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Babylon's delusion

Revelation 16 gives us a sequential list of angelic decrees leading to the fall of Babylon. As I have shown in recent articles, drying up the river Euphrates was the sixth and final sign leading to Babylon’s destruction (the seventh). We have seen how this took place in history when the Medes and Persians dried up the Euphrates, allowing the troops to walk into the city on dry (or muddy) ground.

The Hidden Prophetic Word

Some seventy years earlier, while Babylon was near the height of its power, even before Jerusalem was destroyed, the prophet Jeremiah had written a prophetic message about the fall of Babylon. This prophecy is recorded in Jeremiah 50 to 51:58. We then read how the prophet told Seraiah, (King Zedekiah’s quartermaster) to take it to Babylon and read it aloud. Jeremiah 51:63, 64 then gives Seraiah further instructions, saying,

⁶³ “And as soon as you finish reading this scroll, you will tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates, ⁶⁴ and say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her’…”

The scroll, no doubt, remained hidden in the river for decades, until the Persians dried up the river. It came to light only when the moment had arrived for its fulfillment. In my opinion, one of the soldiers walking on the dry riverbed stumbled over the jar and thought perhaps he had run across some lost treasure. When he opened up the jar, he read the prophecy about the fall of Babylon and realized that he was helping to fulfill an ancient prophecy about Babylon’s fall.

Did he believe the word of the Lord? Of course. Not even a pagan could deny it.

The Lament for Babylon

Isaiah 47 was written more than two centuries before the fall of Babylon. In fact, the prophet lived and wrote his prophecies during the 8^th century B.C., when Babylon was a mere province of the Assyrian empire. Yet Isaiah knew that Babylon would later conquer Assyria (612 B.C.). Isaiah lived to see Assyria conquer and deport the House of Israel (745-721 B.C.), but he also was farsighted enough to see the end of the Assyrian empire. Not only did he foresee the rise of Babylon but also its ultimate fall.

Isaiah 47:1 begins,

¹ Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans!

Isaiah 47:5-7 continues,

⁵ Sit silently, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for you will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms. ⁶ I was angry with My people, I profaned My heritage and gave them into your hand. You did not show mercy to them, on the aged you made your yoke very heavy. ⁷ Yet you said, “I will be a queen forever.” These things you did not consider nor remember the outcome of them.

Just because God subjected His people to the Babylonians, it did not mean that Babylon could treat them unjustly and without mercy. Just because the Babylonians were unfamiliar with God’s law did not mean that they were excused from treating their slaves according to God’s mind and nature. There are some who believe that the law was given only to Israel and that this means other nations are not accountable to the divine law. That is absolutely untrue. Their ignorance might reduce their liability, but it does not eliminate it.

The measure of authority is also the measure of responsibility. These go in equal measures, as far as God is concerned. Hence, when God gave Judah to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (Jeremiah 27:5), He also made Babylon responsible to follow God’s laws and to treat their slaves with justice and mercy.

The Delusion of Invisibility

Today’s Babylonian rulers are like ostriches, who think that if they bury their heads in the sand that no one can see them. All they do is blind themselves and then think that God cannot see them. How stupid is this? Repentance is the only path that makes any sense.

Isaiah 47:10 continues,

¹⁰ You felt secure in your wickedness and said, “No one sees me;” your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you; for you have said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.”

If the Babylonians had studied the law of God, they might have understood the ways of God. They would have known that biblical slavery does not give anyone the right to abuse slaves—not even court-appointed slaves (as in Exodus 22:3). If a sinner was unable to pay restitution to his victim, he was to be sold into slavery to work off his debt, but the slave master was responsible to teach him (by example) the righteous ways of God, so that he could be rehabilitated through labor. He would then learn to work rather than to steal from others.

Babylon as a nation did not follow God’s laws of slavery, preferring to practice unrighteous slavery as a matter of self-interest. For this reason, when the court-appointed time of slavery ends, God then sets up an inquiry into the manner in which the slave owner treated his slave. If the slave owner mistreated his slave, God then holds him accountable.

This is why Egypt was destroyed in the days of Moses. This is why Babylon fell in the days of Daniel. This is why Mystery Babylon will be judged in our own time, as we near the end of our long time of tribulation (slavery to the beast empires).

Ungodly nations always think that their power will never end. Babylon thought it would be an eternal city, a “queen” forever. Mystery Babylon today is no different. Their great delusion is that they can maintain power forever on account of their great wisdom and knowledge. Today they think that technology, their large military force, and their secret government (“No one sees me”) can save them from God’s judgment.

They always underestimate the sovereignty of God.

Unavoidable Judgment

Isaiah 47:11 concludes,

¹¹ But evil will come upon you which you will not know how to charm away; and disaster will fall on you for which you cannot atone; and destruction about which you do not know will come on you suddenly.

Paul picks up on this in 1 Thessalonians 5:3,

³ While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly…

The collapse of Mystery Babylon will be unexpected to those who are unfamiliar with the prophecies of Scripture—or to those who mistakenly think that God is on their side. Isaiah 47:14 says,

¹⁴ Behold, they have become stubble, fire burns them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame…

Twenty years ago, I was given a word (through a friend) that one of my angels was named, “the Power of the Flame.” I took this to indicate that part of my calling was to promote that flame by proclaiming the fall of Babylon and to teach from Isaiah 47. While this angel is not my primary angel, nor is this my primary message, it is, nonetheless, an important aspect of my calling.

Angels, when assigned to us, determine our callings. Angels are each empowered by a specific word. In fact, the name of the angel defines his calling, and his job is to imprint this word in our nature so that we can become the living word, bringing a portion of heaven to earth. Jesus Christ is the great Logos, “the Word” (John 1:1), but each member of His body is called to manifest a specific portion of the total Word.

May we all fulfill our calling.