A Tale of Two Cities - Part I, Babylon

No, I don't have any announcements. Good to see all of you here. Well, we've got a full house today. And nice to see the Sylvester's here. We should have you here. Of course, the bad news is the sermon that I gave two weeks ago in Ann Arbor is the one I give here today.

But I do want to thank Chris, because after when I gave the sermon in Ann Arbor, we were back there having the potluck or whatever they had there. We were sitting down there. And Chris mentioned the mistake I made in my sermon as far as my galaxy. My facts exactly right. He made a comment. I checked it out when I got home. I said, yeah, he's right. I was off by 50 years. So I corrected that. So I thank you for being here. I can do it correctly today. Get my facts straight. Appreciate that.

Back in 1959, Charles Dickens wrote a classic novel, which he titled A Tale of Two Cities. Any of you are at A Tale of Two Cities? One or two of you have? We had one person, I think, up in Gaylord who'd read it, and one person in Ann Arbor, I think, John Kosmalski, who'd read it. And I don't think anybody in the same who read it. And I hadn't actually read it. But after talking to others who had read it, I thought, well, maybe that would be an interesting book to read. It sounds like it would be a very good book to read. But today I want to talk, oh, I wanted to mention a little bit first before I get into the sermon. I just want to give a little bit of background on this god off the internet. There's a kind of a some noce of the story of A Tale of Two Cities. Again, it was written back in 1859 by Charles Dickens. But the setting of the story of A Tale of Two Cities is those two cities are London, England, and Paris, France, at the time leading up to the French Revolution, which took place between 1789 and 1799. The resulting death of King Louis XVI of France and also the death of his wife Marie Antoinette, both beheaded on the guillotine. Louis was beheaded on January 1793. And remember, we had to beheaded a few months later in October 1793. And then not long after that, in 1799 Napoleon seized power to a coup d'état in France and then crowned himself the emperor a few years later in 1804. It's interesting, but this all took place around 1789, because in 1789, as the French Revolution was beginning, George Washington, of course, was sworn in as the first president of the United States. And that's ironic, as you know, of course, in history. France is the one who helped George Washington, you know, win the war, the revolutionary war, because the French sent some troops over to help George Washington. That helped turn the tide against the British, and helped Washington, George Washington helped America win independence, I should say, from Britain. But the cost of that, sending those troops to America by France, that was part of it, plus King Louis XVI's extravagant spending and other factors, left France at that time, 1789, when the French Revolution was beginning, it left on the verge of bankruptcy. The effect of doing research that said the prior two decades leading up to that, France had poor harvests, they had drought, they had cattle diseases, skyrocketing bread prices, and all that, plus the fact that King Louis imposed very heavy taxes on the people, kindled a lot of unrest among the poor and among the average citizen, which finally then resulted in an uprising by the masses, as depicted by the musical like Miserables, if you ever saw that musical, or read the book. But even for those who've never read A Tale of Two Cities, you can recall the opening words, very moving opening words. So he began his Tale of Two Cities with these words that you'll all be familiar with. I'm just going to read this, read how the book, how the decision begins. It was the best of times, this is actually comparing the aristocracy to the life of the average citizen at that time. It was the best of times for the aristocracy, it was not. It was kind of worst of times for the average citizen. So it begins with, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. It was the epic of belief. It was the epic of incredulity. It was a season of light, it was a season of darkness. It was a spring of hope. It was a winter of despair. We had everything before us, we had nothing before us. We're all going direct to heaven, we're all going direct the other way.

Of course, you can almost say that can be true in almost any society. For some societies, great things are great, it's the best of times. But for others, sometimes it's not that way, it's the worst of times. Today, I want to talk about two other cities, not those two cities. Two cities which are basically highlighted. This will be part one of our two-part sermon, actually. But there are two cities that are highlighted throughout the pages of the Bible, basically from Genesis to Revelation. And of course, I can't begin to cover all of it, but I just want to give some highlights. But the Bible begins and ends with the tale of these two cities. I'm going to begin today. And the first city became one of the greatest cities the world had ever known at one time, and even developed into a great empire until it was completely destroyed.

