Book of Revelation - Ch. 18, Vs. 1-10 (01/27/2019)

Okay, we will begin in Revelation 18, and I'm going to go back all the way to Revelation 1, because there's a couple of things

I want to add to what we said. I said, yeah, Revelation verse 1 of chapter 18, but let's pray first.

Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all our many blessings. Protect those that are missing today because of illness or for travel of whatever reason.

Protect them, bring them back to us again, safely and in good health.

Thank you for giving us your Son. Thank you for giving us your Scripture and the Holy Spirit to help us understand it.

Bless us, keep us, and protect us, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay, and after these things,

I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.

Now, last Sunday, I focused on the double use of the word is fallen, and whenever we read something and it's repeated in the

Scripture, that gives it great emphasis. So, we talked about it, this wasn't just a little softly into the nightfall, this was a catastrophic fall.

It's a double use implies great emphasis.

Raj pointed out last week that it's not only the double use that's important in this choice of words, but it's the actual words that they choose, that he chooses to use.

Is fallen. Now, that puts it in kind of the past tense.

You said aorist, past, so, but he's not talking about something in John's past, or even something in our past.

He's talking of something in the future, but the fact that he put it in this tense implies also that it is so certain that it's referred to as having already taken place.

Did I get that right, Raj? So there's two lessons to be learned out of that passage.

Double use, emphasis, it is not softly into the night. And the fact that it's using this tense tells us that it's something that, although it's yet future, is so certain that it is spoken of as if it has already taken place.

I said, wow, that is great. I can't let that slide by and not let everybody else know.

And I thank you, Raj, for doing that. So now Babylon, the greatest fallen, is fallen and has become the habitation of devils and the whole of every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hateful bird.

Now, you notice it didn't say anything about people living there. It talks about it's the habitation of devils and foul spirits and a cage for every unclean and hateful bird.

That infers a little bit about the severity of this fallenness.

For the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sin, and that you receive not of her plagues.

For sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works in the cup which she has filled to her double.

It's saying repay her double what she has done to you.

Let the punishment match the crime. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her.

For she saith in her heart, I sit as a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day. Now let's look at the plagues a little bit. Death and mourning and famine.

And she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord who judges her.

And the kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her shall bewail her and lament for her when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for fear of her torment, saying,

Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come.

That's kind of where we left off last week. One hour.

Not literally one hour, but sudden and swift. Sudden and severe.

A mighty city. A mighty world system. A mighty commercial system.

A mighty religious system destroyed in an amazingly short time.

But this is not just an allegory or a metaphor.

This is a real city, too. And we kind of touched on this at the very end of the session last time.

The last time we went through Revelation, Brother David pointed to a notation in the

Scofield Bible, and I had him read it last time, and I think all of us were in here, so I'm not going to have him do it again.

He referred to a passage in Isaiah that Scofield used to make the case that the events surrounding the destruction of Babylon had already occurred, and that the great city described here could not be the real city

Babylon. We're not going to look at his account right now, but before we do that, before we look at the account in Isaiah that Scofield used, let's look at a secular account of the fall, as well as a spiritual account of the fall that Scofield mistakenly took to be the fall described in Revelation and Isaiah.

So first, we're going to do a secular version. Herodias, in his book,

The Histories, gave this account of the fall of Babylon to the Persians. And as we go through this account, kind of think about as a citizen of Babylon, when this took place, would this be a gentle fall into the night, or would this be a catastrophic event?

So here's what it says. The Persians, who had been left for purpose at Babylon by the riverside, entered the stream which had now sunk so as to reach about midway up a man's thigh, and thus got into the town.

Had the Babylonians been apprised of what Cyrus was about, or had they noticed their danger, they would never have allowed the

Persians to enter the city, but would have utterly destroyed them, for they would have made fast all the city gates that gave access to the river, and mounting upon the walls on both sides of the river, would have caught the enemy as it were in a trap.

But as it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise and took the city. Now, this is a secular account in the histories of the taking of Babylon by the

Persians. Owing to the vast size of the place, the inhabitants of the central parts, as the residents at Babylon declare, long after the outer parts of the town were taken, knew nothing of what had chanced.

