Bible Study: October 26, 2022

And it's been like a month since we've been together, so I'm going to go, I'm going to rehash a little bit about what we did in the first 12 chapters of Isaiah, just to bring us all back to where we are as we begin chapter 13. You remember in Isaiah that he was prophesied during the time of four different kings. Well, hold on just a minute, let me see what's going on here.

Keep that up so people can join. He was prophesying during the times of four different kings. There was Isaiah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. And you remember that the one king Ahaz is the one that we spent the most time on because Ahaz was just completely resistant to God. You know, Uzziah was initially very obedient to God, very submissive to him, but as time went on, he allowed himself to become full of himself, decided that he could do things his own way, began to disregard God. His son didn't follow in the footsteps of Uzziah. He was loyal to God the entire time that he was alive.

But then came Ahaz, and Ahaz was a very resistant king no matter what God did for Ahaz. Ahaz just completely resisted and rejected God. You know, for those of you who were in Jekyll Island, Tom Robinson gave a Bible study on the throne of David, which will be prominent to the news here as we get into the New Year and the coronation begins and everything. But he made a statement during that Bible study that just kind of struck me, especially when we talk about the kings of Israel. He said that the kings of Judah and Israel were like co-regents on that throne of David, and that God worked with those kings, much like he works with us.

Right? As we read through the book of kings and see those examples, we can see some of the attitudes that those kings have, and we can apply them to ourselves. We also have to just kind of be completely submissive to God. But as he was speaking, I was thinking of King Ahaz. And there's God, you know, what we saw in chapter 7 of Isaiah, where God was working with Ahaz so much. Remember, he would say, Ahaz, finally, just give me any sign. Tell me any sign you want me to give.

Any sign I will give you to show you that I am with you and I am your God and that I want you to be my people. And Ahaz simply would not do it. No matter what God gave him, Ahaz would just simply read God. And so finally, what God said was, okay, I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you this sign. The ultimate sign was the sign of the sire, that Christ would be born, the Savior would be born, not during Ahaz's lifetime, but that would be the ultimate sign that God is with us.

He is our Savior. He does want us to live. He does want to be our God. He does want to give people happiness and peace. And then the next chapter is 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 of Isaiah.

You remember, we're all messianic chapters. It talked about the child being born. It talked about the King coming to earth, the King of peace, the King of the wonderful counselor. And we talked about some of the messianic prophecies of the first birth of Jesus Christ that were fulfilled. Remember, we went through some of those that were fulfilled. And then some of those were for His second coming, the prophecies that were there.

So as we close chapter 12 of Isaiah, we finish that section of chapter. We finish that section of chapter, and we begin tonight in chapter 13. And if you'll remember, Ahaz, there was this kingdom of Assyria, the nation of Assyria, was this cruel nation that everyone feared back in those days. They were awful.

You didn't want Assyria anywhere around you. They were cruel people that did unspeakable things. It wasn't enough to just conquer a nation. They made them absolutely miserable and torturous. And Ahaz was quite concerned with Assyria, as you recall. He was willing to do anything for Assyria to try to make friends with them and to be in an alliance with them. But they wouldn't pay attention. And God warned, but God told Ahaz, you know, I'll bring Assyria far far, but they will never conquer Jerusalem. And even though Assyria was conquering all of these nations around, they never did conquer Jerusalem.

They came close, but God protected Judah from that savage nation. But even then, Judah didn't really heed God, and so they eventually fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC. You remember the kingdom of Israel, the house of Israel fell to Assyria in around 727-21 BC. So as we go into chapter 13, we see 11 nations, 11 kingdoms, or 11 nations that surrounded Jerusalem or surrounded Judah, and God has a prophecy for each one of them. Tonight we're going to be looking at Babylon, but as you look through the chapters coming up, there's these nations that, you know, it always talks about the burden against Babylon, the burden against Egypt, the burden against the wilderness of the sea, the wilderness of all these things.

And what they are, you know, Damascus, Syria, and what they are is God's prophecies. We're going to see in those prophecies that there is a prophecy that was fulfilled at that time, but then also these prophecies are dual in many cases. So tonight, the best example of dual prophecies is the kingdom of Babylon that we're going to talk about. Now Babylon, you know, I just mentioned, they are the ones who finally, if I can use the word finally, finally conquered Judah. Judah fell to Babylon, and they became their oppressors.

In those days when one nation conquered another, they took the people out of the nation and moved them to someplace else. So before we get into chapter 13 and the burden or the oracle against Babylon, I want to talk just a little bit about Babylon and go back to 1 Kings and set the tone for this. Now many of you have heard this before, but it'll be a good refresher because we see Babylon there as it begins in the first form of its kingdom, but Babylon exists all the way back in Revelation too because there's something that happens with Babylon that God likens it to the world around us.

Later on in the Bible study, we'll see some things that even physically, you know, this Revelation 18 Babylon or the end time Babylon, what it has its origins in. But let's look at 2 Kings 17 to begin with and look and see what happened when Israel was conquered by Assyria because in 2 Kings 17, it does give us kind of a picture of what happened with the nations during that time, and something significant happened as Assyria conquered Israel. So let's look at verse 20.

Let's look at verse 22 of 2 Kings 17. It says that the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam. That was their first king. That first king, he just turned against God. Remember, he even took the seventh month and made the face of the eighth month. Just anything because he wanted the people worshiping him and not God. He just, and there was never a king of Israel, the house of Israel, that followed God. So they walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he did. They didn't depart from them until the eternal removed Israel out of his sight, as he has said, by all his servants the prophets.

You know, God always warns, this is what's going to happen. If you don't turn to me, if you continue to work against me and fight against me and reject me, you will go into captivity. The kingdom or the blessings that I've given you will be taken away. So it says here, as he has said, by all his servants and prophets, so Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria as it is to this day.

And then the king of Assyria did what they did in those days. So the Israelites, the native Israelites, they were taken away. Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cutha, Ava, Hamath, and from Separabim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities. So we've got a whole new people living in the land now. The land, just because Assyria conquered it, it wasn't laid desolate. It was a good land, and they wanted the land. So they took Israel out, put their people in it.

In verse 25, and so it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they didn't fear the true God, you know, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They didn't fear the eternal. Therefore, the eternal sent lions among them, which killed some of them. And so the people who were now living in that land of Israel, the Babylonians, the ones from these other cities, they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, the nations which you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria don't know the rituals of the God of the land.