But then it was revived in another form, this first city we talk about today, revived in another form, became a great system which still exists today and has a great influence around the world. It's going to have to be completely destroyed by Christ when he returns. But the second city that I'm going to talk about in the next sermon endured, as Dickens put it, it's endured, it's interested in the history of that city. It's endured the best of times and the worst of times. It has had periods of greatness. It's had periods of great despair. Some people love this city. They just really love it. And others hate it and want to wipe it off the face of the earth and completely destroy it. In fact, it has been destroyed and rebuilt more than once. But in some of this city, you endure forever. Others like to see it destroyed. But this second city I'm going to talk about has endured a lot of hardships, a lot of wars, a lot of destructions. It's been completely destroyed on more than one occasion and then rebuilt. But today, it's in the center of the world's attention. It's a key city in the world when it comes to Bible prophecy. And so that's the city we'll talk about in the next sermon. Today, I will give part one of a two-part sermon. In part one, I will give the tale and the history of the first city I just described or mentioned. In part two, I'll give the tale and the history of the second city. So the title of my sermon here this afternoon is A Tale of Two Cities, Part One, Babylon. You might have figured that out. Talk about Babylon today. Again, it became a great city of the world and then became a great empire. And it's going to be revived in another form. And even as that's happening even now. So anyway, now you know the name of the first city. And Babylon is first mentioned towards the very beginning of the Bible. So let's go to the book of Genesis to see where it's first mentioned. First mentioned in Genesis chapter 9 is shortly after the flood. After you turn up to Noah's flood, about 100 to 200 years after the flood. Not too long after the flood. Genesis 9 verses 28 and 29. Start with verse 28 of chapter 9. Noah lived after the flood 350 years. So all the days of Noah were 950 years and he died.

Chapter 10 verse 1. Now this is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and sons were born to them after the flood. Verse 6.

Sons of Ham were Cush, Mizra, and Cut, and Canaan. In verse 8, Cush begotten Imrod, and he began to be a mighty one on the earth. And he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. Or as it should be translated, been rendered a mighty hunter against the Lord. He was not for God, he was against God. But the question is interesting to ask here was he because he's a hunter, you think of hunting animals. And he probably did hunt animals. I'm not saying he didn't, we don't know. But was he really, that was the primary focus, was he hunting animals or was he hunting men by trying to get a following for himself? By trying to make a name for himself, by trying to make his name great. Well, one thing we know for sure, he was against the ways of God. He was going, he was going to God, he was trying to turn other people contrary to God. But think about it, what would he have to do in order to make his name great, in order to try to get a following for himself? What do he have to do? He would have to establish a kingdom. How do you do that? And he'd make himself ahead of that kingdom. That would certainly make your name great, make you renowned. But how do you do that? How do you establish a kingdom? Well, to have a kingdom, you first have to have cities, wouldn't you? Is that what Nimrod began to do? To begin to build cities. Genesis 10 verse 10. And the beginning, the beginning of Nimrod, and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Eric, Akkad, Kalma, and the land of Shina. If that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-er, Keyla, and Rezen between Nineveh and Keyla. And that is the principal city referring primarily to Nineveh. But the beginning of his kingdom was Babel. The evil word Babel is number 894 in Strongson's Court, and it only is translated Bible twice, Babel, I should say twice, here in verse 10 that we just read. And then again in Genesis 11.9. Let's go to Genesis 11, beginning in verse 6 first. Find the second place where this word translated Babel, or Beers, is Babel. Genesis 11 verse 6. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of man had built. And the Lord said, indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do. So now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. So let's go down there and confuse their language that they can't understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the earth, and they ceased building the city.

Verse 9. Therefore, his name is called Babel. The second place this word appeared. His name is called Babel because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. So Babel means confusion. This particular Hebrew word appears actually, and I didn't count them all, but I just got a rough estimate. It appears well over 200 times in the Bible. And in all but these two scriptures we just read here, it's translated Babylon. So that Hebrew word that actually translated Babel here is actually everywhere else in the Bible. That same word is translated Babylon. So we could say then at the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon. Now let's look at the history of Babylon by looking at Babylon the great city. Let's see what a great city it became. Man likes to do things and make them big and create names for himself and become famous. But Nimrod found the city of Babylon probably sometime in the 23rd century BC, around 2200 BC or so, or about, you know, I don't know, 100-200 years or so after the flood, around that time, not too long after the flood. And he also built a tower. But why did Nimrod build a tower in his city? Genesis 11 verse 3. Then they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. And they had brick from stones, and they had asphalt from mortar. And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Why were they building it? Let us make a name for ourselves.

So Nimrod built the city of Babylon and the tower of Babel so they could make a name for themselves. So they could then exercise power and control over the people. That's why you want to make a name and have a city. You want to really have control over people and have power and gain wealth.

