Who or what is intended by the 666?

Some modern translators read “666”. However, the KJV, as does the Greek text, reads “six hundred (600) threescore (60) and six (6)”. In other words, three distinct divisions (600 + 60 + 6 = 666). The definite article is omitted before “man” in the Greek text, suggesting that this number is not exclusively of one particular man, but of fallible men in general.

Some commentators apply numbers to every letter of the Greek alphabet, then add up the numerical value of particular names, and try to discover what man’s name “adds up” to 666. (The technical name for this procedure is gematria.) The possibilities are endless, esp considering language variations, and various combinations of names (last name only, first and last, all three, titles, etc.). By this method many candidates have been put forth: Nero Caesar, Constantine, Napoleon, Martin Luther, the Pope of Rome, and — more recently — Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Kissinger, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.

But is this the proper Biblical approach?

Bible prophecy students should recognize the value of relying on the OT when interpreting the NT. For example, reference to Daniel is key to interpreting the opening verses of Rev 13:

Bible passage	Revelation 13	Daniel 7
The sea	Rev 13:1	Dan 7:3,17
The beast	Rev 13:1	Dan 7:3,17,23
The ten horns	Rev 13:1	Dan 7:24
The seven heads	Rev 13:1	Dan 7:4-7
The leopard, lion, and bear	Rev 13:2	Dan 7:4-6

Given the reasonableness of this approach, why abandon it when attempting to decipher the 600, 60, and 6?

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the first Gentile conqueror of Jerusalem (Dan 1:1), dreamed of a great image (Dan 2; Rev 13:14,15), which Daniel interpreted to be the Gentile oppressors of the nation of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire were the image’s head of gold (Dan 2:38). Nebuchadnezzar seems to have been so impressed with this magnificent image of the dream, headed by himself, that he had a replica of it erected; he then proceeded to command the subjects of his empire to worship it (Dan 3). Because of his fierce pride, and his refusal to acknowledge the One God, Nebuchadnezzar was later deprived of his reason and treated, by God, as a beast (Dan 4:16,32,33).

This great golden image, representing the Gentile “beast” and his successors, was “threescore cubits” tall and “six cubits” broad (Dan 3:1). Here are two of the three numbers allotted to the last Gentile oppressor of Israel, the beast/man of Revelation 13. Is this merely a coincidence?

Possibly, the gold with which Nebuchadnezzar constructed the great idol was the same gold that he had confiscated from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Shortly before this time, his army had conquered the city, destroyed the Temple, and carried much gold back to Babylon, breaking it down for other uses (Dan 1:1,2; 2Ki 24:13; 2Ch 36:10).

Curiously, both the numbers 600 and 666 are also connected with this same Temple and its gold:

• King David purchased the future site of the Temple, the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite, for 600 shekels of gold (1Ch 21:25).
• King Solomon, to whom God granted great wisdom (2Ch 1:10-12; cp Rev 13:18: “here is wisdom”!), received enormous tribute from his Gentile subjects, in one year “666 talents” of gold (1Ki 10:14), gold which would have found its way into the recently-constructed Temple.

The Temple connection

If the beasts of Rev 13 are those who trample down Jerusalem and Israel in the Last Days, then the “man” of Rev 13:18 will be the one who, like Nebuchadnezzar, defiles the Temple at Jerusalem! The numbers 600 and 60 and 6 — uncommon in the Bible as a whole, but common in Daniel and the history of the Temple and Nebuchadnezzar — suggest a great king, a great empire (“Babylon”, also prominent in Revelation), the wealth of Israel and its Temple misappropriated and diverted to abominable uses (possibly with some acquiescence by Jewish leaders?), and a great golden image of idolatry foisted upon Israel. History records a Greek king (Antiochus Epiphanes, in 168 BC) who set up the image and altar of Jupiter in the Jewish temple, and commanded its worship. Is it possible that history may repeat itself in the near future?

