CHAPTER XIV.
The Burden of Babylon (Continued).
IT is not surprising that there is so much concerning Babylon in the Old Testament Scriptures, when we consider her antiquity and importance, and the extent of her influence upon the nations and Israel.
It is only in harmony with the fact that we have very much concerning Rome in the New Testament Scriptures, especially Revelation, for the same obvious reason, that her position and importance, and intimate and antagonistic relation to the divine purpose, required it.
It is easy to realise this in connection with Rome, the modern Babylon, for the city remains, with the monuments on which Paul and the first century Christians set eyes. And the influence of Rome is indelibly engraven on all the civilized world. But it requires greater effort to realise the grandeur and influence of ancient Babylon, which was in the mind of God, related to that of Rome as gold is to iron ; for by these two metals the two dominions are represented by God to Nebuchadnezzar of old. Scriptural and historical study, however, will soon reveal the fact that if apostate Christendom be related to Rome as its mother (Rev. xvii. 5), Babylon, whose name is symbolically named upon it, is unquestionably the grandmother and first parent in the genealogy.
It will surprise those who may for the first time undertake the quest, to discover how directly related are all the “ fables ” of Roman Catholic superstition to the ancient myths of Babylon. It is indeed an unenlightened handling of these facts that has given opportunity to blaspheme to a scepticism which mistakes the “ fables ” of the apostasy for “ the truth ” of the Scriptures which so roundly condemns them.
Babylon, then, as the seat of the golden-head dominion f the kingdoms of men comes in for particular notice and reprobation at the hands of God by the prophets. By God's r(^ver and munificence she had her magnificence and wealth. B Him she was used as His weapon in the chastisement ol nations—even of Israel; but she did not honour Him; but wrought in pride for her own glory, exulting against the chosen nation, and insulting God to honour Bel, Nebo, and Merodach. Isaiah, by the Spirit, assured all who had ears to hear that God was not unmindful of these things ; but that down to the minutest details they were taken account of and provided for in the overruling counsels of the Most High. By him was revealed in Israel not only the downfall of Babylon, but the many striking details therewith connected, which like the judgments of the Exodus from Egypt, should through all subsequent ages stand as a witness for God and the truth of His word. The weapons of God’s warfare against Babylon were declared beforehand by the prophet to be His “ sanctified ones,” the Medes and Persians. Their victorious commander was named Cyrus by God nearly two hundred years before his birth. The prophet saw beforehand (ch. xiv.) Lucifer’s fall from heaven. He saw (ch. xxi.) the night of pleasure that was turned into fear and destruction. The river of Babylon in which she boasted, Jeremiah (ch. li.) saw dried up, and made the channel of attack. The brazen gates Isaiah (ch. xlv.) declared God would open before Cyrus. In Isaiah (ch. xlvi.) and Jeremiah (ch. 1. 2), Bel, Nebo and Merodach, like the gods of Egypt before them, were exhibited as the subjects of divine judgment and contempt. The astrologers (Isa. xlvii.) are challenged and disgraced. Looking at these features in detail as they come before us, we are first presented by Isaiah (ch. xiv.) with the taunting parable with which Israel should celebrate
Lucifer’s Fall from Heaven.
The relation of the divinely decreed destruction of Babylon to the Hope of Israel is thus expressed in the opening of ch. xiv.:
“ For the Lord will yet have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them and bring them to their place : and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids : and they shall take them captive whose captives they were ; and they shall rule over their oppressors.”
It was when this relief from the Babylonian captivity was experienced that Israel was to take up the “ proverb ” or parable expressed in the fourth and following verses. There can be no mistake about the object of the “ taunting speech ” in question. It is “ the King of Babylon ” (v. 4), who “ smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke ” (v. 6). He was the broken staff and sceptre (v. 5), the fallen tree (Dan. iv.), over whose hewing down the firs and cedars of Lebanon were comforted (v. 8). All this is so obvious that it seems almost an insult to intelligence to rehearse it. But when we have the surprising fact before us that the context (v. 12), is referred by many to the Devil of popular belief—an imaginary king of an equally imaginary hell, the insistence on these obvious facts is seen to be neither unnecessary nor unreasonable.
“ Hell from beneath is moved to meet thee at thy coming,” says the parable. That is “ the grave ” as the margin of the Authorised Version rightly expresses it—the hell of “ the dead ” (v. 9), “the grave” (v. 11), where “the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.” Or, as if is expressed in v. 15: “ Thou shalt be brought down to hell (sheol, the same word translated grave in v. 11 and many other places), to the sides of the pit.” This “ hell ” is gravedom, or the dominion of the grave, located in the ground, a land of darkness, a place of forgetfulness and silence, a place of dead bodies and worms. The other “ hell,” the imaginary place of torment, located nobody can imagine where, is a pagan fiction of Babylonian origin. The figure of the dead speaking is as intelligible as that of the trees rejoicing, and is not confined to this parable. Its most striking illustration is found in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke xvi.), the imagery of which has something in common with that of Isaiah xiv. and is similarly misinterpreted.
But the words that give pause to those uninstructed in the first principles of the truth are those of verse twelve. “ How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations ? ” Such language can have but one meaning to them, portraying the fall from heaven of their Satan, the archangel who was cast out of heaven for rebellion, and with his hosts established those traditional infernal regions which an apostate Christianity has borrowed from pagan mythology. If this were true, we should be compelled to question whether heaven were a finality of blessedness—since rebellion would be possible even there.
