WHERE IS IT? OR, WHAT IS IT?
THE attentive reader of the Revelation (14.-19.) must be led to inquire the meaning of a term such as "Babylon," used without any interpretation annexed, and yet so connected with the sense that, unless it be ascertained, there can be no understanding of the subject matter. To the Christian student, there is one simple rule in such inquiries, that the Scriptures can alone explain the difficulties of the Scriptures. This necessarily must be so, for by them a man can be “thoroughly furnished unto all good works," and consequently anything from without is superfluous. Moreover, the attempt disparages the sufficiency of Scripture, and exposes the mind, guilty of such contempt, to be carried away by false unscriptural glosses of ancient or modern tradition.
To arrive, then, correctly at the ideas the word “Babylon " embodies, and to convey which it is used by the Holy Ghost, it will be necessary to gather from Scripture its characteristics, and how it first came to be the center or symbol of principles which were to be so largely dominant. Constantly, in Scripture we find that either a person or place, which is about to occupy a prominent position in the development of God's purposes, is distinguished at its first notice with the traits and lines of the unmistakable qualities which maturity will disclose, be they for good or evil; so that old age is only a return in a matured and concentrated form to the first and simplest efforts of childhood. Thus, in the first notice we have of David, we find the elements of the shepherd, who would "feed Jacob His people and Israel His inheritance." We see the same as to evil in Amalek. With the self-same spirit of envious opposition with which he encountered Israel in the arid plains of Rephidim, but only with increased bitterness and vindictiveness, did he in the person of Haman the Agagite, assail the remnant of the Jews in the palace of a king.
Accordingly, I think we are justified in looking for the embryo characteristics which Babylon embodies at its first introduction thus, or, as we might say, at its birth. In Gen. 10:1010And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. (Genesis 10:10), we are told that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babylon, (see margin, &c.) and surely his cities were designed in the same spirit which actuated himself. He was "a mighty one in the earth," a man confident in his own resources, and daring in the presence of the Lord to pursue, in the proud eagerness of his own strength, wherever his pleasure or profit, as in the chase, might lead him.
The irresistible excitement which bears the huntsman along in his course aptly depicts the spirit in which the world seeks the attainment of its desires. Both are intoxicated with their purpose, and doubtless a city with such a founder must only have been a wider sphere and fuller display of his principles and tastes, even as much as the materials for it were increased; and all still "before the Lord." This shows that there was religiousness assumed, together with the most open avowal of human selfishness and lust.
Still further are we instructed in the spirit and constitution of this city in chap. 11, where the name Babel, or Babylon, is given it in consequence of a full-blown manifestation of its founder's principles. Here we learn that man's confidence in himself had reached such a height, that they forgot even the expression of acknowledgment of God, and endeavor to establish themselves independently of Him. God then confounded their attempt, and hence arose the name Babel, (confusion,) which men have retained without remembering its etymology. The building is discontinued, not thrown down—the builders scattered, not destroyed; hence the seeds of its origin were disseminated in the dispersion, and consequently we should be prepared to find the fruit of them in every man in every nation. In a worth, whenever a man seeks his own gratification, even though he combines with it an acknowledgment, a religious acknowledgment of God, there is the germ from which Babylon sprung, and from which will grow with proper culture the spirit which designed and built the tower. But let us trace through Scripture the varied features which the mention of this word, used ever so abruptly, conjures up before us, for unquestionably it is used in the Revelation as a word we should be familiar with, and consequently not needing an explanation there; so that he who needs one is ignorant of Scripture, and to it alone must apply for instruction.
From the first notice of Babylon in Gen. 10,11., we have no allusion to it, till Israel's apostasy and failure as God's witness on the earth. Consequent on the confounding at Babel was the call and election of Abram to be as God's witness, seeking " the city of God," in contra-distinction to the ripened purpose of the human heart, and accordingly we have no intimation of the revival of Babylon till the failure of the people, (the children of Abram,) who should have borne a testimony for God against its principles.