Therefore, he has sent lions among them, and indeed they are killing them because they don't know the rituals of the God of the land. Then, verse 27, the king of Assyria commanded, saying, send there one of the priests whom you brought from there. Let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the rituals of the God of the land. So one of the Israelites come back, one of the priests, to teach the waves of God.

One of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came. He dwelt in Bethel, and he taught them how they should fear the true God. And they did that. They followed it. They followed it because they wanted these curses to stop befalling them. They taught them, and they did them. However, every nation continued to make gods of its own and put them at the shrines of the high places which the Samaritans had made. Every nation of the cities where they dwelt.

The men of Babylon, the men of Cuth, the Avice, in verse 30 and 31, they tried to worship God. They followed what the laws of the land were, but they kept their own gods, too. They didn't turn to God. They just used him for the blessings that he would bestow upon them. So in verse 32, it says, so they feared the Lord as in they knew who he was.

They understood who God was. They understood what they needed to do. So they feared the Lord, and from every class they appointed for themselves priests of the high places who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places.

They feared God, yet served their own gods according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away. To this day, they continue practicing the former rituals. They don't fear the Eternal, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law and commandment, which the Eternal had commanded the children of Jacob, which he or whom he named Israel.

So what you have is something unusual that happened. You had this mixture of religion that occurred in that land of Israel. You had people knowing who the true God was and obeying him in some way, but they never let go of their own gods. They feared God, but they also kept their own rituals. They did their things. And so God calls this, you know, he hates this mixture of truth and evil. And so that's exactly what was beginning in the nation there. And as it says, it continues to this day because many of the religions of the earth, they combine a little bit of truth with a lot of error.

You know, we talk about as we come into the winter season, we talk about Christmas, and we know that's a mixture of, you know, the truth of Christ's birth, not in the winter season, of course, but he truly was born. And there are verses in the Bible that they use those verses, and they place at a wrong time, and they mix it with the pagan observance of Saturnalia as they do some of the other holidays that are so celebrated. One coming on us next week here as we look at the 31st of October coming up, you know, next Monday.

So this began, and God calls this an abomination. Now, so Babylon was there, and here's this mixture of religion that is just repulsive to God, repulsive to God, no different than if we say that we know God and we know him, and yet we hold on to some of our old beliefs and won't let them go. And so you hear the church of God continually talking about truth. We've been talking about truth a lot lately, as the church must teach truth, you and I must seek truth, you and I must understand truth, we must live truth if we're going to, you know, if we're going to please God.

The people that were living in Israel at that time didn't, they perverted the land by their mixture of the religion. Now Babylon, if we move forward to Daniel 2, we see that Babylon was the first of the four ruling world kingdoms that God prophesied, that God prophesied as King Nebuchadnezzar had his dream of the giant statue, and then Daniel correctly interpreted what it was.

Of course, history proves that out, and then a little bit we'll see that even, you know, the very, the demise of the kingdom of Babylon is mentioned in the Bible. We see exactly how that happens, but in Daniel 2, we see these four rule kingdoms in this statue. Daniel 2, and let me get in verse 36 here. I'm sure most of you remember the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had of the great statue. He didn't know what it meant, the statue that was there with his various elements, the stone that came, and broke the statue down.

Verse 36, Daniel, under inspiration of God interprets the dream. Verse 36, this is the dream. We will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, Daniel says, the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, you, O king, are a king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. And wherever the children of Menzwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, he has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all, you are this head of gold.

But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours, then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Now, we, you know, you go down through history, you know those kingdoms, the fourth one being the Roman Empire and the various resurrections of the Roman Empire that have occurred down through the centuries.

And then finally, the one that will replace all those world-ruling kingdoms, verse 41, where as you saw the feet, oh, I'm a little ahead of myself, then toes, partly of potters' clay and partly of iron, the king, that kingdom will be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron made with ceramic clay. Okay, let me drop down here, verse 44, then, and in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, it shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that of broken pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, silver, and gold, the great God is made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure. And Nebuchadnezzar believed it. You can see there in verse 46, he fell on his face prostate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him.

Nebuchadnezzar knew that that was the truth. Nebuchadnezzar was introduced to God. Down through, as you read through the book of Daniel, and it's his interactions with Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, Nebuchadnezzar was fully aware of who the true God was. He honored him as such, but Nebuchadnezzar, just like the people that were in that land of Israel. While he knew who God was, and he knew what to do to please him, he never let go of his own gods. He knew God, but he never yielded to God.

And so, in one sense, he was exactly like those transplanted people who were in the land of Israel who had a mixed religion. He knew, but he never yielded to God. He kept worshiping his own gods. And you see this conflict as you go through his life. As you go through his life, there's this mixture of religion. We know who God is, but we won't let go of the other gods that we have, and then we find ourselves in trouble. Now, let's go all the way back then to Revelation as well, because this was the kingdom, the world, the physical world-ruling kingdom of Babylon.

Back there in the 586, the 600s BC, the 500s BC, they were the first world-ruling kingdom. They conquered Judah. But here at the end of time, in the end time, we see this kingdom of Babylon as well. Pretty well represented in Revelation 17. So let's look at that a little bit so that we have all the context as we go into Isaiah 13, where God gives these prophecies about this nation of Babylon that was there around Judah at that time.

And God's going to tell the events that were going to happen to them back then, and then also the things that pertained to the end time here. In chapter 17 of Revelation, and we'll put it, let's play again in verse 3 here. It says, so he, of course, remember this is John in vision, an angel. God gives him the vision. And so he says, so he, the angel referenced there in verse 1, so he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman in the Bible, a woman here, and this is a church. I saw a woman, so we have religion involved in this right here, I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

So we know this is not a woman who is godly. This is a woman who speaks a mixture of truth and evil or just evil, but does not preach the truth of God. Scarlet beast, full of the names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls.

So it's a wealthy, it's a wealthy church, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. The things that God hates, what God loves is truth. What God loves is agape. What God loves is people who are pure.

This woman writing this scarlet beast is none of those things. And on her forehead a name was written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of Harless and of the abominations of the earth. So here we have a religion that is not the true religion, parading itself as the true religion, but it has this name of Babylon on it. It has some truth, it can say some truth, but it is mixed with a lot of error and not at all.

The Church of God calls it an abomination. In verse 6, we see what this church is about. It's not for God or the people who would obey God in purity and truth. I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints. And we know who the saints are. We have read about the saints in Revelation 14. The drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. And then, you know, John says, what is this beast?

And things like that. I won't take the time to do that. But you can see that this beast will deceive many. Here in verse 8, for instance, it says, the beast that you saw was and is not will descend out of the bottomless pit. We know what comes from the bottomless pit.