But seeing that the language indisputably refers to “ the King of Babylon,” the only question arising is : How do such descriptions fit the case ? “ Lucifer,” in the Authorised Version, is of Latin origin, and signifies simply lightbearer. The margin gives “ day star ” as an alternative, and the Revised Version has transferred this to the text. This was the idea of the Septuagint translators who so rendered the Hebrew word, which itself simply means “ shining,” coming from a verb the primary meaning of which is to shine.
“ Day-star, son of the morning ” or dawn, as an appellation of the King of Babylon, recalls the sun, moon and star worship of Merodach, god of light, and challenges comparison with the titles “ The Bright and Morning Star “ The Star of Jacob,” applied to Zion’s King, of whose dominion Isaiah and all the prophets speak, in assurance of its ultimate triumph over all the gods, and the whole Kingdom of Babylon.
The ambitions of “ Lucifer ” aimed at the perpetual exaltation of the Babylonian heavens above the Israelitish ; but God had decreed otherwise. The Babylonian heavens comprised the royalty and ruling classes of her political aerial, and the corresponding things obtained in Israel. Moses, addressing the congregation of Israel, began :—“ Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth ” (Deut. xxxii. 1). Babylon, prevailing over Israel, brought these heavens under eclipse. Lucifer’s ambition is thus paraphrased in verses 13-14—“ Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; I will be like the most High.”
Here, to “ exalt the throne above the stars of God,” is to “ sit upon the mount of the congregation,” that is, Mount Zion, where the “ bright and shining lights ” of Israel shone, and where Israel’s “ Morning Star ” is yet to be enthroned. Somewhat similar language is addressed by Ezekiel to the King of Tyre (ch. xxviii. 13-17), whose dominion, in the days of David and Solomon, had been in alliance with Israel; but who, for his pride, was like Lucifer, condemned to an ignominious downfall. And Daniel, speaking of the Roman power that should prevail over Israel, said (ch. viii. 10), “ It waxed great even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even against the Prince of the host (that is Christ, Israel’s “ Morning Star ”), and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary cast down.”
Thus the language of Isaiah xiv. concerning Lucifer is quite in harmony with other prophecies concerning Gentile movements and presumptions against the Kingdom of God in Israel. But it is grotesquely inapplicable to the supposed revolt in heaven, God’s dwelling-place, and the casting out thence of the Satan of popular belief. Lucifer was “ the King of Babylon,” a “ man that made the earth tremble; ” who, for his offences, was divinely decreed to go down to a dishonoured grave, being denied the rights of kingly burial. The Babylonian monarch whose fate answers to the details of Isaiah’s prophecies here and elsewhere, as well as to those of Jeremiah and Daniel, was Belshazzar ; and of his “ fall from heaven ' the latter prophet was witness, and in it he was deeply concerned. And this introduces
The Night of Pleasure turned into Fear and Destruction.
In the twenty-first chapter Isaiah had “ a grievous vision ” of the siege of Babylon by the Medes and Persians. In verses 3-5 he speaks as it were from the very point of view of the King of Babylon in the siege : “ Therefore are my loins filled with pain; pangs have taken hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that travaileth; I was bowed down at the hearing of it ; I was dismayed at the seeing of it. My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me; the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me. Prepare the table, watch in the watch- tower. Eat, drink.—Arise ye princes, and anoint the shield.”
Human ingenuity can with suitable apparatus reproduce the sights and sounds of the past. Only God can give beforehand the impressions of the future ; and here is a striking one of many illustrations, in Isaiah’s beholding nearly two hundred years before-hand Belshazzar’s night of carousals, his loin-racking dismay at the writing on the wall, the interruption of the feast by the sudden call to arms, the fall of Babylon and her gods, and her speedy conversion into Jehovah’s threshing floor at the hands of Cyrus.
Both Scripture and profane history tell us of Belshazzar’s feast. Daniel, in chapter v., gives us the divine account with which every Bible reader is familiar. It brings the true issues clearly before us—Israel’s God as against the gods of Babylon —•“ the temple which was in Jerusalem ” as opposed to “ the house of his god in the Land of Shinar ’’—the worship of the God of Israel in antagonism to the Babylonian system. When the gold and silver vessels of the temple, at Belshazzar’s command, were brought in, and “ they drank wine and praised the gods of gold, and of silver and of brass, of iron and of wood, and of stone,” the angelic handwriting on the wall reduced him at once to the state of abject terror depicted by Isaiah so long beforehand. The writer was invisible, save the hand that wrote, and traced upon the plaster “ over against the candlestick ” the brief indecipherable sentence of the doom of Babylon. The unintelligible characters heightened the king’s fear. What was to be done ? The most natural and obvious thing was done. The king called the astrologers, Chaldeans and soothsayers, and all the wise men of Babylon.
The Astrologers Discredited.
What could they do ? They were as helpless in the presence of this mysterious divine inscription, as they had been before Nebuchadnezzar when he demanded of them first, the rehearsal of his forgotten dream, and then the interpretation of it. Their ignorance and impotence had been the subject of Isaiah’s prophecy (ch. xlvii.), when he denounced upon Babylon loss of children and widowhood in one day—“ for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.” By the Spirit of God he thus challenged these pretenders :
“ Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth ; if so be thou shalt be able to profit; if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold they shall be as stubble, the fire shall burn them : they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame ; there shall not be coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants from thy youth ; thev shall wander everyone to his quarter ; none shall save thee.”