And again, we don't know exactly what the tower of Babel looked like, how tall it was, but most historians, if you do research for historians, they most most of them believe that the tower of Babel was built in the form of a step pyramid with probably at least seven steps or towers, probably with a throne at the top, maybe, from which Nimrod could probably display himself as the supreme ruler. That's all speculation, but that's what most historians speculate. Again, we don't know. We don't have a picture of it. And there are some... they found some archaeological evidence indicating that that's probably what it was. But Babylon became a small city-state to start with, but then it was greatly expanded under the sixth king of Babylon. He was a very famous king whose name is still well known. Who was the sixth king of Babylon? The sixth king of Babylon was Hammurabi, who reigned as the king of Babylon from 792 B.C. to 750 B.C., 42 years.

Of course, he's famous for writing what is now called the Code of Hammurabi, which is one of the earliest and most complete of all written legal codes that they've ever found. It's a collection, actually, they say, of 282 rules which establish standards for commercial interactions, and it also set fines and punishments to meet the requirements for justice if those rules were broken. The Code of Hammurabi with these 282 rules was carved into a massive finger-shaped blackstone steel pillar, which was rediscovered in 1901 after having been lost for a while, looted by invaders and lost, but then was found to get in 1901. But it's very interesting what one of Hammurabi's codes was, because it's still very famous today. In fact, one of Hammurabi's codes or laws was actually quoted by Christ, where he said, you have heard that it was said, Matthew 5.38, Christ said, you've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Okay, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. That was one of the codes of Hammurabi. So you hear that phrase, that's where it originated. It was originated from Hammurabi, the sixth king of Babylon. But as the king of Babylon, Hammurabi conquered the whole of southern Mesopotamia and made Babylon the capital city of his new empire, which became known as Babylonian. Northern Mesopotamia by then was known as the Syrian or as a Syrian empire. And after Hammurabi's death, his empire went into decline. It was conquered by the Syrian empire, which in turn was conquered by King of Kineser in 612 BC, which then is the daily beginning of what's called the Neo-Babylonian empire, when it started off with Nebuchadnezzar, 612 BC. But that was a very short-lived empire being conquered by the Medo-Persian empire less than 100 years later in 539 BC. But during the Neo-Babylonian empire, the city of Babylon is thought to have become the first city of the world to reach a population of over 200,000 people. That's what some historians surmise. It became a great city. Nebuchadnezzar reigned as the king of Babylon from about 612 BC to about 561 BC. And during the time that he was the king of Babylon, that began a new era of architectural activity, which included the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Also, the construction was called the Ishtar Gate, which is the most prominent of the eight gates around the world city of ancient Babylon. By this Google, Ishtar gets a beautiful gate. You can get a picture of it, you Google it. But the reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate is now located in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. An additional replica is at the site of ancient Babylon in Iraq, where the ancient site was, where there's become some excavations. The Ishtar Gate was originally built in 575 BC by King Nebuchadnezzar, and it was dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, hence its name, Ishtar Gate. It was a huge gate. It was 46 feet high, 100 feet wide, and it was made of just beautiful, beautifully polished white and blue bricks. Again, you can Google it in BC. It's very, very beautiful. The seawater almost was the one to the world. In fact, it originally was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but was then replaced later by the lighthouse of Alexandria, according to what historians calculate. But at that time, Babylon was the greatest and most beautiful city in the world during that time in Nebuchadnezzar, probably one of the most prosperous cities. Also, about 11 years prior to the building of the Ishtar Gate, Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, conquered Jerusalem, probably about 586 BC, and the southern kingdom of Judah along with Jerusalem. You can read that, that counted as Second Chronicles 36, the last chapter of Second Chronicles. But Babylon was a very proud and very majestic city, a very prosperous city, a very beautiful city. It was a great city for its time, probably the greatest city on the earth at the time.

And then it became one of the greatest and most powerful empires the world had ever known. But that resulted in something, something we all have to avoid, and which caused things to go go bad for Nebuchadnezzar. The result of Nebuchadnezzar being filled with pride. Let's go to Daniel chapter 4. Notice the pride of Nebuchadnezzar. You've got these magnificent gardens he's built, this magnificent gate. He's built the city up to be over, probably over 200,000. Wow, it's the crown jewel of the whole earth, the city of Babylon. And Nebuchadnezzar was the king, and he's called the architect behind it. He was one that pushed all this. Daniel 4, verse 30, so the king referred to Nebuchadnezzar. He spoke, saying, It is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty. That's kind of boastful. A little bit of pride there, wouldn't you say? So there he's displaying a huge amount of pride. Taking all the credit for himself. He's a great king, and he's a great city, and great gardens, and great gate he built, and all this. But what happened next? Verse 31, While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you.