We just come through the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Aptonement, all those trumpet plagues that we talked about. We'll ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition.

Perdition, not a good thing to be, right? That's the lake of fire, the ultimate demise. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel at this false religion called Babylon, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. They'll marvel at what's going on, but you and I who know the truth wouldn't marvel at it. We would know exactly what it is and not fall prey to it. So in Revelation 18, we'll come back to that in a little bit. We see the demise of that Babylon, this future Babylon as well. So, let me pause there for a moment. If there's any questions or observations before we go back to Isaiah 13 and look at these oracles against Babylon that God gave to Isaiah. Any questions or any blanks that we need to fill in or anything? Yes, yes. One thing that has struck me in the past regarding chapter 17, verse 3, and on, especially verse 4. I used to be an altar boy and also a priest assistant, and you would see a lot of purple or scarlet in the garments and the things, you know, of course, you know, golden and silver embroidery and things like that. So when I read this, I always kind of think back to the times when, you know, I saw that in action. So it's interesting that even to this time, you know, so many thousands of years later, you could see the certain indications of, you know, where that woman is. Yep, yep, all the trappings are there. In a little bit, I'll pull up some commentaries that show kind of what you're talking about, the identity of all that.

Mr. Shavey, what came to my mind when you were talking about that, the syncretism was Simon Magus and how he did all of that as well and what he led, you know, down that path, the people he led to, down that mixing truth and error and all of that. And I think he came from those areas, you know, so he was very heavily influenced by all of that together. Yep, yeah, that's a good point. Remember we in Acts 8, when we went through the book of Acts, we talked about Simon Magus and and how, you know, what he likely did in the part he played in this church that grew in Rome. So very good. Now I should mention, too, it'll come out in the E-News tomorrow, but beginning, well actually right now, we have been taping at the home office an ABC class. And so beginning right now through the book of Acts, Darris McNeely teaches the Ambassador Bible College book of Acts. So we've been taping and videotaping one of his classes an hour each week. So each week we're going to be putting one of those classes of Acts up on there. You can go to the ucg.org. You'll see it. You'll see it in the E-News tomorrow, the link for it. But if you're interested in following book of Acts and seeing exactly what's being taught at Ambassador Bible College, that will be there through the entire book of Acts for the next...

he doesn't get through a chapter a day like we tried to do, but for the next year or so. Mr. Shaby? Yes. That's on YouTube also. That's on YouTube? Okay. Yeah, so I saw it yesterday. Oh, okay. Very good. So yeah, here's this on YouTube and ucg. Very good.

You'll see that. I think you'll find it very interesting. You'll actually be sitting in one of those ABC classes and be hearing the same thing that they're taught. Okay, let's go back. Let's go to Isaiah 13 then and look at this. Now, some of this will sound very familiar as we go through it because we've talked about some of it. We've just come through the Fall Holy Days, where we've talked about the Day of the Lord. You're going to see this show up in chapter 13 as well. We'll draw some of the comparisons between Babylon, the physical kingdom of Babylon, in the five and six hundreds BC, versus the Babylon at the end time. So chapter 13, verse 1, it's the burden, the oracle of the against Babylon, which Isaiah saw. Now, often when they use this word burden, whatever the—I didn't write down what the actual Hebrew word was—it'll mean it's something not good. It's not a pleasant oracle. It's against. That's why it says the burden against Babylon, meaning this prophecy doesn't bode well for Babylon. Okay, verse 2. In verse 2 and 3, we see God in essence calling an army or leading the charge against Babylon.

It was God who allowed Babylon, of course, to conquer Judah, just like he allowed his Syria. He used the Syria to punish Israel. He used Babylon to conquer Judah. But now he's going to come against Babylon. Can't remember, Babylon, they knew God. As you read through the book of Daniel, they knew God, but they never worship God. They never yielded to him. So he says, Lift up a banner on the high mountain, raise your voice to them. Wave your hand that they may enter the gates of the nobles. He's calling this army here, this invasion of Babylon. I've commanded my sanctified ones. Now, my sanctified ones, you know, we'll talk about sanctified, you know, that we're sanctified. Sanctified means, you know, set apart people that are here for God's purpose. Here in this case, it's the Medes he's talking about who we're going to come in and conquer Babylon. We'll go to Daniel 5 in just a minute. But he says, I've commanded my sanctified ones. They were the ones who are anointed for God's purpose in bringing the kingdom of Babylon down. And so that's why he calls them that there. I've commanded my sanctified ones. I've called my mighty ones for my anger, those who rejoice in my exaltation. And so we have God now moving against Babylon. Now, going back, you know, a few chapters. You remember that how a serial... When God used the Syria to punish and to conquer Israel and to conquer these nations, the king of Assyria got very puffed up, very proud. It was like, look what I've done. What nation can stand against me? Who are your gods, Judah? If it can stand against me, no one can stand against me.

But it was God who gave him the power to do that. And yet pride took over and the king thought it was him. We know from the story of Nebuchadnezzar, pride was always part of his. You know, even the time when God had that seven years come on him where he was... he lived like an animal because of the pride, the enormous pride of kings. Now, remember that because we get into next week in Isaiah 14, we're going to see that pride of a very interesting chapter in 14 where God shows where that pride comes from and how it can infest the people of the world. And they get all puffed up and they think it's all about them and the things that they're led to do. But that was Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. That was Sennacherib in Assyria. That's other kings as well. So in verse 4 then, so we have this. In fact, let's... I want to go to Daniel 5. Yeah, let's go to Daniel 5 before we go to verse 4 because verse 4 we transfer to a future prophecy of against Babylon, the one that we were reading about in Revelation 17. But let's go to Daniel 5. We'll see the demise of the kingdom, the physical kingdom of Babylon that was, you know, back at the time of Nebuchadnezzar those days. Daniel 5... and let me see... let's just go ahead and begin in verse 1.

A very familiar story, very familiar story about the handwriting on the wall, but let's just read through some of the verses here to let the Bible tell us what the history of it is. Chapter 5, verse 1, Belchazar was the king at that time of Babylon. He made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. While he tested the wine, Belchazar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.

And they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem and the king and his lords, his wives, and the concubines drank from them. Here they were taking holy vessels. They were defiling those vessels, right? They were just as common. And even though they were physical things, they were part of the temple. And here they were just kind of using them as everyday things to just have fun with rather than not showing any of the reverence that they should have for those things.