And now Babylon’s hour had come. As Isaiah had foretold, evil was upon her and she knew not whence it arose. “ The vengeance of the temple ” was about to be poured upon the desecrator of the vessels thereof ; and before the handwriting on the palace wall stood the astrologers in helpless ignorance, ready to be destroyed, powerless to deliver themselves as Isaiah had said. But the exposure of the astrologers was the occasion of the manifestation of God’s prophet. Daniel, in brief and stern rehearsal of Nebuchadnezzar’s experiences, rebuked Belshazzar, who sinned against the light (Dan. v. 22) in humbling not his heart though he knew all this. He then read and interpreted the handwriting on the wall, which, in four words (Numbered, Numbered, Weighed, Divided !), decreed the end of the Kingdom of Babylon; and " in that night was Belshazzar the King of the Chaldeans slain.” Probably many of the astrologers fell before the sword of Cyrus ; but Daniel escaped, and came to honour under Darius.
The Drying of the Euphrates.
One of the boasts of Babylon was its beautiful river, which ran through the midst of the city, walled on either side along its entire course. The walls were each pierced with twenty-five gates corresponding to the lines of the streets of the city. Between these gates and massive quays adjoining, ferry boats continually plied, and the river was bridged in the centre of the city by a drawbridge which connected the two great palaces. Besides the river, there was the immense reservoir already alluded to. Water was superabundant, and the great extent of open land within the walls permitted the growth of a large supply of grain. It was estimated that the city could successfully withstand a siege of twenty years at least; and the citizens seemed safe in their amusement of insulting Cyrus and his army from the walls.
But the river was marked out beforehand by God as the line of attack; and it suited Cyrus very well to let it be supposed that his purpose was to reduce the city by famine. “ 0 thou that dwellest on many waters,” said Jeremiah (li. 13). “ thine end is come.” “ A drought is upon her waters and they shall be dried up, for it is the land of graven images ” (Jer. 1. 38). “ One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another to show the King of Babylon that his city is taken at the end; and the passages are surprised, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted ” (Jer. li. 31). “ I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry ” (v. 36).
How all this was accomplished every reader of ancient history knows. Cyrus, under cover of constructing simple entrenchments and imprisoning enbankments of vast extent, really excavated an immense channel for the diversion of the river. The stratagem, and the scale upon which it was carried out, were worthy of the man. But of course we remember that both the plan and the man were “ of the Lord.” When the work was completed, and on the night of Belshazzar’s feast, the waters were turned, and the way through the heart of the city laid bare. But even so it was not plain sailing, for the interior walls and gates remained, and had these all been efficiently watched and manned, the forces of that memorable night-march might only have walked into a trap after all. But, “The Gates shall not be Shut.”
So God had declared by Isaiah (xlv.). “ Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him ; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates ; and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight : I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron.” And so, when the time came, the gates were not shut; and the forces under Gobryas and Gadatas, advancing to the heart of the city from the north and south in the river bed, were soon in the palace ; and, having slain the king, took the city with little further resistance. Bel, Nebo, and Merodach judged.
From time to time in human history, there have arisen crises at which it has pleased God to make Himself known by the judgments which He executes. Generations following soon forget these judgments, for in the flesh dwelleth no good thing ; but the facts remain. In every generation the remnant that may have come under the power of the Word, has taken heed to the record of these facts, and remembered them in hope of the day of final vindication.
It is so still. We read of the destruction, in Noah’s flood, of the world of the ungodly, and remember Christ’s impressive application of it to the day of his coming. We read of the events of the Egyptian exodus and the judgment upon the gods of Egypt, and remember that it is written in the prophet Micah that “ marvellous things ” are to come on the nations after that same pattern. We read of the destruction of Sennacherib’s army, and his own assassination in the presence of his god at Nineveh, in whose name he had defied “ the God of Jerusalem.” And now we read of the judgment of God upon the idols of Babylon, and remember that there is still a Babylon adoring “ phantoms vain as wood and stone,” against which adoration we earnestly protest, exhorting men to “ turn to God from idols, and serve the living and the true God and wait for His son from heaven.”
Daniel in Babylon revealed to them the true God, whose works the court ought to have remembered. But they were “ mad upon their idols.” God had foretold the overthrow of these. Isaiah had said (ch. xlvi.) : “ Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle : your carriages were heavy laden; they are a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together ; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.” And the chapter goes on to appeal to Israel to hearken to God and not idols, the work of men’s hands—-to God who in His majesty and foresight had called Cyrus as “ a ravenous bird ” to execute His judgment on Babylon. This chapter closes with the assurance of a final manifestation of righteousness and salvation in Zion.
Jeremiah’s emphatic denunciation of judgment against Babylon (chs. li., lii.) commences thus: — “Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces, her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.” And in explanation of the divine judgment he further says : “ The Lord of Hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men as with caterpillars, and they shall lift up a shout against thee. He hath made the earth by his power, He hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.” This was a repudiation of Bel and Merodach, to whom Babylonian superstition attributed these mighty works, and in whose sun-moon-and-star worship they thought to prevail against the God of Israel, and the land and nation He had for a period of 70 years delivered over to them for punishment.
That there should be no perpetuation of Babylon error concerning this. God said (v. 44), “ I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up ; and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him : yea the wall of Babylon shall fall.” The names of Bel, Nebo and Merodach have been recovered in many of the inscriptions from Babylon. Nebo was the Babylonian God of learning and represented the scribes and priests ; while Bel had apparently more to do with the civil power. Merodach was the god of light, “ the sun of dawn and of spring.”