But as they were engaged in a festival, continued dancing and reveling until they learned about their capture.

Such then were the circumstances of the first taking of Babylon. Nothing dramatic.

The residents of the city did not even know they were under attack until the city was taken.

I don't, I think that maybe individuals might have thought back, but there was no concerted effort.

And the citizenry wouldn't have been fighting back anyhow. They'd just been scrambling home.

If, in fact, they even knew it was happening, they didn't know it was happening. They continued dancing in the streets. That doesn't sound like the sky was falling, the moon was turning red, the earth was shaking, the city was burning.

And even then, for most of them, nothing really changed, except now they have new rumors.

Now, I've got this more contemporary secular account by a guy by the name of John van der

Kraben, I think. Here's what he says. And he is a historian and he especially is studying the

Middle East cultures. After taking Babylon, Cyrus proclaimed himself king of Babylon, king of Summer and Achaeta, king of the four corners of the world in the famous Cyrus Cylinder, an inscription deposited in the foundation of the temple dedicated to the chief

Babylonian god Marduk. The text of this cylinder denounces,

I'm going to give you a new name, Nabonidus, and we're going to kind of come to terms with who he is and why the historians get it all wrong when they look at Daniel and say, well,

Daniel is just an example of historical fiction. They view the book of Daniel, this passage that we're going to read next, as historical fiction because some things don't match up, they think, but they do exactly.

And in fact, in Daniel, they tell us things that could only be known. Well, we'll see when we get there.

Nabonidus is the name. They think that Daniel got the name wrong.

I'll say that much. The text of the cylinder denounces Nabonidus as impious and portrays the victorious

Cyrus as pleasing to Marduk. The text goes on to describe how

Cyrus had improved the lives of the citizens of Babylonia, repatriated displaced people, including the

Jews. Now, the author of this article showed no awareness of the reason that the

Jews were repatriated. We all know, don't we? Nehemiah came in and begged the king to let him go and do it, but he has no, he has no, this is not a, this is not a necessarily scriptural guy.

This is just a historian. So, repatriated displaced people, including the

Jews, and restored the temples and the cult sanctuaries. Then he goes 200 years into the future.

About 200 years later, seeking to reach the ends of the world and the great outer sea,

Alexander the Great invaded India in 326 BC. Now, we're counting backwards, so the other ones earlier.

But was eventually forced to turn back at the demand of his troops. Alexander died in Babylon in 323

BC, the city he had planned to establish as his new capital. He was going to move his capital from Greece to Babylon and make that the capital of his new world without executing the series of planned campaigns that would have begun with the invasion of Arabia.

That's as much as I'm going to give you of his account. So we've got two secular accounts, both of them indicating that Babylon fell gently, almost imperceptibly, and that it was still around 200 years later for Alexander to consider as the capital of his kingdom.

Now for the spiritual account of that fall. Go to Daniel 5 .1.

I'm going to read part of it and I'm going to let you, I'm probably going to skip some because it's a long passage.

And I do want to, well, maybe since there's such a small group, maybe we'll just read it all.

And that'll let us start in an earlier place next time.

Belshazzar, the king, made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank the wine before the thousands.

So he's gotten himself drunk. Verse 2,

Belshazzar, whilst he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father, now in Hebrew, father and grandfather is the same word.

They don't have a separate word for grandfather. What we would say instead of this word father, we would say his grandfather,

Nebuchadnezzar, had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem. And that the king and his princes and his wives and his concubines might drink therein.

Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem.

And the king and his princes and his wives and his concubines drank in them. And they drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver and of brass and of iron, of wood and of stone.

And now in the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace.

And the king saw part of the hand that wrote. So he saw the hand and he saw the writing.

So the king's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him.

If you saw a disembodied hand writing on the wall, that would be enough to shake you up, wouldn't it?

You'd get out of the house if you could. And his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosened and his knees smote one against the other.

It's funny if you go through the process of describing what happens when the joints of his loins were loosened.

That means basically he messed in his pants. And the king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the

Chaldeans, the soothsayers, the same ones that Nebuchadnezzar called in to interpret his dream.

Remember that when Nebuchadnezzar had the dream and he asked his soothsayers and his

Chaldeans and astrologers to interpret the dream, but first tell him what the dream was.