This latter-day Arab “Beast” will invade Jerusalem, exalt his “image” (representing Gentile supremacy over the Jews), and will establish his headquarters upon the same site where Solomon’s 666 talents of gold was kept — the Temple Mount! Various passages point in this direction:

“His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation… At the time of the end… the king of the North… will invade the Beautiful Land… He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver… He will pitch his royal tents between the seas at the beautiful holy mountain” (Dan 11:31,40-45).

“You [the king of Babylon: Isa 14:4] said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High’ ” (Isa 14:13,14).

“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand — a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come” (Joel 2:1-3).

” ‘Hear the word of the Sovereign LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘… You [Ammon: Eze 25:1] said “Aha!” over my sanctuary when it was desecrated and over the land of Israel when it was laid waste and over the people of Judah when they went into exile’ ” (Eze 25:3; cp Eze 36:2,3).

“You [Edom: Oba 1:1] drank [in celebration of victory] on my holy hill [Zion: Oba 1:17]” (Oba 1:6).

“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel [Dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11] — let the reader understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Mat 24:15,16; cp Mar 13:14,15; Luk 21:20-24).

“That day [of Christ’s coming] will not come until… the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2Th 2:3,4).

Some of these passages are not the easiest to understand in all their details (if only because they point to events yet future). But in general terms they all present or supplement the same basic picture.

Further parallels: Daniel and Revelation

“I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, ‘Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth’… Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified [Jerusalem, obviously!]…” (Rev 11:1-3,7,8).

Just as there were those faithful Jews who protested the enforced worship of the first golden image of the beast Nebuchadnezzar, and faced martyrdom as a result (Dan 3), so in the Last Days there will be faithful witnesses who protest the “image” of the Beast defiling the holy Temple Mount. Unlike Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they will actually be killed (Rev 11:7,8).

But it is the “Beast-Man” whose days — like those of his Babylonian counterpart — are numbered (cp Dan 5:26). His power will be limited to “a time, times and half a time” (Dan 12:7), equivalent to 42 months (Rev 11:2) or 1,260 days (Rev 11:3). At the end of this time, the abominating power will be destroyed, the faithful martyrs (of all ages) will be resurrected, and the Temple Mount will be restored to its glorious holy use by Christ and his saints in God’s Kingdom:

“Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him…Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise… At that time your people — everyone whose name is found written in the book — will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake… to everlasting life… Those who are wise [mg: who impart wisdom: cp Rev 13:18!] will shine like the brightness of the heavens” (Dan 11:45–12:3).

“I will crush the Assyrian [equivalent to “the king of Babylon”: Isa 14:4; see Lesson, Babylon = Assyria] in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders” (Isa 14:25).

“The LORD will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the sky will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel. Then you will know that I, the LORD your God, dwell in Zion, my holy hill. Jerusalem will be holy; never again will foreigners invade her” (Joel 3:16,17).

“I will make a covenant of peace with them [Israel]; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever” (Eze 37:26-28).

“But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will possess its inheritance” (Oba 1:17).

“At that time they will see the Son of Man coming [to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount] in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luk 21:27,28; cp Mat 24:30; Mar 13:26).

“And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming” (2Th 2:8).

“The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven… ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever’… The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great — and for destroying those who destroy the earth [or ‘the Land’]” (Rev 11:15,18).

And so the number of the man of sin — 666 — will give way to the number of the man of righteousness — the 144,000 on Mount Zion, who have the name of the Lamb and of his Father (in contrast to the name of the Beast: Rev 13:17) written on their foreheads (Rev 14:1)!

Addendum 1

Here is the simplest “explanation” of the 666: there are six Roman numerals that, taken in various combinations, account for all the smaller numbers. They are I (= 1), V (= 5), X (= 10), L (= 50), C (= 100), and D (= 500), Thus the SIX common Roman numerals have a total value of 600 (500 + 100), 60 (50 + 10), and 6 (5 + 1). These are all the numerals involved in the Roman system, at the lower level, until the number 1,000 is reached (which is denoted by “M” — for “mille”, or thousand). This is itself is significant: the lesser numbers, in all their possible combinations, represent all men, or all mankind (Roman, at least!) — until we come to the “M” (the SEVENTH numeral) — which, obviously, represents the Millennium! When the Millennium begins, all the numbers of “man” (totaling 666) will cease!