One of the inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar the Great which have been preserved to our day shews his worship of Merodach. It is known as the India House inscription, being now in the India Office, and “ gives an account of the rebuilding of more than twenty temples in Babylon and Borsippa, of the strengthening of the fortifications of the city, and of the making of the great quays beside the river.” It confirms the truth of Dan. iv. 30, which tells us how the king, in admiration of his work, “ spake and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built ? ” Daniel had told him that it was by the power of the Most High who ruleth in the kingdoms of men, and who would humble him in an unprecedented manner. But Nebuchadnezzar attributed his power to Merodach and the gods of Babylon. Hence this inscription concludes with the following prayer :
“ To Merodach, my Lord, I prayed, I lifted up my hands. ‘ Merodach, Lord, wisest of gods, glorious prince I Thou it wast who madest me, and with the sovereignty of all mankind didst invest me ! (Compare Dan. ii. 37 : v. 18-21). Like dear life I love thy lofty image; above thine own city Babylon, I have adorned no town in any place. Like as I love the fear of thy Godhead, [and] regard thy Lordship, favour thou the lifting up of my hands; hear my prayer I I am the patron king that rejoiceth thine herrt; the prudent minister, the patron of all thy cities. By Thy command,
- merciful Merodach ! may the house I have built endure for ever ! May
- be satisfied with the fulness of it; (contrast Psa. lxv. 4) and therein may I come to grey hairs, [and] be satisfied with children ! May I receive therein the rich tributes of the Kings of the regions of all mankind S (contrast Psa. Ixxii. 10-11; Isa. lx. 11-12) from horizon to zenith—the places of the rising sun—may I own no enemy have none [to make me afraid! Let my offspring therein rule the black-headed folk for evermore.’ "
But Merodach could not preserve Nebuchadnezzar from humiliation, nor save his “ own city Babylon.” Two thousand five hundred years have passed away, and the fragmentary evidences of his hypothetical existence are found in the museums of the Gentiles of the far west, whose careless multitudes, strolling by them, wonder at the childishness of the mighty ones of long ago. Here and there, a more enlightened spectator passing by, with the prophetic word in hand and heart, wonders in another way; and his heart rises in thankful worship to the Lord God of Israel who brought these vanities to nothing; and has preserved His own nation of Israel against the setting up of the kingdom of which Daniel spoke to the Babylonian Kings.
The taking of Babylon by Cyrus was only the beginning of the end. The prophecy required that it should be “ as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha.” First of all it ceased to be a royal city, the Persian kings preferring Susa, Ecbatana, or Persepolis. The Macedonian kings built Selucia, which drew away the population of Babylon and caused it to be deserted. At last the city was entirely forsaken, so that Pausanias, who wrote about the time that John received the Revelation (a.d. 96), took occasion to remark that of the once greatest city of the world nothing more then remained than the walls. The prophecies that it should become a habitation of wild beasts were literally fulfilled by the action of the Persian kings in converting the desolate city into a hunting park! At last even the walls began to crumble and fall, and the debris, blocking the river, caused it to divert, possibly to the course of Cyrus’ artificial channel, while the diminished flow that came through the city, spread out at last into marshes. Thus it degenerated into “ pools of water,” a most unlikely thing from a merely human point of view ; for if there is a stable landmark in the world it is a city on a river- witness Rome on the Tiber, or even London on the Thames.
The combined effect of all these things was the manifested fulfilment of the prophetic declaration : “ I will make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of Hosts ” (Isa. xiv. 23). So effectual was the sweeping that Rollin, who flourished 1661-1741, declares that “ the most able geographers at this day cannot determine the place where it stood.” The explorations of the nineteenth century, however, have revealed the site of Babylon, and very many interesting confirmations of the truth of the Scriptures. The twentieth century will see many of the eye-witnesses of her vanished glory in the land of the living—the children of Zion rejoicing in their king.
The Approaching Fall of Roman “ Babylon.”
The last verses of Isaiah’s fourteenth chapter look far beyond the fall and desolation of ancient Babylon, and contemplate judgments which are still in the future. In the nature of things it is only in the time of the end that the full scope of the prophecy becomes visible, and, by the deep conviction produced of its divine authorship, compensates somewhat for the absence of the open vision that the prophets enjoyed in Israel. Passing on from God’s declaration concerning Babylon (Isa. xiv. 23) : “I will sweep it with the besom of destruction,” the next verses run thus:
“ The Lord of Hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand : that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot : then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth ; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed and who shall disannul it ? And his hand is stretched out and who shall turn it back ? ”
Isaiah had already testified (ch. ix. 4 : x. 27) that the final breaking of the yoke from off the neck of Israel should be “ because of the anointing,” and should come by the hand of the promised Son of God and of David. The association of the idea with the downfall of Babylon cannot be supposed to be accidental; and when we come to know all that is testified of and by the Son of David, we see clearly the design of it. Assyria and Babylonia have their modern counterparts in senses geographical and spiritual. The prophets of Israel and their ministry did not cease with Malachi. To stop with him would be to leave out the greatest of the prophets, even the prophet like unto Moses, who was “ worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.” In building the house he said to the Scribes and Pharisees : “ Behold I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes ; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them ve shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city ” (Matt, xxiii. 34).