Verse 4, they drank wine. They praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. They weren't praising God. They were recognizing him. Again, they were using God's instruments, but they were worshiping their own gods.

And then at the same hour, verse 5, the thinkers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Huh. Now you can imagine that that's you or me. All of a sudden this appears. And probably at some level, Belshazzar knew this is something we aren't supposed to touch. Nebuchadnezzar revered those things in a way. He did not misuse them. He didn't use them for his own pleasure. But here's Belshazzar taking it upon himself to use the things of God.

And so at some level, he knew what he was doing was wrong. So when this when this hand appeared, you see what happened to him in verse 6. His countenance changed. His thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other. He was scared to death. He knew that he had done something that he should not have done. And he was aware when he saw this hand appear.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh. And so he brings all of his magicians in, his astrologers, soothsayers, etc., etc., etc. Then someone remembers, oh, you know what? There's this man, Daniel. There's this man, Daniel, that's out there. He has this relationship with God. He was able to interpret dreams. Let's call him in. Let's see what he has to say is this writing on the wall. What is it? And so they do. They bring Daniel in, and we see him come down in verse, let's drop down to verse 16 here.

Belshazzar says, I've heard of you, Daniel, that you can give interpretations and explain enigmas. Now, if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you will be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and will be third ruler in the kingdom. That's very important. Very important to Belshazzar to know what does this mean? Daniel answered and said, let your gifts be for yourself and give your rewards to another. But even if I don't need a reward, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation.

O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, remember he always says it wasn't by Nebuchadnezzar's mind, it wasn't by Nebuchadnezzar's power that he was king. O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, your father, a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. And because of the majesty that he gave them, all peoples, nations, languages, trembled and feared before him.

And then he goes on and describes it a little bit more in verse 20, but when his heart was lifted up, that's when pride came in, when he thought it was all about him and he had done all these great things, when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne and they took his glory from him.

Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, his body was what with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men and appoints over it whomever he chooses. He had to learn his lesson. He never completely yielded to God, but he knew.

Daniel says, but you, his son Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this.

You knew. You had the example. You knew who God was. You knew what he was doing. You knew what your father or grandfather, whatever it was, went through all these things. And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of this house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which don't see or hear or know. And the God who holds your breath in his hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. He tells them exactly what it is. Then the fingers of the hand were sent from him, and this writing was written. And this is the interpretation that was written, Mene Mene, Tekel Eufarson. This is the interpretation, Tekel. You've been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Perez, your kingdom has been divided and has been given to the Medes and Persians. Those were the conquering ones, those sanctified ones.

And this was written before it all happened, given to the Medes and Persians. And Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel with purple, gave him the thing. For the first thirty, that very night, Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old. And so we have the demise of Babylon. And so those sanctified ones we read about in Isaiah 13, they came in the ones that God had summoned. It wasn't because Darius or Darius, however you want to pronounce his name, because not because he was so great and he was so overwhelmed or overwhelming. It was because God gave that to him. And now the Medes had the second world ruling kingdom replacing Babylon. That was the end of physical Babylon. But the mystery of Babylon, this mixture, knowing God and having truth but mixing it with error, never letting go of your own gods. The syncretism that Dave was talking about, that we see that has prevailed throughout history in religion.

Not just the pure truth of God, but the mixture of the two. So let's go back to Isaiah 13.

And in verse 4 then, we're going to see that, you know, there's a prophecy about what's going to happen to this kingdom that was still ahead as Isaiah was writing this. That was a prophecy for what was going to happen. But in verse 4 and 5, we see, oh, this is something different. This is about another kingdom. It wasn't going to happen in the 5-something BC that Babylon fell back then. In verse 4 then, it says, the noise of a multitude in the mountains, like that of many people, of tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together. It was just the meads, the meads, and if you remember the history, it wasn't this great tremendous battle. They kind of snuck into Babylon, you know, as they did some things there and came in at that very night, just surprised Babylon and were able to take it over. But this is a different, this is a different prophecy. A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together. The Lord of hosts musters the army for battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, the Lord and his weapons of indignation, to destroy the whole land. Well, the meads didn't destroy, they didn't destroy Babylon.

In fact, they took over Babylon. They inhabited Babylon. That became their capital because it was such a nice city to live in. It was one of the, you know, one of the seven wonders of the world was there in Babylon. They wanted to live there. Actually, the ones who then conquered the meads, they wanted to live in Babylon. The city wasn't destroyed, the land wasn't destroyed, it was a good land. They wanted it. So this is clearly not talking about the Babylon of the five and six hundreds BC. It's another time. Verse six, you know, we see, we hear about the day of the Lord, what we just talked about at the Feast of Trumpets. Whale, for the day of the Lord is at hand. It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore, all hands will be limp. Every man's heart will melt and they will be afraid. You know, let's just stop there for a minute. Let's go back and look at that. Let's look at Joel, another one of the minor prophets here. You know, comes Daniel, Hosea, then Joel. Some of those verses that we just read there in Isaiah, you know, you're going to see similar things happen, talked about here in Joel, which was also written before that time. In Joel 2, well, let's begin in verse one. I'm not going to read through the whole chapter, but just get the context here. Joel 2 verse 1, blow the trumpet in Zion. Sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand. The day of the Lord hasn't come yet, as we know. A day of darkness and gloominess. A day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. Let's drop down to verse 6 here.

We'll go back to verse 8 in chapter 13 of Isaiah here in a minute. Before this mountain, before this army that comes there, before them the people writhe in pain. All faces are drained of color. They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like men of war. Everyone marches in formation, and they do not break ranks. They don't push one another. Everyone marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, they're not cut down. They run to and fro in the city. They run on the wall. They climb into the houses. They enter the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness. The Lord gives voice before his army, for his camp is very great. Strong is the one who executes his word, for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can endure it? You see some of the elements in there, the terror that's there. Let's go back to the book of Jeremiah, because Jeremiah, who prophesied to the nation of Judah for 40 years, kept reminding them or admonishing them, turn back to God. Turn from your oil weight. Turn to God. If you don't, you will be conquered. A kingdom will come from the north, and you will be taken captive, and you will lose the land.

Judah didn't listen, and that's exactly what happened to them when they fell to Babylon. But in Jeremiah 51, you know, Jeremiah is another one of the major prophets, and you see prophecies that have been fulfilled, prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled. Here's we get into Jeremiah 50 and 51. You know, we see prophecies that are yet to be filled. Jeremiah 51 and verse 1.

