Join Ronald L. Dart as he takes us on a journey through time, exploring the rich and often misunderstood prophecies of ancient scriptures. In this episode, we delve into the parallels between historical Babylon and modern geopolitical landscapes, as Dart offers insights on how past events continue to illuminate our present world. Through engaging analysis and thought-provoking discussion, discover how the lessons from the ancient kingdoms still resonate deeply in today’s global dynamics.
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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When I study the prophets, I’m looking for God. I’m not looking for an outline of what’s going to happen tomorrow. I’m not looking for an outline of the events of the next few years as laid out in Bible prophecy. What I want to know is what does God have to say, what does it mean, and how might it affect my life? Because God doesn’t change. If God came down on ancient people because they behaved a certain way, I figure if I behave the same way, that same God is liable to come down on me. God doesn’t speak to man very often, and when he does, it pays to listen very carefully. And just because the events were long ago doesn’t mean you and I can afford to ignore them. Now, I can throw out all the old clichés about history repeating itself and learning the lessons of history, but in truth it goes down to this one simple fact. Human nature doesn’t change, and neither does God. If God has responded to human actions in the past, he is likely to respond the same way in the future, which is why he said this to Isaiah. Produce your cause, says the Lord. Bring forth your strong reason, says the king of Jacob. Let them bring forth and show us what shall happen. Let them show the former things what they be, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them. or declare to us things to come. You want to know what’s coming? Take a look at what has been. Take a look at the past. Understand how God has acted in human history and be assured of this, O man. He’ll do it again. King Solomon said, chapter 3, verse 14 of the book of Ecclesiastes, I know that everything God does will endure forever. Nothing can be added to it. Nothing can be taken away from it. God does it, so men will revere him. Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before, and God will call the past to account. And so I listen to see what God has done. And more important, I listen to see why he did it. And I ask myself, why did God have all these old prophets write this stuff down, and why did he preserve it for us in the latter days? I would guess that most people who have watched the Iraq war on television have completely missed the biblical illusions of what is going on there. They may have some vague idea that the name Nebuchadnezzar has some significance or Hammurabi. They may not realize that Saddam Hussein fancied himself a kind of new king of Babylon. For Iraq sits in Mesopotamia, the old kingdom of Babylon, the ruins of Babylon are there, and Saddam even names his division after old Babylonian names. At one time, Saddam had in mind the rebuilding of the old city of Babylon. He had a plan. I don’t know whatever happened to it. It was going to be a kind of tourist attraction. He must have encountered a distraction somewhere along the way to rebuilding Babylon. He should have paid attention to the old prophecies about Babylon. One of them in Isaiah 13 verse 19 says this, And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. And apparently all that was left of Sodom and Gomorrah was smoking ground. He says it will never be inhabited. It will never be dwelt in from generation to generation. Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there. Neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, owls will live there, satyrs shall dance there, and the wild beasts of the island shall cry in their desolate houses, dragons in their pleasant palaces, and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged. Really marvelous poetry and very descriptive. It almost sounds like Babylon being a cage full of demonic spirits. It’s all that’s going to be left of the thing. Well, all that Isaiah prophesied happened to Babylon. It has never been rebuilt. It’s out there. People go to visit it as an archaeological site, a site of ancient civilizations, but it’s never been rebuilt. Long ago, Babylon was a great empire. Israel was in decline at the time that Babylon was rising. According to Jeremiah, Israel was no longer fit to govern herself, so God brought her under Babylonian hegemony. Israel had so much crime, so much corruption. Her courts were unreliable. There was so much violence in the city that finally God says, enough already. If you can’t govern yourselves, I’ll put you under the government of Babylon. So he told the Israelites, don’t rebel against Babylon even when you’re in exile there. Settle down, build houses, make homes, have families, because God is going to do you good in Babylon, and the day will come when he will take you home. But great Babylon, who had punished Israel, would be punished in her own time. Before all this happened, God gave Isaiah a vision. He called it the Burden of Babylon. And when one reads it, it is uncanny how it echoes down through the ages and even seems to have overtones of the last days. And in fact, when you understand that Iraq is geographically the area of old Babylon, when you understand that the ruins of the ancient civilization of Babylon are right there, not very far from Baghdad, when you understand all of this and then you read this prophecy concerning Babylon, It’s uncanny, the echoes that you hear of the past, now, in the present. Now, you shouldn’t attempt to read these old prophets as history, not even as history written in advance. It’s important to know the history surrounding them, but they are about much more than history. They are poetry, they are rich in imagery and symbolism, and the prophecies, although about times near to come to the prophet, also were about times that reach way down into our own generation today. I’ll read you and we’ll talk about the burden of Babylon when I come back after this short message.
