From the days of Cain who "went out from the presence of the LORD,... and... builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch," unto this day, men have built cities and adorned them. Cities have furnished the means for men's self-exaltation and pride. There their greatest works and achievements have been and are displayed. Commerce, industry, arts and sciences, wealth, massive structures, great thoroughfares, and bulging populations vie with each other for a place of fame in the cities of men.
Nebuchadnezzar expressed his pride and pleasure in his great city of Babylon when he said, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" And many individuals and "Chambers of Commerce" have felt and expressed similar pride in their own cities since that day.
Beneath all the glory and glitter, however, the world's cities have a seamy side, for therein is to be found filth, corruption, poverty, sorrow, and death; and generally the larger and greater the city, the greater is the wretched contrast. Even the names of the cities often belie the sadness that can be found there. Two examples of this can be seen in the Scriptures-Zarephath and Nain. The name of the former means refinement and expresses what men generally like to think of their cities, but the one little incident recorded in 1 Kings 17 lets us see the other side of life in the city of refinement. At the gate of the city Elijah met a poor widow-one who had known sorrow and bereavement- looking forward to nothing but death by starvation. Where was the refinement of a city that could let such dire poverty pass unaided? The latter city, Nain, gives a stark picture of life in the city called "beautiful" or "pleasing," for the Lord Jesus met at the gate of the city a funeral procession, and again the woman mentioned was a widow. What was all the beauty of the city of Nain to one who had lost her husband through death, and now was about to bury her only son?
Surely the Scriptures and common knowledge of existing conditions remind us of the vain show in the cities of the nations. The dread realities of the slums, the hospitals, the jails, the mental and corrective institutions of all kinds, the lives of sin and debauchery, stand in sharp contrast with gilded exteriors and boastful advertising.
Another strange phenomenon in the conduct of men with regard to cities is that from time immemorial the cities have been the special targets of attack and destruction. Some men build them, and others destroy them. The greater the city the more often it has been destroyed ruthlessly. Very few indeed have been the cities of the old world that have not been destroyed by men. Walls, great and high, were built to protect the cities, but conquerors invented machines of war to batter down the walls, or to catapult destructive missiles over the walls. With the invention of gunpowder, walls lost their effectiveness; and with the modern inventions which can rain down destruction from the skies, no city on earth is safe.
How good it is to note that men of faith rose above the cities of men, and looked forward to that which is more sure and certain. Abraham "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Heb. 11:10. There were some notable cities in his day, but he lived the life of a stranger and a pilgrim, and by faith looked forward to the "city of God." 0 may we who live in the days of great cities and great achievements have a right perspective and look beyond the present evil world.
In a day that is soon coming, cities are going to be destroyed on an unprecedented scale. Nothing the world has ever known, even during the last world war with its blockbuster bombs by thousands upon thousands, will compare with it. In Isaiah 14 we read of a man who is coming who is described as Lucifer, or son of the morning, or morning star, who will destroy cities. This is not Satan, as is often supposed, but is the last head of the Gentile dominion-the beast who will head up the revived Roman Empire. He will be Satan's counterfeit "morning star," who will claim to usher in a new day. The Lord Jesus is the true bright Morning Star, and He will be the great precursor of the day that is coming when He shall have subdued all His enemies, and reign in righteousness. This false "son of the morning" will wreak havoc and destruction instead of bringing in blessing and peace.
There are several bits of evidence in the Scriptures as to who this person is. Isaiah describes him as the "king of Babylon," but that title is expressive of the last holder of Gentile supremacy over the Jews; this began with Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon. The destruction of this Lucifer also precedes the mention of the destruction of the Assyrian power in Palestine (v. 25), which if it referred to the past destruction of these two powers, the order would have had to be reversed, but they are placed according to the events at the end of this age.
In this chapter we find a soliloquy where hell speaks of Lucifer: "Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof?" vv. 15-17. This man who will set himself in opposition to the God of heaven, and receive direct Satanic support, will unleash a torrent of destruction on the cities of men. Perhaps this may be by means of atomic and hydrogen bombs which are being stock-piled or prepared against that day. If so, it will be the grand end result of all man's scientific and industrial progress turned loose to destroy his greatest works. What a climax! What a sad tale of the result of departure from God! Yes, the earth a wilderness, the cities destroyed.
These coming events may take place at the beginning of those seven dreadful years after the Church is taken to glory with Christ, and the beast goes forth conquering all before him; or it may more likely be when his kingdom takes on a Satanic character in the middle of the seven years. At any event, we as Christians need not look for these things, or concern ourselves with them, except to realize that we live at the very end, and so have our loins girded (separated from the principles of the world), and our lights burning (our testimony shining brightly for our rejected Lord) as we wait and watch for Him.
Another portion of Scripture which details destruction of cities is found in Revelation 16; verse 19 says, "And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath." This is a description of the destruction of the cities of the nations, not by the beast, and not by men, but by God Himself. This is at the very end of the tribulation when the Lord is about to assert God's rights to the earth, and at that time God blows on all the works of men -the cities of the nations (that wherein they boasted) fall in the judgment of God. Fellow Christian, do we view with wonder and admiration the vaunted greatness of the cities of the nations, or do we consider them with a measure of sadness when we think of the doom that awaits them?
The "great city" mentioned in verse 19 may refer to Jerusalem, and "great Babylon" is a reference to the city of Rome.
Both cities come prominently before us in the final judgments upon this world-both will receive special dealings of vengeance. It was Jerusalem where our Lord was crucified, and it was under the imperial power of Rome that it took place. The civil power of Rome will come in remembrance before God, for He has not forgotten what it did to His Son, nor what it did to the many thousands of Christians whom it martyred.
"Babylon the Great" of Revelation 17 and 18 is another power based at Rome, and will be the religious and not the secular. Its doom comes earlier, and from the hand of the beast and his confederate kings, while the Roman government will come in for direct visitation from God.
Then after God has blown on the greatest endeavors of men in the destruction of their cities, His beloved Son, His anointed King, shall demonstrate what a city should be. So we read in Psalm 46, where God's presence in Jerusalem is described: "There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved." vv. 4, 5. Jerusalem, the city of peace, shall be His earthly center, and the heavenly Jerusalem above shall be the display of the Church in glory (Rev. 21:9-27). That city will be all perfect within and without, for it will have "the glory of God." It will have "no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Another great contrast with the cities of men is found in the words: "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which a rewritten in the Lamb's book of life."
"Lord, we can see, by faith in Thee,
A prospect bright, unfailing;
Where God shall shine, in light divine,
In glory never fading.
"A home above, of peace and love,
Close to Thy holy Person;
Thy saints shall there see glory fair,
And shine as Thy reflection.
"Lord, haste that day of cloudless ray-
That prospect bright, unfailing;
Where God shall shine in light divine,
In glory never fading."