Among these was John, the beloved disciple, who, when banished to the Isle of Patmos, beheld in vision among the things that should come to pass thereafter, the final judgment of the great Roman system which, under the figure of “ the great whore that sitteth upon many waters,” corrupted, enslaved, and destroyed the nations. “ Babylon the Great, the mother of Harlots, and abominations of the earth,” is the legend upon the forehead of the symbolic woman who, in the last verse of Rev. xvii., is explained to be “ that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” There is thus no escape from the conclusion that Rome, subsequently to A.D. 96 and down to the time of her revealed destruction at the hands of the Lord, is before the world defined by Jesus as the modern representative of ancient Babylon.
It seems fitting to pause here to notice briefly what is said in the last prophecy of the word of God concerning a system that is so closely related to the Babylon, whose downfall the prophets of old foretold, and that is so powerful an influence for evil at the present day, and, moreover, that is in such direct and murderous antagonism to the “ servants of God,” to whom ‘‘ the words of this prophecy ” are especially addressed. It would require a volume to trace satisfactorily and completely all the analogies of Rome and Babylon. They are many and most striking. They constitute not merely an intellectual problem of the highest type, but a great, earnest, and practical matter revealed from God concerning the state of affairs in which we live and move and have our being, and the true inwardness of which is exceedingly difficult of discernment by reason of the all-prevailing “ sorceries ” that are divinely said to be characteristic of the prevailing system. They deeply concern “ the patience and faith of the saints ” who are called upon to “ Come out and be separate,” to protest, contend earnestly, and endure to the end, watching and hoping for the Avenger of the elect in the day of Judgment that has been proclaimed.
Ancient Babylon was dealt with by God not merely as a city, but as the head of a great dominion, “ the golden city,”—“ The Lady of Kingdoms,” that dwelt “upon many waters” or peoples. So Rome is before us in the Revelation as the great city that reigned over kings, “ that sitteth upon many waters ”—“ peoples and multitudes, and nations and tongues,” whose boast, like Babylon’s of old, was, “ I shall be a lady for ever ” (Isa. xlvii. 7). “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow ” (Rev. xviii. 7).
By the decree of Caracalla the boundaries of the city, Rome, were declared to be coincident with those of the Empire ; and the slain witnesses in Rev. xi. are said to lie “ in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom, and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” Thus the territory ruled by Rome, and divinely characterised by the attributes of the land of Egypt, and the cities of Sodom and Babylon, is before us as the further and final object of Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s prophecies concerning Babylon. Judea was a Roman province when Jesus was crucified outside Jerusalem, and some forty years afterwards Rome destroyed the city, as Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar, had done before. Just as Israel was to rejoice over Babylon’s overthrow ; so, in the future, “ the Israel of God ” is to rejoice over the fall of Modern Babylon, as it is written : " Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets ; for God hath avenged you on her ” (Rev. xviii. 20).
The Modern Lucifer.
Following the features of Isaiah’s prophecy of the fall of Babylon, as briefly noted in the last chapter, the question naturally arises, Who, in the latter-day Gentile world, answers at all to “ Lucifer, son of the morning,” with his ambitious designs of exalting his throne above the stars of God ? If Rome be Babylon, who is the most conspicuous figure in Rome ? Unquestionably the Pope, whose sovereignty is, or rather was, of the kind that answers exactly to that of the proud king of Babylon, the Sovereign Pontiff of the old order that passed away before the divine judgments at the hands of Cyrus. The Papal sovereignty, however, extended, (and does yet spiritually extend) far beyond “ the ends of the earth ” as known to the Babylonians. And what was the boast of Lucifer : “I will sit upon the mount of the congregation,” by comparison with the Papal legend engraven upon a medal representing the dominion of Roman state : Sedet super Universam ! She sits upon the Universe ? And what Babylonian pride or superstition could exceed, or even equal, that of the assumption by the popes of the titles “ Holy Father,” “ Our Lord God, the Pope ? ” But there is a like ambition in modern Babylon (meaning thereby what a popular writer has aptly designated “ Anti- Christendom ”) to what existed in ancient Babylon of Daniel’s day ; that is the dream of Jerusalem as the world metropolis of “ Babylon the Great.”
It must be remembered that Roman Christendom is divided into the two great divisions of Greek and Roman Catholicism, of the former of which the Czar is the spiritual head, and of the latter the Pope. This division does not, however, destroy the unity of Babylon, which at the crisis of divine judgment (Ret-, xvi. 19) is said to be divided into three parts. It is “ the great city ” all the same, and when its dominion is threatened by Christ returned its military head, the Czar, and chief “ false prophet,” the Pope, may be expected to join hands against him, for the whole of the forces of Christendom are prophetically shown united to make war against the Lamb (Rev. xvii. 14). Thus the characteristics of “ Lucifer ” are found in both these world-” fathers.”
Russian designs on Constantinople and Jerusalem are well known. The pose of the Czar (in 1899) as the " Harbinger of Peace ” does not in the least interfere with the steady preparation for war and the steady advance of Russian aggression in Asia Minor and Syria. It will be remembered by many how the dispute over the Holy Places at Jerusalem provoked the Crimean War. This is also a hint to the wise of future possibilities. But plain information concerning the last strife for the place of Jehovah’s throne in Jerusalem is given by the prophets, and it shows that before its final overthrow Modern Babylon prevails for a last time over Jerusalem (Zech. xiv.) before the Lord goes forth to judgment upon the scene of his crucifixion nineteen hundred years ago.
The Night of Pleasure.
