enormous."
We gather from other sources that railway construction across the Syrian desert will be so easy that probably Damascus will be connected with the Euphrates, and motor cars become as common there as on the Lincoln Highway across the United States.
However, we speak of Bagdad and its awakening only as an approach to the consideration of the awakening of its near neighbour on the southwest, the ancient and famous Babylon, whose history occupies so large a place in the inspired Word. It begins at the tenth and eleventh chapters of Genesis in the record of the first world-monarchy under Nimrod.
There, at Babel, or Babylon, was the scene of the earliest apostasy from God after the Flood; and, always the enemy of His people, she became in later days the metropolis of the great Gentile empire under Nebuehadnezzar. But as "God promised to remember his covenant with Israel, so he promised also to remember Babylon in the day of his wrath," and the purpose of this chapter isto show how that promise is to be fulfilled.
II
Returning to Genesis, we find that hundreds of years after the Flood the sons of Noah, i;e., Shem, Ham and Japheth, had greatly multiplied themselves and migrated to the ends of the earth. The Japhethites peopled Europe mostly, and are known to history as the Aryan race, which includes the Hindus, Celts, Greeks, Italians, Germans and Slavs. The Hamites went into northern Arabia, Egypt and Ethiopia or modern Abyssinia, while the Semites remained nearer the starting-point, giving origin to the Arabians, Assyrians and Hebrews, from whom came Israel, and finally our Saviour and Lord.
There is one individual among the Hamites, however, of whom we have particular record as the first world-monarch: Nimrod, the father in that sense of all the Nebuehadnezzars, Alexanders, Caesars and ambitious Kaisers down to the forthcoming Antichrist. He was "a mighty one in the earth," or, as the Targum of Jonathan describes him, "a mighty rebel before the Lord." "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel," the record says. His kingdom it was, indeed, and not the Lord’s.
"And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. . . . And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
There were two reasons for this action, the obvious and the occult. In the first place, the solidarity of the race was in mind, the application of the popular idea that "in union there is strength"; but back of this was a false worship, so false and so bad that it is ever after pointed to in Scripture as the earthly fountain-head and source of all idolatry and rejection of the true God.
"And God came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded," and He confounded their "one language" which had been put to so bad a use, and He scattered them to the four corners of the earth. But now once more in the end of the age the world is moving towards unification, and so far as it also is without the knowledge of the true God, it only can be doomed to failure, as was the first attempt in the same direction. God will again come down and interfere with things, and judge the nations that glory in their own achievements but do not glory in Him.
III But not to anticipate. Hundreds of years after Nimrod, Babylon for a second time occupies the field of history, and Nebuchadnezzar, like his great predecessor, is obsessed by the dream of world dominion. And God permits him to try it out. Indeed, He uses this king’s ambition to punish other and smaller nations in their disobedience, which become his vassals. The story is told in 2 Kings, and in the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel. And of course Nebuchadnezzar is inflated by his power, and sets up his image to be worshipped, and renews the tower of Babel on the old foundations, and exclaims: "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might ofmypower and for the glory ofmymajesty?" But "while the word was yet in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king, Nebuchadnezzar, to thee is it spoken; the kingdom is departed from thee" (Daniel 4:30-31). The city also comes in for visitation as well as its royal builder, and the prophet Isaiah testifies:
"Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
"It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
"But wild beasts of’ the desert shall lie there; . . .
" And her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged" (Isaiah 13:19-22).
There are those who think this prophecy was fulfilled in the overthrow of the Babylonian power by the Medes and Persians, but I believe they are mistaken. This whole chapter of Isaiah and the next seem to be a single prophecy, and when so regarded there are at least eight features which were not fulfilled in that overthrow, and hence are yet to be fulfilled, Benjamin Wills Newton, in his book, too little known, "Babylon and the East," enumerates them thus:
"(1) The whole land was not then destroyed (Isaiah 13:5).
"(2) The Day of the Lord did not then come (Isaiah 13:6).
"(3) The physical phenomena were not then seen (Isaiah 13:10).
"(4) The city was not then destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah (Isaiah 13:19-22). Indeed, the victory of Cyrus was almost bloodless, and the scepter passed comparatively quietly into his hands. Moreover, the land still yields an income to its Turkish rulers, and a city and village exist on its site.
"(5) The Lord did not then visit Jacob with rest, nor has He yet done so (Isaiah 14:1-3).
"(6) The king of Babylon so minutely described (Isaiah 14:4-22), has not yet arisen, which seems to point to a greater and more august being than the world has yet seen.
