Chapter 12 – The Not so Great, Not so much a Mystery, Babylon
Many of you have heard about the tower of Babel (which literally means confusion). Mankind built a tower to try and be able to get to heaven. Of course, without God. Before that, the whole earth spoke one language which made things very easy. God had told them to go forth throughout the earth to multiply and populate it.
So, instead of obeying God, they came to Shinar (which is modern day Iraq) and decided to stop there and build a city and the tower to heaven. Their pride in thinking they knew better than God was their downfall. Sound familiar? Could this even have been the first asherah pole?
God saw what they were doing and confounded their language and scattered them. (Thanks a lot guys!)
Fast forward to Saul, who was our first man king. God had wanted not only to be our God but our King. Did we accept that? No, of course not!
1 Samuel 8:7 And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
And then God said fine, I won’t be your king as you ask, but this is what you’re going to get:
1 Samuel 8:11-19 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;
After all of that, they still said Nah, we will take our chances. We are still suffering under everything that God described way back then today. Nothing new under the sun.
King Nebuchadnezzar, who was the king of Babylon, had a dream about what was to come of the kingdoms of the earth and the man kings that we asked God for…
Daniel 2:32-35 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Daniel interpreted that dream for him by asking God what it meant, which is always a good practice. He told him that Nebuchadnezzar was the golden head and basically the rest were other kingdoms to come. I’m not going to go into who those are but that is an interesting study. Although, no one really knows for sure. Long story short, Christ our cornerstone is going to come back and smote them and setup His Kingdom and fill the whole earth with His Dominion.
Nebuchadnezzar also erected a man of gold that he demanded everyone to worship. Turns out that may be the same place of the tower of Babel at Shinar…
Daniel 3:1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
Three score and six is 60 times 6. It is interesting that the numbers are around 6 don’t you think? Even more interesting, I just googled this story and many of the translations have changed it to 90 times 9. The deception is growing worse by the day. And now, with artificial intelligence, they are literally re-writing everything. Keep your books and bibles folks to teach your children.
Anyway, Nebuchadnezzar had made a decree that everyone would worship this image including the Hebrew children that they had taken from Jerusalem. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They were devout Jews and faithful to God so they refused and were tossed in the fiery furnace for it. When they looked in the furnace there were actually four figures in there and scripture says one looked to be the Son of God.
Not one hair was singed on those children, and I think this is a beautiful story to remember as we go into some very hard times. God’s wings can protect His children from anything. He will walk through the fire with us.
Nebuchadnezzar had yet another dream, about a huge tree that the height thereof reached into heaven and in that tree, there was fruit and meat for all flesh.
Daniel 4:23 And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him;
You should already know who that tree is that gets cut down. The stump and the roots thereof are the fallen angels reserved in chains.
Daniel interpreted all of this about Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom back then which came true. He roamed around outside for seven years after this dream without his kingdom. But as I keep repeating, everything usually has more than one meaning.
That dream was also for the end of Babylon in this world (Confusion and Un-Godliness) and all human kingdoms along with the prince of this world and the angels that have been chained up this whole time. That whole upside-down world they created will be cut down and finally pulled out by the roots and thrown into the fire.
Revelation talks about mystery Babylon herself riding on the beast. When is that happening? Before Jesus gets here, I can tell you that!
Revelation 17:3-5 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.
This “beast” is the upside-down of this world. This is the spirit of the devil and his angels that causes confusion. He makes us think that what is wrong is right. What is easy is hard. What is abominable is love. What is precious is fantasy. He is the author of confusion. He is the father of lies.
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
This confusion and deception is in every part of our world. Government, Financial, Church, Education, everywhere. Should that upset us and worry us? NO! It was written and has to come to pass. We are living in Babylon, the upside-down, the state of ultimate confusion.
As for the interpretation of the beast, Revelation declares that too. People act like it is too hard to understand, but I think that is just another lie of the enemy. Why would he want us to know that he has no chance. He wants us to be afraid of him and doubt our King.
Revelation 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
There are seven continents in this world: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia (listed from largest to smallest in size) That great whore is all who are deceived in this world and follow after satan. They are whores because they forgot their first love (Jesus) and followed after him.
Revelation 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
This goes with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the man made of different metals all representing different kingdoms. Five have fallen and one is under the golden head of “Babylon”.
The other who has not yet come and has a short space. Guess who that is? Satan at the 6th trump, the 6th vial and the 6th seal. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. But fear is dispelled with knowledge. As long as you know what’s coming, it’s not scary. You know how the book ends! It’s scary to choose to stay in darkness and ignorance because that is where you can lose your soul.
Revelation 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
This is also Satan… It is stated that he is released after Jesus comes with his saints to teach for a thousand years. This is the millennium. Anyone that doesn’t get it after being with Christ for a thousand years probably deserves to go into perdition with the devil. We don’t want them with us.
Revelation 20:2-3 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Revelation 17:12-13 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
These are ten kings that satan will put in power with him. We haven’t seen this yet and you will know and recognize them because you will be praying for discernment, and the Holy Spirit will not let you be deceived if you ask him to show you and teach you.
Revelation 17:14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
Told you… you just gotta read the back of the book!
Revelation 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
They deceive the whole world with their upside-down government, financial schemes, education and religions.
Revelation 17:16-18 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Again, those ten horns are ten kings and their government that satan brings in with him. The ultimate of deception. But notice, it says God has put in their hearts to fulfill His will. He is always in control. Is it His will that all of this destruction happen? No, but I think it has to happen to fulfill the Word of God. It has to happen to destroy satan’s children and the fallen angels. And, ultimately, it has to happen to save all of God’s children. Otherwise, we have no hope.
Old mystery Babylon herself… The confusion that we chose from the beginning in the Garden to the end. And all those flesh kings we asked for in between. We chose it. If we had just trusted the One who created and love us.