The prevalence of “ the darkness that covers the earth ” (Isa. lx.), and is only to be dispelled by the arising of the Lord as the Sun of Righteousness upon Zion, is well represented by the “ night.” It is the night in which “ the beasts of the forest do creep forth,” even those which Daniel saw in the night visions. It is, as it were, a continuation of that of which God spoke by Micah (iii. 6), “ Therefore night shall be unto you that ye shall not have a vision, and it shall be dark unto you that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets and the day shall be dark over them.” It is the night in which Zion’s watchmen wait, as Isaiah in vision (xxi. 6-9) saw one watch and wait on the wall of Babylon, and in which they, like him, see the approach of chariots, and turmoil and war that will bring about the fall of Babylon. It is the night of the drunken feast of Babylon; for the Spirit of God says that ‘‘the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication” (Rev. xvii. 2), that is, with the stupefying doctrines of apostate Christendom.
Christendom is mentally and morally “ drunk ” with Romish perversions of the truth and blendings with paganism Just as the nations of antiquity were said to be " mad ” through the wine of ancient Babylon (Jer. li. 7), so the nations of “ Christendom ” are equally “ mad ” through Rome’s " wine.” Paul, writing to the Thessalonians concerning the times and seasons of the coming of Christ (1 Thess. v.), said he did not need to enlarge on it to them—“ For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child ; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of day; we are not of the night no of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath; but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This sobriety and wakefulness and watchfulness is induced by putting away the Babylonian wine and drinking freely " without money and without price ” of the “ wine and milk ” of the divine invitation (Isa. lv.). In plain English, it is a throwing away of Church and Chapel theology, and a whole-hearted cleaving to the Bible instead. The Lord God will “ abundantly pardon ” the wicked who forsakes his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. By a belief of the Gospel of the Kingdom and the obedience of baptism into Christ, such a one may be transformed from an inebriated Babylonian, into a sane and sober citizen of Zion, watching and praying for the dawn of Zion’s glad morning, and the breakdown of the dreadful system that so long befuddled and enslaved him.
During the night of Belshazzar’s feast, he prostituted the cups and vessels of the temple to Paganism. So in a sense does Rome. The Corinthians, transforming " the Lord’s supper ” into a riotous love feast, ate and drank damnation to themselves, not discerning the Lord’s body (1 Cor. xi.). Exhorting them to flee from idolatry, and appealing to them as “ wise men,” Paul said: “ The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ ? ... Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils (demons); ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and of the table of devils (demons) ” —1 Cor. xi. 16, 21.
If that be so, what shall we say of the system which has deliberately converted “ the Lord’s supper ” into an idolatrous ceremonial of the grossest type ? Rome has truly turned the Lord’s table into a table of demons. She has made a god of the bread, and avoided the literal Corinthian drunkenness by withholding the wine altogether. And, as if to establish the family relationship of the Church of England to the Romish “ Mother of Harlots,” a semi-secret society within her pale, called the “ Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament,” thus speaks in a published paper :
“We say that the presence of Christ is whole. Whole Christ comes to us, and is incorporated with us in His Sacrament. His Body, His Blood, His Soul, His Divinity, are present. And not only that, but He is wholly present in every particle, just as much as in all that is consecrated. When we separate from the notion of substance everything gross and material, we may regard the term transubstantiation as a convenient definition of the results of consecration which the articles do not exclude.”
Those who, in the time of their Babylonian citizenship, have belonged to the Anglican department of the “ Great City,” may remember that Article XXVIII. says, among other things: “ Transubstantiation (or, the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in the supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, over- throweth the nature of a sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions.” The squaring of the “ Confraternity’s ” statement with this is a specimen of the “ sorceries ” spoken of in Revelation.
Christendom is, in fact, very much in the condition allegorically represented by the Palace of Babylon on the night of Belshazzar’s
feast. The wine of intoxication is the false doctrine of which the chief ingredient is the “ immortality of the soul,” a doctrine based upon the first lie told in the world. The whole truth of God concerning all things from man to God is marred by this ; for the reasoning is always from man to God in opposition to the revelation of the Bible from God to man.
The Astrologers of Modern Babylon.
In the eyes of the millions of worshippers of Christendom, bigotry and fanaticism could not go further than to suggest the least resemblance between the clergy of the various State Churches of Christendom and the soothsayers, astrologers and necromancers of ancient Babylon. Yet the resemblance is close and striking, and is portrayed by the Word of God. It is, moreover, ea'ily and clearly perceived by those who, in His mercy, are awakened from their drunken sleep and brought out from the “ Great City ” to view it in the light of divine truth. It is indisputable that the Romish system of world-wide sorcerisings (Rev. xviii. 23) is “ Babylon the Great; ” and therefore there is no escape from the conclusion that the Romish hierarchy—the popes, cardinals, priests, and clerics of the mother and daughter churches—are the sorcerers or astrologers of the great city
Their doctrines are as purely pagan as any that circulated in ancient Babylon. They are indeed the direct lineal descendants of these. The idea of immortal souls that survive the death of the body, and ascend to heaven at death, or descend to the infernal regions the}- call hell, or hover in an intermediate state which the Babylonian “ mother ” calls “ purgatory,” and whence, she says, they can be liberated by certain sorceries, for a consideration in cash—this idea is simply paganism, allied to a profession of Bible truth ; and can be traced back, feature by feature, through the Roman and Greek mythologies, to the Babylonian and Egyptian originals; thus absolutely justifying the prophecy of the Lord Jesus in the book of Revelation.
This tracing back is elaborately done by the late Alexander Hislop, in his book The Two Babylons: not that the identity is exhibited with the thoroughness that pertains to the truth alone.
for Mr. Hislop was not quite without the pale himself; but many of the tenets and rites of Roman Catholicism are very clearly identified with the Pagan superstitions of the past.