He said, tell me the dream and then interpret it. And they said, oh, you tell us what the dream is and we'll interpret it. And he said, no, no, no, no, no.

If you are really magical, if you really got power, you will not only know the dream, but you will be able to interpret it.

So they couldn't. And so Nebuchadnezzar ordered that all of the wizards, all the soothsayers be destroyed, killed.

And so they went out and were rounding up all of the people and they rounded up Daniel with them.

And Daniel said, why are you in such a hurry? I can, with the help of my

God, interpret the dream. So they take Daniel in, Daniel interprets the dream, tells Nebuchadnezzar what's going to happen to him.

Nebuchadnezzar is mightily impressed and makes him the ruler over all the Chaldeans. So that's kind of where Daniel is.

This grandson reaches the same point, calls for the same people and gets the same result.

The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the soothsayers.

And the king spake and said to the wise men of Babylon, whosoever shall read this writing and show me the interpretation thereof shall be clothed in scarlet.

He's capable of doing that and have a chain of gold about his neck.

He can do that and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Now, kind of underline third ruler.

We're going to find third ruler mentioned a couple of times in this passage. And at the end of the passage, we're going to say why it was that he offered the third rulership.

I had no problem at the very beginning offering to be second in command.

Why third in command? Why did Belshazzar offer

Daniel, well, later on Daniel, right now the soothsayers, the third position in the kingdom?

We'll see that when we go on. We just got to underline the word third. Then came in all the king's wise men, but they could not read the writing nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.

Then the king, then King Belshazzar, greatly troubled and his countenance was changed in him and his lords were astonished.

Now the queen, the queen, I believe, is his grandmother, the wife of Nebuchadnezzar.

Who, by reasons of the word of the king and his lords, came into the banquet hall and the queen spake and said,

Oh, King, live forever. Let not my thoughts trouble thee, nor thy countenance be changed.

There is a man in thy kingdom in whom the spirit of the holy gods and in the days of thy father,

Nebuchadnezzar, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him, whom the king

Nebuchadnezzar, thy father, again, his grandfather, the king, I say, thy father made master of the magicians, astrologers,

Chaldeans, and soothsayers, for as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding, interpreting dreams and showing of hard sentences and dissolving doubts were found in the same

Daniel whom the king named Belshazzar. Now, I think that's interesting.

Belshazzar and Belshazzar, they're kind of the same word. It says, let Baal protect you,

I think is what it means. In any case, it's the god

Baal. Daniel didn't particularly like that name. He went by Daniel. Now, let

Daniel be called and he will show thee the interpretation. Then Daniel was brought in before the king and the king spake to Daniel and said,

Art thou that Daniel, which are of the children of the captivity of Judea, whom my father, who the king, my father, brought out of Jewry?

I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.

Now, the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me that they should read this writing and make known to me the interpretation thereof, but they could not show me the interpretation of the thing.

And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations and dissolve doubts. Now, if thou canst read the writing and make it be known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about thy neck and shall be made the third ruler of the kingdom.

Again, the third ruler. Then Daniel answered and said before the king,

Let thy gifts be to thyself and give thy rewards to another.

Yet I will read the writing unto the king and make known unto him the interpretation.

And then he goes on and talks a little bit about Nebuchadnezzar. O thou king, the most high God gave

Nebuchadnezzar, thy father, a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor. And for majesty, he gave them all people and nations and languages.

Tremble in fear before him, whom he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive and whom he would he set up and whom he would he put down.

Now, Daniel is telling Belshazzar what the Lord gave Nebuchadnezzar.

But Nebuchadnezzar, when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne and they took his glory from him and he was driven from the sons of men and his heart was made like the beast and his dwelling place was with the wild asses and they fed him with grass like the oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heavens till he knew that the most high

God ruled over the kingdom of man and he appointed over it whomsoever he will.

Now, that was Nebuchadnezzar, your grandfather. You knew all about this, he says. And thou, though his son,

O Belshazzar, has not humbled thine heart, though thou knowest all this, but has lifted up thine self against the

Lord of heavens and they have brought the vessels of this house before thee, of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines have drunk wine from them and thou has praised the gods of silver and gold and brass and iron and wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know, and the

God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways hath thou not glorified.