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Who is Babylon the Great? Is she a woman or a nation, a people or a religious system? And what is her role at the time of the end? Write or call for a free copy of the program titled Babylon the Great. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
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The Burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. You’ll find it in Isaiah, the 13th chapter. Isaiah, I presume, in vision. But then he writes in poetic fashion, “‘Lift up a banner on a high mountain. Exalt the voice to them. Shake the hand that they may go into the gates of the nobles. Stand up there, shout, and shake your fist,’ he says. “‘Get this word out. I have commanded my sanctified ones. I have called my mighty ones for my anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.’ The noise of a multitude on the mountains like a great people. A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together. The Lord musters the host of battle. Wow, it’s really something. You know, the whole imagery is one. Here’s Babylon sitting down there in lower Mesopotamia alongside the Euphrates River. And somehow, off in the north, the noise of battle assembles as God pulls people together to come down and fight against Babylon. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. Howl, for the day of the Lord is at hand. It shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Kind of hair-raising, isn’t it? When you think about this, he’s talking about God now is coming. His army, his battle, his weapons are coming. We’re going to wipe this whole area out. Howl, for the day of the Lord is at hand. Now, the day of the Lord is one of those benchmarks in prophecy. The phrase occurs 25 times in the Bible. It begins in Isaiah. It shows up again in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, and Malachi. It’s everywhere. It even appears five times in the New Testament. Paul, for example, is still looking ahead to the day of the Lord when he wrote to the Thessalonians. Chapter 5, verse 1. But of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write to you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. The imagery there and the choice of words he uses makes it pretty clear. He’s talking about what Jesus was talking about when he talked about the return of the Son of the Man coming as a thief in the night. He’s looking ahead to the return of Christ. Peter also, in 2 Peter 3, verse 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. The elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and all the works that are in them shall be burned up. So anytime I find the phrase, the day of the Lord in the Bible, I sit up and take notice. It may be that there’s more than one time that can be called, at least in type or typology, the day of the Lord. But even if so, it may have reflections all the way down to the day of the Lord at the end. And this one, this one is really, really rings a bit of the end time day of the Lord. Therefore, Isaiah continues, all hands will be faint. Every man’s heart shall melt. They’ll be afraid. Pangs and sorrow shall take hold of them. They shall be in pain as a woman that travails. They shall be amazed one another. The faces will be red. You know, when you think about warfare in ancient times and you realize what these people did to one another, the expectation of a siege and a battle would cause a man’s heart to melt. And then he says, Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he will destroy the sinners out of it. Now remember, this is the burden of Babylon. Right now, this army coming down out of the noise, this army that God has brought down here, this army that is the sword in his hand, is coming right down into what today we would call Babylon. Iraq. It is a time of fierce anger, and the land is going to be laid desolate. The stars of the heaven, the constellations thereof, will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in his going forth, the moon will not cause her light to shine, and I will punish the world for their evil. Actually, the world probably means land. I’ll punish the land for their evil, the wicked for their iniquity, and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. It sounds a lot like the last days when you understand what the Bible talks about in the last days. It also tends to understand a little bit about the days that many men have been going through in New Babylon, otherwise known as Baghdad. There’s another scripture, though, when you think about some of the things that he talked about in this section, that compares with it. It’s in the Olivet Prophecy of Jesus. You’ll find it in Matthew chapter 24. Here Matthew says, For as the lightning comes out of the east and shines even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. We know what we’re talking about, don’t we? Return of Christ. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken.” And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. So look at this. We’re not only talking about the benchmark, the day of the Lord. Even the imagery is the same. Even the descriptive events that are to take place look ahead to the return of Christ. Then there’s this passage in Revelation chapter 6. I beheld, John said, verse 12, I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal. There were seven of them in Revelation. And when he opens the sixth one, there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth of hair. The moon became like blood. The stars of heaven fell to the earth like a fig tree casts her untimely figs when she’s shaken of a mighty wind. You sort of imagine, they have machines that do this on pecan trees down here in Texas. They grab the tree by its trunk and shake it. and all the pecans come plopping down to the ground. And what is the imagery he’s giving us here is of a meteor shower, with these things falling out of the sky like figs falling out of a tree. But the effect will be rather different. He said, The heaven is departed as a scroll when it’s rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains they all went into caves rich and poor now are equal nobody’s above anybody else we’re all hiding and fleeing for our lives and they cry out to the mountains and the rocks fall on us hide us from the face of him that sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who will be able to stand Well, I know that we like to think of gentle Jesus meek and mild. I know we like to think of a Savior who is kind and loving, and Jesus certainly is. But on the other hand, the Bible seems to say that when he comes back, When he returns to this earth to destroy those that destroy the earth, he is not going to be particularly gentle. He will be riding a horse, which in the Bible is a sign of a tank, a war. It’s an instrument of war. And he will have a sword coming out of his mouth with which he will slay the wicked. Yes, that’s the same Jesus who was born and placed in a manger in Bethlehem who will do this. In this day of the Lord we’re reading about, in Isaiah, Now we’ve had it amplified to realize it is the day of God’s wrath. God can become filled with anger. And, you know, and I don’t want to put too fine a point on it, but when we come back to Babylon and we come back to the land of Babylon, to Mesopotamia, to land between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, to what is today Iraq, There is plenty there to arouse the fury of God. Not only in the adversary that they have played to Israel historically, all the way back to the time when Babylon took Israel captive and dragged them out of their land and settled them over on the Euphrates. To later generations when Babylon has been at odds with Israel, whereas when the Iraqis have been at odds with Israel. But then the way they have treated their own people, that we are now learning what they have done? No. When we look at that, the day of God’s wrath doesn’t seem too far-fetched at all. I will make a man, Isaiah 13, 12, I’ll make a man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. What he means by that is men are going to be rare. I’m going to shake the heavens. The earth will remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. Hey, folks, get used to it. God has anger. He can have wrath. He can become furious. It’s better to be aware of this God than to keep on wondering about the God of your imagination, which never gets mad. This God does. It shall be, everything will be like a deer that’s being chased, like a sheep that no man will protect. Every man is running to his own people. They flee into their own land. It’s picking allegories out of the time in which everybody was familiar about a complete and utter disaster. Everybody they find will be thrust through. Everyone that is joined to them shall fall by the sword. Their children shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses spoiled, their wives ravished. Nobody’s going to care about civilian casualties when these people come rolling down on your country. Who are these people? Well, historically, they were the Medes. All this stuff really happened to the Babylonians. In verse 17, he says, I will stir up the Medes against them. They will not care about silver. They don’t delight in gold. They couldn’t give a fig about anything you can offer them to buy them off. Their bows will dash the young men to pieces. They will have no pity on babies. Their eye will not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ excellency, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, as we just read a little earlier. All this happened in history. For ancient Babylon, the day of the Lord was heralded by an invasion from the north, the Medes. And then this brings us back, as I said, to where we were when I started out in the program about what was going to happen to Babylon. It would never be inhabited. No one would live in it from generation to generation. The Arabian would not pitch his tent there. The shepherds would not make their foals there. It would be a desolate place from now on. And then that takes us naturally into chapter 14, verse 1, and the connection between what he’s doing in Babylon and what’s going on in Israel. He says, For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel and set them in their own land. And strangers will be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids. They will take them captives whose captives they were, and they will rule over their oppressors. You know, Israel did return from Babylon. I don’t think it was ever said that they took Babylonians captive or they ruled over Babylon. Not in those days. But according to the prophets, there’s to be more than one return of Israel. In fact, we have witnessed a second return of Israel to that land in our own time from the Balfour Declaration forward when Israel was given a homeland and the Jews began doing everything they possibly could do to get back to Israel. It said that in those days, the Lord will give you rest from your sorrow and from your fear and from the hard bondage whereunto you were made to serve. When this has happened, you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon. And at this point, it gets really interesting. I’ll read you that proverb when I come back after this important message.