Until 2 Kings 17., there is no direct record in Scripture of such a place, for the word translated " Babylonian," as designating the garment abstracted by Achan from the spoils of Jericho, is Shinar, not properly Babylon, though of the country in which the city stood; and even this is far from militating against what I have asserted, viz. that Babylon only appears as the apostasy of Israel appears. Therefore, as the leaven of it was working in Achan, it is not wonderful to find there the shade of the forthcoming evil. But, in 2 Kings 17:24-3024And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. 25And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them. 26Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land. 27Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. 28Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Beth-el, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. 29Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. 30And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, (2 Kings 17:24‑30), after a long interval and in connection with the captivity of the ten tribes, we hear of Babylon again, and as a place from whence colonists were supplied to replace the expatriated Israelites. From it sprung, at least in part, the progenitors of the Samaritans. Israel's supplanters in Samaria were Babylonian.
Let the star of Israel, let its testimony set, and that of Babylon will be in the ascendant, and Babylon is not without its religion. (Verse 30.) It has its god, Succothbenoth, though we do well to note the motives which influenced them to adopt and profess the worship of God. "The Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them." In superstitious awe they seek acquaintance with what we may call, for uniformity, true religion, not from a sincere interest in the will of God, but simply to propitiate Him, and thus uninterruptedly enjoy their own objects; and therefore we see, as is ever the case when God is only sought from fear and superstition, that though they are taught by priests "how they should fear the Loan," yet "every nation (and Babylon the leader) made gods of their own." Now, this is all instructive, as letting us into the very mind of Babylon, and in such plain characters, that if we read it here we cannot fail to trace its likeness wherever it is presented to us. Religion—yes, true religion—is adopted to subserve its interests; yet, it has gods of its own, professedly of God, positively idolatrous: Succothbenoth (or tents of daughters) is the real object of worship.
In Isaiah 13 and 14., we have a prophetic announcement of both the rise and fall of Babylon, and it precedes by a few years the occurrences I have alluded to in 2 Kings. We read, chap. 19:20: “In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden," that is, the burden of Babylon. Ahaz died in the third year of Hoshea, and the captivity of the ten tribes occurred in the ninth year of Hoshea's reign, and in the sixth of Hezekiah. Consequently, this precedes by six years the captivity of the ten tribes; but, even so, it is not a whit less interesting to us. We have, in 2 Kings, the initiative of Babylon on the apostasy of Israel, and here we have the prophetic utterance of Babylon's greatness and doom. The Lord is warning His people not to confide in, or fear the nations around them. That judgment on themselves is not a singular thing, but a much greater and an irretrievable one awaits the nations, however exalted and established they may appear. God alone can be trusted. Egypt is but a reed. “Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldee excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah." It is not for us to enquire whether Babylon had attained this eminence among nations at the time Isaiah prophesied thus. God sees not as man sees; and the un-matured Babylon presented to the Spirit of God the manhood of its purposes and desires, and is thus shown to the prophet, and thus appears to every spiritual vision. I become natural when I travel outside the demonstrations of the Spirit, or seek to do so, and must expect to be deceived. My blessing is to stand with the prophet, and see as he saw, and not as I with carnal eyes might see. One is spiritual, and so I can judge all things; the other is natural, and thus I am judging after the outer appearance, which is unrighteous judgment.
These chapters also disclose to us that there shall be a king of that city who shall aspire to be "like the most high "—who shall personify all the ambitious projects manifested at the first Babel; he "will (in his heart) ascend above the heights of the clouds," and yet at Jerusalem, and not Babylon, will he desire to be enthroned " upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north." Now, we read of no king of Babylon who considered the Mount of Olives of such eminent celebrity as to aim to set his throne there. In fact, in general, the kings of Babylon executed their purposes against Jerusalem through their generals. Nebuzaradan seems more the victor of Jerusalem than Nebuchadnezzar. The latter does not seem to deem it as worthy of his royal presence. Yet the prophecy is very plain, and (may we not say?) it, shall be fulfilled: a king of Babylon will purpose, yea aim, to set his throne " on the mount of the congregation," to the king of Jerusalem; this has not come to pass; nor has the destruction here spoken of, to be consummated on the city of this king, been yet accomplished, for from Babylon is not yet "cut off the name and remnant, and son and nephew; " and, surely, the time is not yet when it can be said in truth that " the whole earth is at rest and quiet, they break forth into singing." On the whole, I think the attentive, unprejudiced reader, will rise up from these chapters impressed with awe at the terrific proportions this mystic place and its king will one day assume. None of the world will be exempt from the ordination of its rule, for this king shall "make the world as a wilderness," and all under the semblance of the Most High, as well as aim to set his throne on the Mount of Olives, monopolizing all religion in 'himself, and leading us to the conclusion that this king, this mighty one, is not an ordinary king of Babylon, but the personification of its principles, and, in keeping with this, aiming at the sides of the north, " the city of the great king," for his throne, and not as Nebuchadnezzar, who glorified merely in Babylon itself. If he were a real king of Babylon, then “the sides of the north " would not be such an object of ambition, for, as to external glory, the former surpassed; but, as to divine honor, the latter was alone distinguished.