The astrologers of Babylon were not a whit more helpless before the angelic inscription on the wall of Belshazzar’s palace than their modern representatives are before the “ writing ” that decrees the fall of modern Babylon. They cannot interpret it, and declare that those who can do so are mad. The Lord Jesus, by his angel, has given a “ Revelation ” to his servants concerning this, which is intelligible only to “ the wise,” who “ shall understand.” There is a good deal of singing in Babylon about
“Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone, Dare to have a purpose firm. And dare to make it known.”
But those who come to understand Daniel’s faith and hope, and proclaim the kingdom that he proclaimed to the Babylonian kings, soon find themselves in close encounter with the clerical astrologers, who will have none of it, but sing
“ With thee we’ll reign, With thee we’ll rise. And kingdoms gain Beyond the skies I ”
Now, all who know the Bible know that it tells of no kingdom beyond the skies in which the people of Christ shall reign with him; but that it does tell of a kingdom upon earth, “ under the ivhole heaven,” in the prospect of reigning in which they are seen in this “ Revelation ” rejoicing, saying : “ We shall reign on the earth as kings and priests ” (Rev. v. 10). The clergy, in their pretended sky-pilotage of fabled immortal souls, are mere “ sorcerers,” like their prototypes in Babylon. The proof of it is in what Daniel taught as against what they teach.
Daniel taught that the God of heaven would set up on earth a kingdom that should not be left to other people, but should break in pieces and consume all the rival kingdoms of men, and itself should stand for ever. That God would do this by One whose figure is a stone cut out of a mountain without hands—that is Christ, who was of higher than merely human origin (ch. ii.). He declared that this kingdom should be taken and possessed by the saints of the Most High, and that it should m its territory embrace the whole earth (ch. vii.). He revealed by the Spirit that before this great consummation the saints would be prevailed against for a long season by a power which the same Spirit of God afterwards styled “ Babylon the Great ” (vii. and Rev. xvii.) ; and that they would have the honour of taking away this dominion, “ to consume and to destroy it unto the end ” (Dan. vii. 26). This honour, the angel declared to Daniel, would be bestowed upon them by resurrection from the dead in the day of the return of Christ (Michael, the Great Prince), in a time of trouble such as never was from the Flood onwards (ch. xii.). Previous to that the angel described the saints as of “ them that sleep in the dust of the earth,” who, he said, shall “ awake to everlasting life ” and to “ shine as the brightness of the firmament ... as the stars for ever and ever,”—or as Jesus expresses it: “ Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,” that is, in the “ harvest ” at “ the end of the age ” (Matt. xiii.). “ Go thy way till the end be,” said the angel to Daniel, “ for thou shall rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” So Daniel rests, sleeping in dust till the end be.
Nay, say the modern astrologers, “Where is now the prophet Daniel? Safe within the promised land,”
“land” meaning “ beyond the skies ” in the language of their incantations. But the children of Daniel’s people will not heed these, but, like him, study the books, and believe and hope in what they there find written, shaping their aspirations and prayers on the recorded model of Daniel’s angelically answered prayer as read in his ninth chapter.
The Symbolic Euphrates, and the incoming Kings of the East.
No one intelligent in the Scriptures could miss the striking analogy between the stratagem of Cyrus by which Babylon was taken, and the great latter-day historical development (related to the same territory) by the symbol of which in Revelation xvi. Jesus prefaces the announcement of his thief-like entry into Babylon the Great. The Euphrates was diverted by Cyrus, and its dried channel made “ the way ” of his conquering forces into the heart of Babylon. So in Rev. xvi. 12 it is said, “The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the Kings of the East might be prepared.”
Here the river stands as the symbol of the Empire whose territory is watered by it ; and its “ water ” for the population of that empire. This is according to the divinely-explained symbolism of Isaiah viii., concerning the overflow of the same river, in relation to the ancient Assyrian. The modern Euphratean Power is of course the Turk, and the Turkish Power has for nearly^ a century been “ drying up.” This is not the time and place to trace the process of the decay of the Turk, who was once the terror of Europe. His political sobriquet, “ the Sick Man of the East,” is known all over the world. But what has Turkish decay, wasting or “ drying up,” to do with the way of the Kings of the East ? Who are the Kings of the East ?
The answer to the first question is that the Turkish Empire occupies the Land of Promise, the Land covenanted to Abraham and his seed the Christ for an everlasting possession, and therefore blocks the way of the manifestation of Christ and his people’s power against Babylon the Great as really as the Euphratean river did the divinely-appointed “ way ” of Cyrus of old. So long as the Turk possesses Palestine and Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God cannot be set up. No matter what the wise men of Babylon say, this is the fact, and therefore his removal is the subject of revelation beforehand to such as have eyes to see and ears to hear. The kings of the East, or literally, “ Kings from a Sun’s rising,” are those who in the same Revelation (v. 10) are styled “ Kings and priests unto God,” the “ Kings ” and “ Lords ” over whom Jesus, the Faithful and True Witness, is said to be " King and Lord ” (ch i. 5: xix. 16), and to whom one of their number said in the days of his flesh, ‘‘If we suffer, we shall also reign with him” (2 Tim. ii. 12).
