Babylon

Every time we read about Babylon in the Bible, it wasn't good:

1. The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) was the initial Babylon

2. After the exile of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) in 722 BC, the Assyrian king Sargon resettled it from various parts of his kingdom, including Babylon (see 2 Kings 17:7-41)

3. Isaiah prophesied the exile of Judah to Babylon over 100 years in advance in 2 Kings 20

4. 2 Kings 25 describes the defeat of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar

So, any mention of Babylon would be pretty obvious in its reference--military power, vanity, lawlessness, sin and every other bad thing rolled into one. Which makes the proclamation of the angel in Revelation 18:2 even more important:

“Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!  She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird."

Indeed, all of Revelation 18 is a recitation of the heights from which Babylon will fall, from the highest of the high, the mightiest of the mighty, the greatest of the great, to total desolation--and there will be ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that its inhabitants can do about it. We know that their fate has been sealed since before the beginning of time, but when this point in history comes, it will still come as a complete shock to the proud and mighty. I've commented before on Philippians where it states that every knee will bow and every tongue confess. When this point in history is reached, every knee WILL bow, but the citizens in Babylon won't be kneeling and bowing in awe and wonder, but in total and complete fear and trepidation.

Everything we do as Christians, from making sure that we stay true to the Word, training our children to be good Christians and leading lives that serve as a witness is pointing to this Last Day. David's writing on today was something I was going to cover, but you've heard it enough from me already. Every facet of our lives needs to be focused on being prepared for this day. The fact that we don't know when it will happen won't forestall the fact that it WILL come, and we need to be on the right side.

Scott