The Message Which Will Deliver from Babylon
The last call before the final triumph of the gospel is recorded in the eighteenth chapter of the book of Revelation. After the complete fall of Babylon had been announced, “with a strong voice,” the prophet “heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” When this summons has been given and either accepted or rejected, comes the treading of the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, the invitation to the supper of the great God, and the casting of the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. The offer of mercy closes with the call to come out of Babylon, and those who are not delivered by this call will perish in the destruction of Babylon. It is therefore of the greatest importance to understand the nature of that message which is designed to accomplish this final deliverance from Babylon. Babylon of Chaldea was utterly overthrown many centuries ago, and it is perfectly clear that this is not a call out of ancient Babylon; but ancient Babylon is a type of modern Babylon, and the experiences of the people of God in connection with ancient Babylon, when properly interpreted, will help us to understand the experiences of the people of God in connection with modern Babylon. This is the reason why so much has been written in the Old Testament about ancient Babylon, and why we should regard the record not simply as history, but as prophetic history. Let us therefore study some of the scriptures which deal with Babylon of old and the deliverance from it. The prophets who prophesied just before, during, and immediately after the Babylonish captivity dealt quite fully with this terrible crisis in the national history of the Jews. The spirit of Christ which was in them, knowing that this experience was in itself a prophecy, so presented it that it should serve as an object-lesson for the last days, so that the true Israel of God might have a light by which to find their way out of spiritual Babylon. Their prophecies are therefore of special value at this time. So let us note what one of them, Habakkuk, has said concerning the experience with Babylon:— “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.” Scenes of violence, strife, and contention were kept before the prophet’s mind, and he inquired the meaning of such representations. Then the Lord made answer thus:— “Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every stronghold; for they shall heap dust,4and take it. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.” The significance of the visions which Habakkuk had seen is here explained. “The Chaldeans . . . terrible and dreadful . . . shall come all for violence.” That “marvelous work and a wonder” which had been foretold through the prophet Isaiah, but without stating the time for it, is now declared to be just at hand; and all those evils which had been threatened against Jerusalem unless the people turned to the Lord in repentance, were now about to come. The prophet was familiar with the messages which the Lord had already sent to his people, and knew full well that they meant a harvest of death and destruction, but in the midst of such calamities his hope was in God, and he said:— “Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devourest the man that is more righteous than he? And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?” All things material may go to destruction, and it may look as if the end of all things had come, but those who are in fellowship with the eternal God will survive. The Chaldeans will be permitted to triumph over God’s people, even though they are an idolatrous nation, not because the Lord looks with approval upon their conduct, but because he will use them as the instrument for correcting his people when they refuse to listen to his warnings; but will that nation that ascribes its success to its instruments of warfare, and sacrifices to its net, and burns incense unto its drag, destroy continually? Habakkuk waits for an answer:— “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” The answer is now made plain. The sin which will bring the fall of Babylon is pointed out, and the character which will survive that fall is revealed. That pride of heart which refuses to acknowledge the kingship of God, and that his kingdom ruleth over all, will cause the utter destruction of Babylon, but those who believe in God and share with him his righteousness will also share with him that life which measures with the life of God. “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” “His righteousness endureth forever.” In order that we may the better understand the answer made to Habakkuk, let us study some things in the experience of Babylon. This city had its origin in unbelief and rebellion. There was the purpose to build a tower “whose top may reach unto heaven,” and to make a name in the world. The meaning of such a course is clear: there had been a flood which had reached above the tops of the highest mountains, and had destroyed all except those who had believed God for salvation from it. These builders in the plain of Shinar were planning a way of escape from any such calamity in the future. By building a tower up to heaven they would be able to investigate the cause of the flood, assign a satisfactory scientific explanation for it as a natural phenomenon, and provide a place of safety in case it should happen again. But God had said, “The waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh,” and so their course showed that they did not believe the flood to be a judgment from God, but rather the result of natural causes which could be discovered by investigation and guarded against by proper provision on their own part. They set aside revelation as untrustworthy, preferring the results of their own investigations, and proposed to make their own provision for preserving themselves alive. Thus were pride and unbelief stamped upon every brick of the tower, which was in itself a monument of self-salvation—righteousness by works. This first attempt to found Babylon ended in confusion, and “they left off to build the city,” but a little later, in open rebellion against God’s purpose, Nimrod made Babylon “the beginning of his kingdom.” This was the kingdom of the world as opposed to the kingdom of God, the pride of self-exaltation as opposed to the humility which exalts God alone, righteousness by works as opposed to righteousness by faith. Such was ancient Babylon, the type, and such is modern Babylon, the antitype.