And they shall drive you from man, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you, for seven years, until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men, and he can give it to every once. He's the one that allows you to be king, and if he wants to remove you, you can be gone right now. He'll give it to somebody else. God can give it to whomever he chooses. God's the one who's sovereign over all things, and God's in control of all things. So Nebuchadnezzar then went insane for seven years, until he finally came to this realization, beginning in verse 34. At the end of the time, at the end of those seven years, I Nebuchadnezzar looked up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me. And I blessed the most high, and I praised and honored him who lives forever, because this is what he learned. It is his dominion, which is a never-lasting dominion. And his kingdom is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And no one can restrain his hand, or say to him, what have you done? At the same time, verse 36, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom and my honor, excuse me, for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor also returned to me, and my consulars and nobles resorted to me, and I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me. So now I, Nebuchadnezzar, verse 37, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways are justice, and those who walk in pride he is able to put down. Nebuchadnezzar learned that the hard way, but he learned it. Not an easy way to learn it. We can much better learn it by reading about this and then learning it that way. But Nebuchadnezzar then died around 562 BC, and the final King of Babylon was Belshazzar, and unfortunately he did not learn from his grandfather, great-grandfather, whether that would relate, but he did not learn what Nebuchadnezzar learned before he died. Then the final King of Babylon was Belshazzar. We'll read that in Daniel 5.1, just a moment. He was actually co-ruling Babylon with his father, Nabonidus, when Babylon fell in 539 BC, and Nabonidus was not in Babylon when it fell, but Belshazzar was. But in 539 it fell to the Medes and Persians. Here's a fascinating thing about that. It was prophesied, that was prophesied by God through Isaiah over a hundred years before it fell, over a hundred years before it fell. Babylon was good to be in a pregnant city, which most people thought could never be conquered. It was surrounded by a great wall. It was built on both sides of the Euphrates River, with the Euphrates River going right through the city. It had big iron gates where the Euphrates River entered Babylon and had big iron gates down in the water where the Euphrates River exited Babylon. So no one can get there through the river. It had iron gates there. It could only be opened from inside the city and had a great wall and a moat and so on. Huge iron gates prevented interest be the Euphrates River, and those gates could only be again opened from within inside the city. And even then, if you could open those gates, you would have to drain and dry up the Euphrates River. You couldn't march an army into the Euphrates River. They'd probably take them too much time. They'd get wet and the rifles would get wet. Well, I didn't have rifles.

I thought it would be nice if they did. Chris speaks out of that, though. They didn't have rifles. No, they were nice if they did. But anyway, they would slow them down quite a bit, wouldn't it, and try to get them through the river. They almost have to dry it up ahead of time in order to get in there, even if the gates could be opened. In Daniel 5.1, Belshazzar, the king now, the last king of Babylon, he made a great feast. He became lizards up with pride. He made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. Belshazzar's heart, then became lizards up with pride. And then something appeared in his banquet room, which caused him a little bit of a concern. Handwriting appeared on the wall of his palace banquet room, dropping down to Daniel 5, verse 25. And this is a description that was written on the wall right behind him. Look up there. Somebody said, hey, writing was appearing on the wall. And it was not a language that he understood. The writing was written, many, many, techo-eufarsim. And what in the world does that mean? So finally, Lyman couldn't figure it out. So he finally called Daniel to interpret what was written. Daniel tells the interpretation beginning in verse 26. This is the interpretation of each word. Many. God has numbered your kingdom and finished it, he tells Belshazzar. In fact, actually was finished at that very moment. Because at that very moment, as Daniel was giving the interpretation, the armies of Cyrus were already within the walls of the city. Verse 27, techo-eufen weighed in the balance and found wanting. Parash, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. And verse 30, and that very night, Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. But here's the fascinating thing. How did it happen?

And what did God prophesied over 100 years prior to this? Let's go back to Isaiah 44.