This is very much like Isaiah 13. Behold, Jeremiah 51 verse 1, behold I will raise up against Babylon, against those who dwelled in Lev Khemi as destroying wind. I will send winnowers to Babylon, who shall winnow her and empty her land, for in the day of doom they shall be against her all around.

You know, that isn't how Babylon fell the first time. Against her let the archer bend his bow, and let himself lift himself up against her in his armor. Don't spare her young men, utterly destroy all her army. Thus the slain shall fall on the land of the Chaldeans, and those thrust through in her streets. For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, the Lord of hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.

Okay, verse 6. Flee from the midst of Babylon, and everyone save his life. Don't be cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the Eternal's vengeance. He shall recompense her.

Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand. They made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine. Therefore, the nations are deranged. Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed, wail for her. Now, some of those things that we read will remind you of Revelation 17, Revelation 18, when Babylon is completely destroyed, and the end time when that whole system that God calls Babylon falls. It has the same type of religion guiding it, mystery religion, as ancient Babylon.

You see about the golden cup. You see the old, the earth-made drunk. He says, because the world follows that religion, they are deranged. I mean, that's a word that we could use in our world today, right? Some of the things that we hear, some of the things that come out of the government's mouth, if you will, are like, what are you thinking? It's deranged thinking. When you drink from a cup, other than the cup of truth, you're going to have deranged and demented thinking. And then Babylon suddenly falls. I'm not going to turn to Revelation 18 yet. We'll do that a little bit later, but I just wanted to show you this is not just Isaiah that prophesies this. We were talking about the fall of Babylon in Jeremiah, in the book of Revelation, in the book of Daniel. Throughout the prophets, we see this ultimate fall prophesied over and over again.

So let's go back to Isaiah 13 again. And again, if anyone's got any comments you want to make or anything, then please feel free at any time. In verse 6, Jeremiah 51.6, it says, in my version, I have the NIV in front of me, it says, run for your lives. I just wanted to share that because it's really good to stick in your head. Run for your lives. That's a good translation of it. Your eternal life. Yeah, yeah. Okay, very good. So we were in verse 8 of Isaiah 13.

You know, it shows, you know, we saw Belshazzar. I mean, he was shaking like a leaf when he realized what was going to happen. He understood his demise, what he did against God. In verse 8, we see the same type of overwhelming pain and fear that envelops people as they come into that. In verse 7, it says, every hand will be left, every man's heart will melt. They will be afraid. Pains. And those are sharp pains like labor pains, birth pains, right, that we talked about in sermons a few months past that we talk about when we talk about the time of Jacob's trouble in Jeremiah 30. These severe pains that are not something that we experience, they signify extreme, extreme fear. Pains and sorrow will take hold of them. They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth. They will be amazed at one another. Their faces will be like flames.

It's like they are just what's going on here, and the day of the Lord is exactly as Joel described it. Who can endure it? When you're face to face with the wrath of God and the power of God, you realize there is absolutely nothing. You are completely at God's mercy, completely at God's mercy, which in one way is a very good place to be. Sometimes we need to be humbled at God's mercy and understand his love when we come to that place of humility. Verse 9 says, Behold, the day of the Lord comes, clearly future, clearly still talking. This is a burden against Babylon. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, just exactly what you expect when you hear of a time like that, cruel with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate.

Again, the land was not laid desolate. Back in those ancient times, they didn't lay the land desolate. They didn't have the capacity to lay the land desolate. They inhabited the land. The people moved into ancient Israel. The people moved into Babylon. They didn't destroy it. That's a future time. It's a time of the end where lands can be laid desolate. You know, when you have all this weaponry that can just lay things completely bare and destroy the landscape. I've used the example before, and I think it's one of the things we're seeing over in Ukraine as we see this war extend. Just laying the land desolate, making it absolutely useless because of the weaponry and the prolonged nature of it that just is there not to just take it over, but to destroy it. And that will be the attitude at the end of time. You know, you read the prophecies about modern-day Israel. The cities will be laid waste. The land will be desolate. You know, it can happen today with the nuclear bombs, with the things that go on, and these dirty bombs they talk about now. All those things can happen that couldn't happen. Couldn't happen before. The day of the Lord comes, and certainly as we read through those trumpet plagues and the seven bowls that are laid out on the earth as part of the seventh trumpet, you can see the complete desolation of the earth that happens at that time. To lay the land desolate, and he will destroy its sinners from it. God does it to punish the nation and pleasure the world for the sins and the evil that it has become. And then in verse 10, he talks about the sixth seal, I'll reference you back to Joel 2 because we just talked about those heavenly signs, the stars, the moon becoming dark, and the sun not giving her light. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened and it's going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to jump, to shine. Heavenly signs that no astrologer can predict, right? It's like, oh, this happened because of this. This is going to be clearly, this is God's hand that work on the earth. You'll remember from prior Bible studies and sermons that you heard during the Feast of Trumpets and whatever in Revelation 6, where the people, they know what's going on. All these signs are happening, islands are moving, things are happening on the earth, and they try to hide in rocks. They know it's God, but what does it say? They won't yield to him. They simply will not give in to them, so he keeps punishing them. Because God loves us, he wants us to yield to him. Whatever it takes to yield to him so he can give us life, so he can give us everything he always wanted mankind to have. But we have to give up our pride and that resistance and that rejection of him that is just built into us in this evil, carnal mind and heart that we have. In verse 11, it says, I will punish the world for its evil. God speaking, I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will halt the arrogance of the proud.

You know, we'll see even more fully in verse chapter 14. Pride is at the basis of sin. It's because we know more than God or we don't have to do the things. We're not willing to yield to him. We want it our way. We're going to do things our way. I will halt the arrogance of the proud. I will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

You can see probably in your Bible-like mind, it tells you the more appropriate interpretation of what they have terrible there in the New King James is tyrants. You know, tyrants. The autocratic type governments, the kings that just want to tell you what you're going to do.

You know, we're developing some of those kings on earth today and some of them are these people who are very proud who have the billions and billions and billions of dollars, who have a more money that they know what to do with. But now they just want complete power over everyone.

Do it our way. We have a better answer than anyone else, even though, you know, they don't have any background in it. But they do have the pride to go along with it. I will lay low on the hottiness of the tyrants. Yes, ma'am? Debbie? Hi. Hi. I was just wondering, you know, the two witnesses are going to have many days, over 2000 days, to call down plagues and so forth.