Addendum 2

A further possibility, to supplement, not to replace the above: The number of the Beast is the number of MAN. Not necessarily a (single) man, nor a (special, unique) man, but the number of man in general. Six may be the number of man, since man was created on the sixth day, and since six falls one short of seven, the Scriptural number of perfection. Consider, for example, the multiple uses of six in describing Goliath, in 1Sa 17. (Is it a coincidence that this blasphemous brute of a man was a Philistine, or Palestinian?)

As such, 666 makes a triple emphasis on this falling short of perfection, whereas the gematria of JESUS (in Greek) yields 888, which puts triple emphasis on the fact that he is risen from the dead on the eighth day, a new Beginning, the Firstborn of God’s New Creation.

One other suggestion along these lines: 666 is written, in Greek, as c x ?. This is c ? (which is in New Testament manuscripts the standard abbreviation for Christ, or Messiah) plus x (the symbol of the serpent). In other words, c x ? could signify “the Serpent’s Messiah”, or the false Christ!

Addendum 3

Suppose that the Beast/Man is a composite/culmination of all those who have trampled Jerusalem under their feet (cp Rev 11:2). Then there may be merit in the following point:

The total years from the first subjugation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar — March 16, 597 BC — to the beginning of the final siege of Jerusalem by the Roman Empire — early April AD 70 — is almost exactly 666 years! 597 plus 70 less 1 (there is no year “zero”!) = 666!

* Amalek was a grandson of Esau; thus his descendants would be related to the Edomites:

“Esau’s son Eliphaz also had a concubine named Timna, who bore him Amalek. These were grandsons of Esau’s wife Adah… Korah, Gatam and Amalek… the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in Edom” (Gen 36:12,16).

* Probably an earlier reference to the Amalekites was simply a reference to the country which they later inhabited, since of course they did not exist as a nation at all during the time of Abraham:

“Then they turned back and went to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazazon Tamar” (Gen 14:7).

* Amalek was a nomadic nation dwelling in the Sinai Peninsula:

“The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan” (Num 13:29).

“Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt” (1Sa 15:7).

* Amalek was the first tribe to fight against Israel after they left Egypt with Moses:

“The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.’ So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning… Aaron and Hur held his hands up — one on one side, one on the other — so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.’ Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner. He said, ‘For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation’ ” (Exo 17:8-16).

* For its bitter and implacable hatred of Israel, Amalek was absolutely cursed by God:

“Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!” (Deu 25:17-19).

* At later times, the Amalekites allied themselves with various other enemies of Israel, including the Canaanites…

“Early the next morning they went up toward the high hill country. ‘We have sinned,’ they said. ‘We will go up to the place the LORD promised.’ But Moses said, ‘Why are you disobeying the LORD’s command? This will not succeed! Do not go up, because the LORD is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the LORD, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.’ Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the LORD’S covenant moved from the camp. Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah” (Num 14:40-45).

… and the Moabites…

“Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon [king of Moab] came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms [Jericho]” (Jdg 3:13).

… and the Midianites:

“Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country” (Jdg 6:1-3).

Were the Amalekites afraid to take on Israel single-handed?

* King Saul was commanded to destroy the Amalekites utterly.

“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys’ ” (1Sa 15:2,3).

Although he destroyed most of them, some remained alive.

“Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt. He took Gag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword” (vv 7,8).

Saul had intended to keep alive Gag their king, but Samuel slew him:

“Then Samuel said, ‘Bring me Gag king of the Amalekites.’ Gag came to him confidently, thinking, ‘Surely the bitterness of death is past.’ But Samuel said, ‘As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women.’ And Samuel put Agag to death before the LORD at Gilgal” (1Sa 15:32,33).