Fascinating prophecy made far in advance of when it happened. It shows how great God is. He's sovereign or all-thing, and he controls history, even maybe in advance sometimes. What's happened here? Isaiah 44, begin verse 24. This is referring to Cyrus. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who he would use to conquer Babylon, and he who formed you from the womb, I am the Lord who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth for myself, who frustrates the signs of Babbler, who drives the vendors mad, who turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolishness, who confirms the word of his servant, whose tribe is going to become God's servant to destroy Babylon, who confirms the word of his servant and performs the counsel of his messengers, who says to Jerusalem, yeah, maybe never can have destroyed you, but you're going to be inhabited again. In the season of Judah, you're going to be built again, and I will rise up for waste places. I was saying Babylon may have destroyed Jerusalem, never can necessarily have destroyed Jerusalem, but Jerusalem is going to be rebuilt. Then God says this, but before we read this, I just first just get the time when this happened, just going to turn back real quickly to Isaiah 1.1 to give you the time from when Isaiah was written. The vision of Isaiah, verse 1, chapter 1, verse 1, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. So when then would the book of Isaiah have been written? Well, it had to have been written sometime during the reigns of these kings, which would have been when? Well, sometime between 740 and, say, 700 or just after 700 BC, or in other words, over 100 years before the fall of Babylon, which fell in 586 BC. So how did God through Isaiah predict Babylon would fall? Isaiah 44, verse 27, who says to the deep, the deep here being Euphrates River that ran through the city of Babylon, who says to the deep, be dry, and I will dry up your rivers.

Again, what happened? Well, the Euphrates River was diverted upstream from Babylon by the armies of Cyrus, so the riverbed would become dry, or almost dry, on the very day that Cyrus was going to invade Babylon. Verse 28, who says of Cyrus, and then remember, though, this is written before Cyrus was born, who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall perform all my pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built again, in other words, and to the temple, which was also destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. Your foundations shall be laid.

In fact, it's interesting. I'm just doing this and doing some research for part two.

The temple was destroyed on the 9th of Av in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, and was also destroyed by Titus on the 9th of Av in 70 AD, the very same day, many years later. It's rebuilt again, as well, will be. It hasn't been rebuilt yet, but it will be. Well, we don't know if it will be or not, actually. We don't know that. Some say, well, some, not sure. We'll see. St. Jerusalem shall be built to temple. Your foundation shall be laid. But it says, you shall perform all of my pleasure.

But that was, again, over 100 years before Cyrus was born, even as alluded to here in Isaiah 45, verse 4. It says, Jacob is my... For Jacob, my servant's sake and Israel, my elect, he's referring now to Cyrus, I've even called you by your name. He's called Cyrus by his name. I have named you, though you have not known me.

See, Cyrus didn't know God. He hadn't even been born yet. This is written. But, so how do you explain that? How can he do that? Well, God can control of history, and he can even predict history in advance, in some cases, to work out his purpose. Isaiah 45, verse 5. I am the... Say it again of Cyrus, to Cyrus and of Cyrus, who, for the future, I'm the Lord and there is no other. You can ask, how can he know Cyrus before he was born? Because I am the Lord and there is no other, there is no God besides me. I will urge you, though you have not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. He is about to create calamity for Babylon. I, the Lord, do all these things.

So here God created calamity for Babylon, but we'll rebuild and restore Jerusalem, as prophesied, a few verses back. Isaiah 44, verse 28, who says of Cyrus, he's my shepherd, he's going to perform all my pleasure. Saying to Jerusalem, you may have been destroyed, but you shall be rebuilt, and to the temple, yes, you may have been burned down and destroyed as well, but your foundation shall be laid. It's going to be laid again. How is Babylon breached by the armies of Cyrus? Isaiah 45, verse 1. This is the Lord who is anointed to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the armor of kings, and to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut. That's referring to the gates that prevented people getting into the city of Babylon by the two of Euphrates' rivers.

So what happened was Cyrus had a spy within the city who opened the gates so they would not be shut. God was with Cyrus, and he was going before Cyrus. So this is in verse 2. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasure of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, even before you were born, I am the God of Israel.

So that's how Babylon fell in 539 BC. In fact, these books start to available today. They're trying to rewrite history today, but you can read all of that history from the Greek historian Herodotus. He records it in his writings. And also, there's two books of history written in the 1800s. George Rawlinson and Charles Rollins have volumes of ancient history, and in those volumes, either one of those, you can read all the details of all this happened, if you're recording their history books. Babylon remained under Persian rule for the next 200 years until Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in 331 BC. And after Alexander's death in 323 BC, Seliukas I, one of Alexander's generals, eventually gained control over Babylonian and built a new city, which he called Seliusha. And then he ordered most of the population of Babylon to move to his new city back in 275 BC. So after that, Babylon was not a major city anymore. However, there apparently was a might might have been a remnant there. Seems like there was a church of God there, indicated by Peter in his first pistol, 1 Peter 5 verse 13, where Peter wrote, She was in Babylon, elect together with you, greet you, and so does Mark my son. Something that might be, we talk about a Babylonian being the system of Babylon, rather than a city, but most of the time, there was probably a small village still left there, and there were probably some people living there, and there might have been a small church of God there, according to 1 Peter 5, 13. But in the mid-7th century AD, Mesopotamia, including the area of Babylon, was conquered by the Muslim Empire. And by the 10th century AD, there was only a small village called Babel, and subsequent travelers described going there a thousand years ago, only ruins were left. So note the prophecy in Isaiah. I want to note this prophecy. Isaiah 13. There's an interesting prophecy in Isaiah 13. We used to have this in our old Proof of God booklet, a worldwide booklet many years ago. We use this. Isaiah 13 verse 1, The burden against Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Ammon saw. So here's a prophecy concerning Babylon. Isaiah 13 verse 19.