Now, that's where we are now, King Belshazzar. And then was the part of the hand sent from him and this writing was written.

So here we go with the writing. Any comments or questions up until now?

I've gone through this pretty quickly. I just wanted to give a background to it. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Absharan.

And this is the interpretation of the thing. Mene, and notice

Mene is written twice. God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.

Tekel, thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting.

Peres, what's the problem here? Is this a different list than the one we just read? It is in the language that we're reading it, but in the language it was written, it's exactly the same word.

Absharan and Tekel, no, and Peres are exactly the same word in the

Armenian, is I think what this was written in, in the

Armenian. At least it was in the Blue Letter Bible, I think, I think that's,

I'm pretty sure that's correct. Armenian, Armenian, Aramaic, in the

Aramaic language, it's the exact same word in the language that it was written, but it's just translated differently into these two verses.

I don't know why it would, it would have done that, but the Lord has reason for what he does, maybe to make us stay.

Well, what that word means, thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. Okay, so now it's back to Belshazzar.

And they clothed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold about his neck and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Now ask the question now, why the third ruler? Why not the second ruler?

Why not the first ruler? If he gave Daniel the first ruler, then Daniel would be the king.

He couldn't give Daniel the first ruler because he wasn't even the first ruler. Belshazzar was the eldest son of Nabonidus.

Nabonidus was the last king of Babylon, but Belshazzar was the regent for his father during the father's prolonged absence from the city.

Nabonidus had no great desire to rule the country. He wanted to be off in the other place.

And we talked about that and I lost track of the word, the city that he was in. But he was in another city, just living the life of the king.

And his son was in Babylon doing the work of the king. So the highest position that was in Belshazzar's hands to deliver to someone else would have been the third ruler.

Nabonidus was the first, Belshazzar the second ruler, that made Daniel the third ruler.

So that's why he says the third ruler all the way through. So rather than recognize that there were three positions here being talked about,

King Nabonidus, his son Belshazzar, and the next regent to be

Daniel, the third ruler, they focus on the fact that Daniel uses

Belshazzar and the historical accounts use Nabonidus. Well, which one is right?

They're both right. Nabonidus was king and Belshazzar was acting king.

And Daniel, had he taken the position, would have been the third king. And he would have been in charge of running the country.

And then Belshazzar could sit and drink the wine out of the mugs. Okay, so here we are.

The king's countenance was changed. His thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosened and his knees smote against one another.

But, although the Persians were already in the city, Belshazzar doesn't know it yet.

He is still at the position where he's proclaiming a position on Daniel that in 15 minutes he won't have.

Well, in 15 minutes he won't have his position. In 15 minutes the only one left alive will be

Nabonidus. That very night, verse 30, in that night was

Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the

Median took the kingdom, being about three score and two years old.

Now, I've got a little notation here. Darius the Median was probably not a name, but was a title.

And it was probably the title for Cyrus. That word

Darius is used as an inscription for at least five separate

Persian rulers. In any case, when we were doing this passage,

David pointed out a second thing about Schofield. That Schofield did not take the passage in Isaiah in context.

And therefore, he misinterpreted. We're going to review the context now. Now remember, we've got three accounts now already.

We've got two secular accounts and one scriptural account. And they are really lined up. They describe a gentle fall into the night for the city of Babylon.

Not what we're going to see when we start reading Isaiah, which

Schofield should have seen, but didn't. I think I know why he was misled.

So let's just go. This is chapter 13, verse 1 of Isaiah.

The burden of Babylon, just in case you don't know what city it's talking about. The burden of Babylon, which

Isaiah the son of Amos did see. Lift up a banner upon the high mountain.

Exalt the voice unto them. Shake the hand that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

I have commended my sanctified ones. I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger.

Even them that rejoice in my highness. The noise of multitudes in the mountains, like as of a great people.

A tumultuous noise of kingdoms of nations. If you would stop right there, gather together.

Was it a kingdom of nations gathered together that overthrew Babylon in the historical account?

No, it was the Persians and the Medes going under the bridge and taking it almost by surprise.