The AV has: “Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD.” Samuel — in his role as “priest”, and bent on total obedience to God’s directive — cut him up in pieces like a whole burnt offering for the altar!

Apparent Contradictions?

1. Amalek was “utterly destroyed” by Saul (1Sa 15:21), but some remained to David’s day (1Sa 27:8,9).
2. David left none of the Amalekites alive (1Sa 27:8,9), but some remained a bit later (1Sa 30:1,2). And a handful remained even later yet (1Sa 30:17,18).
3. The last remnants of Amalek were completely destroyed in the days of Hezekiah, 250 years later (1Ch 4:41-43).
4. … OR WERE THEY? The great enemy of Israel in Esther’s day (250 years later again) was Haman “the Agagite” (Est 3:1,10; 8:3,5; 9:24 — cp “Agag” king of the Amalekites: 1Sa 15).

Questions

• “Their king [Israel’s} will be greater than Agag; their kingdom will be exalted” (Num 24:7). Who is “Agag”? Is “Agag” a title? or a name?
• “Then Balaam saw Amalek and uttered his oracle: ‘Amalek was first among the nations, but he will come to ruin at last’ ” (Num 24:20). In what way is Amalek the “first” among the nations? And does Balaam mean that they will be the “last” to come to ruin?
• ” ‘Come,’ they say, ‘let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.’ With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you — the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them to lend strength to the descendants of Lot” (Psa 83:4-8). Is this a prophecy of the Last Days? And if it is, does this mean that there are still “Amalekites” around today?
• “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; prophesy against him… This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal” (Eze 38:2,3). “Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth — Gog and Magog — to gather them for battle” (Rev 20:7,8). Is this Last Days “Gog” related to the “Agag” of the Amalekites?

It is proposed, first of all, to consider the main issue: the fitness of animal sacrifice in the millennial kingdom; then, secondly, to outline an alternative view to the traditional interpretation of Ezekiel’s temple vision (Eze 40-48); and, finally, to scan briefly the other Old Testament “sacrificial” prophecies.

A. The Main Issue

1. There should be no need for animal sacrifices after the perfect and once-for-all sacrifice of Christ: Heb 9:9,12,28; 10:4,11,12,14,18; Eph 2:15; Col 2:14; Rom 10:4.

Let us consider one passage from the Letter to the Hebrews:

“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming — not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, “Here I am — it is written about me in the scroll — I have come to do your will, O God.” ‘ [Quotation from Psalm 40:6-8]. First he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them’ (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

“Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb 10:1-14).

Although this statement was in the first instance about the Law of Moses, it seems clear that certain basic principles about any sacrifice are being articulated here:

1. Once “perfection” comes, then sacrifices should stop being offered!
2. Sacrifices are by their very nature (because they require death, over and over?) a continual reminder of sin (the wages of which is death!), not a true cleansing from that sin. How appropriate will this be in the Kingdom? Will even the more “positive” sacrifices like burnt offerings and peace offerings (which are plainly included in Psa 40/Heb 10, as being fulfilled in Christ) be appropriate there? Would not their repetition still be a reminder of sin (which necessitated them in the first place), when what observers should be reminded of is the ultimate remedy for that sin, the Man who himself is physically present there?
3. Jesus is the One who came to do the will of God, and as such he IS sin offering, burnt offering, and peace offering… all rolled into one!
4. Through Jesus, God “set aside” the first covenant so that he might establish the “second”. The second covenant is “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2), “the new covenant” (Heb 8:8-13; Jer 31:31-34) — under which the only true sacrifice is the Lord himself, once and for all time and for all men. So we must ask the question: Will there finally be, in the Kingdom Age, a “third” covenant, reinstituting other animal sacrifices (similar to the Law of Moses), which were presumably done away with by the “second” covenant?
5. The one sacrifice of Christ has made faithful men and women “perfect forever”. That perfect sacrifice has been enough for numerous generations of men and women, both Jews and Gentiles, who have lived and died from that day to this. Need there be some other sacrifice for future generations who live (and possibly die) during the Kingdom Age?