Isaiah 13 verse 19. Oops, I got too many to skip the page. Got a page stuck together. Verse 19. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans, pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse 20. Will never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from generation to generation, nor will the Arabian pitch tents there. Nor will the shepherds make their sheifolds there, but wild beasts of the desert will be there, and their houses will be full of owls, or marjos before howling creatures. Ostriches will dwell there, wild goats will cape her there, the heavens will howl in their citadels and jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged. The prophecy of Babylon. It says it will never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from generation to generation. Very interesting, because that's actually come to pass. But it's very interesting how there are some who try to rebuild it. Here's what happened in the time leading up to World War I. In 1899, German archaeologists went to the area of Iraq called Tell Babel, and began to uncover parts of ancient Babylon. They found where it was, and they found this, and they started doing an archaeological dig there to uncover pottery and other things there. Their work was conducted daily from 1899 until 1917. Then it came to a stop. Why'd it come to a stop?

Because in 1917, the German archaeologists had to flee before oncoming British troops could get there and capture them. The British were invading that area. So pieces of the East Star Gate and hundreds of priceless recovered tablets were sent back to Germany. They took those, and they took back to Germany before the British could capture them. Some of those artifacts were then displayed in the Berlin Museum, but in the following years, many objects and artifacts went missing.

It's very interesting. I don't know if you ever saw the movie, a fascinating movie, I believe. It was called The Monuments Men. Any of you see The Monuments Men? It's a true story of World War II, where these these Monuments Men, they were men they got together and wanted to go back and say they noticed that what happened to all the priceless, especially, you know, of course, Germany invaded France, and there were so many priceless paintings in France, and they wanted to know where they were.

They couldn't find them. And so they went back trying to find all these paintings, and they couldn't find the paintings. They couldn't all have been destroyed. They were worth millions and millions of dollars, and they must be somewhere. Well, they were all confiscated by the Germans, and they did... well, you have to see the movie, but they did finally find them. It was an amazing movie. Not all of them. They never did find all of them, but they found some of them.

Now, going back to the story, on February 14, 1978, we're bringing up modern time there, as far as Babylon, trying to restore Babylon. On February 14, 1978, the Ba'athas government of Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, actually began what is called the archaeological restoration Babylon project. Only about 2-3% of the ruins of ancient Babylon have been uncovered. In Saddam Hussein's attempt to restore Babylon, he wanted to restore and rebuild it.

It came to an end in 2003. What happened in 2003? The United States invaded Iraq, and that put an end to Saddam Hussein's idea of wanting to restore Babylon. The Bible said it's not going to be restored, but actually, you do a history reading and research, I should say, Hussein had installed a portrait of himself in Nebuchadnezzar. He wanted to be great like Nebuchadnezzar. So he had a portrait of himself in Nebuchadnezzar at the entrance of the ruins, and had inscribed his name on many of the bricks. They were digging up in this ruins of ancient Babylon. One inscription reads this, this was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, he wanted to connect himself with Nebuchadnezzar to glorify Iraq, and of course, to glorify Saddam Hussein, just like Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify himself.

But it wasn't to be. They are still an empty city, lying in ruins, exactly as Isaiah had prophesied. So that, then, is the history of the city of Babylon, which became one of the greatest cities the world had ever known, and then developed into a great empire, and it was eventually completely destroyed as it remains to this very day. By the beginning, it was then revived in another form, and it became a great system, a system that lives on today, and that's going to have to be destroyed by Christ when he returns, I should say.

So let's just look at the part of the sermon here at Babylon, the great system, the great system of Babylon. One of the most prominent accounts of ancient Babylon in the Old Testament was Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Jerusalem, which took place in first... first he first invaded Jerusalem in 605 B.C. That's when Daniel was taken captive, but he didn't capture Jerusalem.