Do you think God is going to use the two witnesses as the instruments to bring on the trumpet plagues and the seven last plagues? I think, I mean, I don't know whatever God has exactly planned for those witnesses, but what they're going to be doing is just witnessing to the world who God is, right? They'll be crying aloud, sparing not. They'll be saying this, you know, this government is not of God and they'll be pointing people to God. I think, you know, when you read through Revelation, it keeps talking about the angels that have been prepared for those trumpets, to sound those trumpets. So, they'll certainly be witnessing during that time up until the end of the sixth trumpet. Brother Shaby, one of the mythology can be used to know their ministry. Their ministry ends and then the resurrection takes place. So, if you call backwards, then you'll see that they're not even near four years or whatever. So, they're seven years for the end time prophecy of the last seven-year prophecy. So, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're there. They're done at the end of the sixth trumpet. They're there to just give God's message. So, they're called witnesses for a reason.

Okay, so we see pride. This is what God's going to punish the world for. That's why it becomes the way it is, for who's further and further from God. Verse 12, you know, he says some ominous verses in here. God really does accentuate what's going to happen. He says, I will make a mortal man more rare than fine gold. It's kind of like a tough thing to say, right? I will make a mortal man more rare than fine gold. But boy, when you read through the book of Revelation, you see how many people die. You know, we just read in Isaiah 6, a month or two months ago, about how there would just be a remnant of Israel. All the modern-day Israelites only 10% survive that time. I mean, it says that in Isaiah, it says that in Ezekiel. That's 90% of modern-day Israel dies during that time. That's a lot of death in just a few people. You read in the sixth, I think it's in the sixth trumpet that, of that play, a third of mankind dies during that time. And then, of course, you have the battle at the end of the seventh trump there, the seventh bull, where you have all these armies that are gathered together against God. You know, the battle of Armageddon. You know, one place that talks about a 200 million man army. When Christ returns, they are just decimated. And Zachariah gives this picture of the blood that rises on the earth up to the top of the legs of a horse. I mean, it's just we can't even comprehend what the death is going to be like as God punishes the world. Now, we know He's a merciful God and a loving God, and He wants all mankind to have life. That's part of what we talked about, the Feast of Tabernacles and the Eighth Day and the Second Resurrection, and people having that opportunity to choose Christ at that time because our God and Jesus Christ is Savior for all, every, wants every man, woman, and child to have the opportunity to know God and have salvation. That's the truth of the Bible that most churches, in fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the church, the true church of God is the only one that has that understanding, that God wants every man, woman, and child to have the opportunity of salvation, whether they ever heard the name of Jesus Christ, because God will see to it that they will have the opportunity in His time and in His plan as we have just finished rehearsing through the observance of the fall holy days. Brother Shaby. Yes, sir. What you just stated is true from the Word of God because He says we are to pray for the Christ Kingdom, pray the kingdom of God come, we pray for the God's Kingdom in our conduct and in the future, but also He says not to desire the day of the Lord, because even though He will do it, He has no pleasure in destroying these people.

So, yeah, it's going to happen, but God has no pleasure in the death of the sinner, as He says in Ezekiel, I think. He doesn't want to do it, but He will do it. He will do it because that's the only way they will ever listen, right, and be become humble. Okay. I have a quick question. Yes.

It's Becky. Hi, Becky. Hi. You just mentioned the army in Revelation. I was looking for it, but I haven't found it yet. Is that the same as the army in Joel 2 that we're reading? I think it is. I think it's in, well, certainly Revelation 19 when Christ returns. It talks about the armies gathered at Revelation, maybe in Revelation 16, that those actual, yeah, the bulls of God's wrath are in chapter 16. So, yeah. It's sort of a parallel between those two chapters. Yes, that's the great army that it's talking about at the end time. Okay, thank you very much. Hello.

This is Bill Hildinger. Hey, Bill. First time I've been on here. I recognize your name. You and I have changed some emails, right? Yes. Being the engineering nerd, I had calculated that 200 million men with their blood and how many, you know, quarts of blood would be in a man at 200 miles long. And so I calculated out that one foot deep and 10 foot wide, it would do 200 miles of blood. Wow. It's hard to even imagine, but one day we'll see it because if God said it, it's going to happen, right? So. Bill, how are you doing? Oh, okay.

It's all right. Sorry. That's okay. That's okay. It's good when people recognize each other.

Yeah, very good. Well, let's go back to chapter 13 here. I was looking to see where we are here. Okay. Chapter 13, we were at eight o'clock. I'll, we may not get all through 13, but I'm going to put up a couple slides here in a few minutes. It says in verse 12, we were there a mortal, more rare than fine gold, a man more than the golden wedge of Ophir. Now, you know, Ophir is also mentioned in the Bible previously. Well, you may as well look at it. The commentaries say that the gold from Ophir, no one knows exactly where this OPHIR place is. There is, there's speculation as where it is, but you could read two or three different commentaries and they'll tell you two or three different places. But apparently the gold from Ophir was the most pure gold you can find anywhere in the earth. At least that's what the legend says. If we go back for just a moment, kind of tie the Bible together and see how these things, you know, we might read of something here in 1 Kings 19, I think it is. Where did I write down that? Yeah, 1 Kings 9. 1 Kings 9.

We see that King Solomon, who got blessed with an enormous amount of wealth during his lifetime, in addition to the wisdom that he gave him, he, in all of his travel, all of his trading, Ophir shows up in there as well. 1 Kings 9 and verse 26 talks about this fleet of ships that he built with Hyrum of Tyre. Verse 26 of 1 Kings 9 says, King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Izzian Gabor, which is near Elath on the Red Sea and the land of Edom, and Hyrum sent his servants with the fleet, Seaman, who knew the sea, to work with the servants of Solomon. And they went to Ophir, O-P-H-I-R, and acquired 420 talents of gold from there and brought it to King Solomon.