The Hebrews passages cited — in fact, the whole of the Letter — seems to be arguing for the imminent cessation of all Temple ritual (which happened in 70 AD) as God’s corroborating proof that the sacrifice of His Son had become, once and for all time, the only true, real, eternal Divine remedy for the human condition. (The same sort of divine proof was provided initially in the tearing of the veil to the Most Holy, from top to bottom, at the time of Christ’s crucifixion: Mat 27:51; Heb 10:20.) And, as Hebrews puts it, having offered that one perfect sacrifice at one time and one time only, Christ “sat down” (Heb 10:12) — ie, he ceased his priestly labors — at least in the particular of offering sacrifice. It seems that, whatever else we make of other passages, the Hebrews passages should be conclusive: all Temple sacrifice, and all animal sacrifice, has ceased to have any efficacy with the death and resurrection of Christ.

2. But perhaps the Kingdom sacrifices will not be effective for sin, but only commemorative? Or merely a “demonstration”?

a.	If so, then they will not be necessary, because Christ will be there, in the Kingdom, bearing in his own body the marks of his crucifixion (Zec 13:6; Joh 20:25-27; Rev 5:6). What better commemoration, what better demonstration, of God’s work of salvation could be imagined?
b.	Bread and wine are a sufficient and proper memorial (remembrance) of the sacrifice of Christ (Luk 22:16-19; 1Co 11:23-25). Surely, also, the “marriage supper of the Lamb” (or something very much like it, kept on an ongoing basis) will be a reasonable approximation of this feast in the Kingdom (Rev 19:7-9; Mat 22:2-4; Luk 14:15,16).
c.	If “commemorative” (ie, “look-back”) sacrifices will be acceptable (or even commanded?) in the Kingdom, then why were they not still the standard for believers in 30-70 AD? And why does the writer to the Hebrews go to such lengths to make his case for a “waxed old/ready to vanish away” Temple (Heb 8:13), along with all its services?
	There is a great incongruity in seeing animal sacrifices in the Kingdom as “demonstrations” of how God deals with “sin”. On the one hand, there will already be all the evidence anyone could wish… in the tangible, physical, visible body of the glorified Lord Jesus Christ… for the one perfect, complete, final “sacrifice-to-end-all-sacrifices”. On the other hand, (it is alleged) there will be a continuous procession of merely “demonstration” animal sacrifices which can never effectively accomplish anything (not even, as in the Law of Moses, to point to the Messiah who is yet to come, because… he is already there!) Secondly, if these Kingdom “sacrifices” are really only “demonstration”, then what we seem to have, in Eze 40-48, is a strange disproportion of emphasis:
	I.	a great deal of detail about buildings, priests, altars, and rituals — with elaborate measurements — all to sustain what is merely “demonstration”, but…
	II.	practically no detail about Christ’s throne or city or administration, about the role the immortal “priests” (as opposed to mortal Jewish priests?) will play in that Kingdom, about the “Marriage supper of the Lamb” — which will all be real, significant, and efficacious for all who participate!