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For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, Burden of Babylon. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
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How has the oppressor ceased? The golden city ceased. The golden city is Babylon. Isaiah 14, verse 5. The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke. He that ruled the nations in anger. is now persecuted and no one hinders. It’s just rolling right across him and he can’t even stop it. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that Nebuchadnezzar is the prophesied king of Babylon even for the end time, but he was just unlucky enough to exalt himself into the position of a king of Babylon, in the same place as the king of Babylon, and to do the same sort of evil deeds as the king of Babylon. He did smite the people with a continual strength. He did rule the nations in anger. And now it has been his turn. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet. They break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at you and the cedars of Lebanon saying, well, now that you’re down, nobody’s coming out here to cut us down anymore. Now, again, please don’t take it that I’m prophesying that peace is going to break out all over the Middle East right now. But actually, in those days, when the king of Babylon was brought down, it did usher in a period of quiet, finally, across these places, because he had become a very violent king. Also, the people to whom this prophecy was given, Isaiah himself, obviously, believed that behind the kings that they could see, there were spiritual forces that they cannot see. And I’ll have to say, reading the Bible, I believe they were right. And so they’re talking now not so much always about the king of Babylon that you can see. They’re talking about the spiritual forces behind them. And they say, hell from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming. Those people that have gone down there before you got there are there waiting for you. It stirs up the dead for you, even the chief ones of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All those people will say to you, Are you also become as weak as we are? Are you now become like us? Your pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your instruments, the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you. That’s an appealing image for a Saddam Hussein at this manner, you know, at this time, to think about it being that way for him. And that, of course, is the way God gave Israel a proverb to say about the old original king of Babylon and his fall and how he went down. Now, if Saddam Hussein had known what had happened to the king of Babylon, I wonder if he would have aspired to his throne. Verse 16, they that see you shall narrowly look upon you and consider you saying, is this the man that made the earth tremble, that shook kingdoms, that made the world a wilderness and destroyed the cities and opened not the house of his prisoners who kept all his people locked up? All the kings of the nations, all of them lie in glory, everyone in his own house. They all have tombs, but not you. You’re cast out of your grave like an abominable branch. and as the raiment of those that are slain, cut through with a sword that go down to the stones of the pit, a carcass trodden under feet. You shall not be joined with these kings in burial, because you have destroyed your land and slain your people. The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. Your children are not going to be renowned. Prepare a slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers, that they do not rise nor possess the land nor fill the face of the earth with cities. They’re not going to do this. Now, I’m not suggesting that this is a prophecy of Saddam Hussein and Hussein and Hussein, his sons. I suppose it could happen to anyone who exalts himself in Babylon. God allowed Babylon of old to afflict Israel and then punished them for it later. And you know, it’s almost as though history has repeated itself again. Now, I’m not suggesting that this is a prophecy of Saddam and Hussein, as I said. God says, I will rise up against them and cut off Babylon name and remnant and son and nephew, saith the Lord. All the relatives, they’re all going to be dead. And I’ll make a possession for the bitter in pools of water, and I’ll sweep it with the broom of destruction. The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, As I have thought, so shall it come to pass. As I have purposed, so shall it stand. And frankly, the way this whole thing fell in Babylon, it really kind of looks like it was all God’s doing in the first place. But now there’s one more prophecy I want to give you before I leave this thing. It’s right at the end of this chapter, and it’s connected to it, and it’s kind of strange. It’s Isaiah 14, beginning in verse 29, remembering that Philistines are Palestinians. Do not rejoice, all you Palestinians, that the rod that has struck you is broken. From the root of that snake will spring up a viper. Its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent. The poorest of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety. Your root I will destroy by famine. It will slay your survivals. Wail, O gate! Howl, O city! Melt away, all you Palestinians! A cloud of smoke comes from the north, and there is not a straggler in its ranks. What answer will be given to the envoys of that nation? The Lord has established Zion, and in her his afflicted people will find refuge. It would be a terrible mistake to use this prophecy as any kind of justification for violence against the Palestinians in our day. But we should keep it in mind. Because God always keeps Zion in mind, He has something in mind for Jerusalem at the end.
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Until next time, I’m Ronald Dark. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.
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