"(7) The Assyrian was not then trodden down in the land of Judah, nor was the yoke then removed from Judah’s neck (Isaiah 14:25).
"(8) The divine purpose on the whole earth was not then consummated (Isaiah 14:26)." In other words, the blow which then fell on Babylon was premonitory only, a fact perfectly consistent with the divine method in other cases. "Indeed," to quote Mr. Newton further, "so strongly do present facts as well as events known from Scripture as about to occur in the land of Israel indicate Babylon’s restoration, that if the Bible were silent respecting it, we should conclude nevertheless that its revival was not only probable, but well-nigh certain."
IV But the Bible is not silent. There is a general consent among students of the prophetic word that Zechariah, who prophesied long after Babylon was overthrown by the Medes and Persians, foretells her revival. In the fifth chapter of his prophecy he sees an ephah going forth and a woman sitting in it, and the interpreting angel said to him, "This is wickedness. And he cast her down into the midst of the ephah, and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof." And two women, with wings like the wings of a stork, lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven, and bore it “to build her an house in the land of Shinar [Babylon]. And when it is prepared she shall be set there in her own place." An "ephah" is a Jewish measure, and suggests or symbolizes trade and commerce. It“goeth forth," indicating the spread of the idea it represents. "This is their resemblance through all the earth,” the prophet says, and the margin reads, “This is their eye in all the land. " Some render it "the aim (eyes) of all the land (earth) are upon it," as though, interpreting it in the light of present facts, the focus of human interest in the time appointed would be business efficiency and success, and the gain and wealth and the delicacies and luxuries which they permit. Of the woman in the ephah, the angel says, “This is wickedness." It is unholy gain therefore that is in mind, harmonizing with what Isaiah in the Old Testament, and James in the New, predict of the end of the present age. “The house of Jacob will be replenished from the east with silver and gold, and horses and chariots," and also, alas, with idols! Isaiah says a false worship will thus accompany the increase of riches and luxury in the last days, and the figure of the woman in the ephah is in perfect harmony therewith, for the wicked women of the Bible, whether in reality or type, are always associated with idolatry. The place where this woman’s house is to be built, “her own place" as the prophet says, "is the land of Shinar." Babylon therefore will be at once the center of the world’s luxury and the world’s idolatry. The stork’s wings carry the woman there, for swiftly will these events accumulate when the time comes.
V But you ask the proof of it. In the first place, Zechariah’s prophecy has not as yet been fulfilled. Nothing in subsequent history answers to it. What then does it mean, and when will it be?
While these questions are awaiting answer, we open the book of Revelation, which shows us "things which shall be hereafter," and at chapter 14 we meet with this:
"Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."
Here is Babylon again, Babylon in the future, Babylon whose destruction is once more foretold. May not this be the fulfillment of Zechariah’s vision? Some say, No, because in their judgment Babylon means Rome, papal Rome. In other words, they believe the language of Revelation is symbolic in this case, and that under the name of that ancient city we have a veiled reference to the papacy. But why so? The city is named again in Revelation 14:1-20, when she comes" in remembrance before God." This is at the time of the battle of Armageddon, and every student of the Bible knows that this battle is not to be fought in Europe in the neighbourhood of Rome, but in Asia and in proximity to "the land of Shinar."
Again, in Revelation 17:1-18 and Revelation 18:1-24, she is referred to quite at length, and in the eighteenth more particularly is she described as “a habitation of demons, and a hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Shall we say that this means Rome’ I have some familiarity with the history of the papacy, and hold no brief for its defense. Its day of reckoning will surely come; but it seems to me that language like this is better fitted for what we know of Babylon than Rome. But whether this be true or not, the chapter goes on to say, "All nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, . . . and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies." Without pausing to point out the untruthfulness of the identification of the first part of this verse with Rome, it must be admitted by all who have any acquaintance with her history that the last part does not belong to her. The merchants of the earth did not wax rich through the abundance of the delicacies of Rome, pagan or papal. As a matter of fact, nine verses of the chapter are taken up with a lament of the merchants, shipmasters and sailors at the destruction of the city. No man buyeth their merchandise, or their cargo, any more, the vast range and character of which are so minutely described that Dean Alford said it more nearly suited London than Rome at any period of the latter’s history.