d.	Gal 3:19: “The Law was added (only) until the Seed comes” — implying that, afterward, it would cease. There is a world of difference between words and laws and practices which are anticipatory (like the Law in OT times), and words and laws and practices which are retrospective (like the Breaking of Bread since then). The anticipatory ones are a “schoolmaster” (KJV) to lead to Christ: “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law” (Gal 3:24,25). But is there really such a thing as a “schoolmaster” to lead us, or anyone, BACKWARD to the Law of Moses, and from thence — through that Law — forward to Christ again? If so, why would Paul in Galatians have some rather critical things to say about those who would lead Christian believers backward to the Law again?
	Is there, since we are on the subject, any difference between a “looking-forward” type and a “looking-backward” symbol? It would seem that “looking-forward” types — like the sacrifices and rituals of the Law of Moses — seem to have been designed by God to approximate as closely as possible the actual antitype, or fulfillment, when he/it comes. Also, the sacrifices of the Law were efficacious, in the sense that they were plainly stated to be for “sin” or for “cleansing”. In other words, those who knowledgeably and in faith offered the sacrifices or followed the rituals were expressing their trust in God and their hope in the One He would send, who would then render all such types obsolete. But in the meanwhile the Mosaic sacrifice itself was real, and was the medium through which, in faith, sins might be forgiven. But the “looking-backward” symbol (like the bread and wine of the memorial supper) seems to be designed by God only to recall or remember, but not to look like or imitate the actual deed — i.e., the literal sacrifice of Christ. And the bread and wine are not themselves the means to achieve forgiveness of sins. They merely remind partakers of that means. The reason for this distinction is logical and fairly obvious (in fact, it is the subtext of all the Letter to the Hebrews). Would not the killing of any animal and the pouring out of its blood and the consuming of its flesh — by more closely reproducing what was literally done to and by and with Jesus — appear to be an effective and sufficient substitute for the real thing? So why should the literal animal sacrifices cease with the perfect sacrifice of Christ? Based on the Hebrews letter, continual blood-shedding in the context of approach to God would tend, in the minds of some, to mitigate or even nullify altogether the wondrous and wonderful and unique blessing of the blood of Christ. Why is our commemoration of the body/blood of Christ done with bread/wine and not literal beef (steak, mutton, whatever) with its literal blood? Even if there is no direct Bible proof (is there?), it seems the answer is obvious: Because literal flesh and literal blood (of whatever animal, or human) would only tend to distract from, and lessen the appreciation of, HIS body/blood! Further, it might even look as though salvation were traceable, in whole or in part, to some source other than Christ. We rightly disparage the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation not just because such a “priest” cannot turn literal bread into literal flesh, and literal wine into literal blood… but also because — even if he could — such a “priest” would be offering the body and blood of Christ again and again, and such a practice would undermine the essence of Christ’s sacrifice, and transfer some of its merit to the practitioner/magician instead! Might not the idea of literal animal sacrifice in the Kingdom be open to similar criticisms?
e.	Finally, Ezekiel says — conclusively, it would seem — that the animal sacrifices he describes are in fact “for sin” (Eze 43:19-26; 45:17,22), which would seem — all by itself — to rule out the so-called “looking-back-to-Christ” rationale for such sacrifices in the Kingdom.