He tried again in 597 B.C. He approached back Jerusalem, but didn't... wasn't able to take it. Then finally, his third invasion of Nebuchadnezzar on Jerusalem in 586 B.C., he was able to actually capture the city, destroy much of it, and destroy the temple. And he conquered in 586 B.C.

But it's interesting to realize, and this is something that's interesting, the final captive of Jerusalem and Judea in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar becomes a focal point at the very beginning of the New Testament. It becomes a focal point in the genealogy of Matthew. And you say, why? Why is the destruction of Babylon and the captivity of Judah a focal point in Matthew's genealogy? Let's turn to Matthew. Matthew 1. Matthew 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob got Judah and his brothers. Then he goes on from there. Let's drop him down to verse 11. Josiah begot Jekoniah and his brothers. When? About the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after that, they were brought to Babylon. Excuse me. After they were brought to Babylon, Jekoniah begot Shethiel and Shethiel begot Zerubbabel and so on. Dropping down to verse 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations.

And from David until the captivity in Babylon are 14 generations. And from the captivity in Babylon until Christ are 14 generations. That causes a question to come into my mind. So Babylon and Judah's captivity in Babylon are a focal point and a dividing point in Matthew's genealogy. And so I ask, well, why is that? Why is that a focal point, a dividing point?

Well, you think about it. Today, the two people of God are of the spiritual genealogy. Now, he's talking about a genealogy, but we are all the people of God calls the day we're the spiritual genealogy of Christ, aren't we? Regardless of who we are or where we are, regardless of our ethnicity or race. So I have to ask this, is it still possible for the people of God to be taken captive by Babylon today? Is it still, if Babylon exists today, they could take God's people captive.

After all, Babylon fell back in 539 BC, 2500 or so years ago, but is it going to fall again before Christ returns? Because if it's going to fall again before Christ returns, then it must first rise again and become great again before Christ returns. Which raises this question. Today, the agency of Babylon is nothing but ruins, and Isaiah prophesied that after that, it will never be inhabited and it will be settled again from generation to generation. So how then could it become great again prior to Christ's return?

What's the final book of the Bible? Book of Revelation. What's Revelation about? Well, it's a collection of prophecies concerning events leading up to the return of Christ, isn't it?

But it's interesting to look it up. How many times is Babylon mentioned in the Book of Revelation about the time leading up to Christ? It's mentioned six times. Six times Babylon is mentioned in the Book of Revelation. But the ancient city of Babylon had fallen, never to rise again. Why then does the name of the city of Babylon appear six times in the Book of Revelation? Where does it first appear in Revelation? What does it say? It first appears in Revelation 14. Let's go to Revelation 14.

Revelation 14 verse 1. Then I looked and behold a lamb standing among Zion, and with him 144,000, having his father's name written on their foreheads. Verse 3. They sang that were a new psalm before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn that psalm without the 144,000 who were deemed from the earth. No one had gone through what they'd gone through and had the experiences they had to share. In verse 4. These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins, meaning they are spiritual virgins, who refuse to follow anything but the truth, who refuse to follow anything but the teachings of Jesus Christ. Verse 4. These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins, are spiritual virgins, only follow God and only follow the truth.

These are the ones who follow the Lamb, they follow Jesus Christ wherever he goes. They only follow the two teachings of Jesus Christ, and they only follow his example. These were redeemed from our men, being first-roots to God and to the Lamb. All of us were called today to be first-roots to God and to the Lamb.

And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are, because of having been on the blood of Christ, they are without fault before the throne of God. And then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give him glory, give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth the sea and the pings of water. Remember, I'm going here, I'm trying to say where, what is the word? Babylon first appeared in the book of Revelation, of the six times it appears. It comes down to verse 8. And another angel follows, saying, Babylon is fallen.

Yeah, it fell in 586 B.C., didn't it? Babylon is fallen, is fallen twice.

That great city, because she has made all... Now, this is time leading up to Christ. She has made all the nations drink of the wine and the wrath of her fornication.

But the great city of Babylon has already fallen, hasn't it? So how could it then fall again a second time? His fallen is fallen.

And if it is fallen, how could it influence all nations? It's saying, hey, it's going to influence all nations. Wait a minute, how can it do that? That's nothing but ruins today.

Well, see, there's only one answer. How it could influence all nations. It would first have to become great again, wouldn't it?