And in chapter 10 verse 22, you can write that down and look at it later, it just talks about the enormous wealth of Solomon and how every three years they went off to get these gold and spices and everything. And that's why some people say it was the East Indies they were going to, you know, and things, but no one knows for sure. So we see here God is using that. Ophir has already there in the Bible. I'll make a man worth more than the golden wedge of Ophir. And this golden wedge was reportedly like the most pure gold, valuable gold you could have. And that just shows what God is showing, the decimation that's going to come on the earth. Verse 13, if I'm back in here in Isaiah 13, verse 13, I will shake, therefore I will shake the heavens and the earth will move out of her place. You know, when we read in the sixth seal that the heavenly signs are there and every island is moved out of its place. Every the world changes. It's the things that we have counted on. God shakes. It's His earth, things that have never happened before. The earth will move out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of His fierce anger. It shall be as the hunted gazelle, timid, right? The hunted gazelle. You've seen those nature movies when a lie is after them. They're very timid. They're always looking around. What's going to do that? So you have a world that's very timid and as a sheep that no man takes up, they have no shepherd. Nothing is guiding them. Everything that they counted on is gone. You and I always have a great shepherd watching over us. God hasn't given us the spirit of timidity, but He's given us the spirit of power and love and a sound mind. Every man will turn to his own people. You know, some of the commentaries will say that what that's referring to is that Babylon in that day will be like a melting pot. It'll be like a melting pot, right? I mean, a number of different people that are there and everyone will flee to his own land. There's one verse that kind of indicates that in Jeremiah 50. We go back there for a second. In Jeremiah 50, and this is, you know, the end time Babylon's distillation is talking about clearly as you read through these chapters because it's different than what happened back in history. 50 verse 37 said, the sword is against their horses, against their chariots, and against all the mixed people who are in her midst. I mean, there we have it. All these mixed people that are there at that end time Babylon. I mean, you look at Revelation 18, it talks about all these people, all these different groups of people, the merchants of the earth who have gotten rich off of her, you know, off of her gold and silver and wares and everything, and they all mourn, they all mourn over the demise of all that prophet. But it's because of the sins of that nation or that that whole system that God will destroy it. Ultimately, always remember no matter how shiny and nice Satan makes look, his ultimate will and desire and purpose is to destroy man, destroy earth. Nothing of God's plan does he want to survive. So he may make it look very good and appealing, but ultimately his goal is complete destruction of everything. Again, as it says in one of those prayers of the angels, I think it's in Revelation 11 or 15, where it says that Christ will come to destroy those who will destroy the earth. You know, verses 15 and 16, very graphic. Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. Their children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered. Their wives ravished.

And then, you know, we see the meads. We saw the meads in Daniel 5 that did actually conquer that ancient kingdom of Babylon. Behold, I will stir up the meads against them, who will not regard silver. And as for gold, they will not delight in it. Their bows will dash the young men to pieces, and they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eye will not spare children and Babylon. The glory of kingdoms, as it was back in ancient times, as it will be in the time before the return of Jesus Christ's return. The beauty of the Chaldeans' pride will be is when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. That didn't happen immediately at the overthrow of Babylon in ancient times.

Verse 20. I'm going to do this. We may have to come back and discuss this a little bit more more next week because I do want to put some slides up and not keep you too long here. It will never be inhabited. It will not be settled from generation to generation. Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there. But wild beasts of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of owls. Ostriches will dwell there, wild goats will caper there, hyenas will howl in their citadels and jackals in their peasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged. And so what we see is this utter destruction of Babylon. We know that end time Babylon, when it's destroyed, it will never exist again. It will always be gone. We may as well turn back to Revelation 18. We haven't done that yet just to see the final demise of it. In Revelation 18...

18... um...

Yeah, let's just pick it up in verse 20. It says, Rejoice over Babylon, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her. Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and threw it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence the great city Babylon will be thrown down, and shall not be found any more. The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you any more. No craftsmen shall be found in you any more. The sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you any more. The light of the lamp won't be found in you. The voice of the bridegroom of the bride, for your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived, and in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth. Again, had all the trappings of a pretty kingdom, but behind it was death and murder to the saints of God. It was anti-God all the way. Now, let me throw a couple of slides up here for you that you can think about, and we can come back next week and talk about them as well. Back when we were talking about Assyria, we talked about who the modern-day Assyrians might be and how they were migrated. I got the wrong screen here. Let me get the other one here.

They were the Germanic, that they were moved up into the areas of central Europe.

I had the hardest time finding that thing there. Let me try this instead.

Let me just read through this. This comes from our our our UCG Bible commentary. Well, research, and if you go into it, you go to ucg.org, type in Bible commentary, look for Isaiah 13, and you will find this. It talks about modern-day Babylon, and we've talked about how in ancient times, when a nation was conquered, the native people were taken out and moved to another country. The conquering people brought theirs in because they wanted the land. They wanted the kind kingdom. They wanted to inhabit that land. That's not the case today, and that's why we know that Israel, the land of Israel, wasn't destroyed. The land of Babylon wasn't destroyed. Let me just read through this slowly, but you can look this up as well.

It says, though Syria is not the only ancient nation, was the surprising identity today.

Babylon itself may be found elsewhere. As previously explained, a great many Babylonians were relocated to Syrophoenicia, including Samaria, even before the Chaldean neo-Babylonian Empire. When Babylon finally fell to the Medes and Persians, they set it up as their winter capitol.

It's talking about when Darius the Mede came in, they didn't destroy Babylon. They wanted to live there. It was beautiful. They set it up as their winter capitol. Later, Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, and he too set up Babylon as the capital of Asia in his Greek Empire. When his successor in the region, Seleucus, took over, he declared himself the king of Babylon and made Babylon his first capitol. Soon, he decided to move the capitol to a new location north on the Tigris River and invited those of Babylonia to relocate there. Well, in those days, you did. Later, he moved his capitol west to Antioch in Syria. In fact, he built 30 new cities throughout his empire, most of them in Syria, most of them in Syria, and the vast majority of Mesopotamia relocated to them. Boy.

Okay, there we go. And the vast majority of Mesopotamia relocated to them. Thus, though Seleucid Syria was a Greek kingdom and name and language, it was predominantly Babylonian, in fact, as the name of a Greece, but it really are the Babylonian people who had migrated and been really coded up there, with large numbers of Phoenicians of old Tyre and Cydin still dwelling along its Mediterranean coast. Great numbers of the Babylonian and Phoenician Syrians were later taken to Rome as slaves. Amazingly, in the centuries just before and after Christ, that's when he was alive on earth, a massive change happened in the Roman population.

Through wars and other socioeconomic factors, Italy's native population dwindled. Many of the local freeborn citizens who were left migrated to other parts of Rome's growing empire. At the same time, Rome brought in vast numbers of slaves, mostly from Syria. History, your history books will bear this out. Over time, it became popular to free slaves in Rome and thousands upon thousands of freed slaves who were skilled at various trades displaced even more of the freeborn citizenry. So, as incredible as it may seem, Italy eventually became almost entirely Syrian or in actuality Babylonian and Phoenician. So that's kind of quite an interesting thing when you look at the migration of people and when you know God calls people and nations what they are. In his mind, there's Babylon. So when he talks about this Babylonian kingdom, this empire at the end of time, where are the Babylonians? You know, where are the Babylonians today? Maybe just in this area that God has said here as we trace the migration of those people. Let me put one more up here.