Jesus himself returns to reign in Jerusalem, “ where also our Lord was crucified,” when it was the capital of a province of the great Roman Babylon. Therefore it should seem no strange thing that his people should return to reign in the countries where, like Israel, “ they have been put to shame.” However it seems to the citizens of Babylon in their spiritual drunkenness ; it will come to pass ; and the drying Euphrates is a great and notable sign of the imminence of it. But just as Babylon discerned not the stratagem of Cyrus, so modern Babylon cannot see the purpose of Christ though it be so plainly advertised to the people. It will know nothing until in panic it discovers that “as a thief” he is in the great city, and has all its royalties, priesthoods, and aristocracies entirely at his mercy.
Isaiah beholding the judgment of the fatal night of Babylon’s pleasure, cries: “ O my threshing and the corn of my floor : that which I have heard of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.” Jeremiah also proclaimed that Babylon should become the Lord’s “ threshing floor ” (li. 33). The Medes and Persians were the threshing instrument. But in the latter-day antitypical Babylon becomes the Lord’s threshing floor, and “ the daughter of Zion ” his threshing instrument (Micah iv. 13 ; Is. xli. 15 ; Dan. ii. 35). The student who takes the trouble to study these scriptures in the light of what has been already indicated from the word, will perceive that they introduce a great international confederacy against Zion in which the issue of the case Zion versus Babylon is finally threshed out, to the vindication of the former and the entire abolition of the latter. They introduce, in fact, the subject of Armageddon, which is associated with the drying up of the Euphrates in the sixth vial (Rev. xvi. 16).
“Armageddon” is a jest to most of the Babylonians, but it is no subject for jest, and succinctly introduces at this crisis that gathering of the nations to the land of Israel for judgment, of which the prophets so often speak. Armageddon is a composite word of “ the Hebrew tongue,” and means City of Megiddo. Here the nations of Babylon are to become sheaves for the threshing floor according to the testimonies already referred to. The British military authorities have some kind of a notion that something like this may happen in Palestine. Thus Col. Conder, in his “ Tent Work in Palestine,’’ speaking of Megiddo and the valley of Jezreel, says :
“ The route followed by Thothmes III. (he is referring to the inscriptions of the temple of Karnak in Egypt), is the same afterwards taken by Necho ; and his great battle at Megiddo preceded that in which Josiah was slain. May we go yet further, and say that if any important battle be fought in Palestine in future times, it is at Megiddo, or in its neighbourhood, that it is likely to occur, in fact, ‘ Ar Mageddon,' is a military probability in case of a contest in the Holy Land. The physical causes which led to the former battles in this district would again come into operation. An army would find its way across the watershed of the country most easily in the neighbourhood of the plain of Dothan, where the greatest elevation is only 800 feet above the level of the sea, or a litle farther north by the chalk downs of the ‘ Breezy Land,’ where the slopes are gentle, and the greatest elevation is only 1,200 feet.
“ An army advancing from Damascus on Egypt would cross the Jordan valley near the Sea of Galilee, and would advance with the greatest ease up the broad highway of the valley of Jezreel, where Megiddo (if at Mujedd’a) now stands in ruins. Thus it is in the neighbourhood of this place that the two contending forces might still meet, and the old highway of kings from Egypt to Assyria would be the line of advance for armies of the nineteenth century.”
It is impossible to enlarge fully upon the analogies discoverable upon comparison of Isaiah’s and ‘Jeremiah’s prophecies concerning Babylon, with the later Revelation of the Lord Jesus concerning the Roman Babylon, which is in truth but an extension or continuation of the same Kingdom of men, with all the old hateful characteristics in a new dressing and many new abominations added. The mind of God towards it is expressed in the visions given to John in the Isle of Patmos and is a very graphic illustration of the recorded fact that “ the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the heart.” Those who know His revealed mind as expressed in His word will not hesitate to “ come out and be separate,” to renounce the pagan superstitions of the “ great city,” and look for the day of judgment that shall suppress them all for ever, and vindicate Zion and her children in all the earth.
“Rejoice not, Palestine ! ”
The last five verses of Isaiah xiv. contain a brief message of God by the prophet to all Palestina, or Philistia, “ in the year that king Ahaz died.”
It will be remembered that Ahaz was a wicked and idolatrous king, and was therefore distressed by Ephraim and Syria, and when the Philistines invaded his dominions he hired the king of Assyria against them, plundering the temple for his hire. “ And Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria came unto him. and distressed him, but strengthened him not.” Soon after this he died. Philistia naturally rejoiced over the discomfiture of her her editary foe; but is warned by the prophet that from the same north quarter a desolating judgment would come upon her. Jeremiah afterwards enlarged upon this in assigning to the country " the wine cup of the Lord’s fury ” by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, to whose yoke it was symbolically commanded to submit (Jer. xxv., xxvii.). This came to pass in due course.
But concerning Judah, and Jerusalem—-the city which Ahaz betrayed and disgraced—there were better things in store for them at last. " The first-born of the poor shall feed : and the needy shall lie down in safety. ’ The promised Son of David would re-establish the city in righteousness. In the days of his flesh he said “ Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven ” And one of his servants, speaking of “ Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” describes them as “ the general assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven” (Heb xii. 22). They are “ the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb ”—“ the first resurrection ” who “ shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years ” (Rev xx. 5). It was with this end in view that the prophet by the spirit said, “ What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation ? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall betake themselves unto it.” Or, as the Revised Version puts it: " In hei shall the afflicted of his people take refuge.” Hence it is that the afflicted saints and the afflicted Jews have always taken pleasure in varying ways and degrees in Zion; and the latter-day remnant of them in “ Zionism,” the one hopeful national movement of our times.
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