The Lord of hosts musters the host for battle. They come from a far country, from the ends of heaven.

Even the Lord and the weapons of his indignation to destroy the whole land. Not quite what happened.

How ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand. And it shall come as a destruction from the

Almighty. Therefore shall all hearts be faint and every man's heart shall melt.

They won't continue with the reverie. They shall be afraid. Pains and sorrows shall take hold of them.

They shall be as in pain. They shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth. They shall be amazed at one another.

Their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh. Cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate.

And he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of the heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light.

And the sun shall be darkened in its going forth. And the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

And I will punish the world for their evil and the wicked for their iniquity. And I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease.

And I will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. We can already see that this is not a gentle end of the night.

This is a dramatic event. But let's continue. I will make man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

I will shake the heavens and the earth shall be removed out of her place in the wrath of the

Lord of hosts, in the day of his fierce anger. And it shall be as a chaste row and a sheep that no man taketh up.

They shall every man turn to his own people and flee everyone to his own land. That didn't happen.

They stayed right there in Babylon. And everyone that is found shall be thrust through.

And everyone that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. And their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes.

Their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the

Medes against them, which shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

Now that's, I thought, interesting. The Medes, if we were to identify the Medes today, we would say these are the

Kurds. You know where the Kurds live? In the northern part of Syria and in the northern part of Iraq.

Right there where Assyria was. So this is the

Persian kingdom. The Medes, that's the Mede part. The Persians are from over in Iran area.

They came down and destroyed the city. I will stir up the Medes. That's probably what led

Scofield astray because the Medes were involved. He thought that because of that, this is the destruction.

He didn't look at what was happening. But this is even more interesting. Which shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

Who is he talking about? The Medes, the Kurds. Now, this may be a hint, and this is just my opinion, so bear this in mind.

This might be a hint at the role of Islam in the end times. The Medes, again, are what we now call the

Kurds. They are predominantly Islamic. So what's the predominant concern of Islam?

Is it money? Well, everybody's got some money.

Oil, that's how they have their money. But what do they spend their money on? To do what?

And establish a new world religion, a great false religion.

Their primary concern is not the money, but it's the false religion system.

The new world religion. So their primary concern,

I believe, is the establishment of a false religion, not a false economy. So it's not surprising that they would not regard silver or gold.

Their bow shall also dash the young men to pieces, and their eyes shall not spare the children.

And Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans, shall be as when

God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. That should give you a hint as to what's going to happen to Babylon.

It shall never be inhabited. Neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

For 200 years Babylon existed past the fall and was considered by Alexander the

Great as being his capital. Neither shall the Arabian pitch their tents there, neither shall the shepherd make their foal there.

But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and the owls should dwell there.

Remember the passage on unclean birds? That's an unclean bird. And satyrs shall dance there, and the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses.

Their houses are empty, and animals are living in them, and dragons in their pleasant palaces.

And her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

Okay, Isaiah is prophesying about events leading up to the destruction of Babylon.

And we can already see these are very, very dramatic. They're similar to the events in Revelation 18, but they're not even remotely similar to the fall of Babylon to the

Persian Empire in 539 B .C. No, the destruction of Babylon described in Isaiah and Revelation is not the quiet one whose account we read in Herodias and Daniel.

This destruction is unlike anything that has yet been experienced by Babylon. Even shock and awe.

Do you remember that? The U .S. bombing assault on Iraq? Not even shock and awe could rival this.

But it's not all destruction. God has not forgotten Israel. Isaiah is now going to shift his focus for a few verses, and then he's going to return to the plight of Babylon.

And I meant to go past that, but I read too much in the other, so we're going to stop there. We're out of time.

Anyhow, we'll begin. Isaiah 14 is one of the strangest chapters in the

Bible. To me, it rivaled only with Ezekiel 28. You might want to read both of those.

Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Easy to remember because they're both divisible by 7.

And it will give you an account of the fall of two cities and two kings.

And the kings will start out being one thing, but before we're through, it'll be another thing altogether.

So I'm going to leave that with you and pick up here next time. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all of our many blessings.

Protect us and keep us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Of course, if you have any questions or comments,