September 19, 2013

Isaiah 13:19, 20 KJV — And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

As I wrote yesterday, I am in Mainz in Germany this week. It’s a very old city with a checkered history. It was founded by the Roman General Drusus, more than 2000 years ago when he took over an existing Celtic settlement. At one time it’s rulers were influential in the Holy Roman Empire. Mainz was occupied many times by the Swedes and the French and finally was almost bombed to destruction in the Second World War — 80% of the building were destroyed.
Go to Mainz today, though, and you might be surprised. You don’t see many modern looking buildings! Although there has been massive reconstruction, it has been in such a way as to sustain the cities dual images of an ancient center — and the “coziest” of all the German state capitals.
In reflecting on the resilience of cities like Mainz, Dresden, and Liverpool and Coventry in England, I was reminded of Babylon.
Babylon the Great is fallen. It’s not clear that the utter destruction predicted by Isaiah has yet occurred — Although the Medes under Cyrus occupied the city in 539 BC and it fell into a long decline and has never been rebuilt it has not been totally destroyed. The site has often been occupied and in 1800 there was a village called Hillah with as many as 10,000 inhabitants!
So what’s up with that? Has the prophecy failed? Not at all! We just have to put it into it’s proper context. To do that we have to go back a little further in our chapter. Isaiah 13:9 says “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.” The prophecy is for “the day of The Lord”. When is that day?
I have to admit the phrase takes a lot of study! It basically means a time when God gets directly involved in history to execute judgment. It is sometimes used to refer to a past judgment, but more often to describe a judgment close at hand. At it’s root though the phrase speaks to the last judgment of the world. Though Isaiah’s prophecy talks of the occupation of Babylon by Cyrus, Jesus also used it as part of describing His second coming in Mark 13.
God is not finished with Babylon! The verdict is final. When God destroys Babylon, he will destroy all the evil in the world.
As for Babylon, of course, so for all the world. There is a judgment for all of us. When that judgment comes, there will be no appeal. The Judge’s decision is final!