We next hear of Babylon and its king, not prophetically, but historically, (Isaiah 34:11Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. (Isaiah 34:1),) when messengers are sent by Merodach-baladan, "with letters and a present to Hezekiah," and with delusion so unseen but yet successful and perhaps unintentional, as far as the instruments were concerned, that Hezekiah is "glad." He interprets not their real objects, namely, "to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land," (2 Chron. 32:3131Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart. (2 Chronicles 32:31),) but, self-satisfied, he receives honor from the court of Babylon. Israel is enslaved. "The days will come that all that is in thy house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried unto Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord." (2 Kings 20:1717Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. (2 Kings 20:17).) Great and terrible judgment this for merely, as man would say, accepting graciously the polite attentions of a foreign court! Surely, there was some mystic evil in Babylon; surely, the Spirit of God detected, in the principles of that city, some deep rooted enmity and malice against the counsels of God. He could see the direful effects and mourn over His people, who should suffer from them, as the prophet because of Hazael. He warned and denounced, when Israel's king (and he was a good one) consented to terms—to terms of intimacy with the king of Babylon! Israel forgot its election. The genius of Babylon was again dominant, and Israel is again in the Chaldee country.
Next, the book of Daniel gives us a view of Babylon and its king; the principles which govern it; how it uses them; how the people of God are circumstanced there, and what shall be the end of each. We shall therefore turn to it, and continuo our examination, by noticing its general features.
The second of Daniel furnishes the dream of the great king Nebuchadnezzar, which was gone from him; and it is well for us, for a moment, to consider the position which this king now held in the earth. We know power is of God. We know that Israel had power directly from God. Whether we look at Joshua, or Judges, or the Kings, the drawn sword was with them, and God fought for them. No one could stand before them; but now matters are changed, and the goodliest of them, even their princes, are eunuchs in the court of Babylon, and to its king, Nebuchadnezzar, rule is delegated. “Wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all." Such is the king who is instructed in a dream, but it goes from him; he has no retention of the purposes of God, yet he would know them, and makes many efforts in vain. God alone could reveal. Daniel, even in Babylon, is superior to its allurements; he is "separate" from them, and consequently rises by divine strength above all the power and earthly majesty of Nebuchadnezzar; he rehearses the dream, and interprets it. Now, it does appear to me of all importance to ascertain the full accomplishment of this dream. We know, both from Isaiah and from the Revelation, that Babylon was to be an organized power, irresistible and wide-spreading in its domination; but from what center, and where, and what it is, we should here get an outline to guide us. In the dream, there is but one image. Therefore, mean what it may in parts, it is still but one, and without the parts it would not be one; but then no preceding part can comprise the whole. This image, we know, exhibits the four great monarchies of the whole earth in one panoramic view; and though each successive one is deteriorated in quality, yet it embraces the same, or even more, territory and influence than the preceding one; and though all are here depictured in one image to the head of Gentile power, yet one alone, and that successively, occupies the place of rule, and the last is only removed by the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, and thus effectually and entirely. Though only one part of the image has a prominent and visible action at any given time, yet, the spirit of each preceding part is not lost to the succeeding. The principles and motives which were fostered in the head of gold are still alive in the feet of iron; so that while the expression is a deteriorated one, as iron is of gold, yet the image is one; the identity as to mind and purpose is the same; there is no return to a better expression which has yielded to an inferior one; the head of gold never again appears characterizing the power in the world. When any one fails, it is not again restored. The Persian never was reformed again into the Babylonian, but again each continued