Prophecy concerning Babylon and Israel

Prophecy concerning Babylon

Sites associated with ancient Mesopotamian history. — Mesopotamia

In the days of the prophets of Israel (850-560 BC approximately) two great military powers arose in the territory around the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, now known as Iraq. The earlier was the Empire of Assyria, with Nineveh as its capital. During two centuries the Assyrians carried out invasions of the territory of surrounding nations: southwards they dominated the Chaldeans and their capital, Babylon; eastwards they overran Syria, then advanced down the Mediterranean coast, through Israel as far as Egypt. Their policy was one of terror. Their aim was to terrorise local populations into submitting and paying an annual tribute. To this end they sacked and burnt towns, devastated the countryside, massacred the inhabitants and took thousands away captive to Assyria.

The Tigris and Euphrates river basin and its drainage network. — Tigris-Euphrates river system, great river system of southwestern Asia. It comprises the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which follow roughly parallel courses through the heart of the Middle East. The lower portion of the region that they define, known as Mesopotamia (Greek: “Land Between the Rivers”), was one of the cradles of civilization.

The second half of the 7th century BCE saw the decline of Assyrian power and the rise of the Babylonian. In 612 BCE Nineveh was conquered. Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans, rapidly created the new empire. The smaller nations of the Middle East, rejoicing over their deliverance from Assyria, soon found themselves overrun by the armies of Babylon. In particular Nebuchadnezzar overran Israel, sacked Jerusalem and burnt its temple, and carried thousands away captive to Babylon. He then went further south and invaded Egypt. The Babylonian Empire was the second phase of this military domination arising from the area of the Euphrates.

In particular, Nebuchadnezzar, its greatest king, made the city of Babylon a marvel in the world of the Near East. He built enormous temples and palaces, and surrounded the city with an immense protective wall: Babylon became the glory and pride both of Nebuchadnezzar himself and his Chaldean people.

It is difficult for us in these days to realise the impact of such ruthless power and extravagant wealth upon the inhabitants of the smaller nations. To them the empires of Assyria and Babylon must have seemed terrifying and invincible.

Utterly overthrown

Yet 100 years before Babylon reached the height of its power, Isaiah the prophet foretold its overthrow in very specific terms. In a chapter headed “The burden of Babylon”, this is what he said:

“… The day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty … Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them … And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited … neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there. But wild beasts of the deserts shall lie there.” (Isaiah 13:6,17,19-21)

The fate of Babylon is clear: the attackers are to be the Medes (a nation to the east of Babylon); the city is to become a desolation, inhabited by neither man nor beast. And let us remind ourselves that this clear prophecy was uttered 100 years before Babylon arose to the height of its power and glory.

Another prophet, Jeremiah, writing 100 years later, when Nebuchadnezzar was about to attack Jerusalem, added to the forecasts of Babylon’s downfall:

“Behold, I will raise up against Babylon a destroying wind … Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed … Prepare against (Babylon) the nations, with the kings of the Medes … Babylon shall become heaps (ruins), a dwellingplace for jackals, an astonishment and an hissing, without inhabitant … The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire … O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate for ever.”

And finally the prophet is commanded to bind a stone to the roll of the prophecy and to throw it into the river Euphrates, declaring:

“Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again.” (Jeremiah 51:1,8,28,37,58,62-64)

The agreement between the prophecies of Isaiah, written 100 years before Babylon arose to power, and of Jeremiah, written when the empire and city were at the height of their glory, is complete. To the people of those days it must have sounded as it would to us if it were prophesied that a great city like London, New York or Sydney was to be destroyed and to remain a desolation for ever. In this age of nuclear weapons such a fate would not be inconceivable; but the prophets of Israel uttered their predictions over 2,500 years ago, long before anyone dreamed that such total destruction was possible.

History reveals how the prophecies about the fate of Babylon were progressively fulfilled. The first despoilers were the Medes and the Persians in the 6th century BCE. From that time the glory of Babylon began to fade. Then came the Greeks under Alexander the Great, then the Romans; after them various warlike tribes like the Parthians, the Arabs and the Tartars. For centuries the actual site of the ancient city of Babylon was a heap of ruins, shunned – so travellers tell us – by wandering nomads. It was not until the archaeologists began to explore the site in the first half of the 19th century that the ruins of the great walls, the mighty temples and gates, and the immense statues revealed to an astonished world how magnificent ancient Babylon must have appeared in its day.

So history reveals how Babylon, “the glory of kingdoms”, became ruined and deserted, just as the prophets of Israel said it would.

We turn now to a second, and quite different, example of the truth of Bible prophecy in:

The fate of Egypt

Egypt had also been a mighty power in the Middle East. The period of its greatness was about 1600 BCE, when the armies of the conquering Pharaohs pressed southwards into the Sudan, westwards along the north African coast, and northwards through the land of Canaan (later Israel) and into Syria. The discovery of some of the ancient temples, monuments and tombs of Egypt has revealed the glory of the Pharaohs at the height of their power.