Sir Henry Rawlinson is authority for the statement that the Euphrates, on which Babylon rests, is navigable for 500 miles, and with very little effort could become so for ships of large size. On the other hand, Rome has no port, and no shipmasters go there, so that, to quote Bullinger, if Rome be the city, then Rome is yet to become the great political, commercial and religions center of the world, with both port and harbour. This revival of Rome, therefore, is about as difficult to believe as the revival of Babylon, and in either case it is simply a question of revival, and that at present is the point.
There are other verses in this chapter, the fourth to the seventh, which sometimes have been quoted in favour of the papal application. They begin thus: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins." But this can hardly refer to Christians, who are thus being warned, as some say, to escape the papacy, for, as most teachers of dispensational truth believe, the faithful Church will have been caught up to meet the Lord before the time of which those verses speak. It refers more likely to Jews at that time residing in Babylon, which a reference to Isaiah 48:1-22 and Jeremiah 51:1-64 makes almost certain.
VI But some admit this literal Babylon in Revelation 18:1-24, and yet see Rome in Revelation 17:1-18. But we find no authority for thus separating the two. Indeed, the "harlot" of Revelation 17:1-18 is distinctly called "Babylon the Great," and in a later verse identified as "that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." Had the mistaken idea never obtained that ancient Babylon was destroyed long ago in fulfillment of prophecy, the thought of confounding her with Rome would never have occurred. This is not to say that in symbolizing Babylon the woman does not also symbolize the vast system of idolatry connected with it. It is for this reason indeed that she is described as "the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. " The" earth" is more than Rome, or even Babylon herself, considered as a single city, but the latter was the fountainhead, "the mother," of all the systems of idolatry which have cursed the earth since Nimrod’s day.
Romanism is one of these, but only one. As Dr. Seiss says in his" Lectures on the Apocalypse," the wine of her fornication"wasalready bottled and labelled before the first dispersion," i. e., prior to the tower of Babel, as recorded in Genesis 11:1-32. In other words, therewasidolatry before Rome, either pagan or papal. The Old Testament tells us of Moloch, and Ashtaroth, and Chemosh and Milcom, the gods of the nations round about, whose worship polluted Israel. These were the result of Babel, and under other names the same gods are affecting the thinking, the legislating and the worshipping of the nations of the earth to-day. Two-thirds of the people of the earth are still pagans, while the other third are largely Mohammedans, Jews, Romanists, infidels, Christian Scientists, Spiritualists, or adherents of some other tainted and anti-Christian faith. In other words, the same old Babylon and her daughters still bear rule in the earth, and will continue to do so until Jesus comes.
It is this awful fact that gives such significance to the teaching of Scripture about the coming restoration of Babylon and her fall. That event is the logical conclusion of the history and the times of the Gentiles. “The civilization and the culture of the world will again become atheistic and man-centered, and having described a circle, its cradle (Babylon) will become its grave." That is the inspiration of, and that is what gives impetus to, Christian missions. It is a time to make haste to "testify the gospel of the grace of God."
QUESTIONS ON THE LESSON 1.What other city of Mesopotamia in its reawakening affords a presumption for Babylon?
2. Where in the Bible does Babylon’s history begin?
3. What distinguishes her at the first?
4. Trace the migration of the sons of Noah.
5. Who was Nimrod?
6. Give the reasons for the tower of Babel.
7. How is history repeating itself in this age?
8. In what Scriptures is the history of Nebuchadnezzar told?
9. Have you read Isaiah 13:1-22; Isaiah 14:1-32?
10. State the eight reasons for doubting that this prophecy was fulfilled in the overthrow of Babylon by Persia.
11. What was the nature of that blow on Babylon?
12. Give in your own words the quotation from Newton.
13. Have you read Zechariah 5:1-11?
14. Give in your own words an exposition of the vision of "the woman in the ephah."
15. In what chapter of Revelation is Babylon once more referred to?
16. To what more modern city is this prophecy sometimes applied?
17. Give three or four reasons against such an application.
18. Why cannot Revelation 18:4-7 refer to papal Rome?
19. Have you read Isaiah 43:1-28 and Jeremiah 51:1-64?
20. Why cannot Revelation 17:1-18 and Revelation 18:1-24 be separated in their general application?
21. What does the" woman" of Revelation 17:1-18 symbolize?
22. How is Babylon described with reference to idolatry?
23. What relation does "Romanism" bear to “Babylonianism”?
24. Name some of the idolatries before" Romanism," and their relation to Babylon.
25. What relation do they bear to current religious history?
26. What does this suggest as to the logical conclusion of "The Times of the Gentiles"?
27. What is its bearing on Christian Missions?