till it was supplanted by another; so that if the successor is not manifested, then the predecessor still exists. We may, therefore, sum up that the fourth and last form of power, even the Roman, is still in exercise; that it is part of the image; that it is identical with it; that it has succeeded the other three forms of power, but still embraces all the principles and motives which were active in its predecessors; that it will continue till " a stone is cut out of the mountain without hands, and breaks in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold." This stone will become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth. Surely, this stone has not as yet smote the image, for as yet there is Gentile power, and while there is, there must still exist some of this image; and if the image exist in any part, it is evident that its successor, viz. "the stone," has not performed its great work in supplanting it. Nor need we have a resuscitation of the king of Babylon to insure the development of its principles; for the image is but one, though it is variously expressed at different times, and consequently we cannot have a return to actual Babylon, though we have in Rome (as the feet have the life and action of the head) all the mind and spirit of Babylon. If the imago was to be again in full exhibited, then it is evident that during the Babylonian kingdom there would be no Roman; nor actual Babylon, which some are so earnest in pressing, when we have the rest of the image; whereas, in the Roman, which now exists, and which appears to me very simple, we have all the principles and identity of the image, though in an inferior form. Scripture gives us no ground for supposing that Babylon will be revived as the head of gold. It tells us that Babylon is the head of the image, that all of the image will be destroyed together, but that consecutively the parts of the image were manifested, and that the fourth is the concentration of the preceding ones. All are represented in it, all are embraced in this the last; when it is destroyed, all are destroyed; but there is no return to a dynasty already expired, and, therefore, we may conclude that Babylon must emanate morally from the fourth kingdom. We shall more closely examine this point by turning to Daniel's vision of the same subject, though differently represented.
Daniel is shown what carnal power is according to God's estimate. Four savage beasts represent to God's servant the four forms of power which were to arise upon the earth; and we must remember that this was to a Jew, who knew that power had departed from his nation, and he is now, in God's mercy, shown the course it would take ere it would return into the channel of his nation again. Hence his great interest in it. Hence our interest in it, because Christ is the promised seed, the Bridegroom of our souls, a Prince and a Savior of Israel His people. Now, we can gather from no allusion here the idea that the fourth beast was to assume the appearance of the first, even Babylon. We cannot doubt but that the fourth had all the ferocity and evil purpose of the first, but it is not said to bear any resemblance to any natural animal: it is diverse from all the rest, and is a strange heterogeneous animal. It combines the spirit of the lion, but is something more than the lion; and this leads me again to conclude that we must look for the development of Babylon outside of the precincts of the first Babylon, though in principle it will be found to exist very distinctly somewhere.
I now turn to Jer. 50:51. Jeremiah remained with the remnant in Jerusalem, but sent with Isaiah the prophecy respecting Babylon to Babylon. I do not think we can glean much from this as to the locality and nature of the future Babylon. It cannot be questioned that this prophecy had a prior fulfillment at the taking of that city by Cyrus, but yet it is evident that it takes a wider range than this, and instructs us as to that happy condition of Israel consequent on the downfall of Babylon, which has not as yet been accomplished. Surely, they have not made “a perpetual covenant with the Lord which shall not be forgotten." Nor again (verse 45) could the prophet advise them, save in prophetic language, to go out of the midst of her, when in chapter 29. he had directed them to seek the peace of it, and in its peace they should have peace. So that I conclude from these chapters that another Babylon was in the eye of the prophet; and if it was not in the first form of power, it could not mean the material Babylon of the Chaldees, but its principles developed in another. As one of the remnant, he expresses in prophetic language their hopes.