But from about 1400 BCE Egyptian power began to decline, due to civil war and to the rise of Assyria, and later Babylon. Nevertheless, during the period of Israel’s occupation of the land of Canaan, 1400-600 BCE, the Egyptians interfered periodically in the politics of the Middle East, with varying success. The Israelites, fearing invasion from the Assyrians or Babylonians, were often tempted to seek support from Egypt instead of relying in faith upon their God.

Now the prophets of Israel had something very definite to say about the destiny of the Egyptians. The prophet Ezekiel, whose pronouncements were made in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from about 600 BCE declared that as a result of the judgement of God Egypt was to be desolate for 40 years. Then there was to be a revival, but not to the former glory and power:

“Thus saith the Lord GOD: at the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the peoples whither they were scattered … and will cause them to return to the land of Pathros, (Pathros, in Upper Egypt, was the original seat of Egyptian power) into the land of their birth; and they shall be there a base kingdom (RSV, a lowly kingdom). It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it any more lift itself up above the nations: and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations … Thus saith the Lord GOD: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Noph (Memphis); and there shall be no more a prince out of the land of Egypt …” (Ezekiel 29:13-15; 30:13)

Again the sense of the prophecy is clear: Egypt was to suffer the calamities of invasion and the deportation of captives. Although no precise historical record of these events has survived, they must have been the result of the invasion of Egypt by the Babylonians, as Ezekiel himself prophesied (see Ezekiel 30:17-20). But that was not to be the end of Egypt. For after 40 years the captives were to return to their own land. Egypt as a kingdom was not to be destroyed: it was to survive but with greatly reduced power – “a lowly kingdom”, never presuming to exert power over the surrounding nations any more.

A lowly kingdom

And so it came to pass. From about 600 BCE Egypt fell under the domination of a succession of conquering invaders: first the Babylonians in the 6th century BCE; then the Persians, from the 6th to the 4th centuries; then the Greeks in the 4th century; then the Romans from the 1st century BC to the 5th century CE. They were followed by the Arabs and the Turks from the 7th century CE onwards. Even the British ruled in Egypt for a period in the 19th century. For 2,500 years Egypt has remained, as Ezekiel prophesied it would, “a lowly kingdom”, always dominated by others. But Egypt and the Egyptians did not disappear. They still exist, and they have even recovered a measure of independence in recent times, thanks to massive financial support from the USA and Saudi Arabia.

Let us store the case of Egypt away in our minds while we consider a third example of Bible prediction of future events, in:

The Prophecies concerning Israel

These are the richest of all, both in the detail of their predictions and in the abundance of the historical confirmation of their truth. We shall confine ourselves to the simple facts concerning Israel’s remarkable destiny.

The Old Testament records for us how God made distinct promises to Abraham (about 1800 BCE) which meant, among other things, that his descendants would become a people (Israel) who would take possession of the land of Canaan, later called Palestine. About 1400 BCE the people of Israel were brought out of Egypt at the Exodus under Moses, and 40 years after began to take possession of the land promised to them. But while they were still in the wilderness, before they entered the land, they were solemnly warned by God through Moses of the fate which would overtake them if they turned away from their God to worship idols and imitated the ways of the pagan Canaanites. The 28th chapter of Deuteronomy is a most remarkable prophecy – and was a terrible warning – of the calamities which would come upon the Israelites if they were disobedient. The reader is recommended to read the whole chapter. Here we have space only to outline the main features:

“But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments … the LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known … And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee … The LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even to the other … And among these nations shalt thou find no ease …” (Deuteronomy 28:15,36,37,64,65)

Again the prophecy is quite clear. Israel were to be scattered among the nations, there to live in very uncomfortable circumstances, the object of scorn and contempt. How forcibly their history has proved the truth of these words! The scattering of the Jews throughout the world began in the days of the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE. The process continued through the Babylonians in the 6th century. After a partial return from Babylon in the days of the Persian kings, a community of Israelites lived in their land from about 500 BCE to the days of Christ, successively dominated by the Persians, the Greeks and their successors, and finally by the Romans. In CE 70, 40 years after the crucifixion of Christ, there occurred the most terrible devastation of all. The city of Jerusalem was sacked by Roman armies because of rebellion; the temple was burned and the Jews were scattered as captives over the Roman world. There they have been found ever since, literally “from one end of the earth to the other”.

And they have indeed, until very recent times, found “no ease”. Suffering persecution and at times extermination – the pogroms in Russia in the 19th century and Hitler’s policy of genocide in the 20th are only the most recent examples – the Jews have everywhere been subject to vilification and derision, so much so that their survival as a recognisable race is one of the marvels of history. Again we note the fact that this prophecy of Israel’s fate has remained true for over 2,500 years. Who could have foreseen that, despite all the scattering and the persecutions, the Jews would remain for centuries a recognisably distinct race, right up to the present day?

Preceding

God’s Self-Revelation

The Greatness of the eternal God

The New Testament and Judgement

To be prepared for the Day of Judgment

Living as a believer in Christ

A participation in the body of Christ