It's not going to become a great city again. It had to become great in another form.

It would have to become a great system that could influence all nations to go contrary to the way of God. It would have to become a great political religious system, as indicated in Revelation 17. Revelation 17 begins in verse 1. Then when the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, Come, and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away, and the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names, of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of the abomination and of the filthiness of her fornication. But she had a name. Name's given here. What was her name? An under-40 name was written, Mystery Babylon, the Great. Babylon.

The mother of Harlinson of abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman 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. This is not speaking of Babylon, the great city. It's already been destroyed and still in ruins today. This is speaking of Babylon, a great system. It's going to rise up at the end time.

Babylon is a great political religious system which must then fall again. Revelation 1. Excuse me, Revelation 18, verse 1. After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority. And the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice saying, Babylon, the great, is fallen, is fallen, it's going to fall twice. And has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine or the wrath of her fornication. And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. And the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. What warning does God then give to his people who happen to be living at this time when all this is occurring? Verse 4. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people. God's people, feel them in this time. Don't become part of that system. Come out of that system. Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, unless you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Well, God's judgment against this great Babylonian system, he swept. Well, God's judgment happened quickly. Revelation 18, verse 9. The kings of the earth, who committed for an occasion and lived luxuriously with her, will weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning. Standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour your judgment has come. It will come quickly. It calls it here, as we have read previously, a great city. It says, that great city Babylon. Now Babylon was first conquered by Cyrus as the king of the Persian Empire.

The Persian Empire was then conquered by Alexander the Great and by the Greco-Macedonian Empire, which in turn was conquered by Rome and by the Roman Empire, the final resurrection of which is about to come upon us in the formerly great system, as symbolized by that great city Babylon. Will this system be thrown down or overthrown to where it shall not be found any more? Revelation 18 verse 21. 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 of Babylon shall be thrown down, shall not be found any more. So like Babylon the great city, Babylon the great system is also going to not be found any more. It's going to be destroyed with Christ's return. One final question real quickly. Revelation 18.4 John heard a voice saying, Come out of her, my people. So just with the scriptures we've read here, how do we come out of her? We'll go a whole sermon on that, but I just wanted to mention three things that are mentioned right here that we read. Number one, let no deceit be found in our mouth or in our words. Revelation 14.5. In other words, we must know the truth, we must speak the truth, and we must live the truth. Number two, be without fault before the throne of God. Also Revelation 14 verse 5. How could we do that? How could we be without fault before the throne of God? We'll always have a humble and a counter-eyed heart, always try to have a repentant attitude, and as we mentioned in the sermon, always strive to live by faith.

Always trust and believe in God, and always trust and believe in God's promises. And three, as we read in Revelation 14.4, follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Follow the teachings and the example of Jesus Christ. In conclusion, then, to part one, I would like to quote from page 25 of a book called Agents of Babylon. I didn't get my sermon from that book. It goes into other things. The Agents of Babylon actually goes through all the prophecies of Daniel. They have to do with Babylon. It's an interesting book going through Daniel's prophecy, most of which we would agree with. Some we would not, but it's a very interesting book. Agents of Babylon has been by Dr. David Jeremiah. That was one interesting quote here from page 25 of that book. Daniel lived to see Cyrus, the Persian leader, conquer Babylon in October of 539 BC, some 66 years after Daniel had been taken captive. By this point, Daniel was probably over 80 years old and had lived a godly life in the public eye for almost 70 of those years. He'd outlasted some of the most powerful kings in the world he'd ever seen. As usual, it's interesting. This applies to all of us. For all the miracles, for all the miraculous works, God performed through and for Daniel, as we recorded in the book of Daniel. It's important to note that he never delivered Daniel from Babylon. Daniel lived nearly his entire life as an exile in a foreign land, as a hostage in a culture that was hostile to his faith. Are we not now living in a culture that is becoming more and more hostile to our faith, and even to the faith of all Christians? The message of Daniel then is not that God will remove all forms of oppression in our lives. We'd like to do that, but that's not the message. Instead, this account serves as a promise from God that his people can find success and can remain faithful to him, even in the most trying of circumstances. Which is what we all have to do, isn't it? You may give it to God even in the very trying circumstances, and the culture is going more and more contrary to what we believe, and making it more and more difficult. So that then concludes part one of A Tale of Two Cities. Next time in part two, we will give the history of the city, which, as Dickens put it, has endured both the best of times and the worst of times, and whose best of times is just over the horizon. Of course, as you probably all realize by now, that city is Jerusalem.