And this is actually, if you want, you can look at Isaiah 14 and go over to that too, because in the midst of Isaiah 14, it talks about the prophecy for Babylon. In verse 23 of Isaiah 14 it says, I will make it a possession for the porcupine and marshes of muddy water. I will sweep it with the broom of destructions as the Lord of hosts. So again, this is from our Bible commentary. It says, interestingly, after its fall, ancient Babylon did become an abandoned place of marshes as the Euphrates River gradually changed course and moved further away from the city. A process begun when Babylon's conqueror Cyrus removed dikes that kept the water river in a particular course. Again, that's an interesting part of history when you see how they altered that river in order to lead to a conquest of Babylon. Isaiah referred to it before the fact, before that actually happened, as the wilderness of the sea.

When we come to Isaiah 21, we'll see that burden or that oracle against it, and we'll be talking about Babylon again at that time. In fact, this is part of the reason that Alexander the Great's successor, Seleucus, moved the capital from Babylon shortly after establishing it there.

Yet, you know, it says there will probably be a greater fulfillment of this prophecy when end-time Babylon is cast down as we read in Revelation 18. When we read that in the last verses there of Revelation 18, perhaps such a fate will befall the modern capital of Babylon, which we say is apparently not definitely the city of Rome. So that brings us to the end of chapter 13. You can go back and look at those things and look at the prophecies that are there. Again, the prophecies, all these things in Isaiah were prophesied long before they occurred, and you know, every single one of them has come through. One of the proofs of the Bible is that every single prophecy that God said has come through. All the prophecies of the Messiah and His birth, 100% of them true. When He talks about these things of Babylon, we'll see some other things as we go through some of these other surrounding cities. 100% of them came true. We absolutely know, as God says in Isaiah a couple times, if my word says it, it will happen. It will not return to me void. So let me leave it there for now, and then next week we can talk about anything right now. Talk about any questions next week on Isaiah 13 or anything else you want to talk about right now. One question, Brother Shavey. When Alexander's empire died and he divided it, was the Seleucid Empire the one that was the Northern Empire? I don't remember.

Which one was more? The Ptolemaic Empire. I think so. I think the Ptolemaic Empire was in Egypt, but don't quote me on that. I think that's okay. I'll look at that later. Because I heard Seleucid, and I'm like, Seleucid was in the North of our land. I think it's Daniel 11. I think it talks about that as well.

Okay, thanks. Thanks, Susan.

Shavey. Yes. Regarding the prophecy, regarding the destruction of fiscal Babylon, the fact that it would never be rebuilt or inhabited, one of the projects that Saddam Hussein was working on was actually the rebuilding of Babylon. They were excavating, and they wanted to basically recreate as much as possible of the old ancient city, even their hanging gardens.

I love what happened to him. He was never able to do it. He met with disaster after disaster.

I was researching this. I came across, you know, they also tried to find this ancient tower of Babel, which some people say for the beginning of Babylon, right? And they said when they found those ruins, it was completely covered. Well, not completely. It was so covered with water, they can't really do any of that. Somewhere along the line, it was all covered with water, which goes along with that as well. If indeed that was the power of Babel, it can't be extracted or cultivated. It wasn't explored either.

The first fulfillment of the fall of Babylon, it was conquered by the beads and the Persians.

And it is believed that the modern versions are basically Iran, which is interesting because there's this basically always hostility and then they're basically a strategic enemy of Western Europe. So that's also interesting. I wouldn't know where the beads, because I've never heard about that, would be interesting to try to find out where the whereabouts of the ancient beads are currently. Yeah, our Bible commentary, I didn't take the time to kind of research that too much. It somehow infers that those beads may be up in that, you know, when it talks to Daniel Levin about the kings of the east, news from the east, I call it, come across that they may be that.

But I didn't see a lot of documentation pertaining to that. I didn't take the time to look at it, but it does make you wonder if that's where that is too, because prophecy sometimes repeats itself. Yeah, I'll lose the gun. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Shevi.

Hi, how are you? Yeah, we are fine, fine, thank you, thank you very much. Welcome back from the feast. And you too. Yeah, we are commanded in Revelation chapter 18 verse 4 to come out of Babylon, and since this modern day or end time Babylon is going to be destroyed, I think the application for us as God's children is to look inwards to see if there are any elements of Babylon in our lives and pray to God that these elements will be formed in the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our life so that we may escape the destruction or the place that is to come upon the end time Babylon. I think it's wisdom if we do that as God's children. You are exactly right.

That's exactly what we need to be, David. Make sure none of those elements of Babylon are part of our lives, that we're not holding into anything or any false ideas or just favorite ideas of ours. Yeah, very, very good point. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. Hey, Thomas.

Hey, how are you doing? Just had a quick question. Well, it may not be. It may be something that somebody can point me in the right direction on, but I was actually looking into Darius Meade from secular history. You know, secular history says, oh, this guy doesn't exist. We can't find anything about him here. He is in myth, but you know, the myth kind of correlates with the person. So that's complicated in their mythology. I was curious if anyone has any good resources to kind of look into that, because that's something I really wanted to look into more and understand better.

Yeah, I don't think I have anything on that. Hi, Mr. Sherry. Yeah, Bob. Hi. Oh, yes. Well, concerning the Selukus, just a cursory looking at online in Britannica online. One of his titles is Basilius, Basilius, or Basilica. Basilius, that's just one of his titles as king. And also in Naples today, he has a bust, an iron bust. It's still in Naples. And really, Britannica, it looks a very imposing figure of him. There are two connections reading from the Oderian that you said. It's very interesting. It might be well worth looking into it just for his history, like Tom mentioned. Yeah, yeah. And that puts him right there in Italy, just like what we just said. Very good. Hey, Thomas, I wrote that down.

We'll see what we can find out. I'll ask someone in ABC if they've got something on that.

Now I was finishing up Bible study. Okay, hey, Bill. Bill, did you have something you want to say? Uh, yes, in regard to Alexander and Darius, in the National Geographic, I was just trying to pull up, go into my file there, and find out. The National Geographic has an excellent time when Alexander went against Darius. As best as the old historians can put together, that battle is really amazing. Huh. National Geographic? Okay. Okay. Anything else, anyone? Okay. Okay, well, we will let you go. Enjoy the rest of your evening.

Bye, everybody. Goodnight. Goodnight, Mr. J.D. Goodnight. Thank you. Goodnight, all. Goodnight. Take care.