In Ezekiel, we have no distinct prophecy with reference to Babylon; nor am I sufficiently instructed to say the reason of it. I merely mention the fact, as it may suggest inquiry. The prophet's eye is Godward. I pass on now to Haggai and Zechariah, in connection with Ezra and Nehemiah. In these books, we have Judah after the captivity returned from Babylon; their leader bearing the name Zerubbabel, (i.e. deliverer from Babylon,) but yet not with the power or in the high position which they owned prior to the captivity. Power still remained in the hands of the Gentiles. An intelligent Israelite could not have been insensible to their lost glory. A Gentile wielded the sword of power once committed by God to Israel. They reoccupy Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, thus shorn of a once unrivalled greatness. Though they might not there actually feel the oppressing arm of the Gentile, yet humiliation brooded over their souls. Another had wrested and retained the headship which once belonged to them. Consequently, we find in Zechariah (whose prophecy embraces more the internal, as Haggai does the external) a distinct allusion to the destination of lawlessness or wickedness. (Chap. 5) Israel's power ceased when it became lawlessness. The Gentiles then became the fit instruments for exercising it, but, as we perceive, its limit is announced in the chapter referred to. There wickedness is seen, in a concentrated form, borne along till it takes a final stand and establishment in the land of Shinar, a re-embodiment of the principles which were first developed there, and which Gentile power will embrace ere it arrives at its full maturity. The reference to the land of Shinar seems to be figurative, as all the other features in the vision unquestionably are.
Now, bearing in mind this hasty glance at the ideas which the word Babylon in Scripture evokes, let us turn to the Revelation, and see whether it corroborates what has been seen. In Rev. 14 we are told that "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," as if the fate of it was pregnant with great and untold advantages to a harassed and suffering people; the Jewish remnant, doubtless, because we must ever keep Israel and Babylon in antagonistic position, the glory of one depending on the downfall of the other. And in this chapter we have the hundred and forty-four thousand catching up the heavenly anthem, and consequently the doom of the earthly usurper is announced contemporaneously; for when the earthly family are in unison with the heavenly, then the hostile power must be judged and condemned. In chapters 17 and 18, we are still further instructed as to the course of evil which will eventuate in the direful form which Babylon represents. The relations of the ecclesiastical and civil forms of power are described in these chapters,-Christendom's declension, to its ultimate immersion in the principles of Babylon. And what is Babylon here? She is arrayed in purple and scarlet, she is bedizened with gold and precious stones, far, far different from the modest apparel which becomes the bride of Christ in this world. But what is all this to her abominations and the filthiness of her fornication? Her judgment is that of the great whore, "with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." She was the mother of the harlots and abominations (or idols) of the earth, drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. This is God's characteristic of Babylon, written on her forehead. All else is subsidiary. Idolatry is the grand evil: not merely ecclesiastical corruption, but an idolatrous virus. Long had she ridden the beast, but at length it and the ten horns desolate and devour her with implacable hatred. Babylon shall be burnt with fire. The beast may thereby aggrandize his power. But true and righteous are God's judgments, for He will judge the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and will avenge the blood of his servants at her hand.
Of this let Christians, let men, rest assured, that the judgment of great Babylon has not yet taken effect. Checks have been given to Rome, the center and advocate of this evil harlotry. But be sure that until Babylon the great is fallen, that symbol of corruption will neither be reformed in its character, nor be lessened in its malignant influence. The great moral Babel in gigantic proportions, as having rejected every light of God in Israel and the Church as well as the latter day testimony, and following out the principles of its birth and growth, viz., pride and idolatry, will thus bestride the world for a season. Alas! it is to this all merely human efforts at amelioration—" Peace" and " Temperance Societies," "world-wide trade and commerce," " education movements," "progressive improvements," are now tributary. And what shall be said of the attempt to enlist all nations in a joint effort which tends directly to the glory of man? May the saints be saved from the delusions which are abroad! No one will be carried down the stream which will yet swell into a mighty flood, and subvert all acknowledgment of God, but in part as he is carried must imbibe indifference to the ways and thoughts of God now. The evil is working; "the mystery of iniquity" or lawlessness doth already work. If Satan aids the ecclesiastical systems, (even though men say we care not from whence the aid comes, and we can use it beneficially,) it must be borne in mind that Satan has an ulterior object, even the subversion of all Christianity, and the establishment of lawlessness on its own base. Let us be warned, and walk separate from the evil principles which are everywhere afloat!
J. B. S.