B. What about Ezekiel’s Temple?

The theory of animal sacrifice in the Kingdom rests primarily on Henry Sulley’s interpretation of Ezekiel’s vision in Eze 40-48. But, alternatively, it is now suggested that Ezekiel’s Temple was — in its primary fulfillment — actually a plan for a temple to be built by the Jews returning from Babylon to Jerusalem, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Why is this so?

1.	The “Prince” of Eze 45; 46 was a mortal prince/ruler of Israel. How do we know this? Because (a) he offers sacrifice for his own sins (Eze 45:22; 46:10-12); (b) he is subject to death (Eze 46:17,18); and (c) he has a wife and sons (Eze 46:16), and (d) those sons will succeed him (Eze 45:8; 46:18). None of this may reasonably apply to the glorified Lord!
	As to point (a) above, how could it be that the glorified Messiah will be the “Prince”? This would mean that, in offering sacrifices, Jesus would be serving the altar, which would be a shadow of himself (Heb 13:10). “Shadow” and “substance” meet together, but the substance is made to serve the shadow? Surely this is the wrong way around! And surely the immortal Son of God would no longer need to offer sacrifice of any kind FOR HIMSELF!
2.	The priests of this Temple are mortal because: (a) they sweat (Eze 44:18); (b) they are commanded to drink no wine (Eze 44:21; ct Mat 26:29); (c) they die (Eze 44:22); and (d) they have no inheritance (Eze 44:28).
3.	This Temple has Levites who went/can go astray (Eze 44:10-14).
4.	Ezekiel’s temple vision is interspersed with exhortations to the house of Israel, not to Gentile believers: Eze 40:4; 44:6. In addition, the house of Israel is characterized as rebellious (?!): Eze 40:4; 44:6; 45:9. Contrast with Jer 31:31-34; 32:37-40; Eze 11:17-21; 36:24-28! (Will Israel in the Kingdom be “rebellious”?!)
5.	Eze 43:10-12: The prophecy is conditional: “IF they are ashamed…” So these verses may explain why Ezekiel’s vision was never brought to reality as intended in the days of Ezra. The whole vision of Eze 40-48 may be seen as one more unfulfilled promise of God to Israel — not unfulfilled because God is in any way slack concerning His promises, but unfulfilled because Israel was not capable of receiving its blessing.
6.	No uncircumcised person is allowed there (Eze 44:9). But what about Gentile saints, who are not necessarily circumcised? [If the point is that “circumcision” is that of the heart, and not of the flesh (i.e., not literal circumcision) — then how does this impact the literal reading of the rest of Eze 40-48 in a future, or millennial, context?]
7.	Ezekiel’s vision refers to “strangers” who have settled in the Land (Eze 47:22,23). This is very easy to relate to the time of the return from Babylon, but not so easy to relate to the Kingdom Age — since the land of Israel is supposed to be reserved for the twelve (mortal) tribes of Israel.
8.	Eze 47:18 describes an eastern border at the Jordan River. Eze 47:19 speaks of the “river” on the south, which is wadi El Arish, not Nile. These borders are consistent with the post-exilic Israel of Ezra’s day, but inconsistent with the extent of the Kingdom as described in Gen 15:18.
9.	Is Jerusalem one huge Temple area only — as Ezekiel seems to describe? Or is it a city without walls, and inhabited by children, as in Zec 2:4; 8:4,5?
10.	Ezekiel envisions a large Temple area, but no real city (the people of Israel mostly living elsewhere). Likewise, this is what Nehemiah sought to build (Neh 4:22; 7:4; 12:29). It seems he understood Ezekiel’s vision to be for his own day!
11.	Will the east gate be shut six days out of seven (Eze 46:1), or will it be always open (Isa 60:11; Rev 21:25)?
12.	Then there is the question: What is NOT described here? In this temple of Ezekiel’s vision there is no lavish use of gold and silver. There are no High Priestly garments of glory and beauty. No golden lampstand. No table for Bread of the Presence… etc., etc…
	Splendid and holy as Ezra and Nehemiah’s new Temple would be, its limitations and omissions would only emphasize to the minds of those Jews who saw it the continuing need for a new and better order, with a Messiah who would be both Prince and Priest, and who would offer one sacrifice that would be all-sufficient, and not merely temporary and typical.

So Ezra and Nehemiah saw an initial fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy — while it is possible that a future fulfillment yet awaits us. However, even IF that is so — and given the examples of other latter-day fulfillments of previously-fulfilled prophecies (eg, see under C below)– we may well ask: How much of the detail about animal sacrifices, etc., need be fulfilled literally in a second — or millennial — fulfillment?

It is not contended here that there cannot or will not be a physical temple structure in the Millennium; such a building might serve a useful function as a gathering center and place of worship. But it is suggested that the true “temple” of the Millennium will be the immortal saints of God. Anything else, such as a structure of wood and stone, may be desirable to keep the mortals from getting their heads wet when it rains … but such a structure will never, in the eternal Scriptural sense, be the “temple of the living God” (see Acts 7:48, for example). (Many are the NT passages that show that “WE — the Body of Christ — are God’s true temple”: 1Co 3:16,17; 6:19; 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:19-22; Heb 3:6; 10:21,22; 1Pe 2:5; Rev 3:12; 21:22,23.)

C. Other prophecies of animal sacrifices in the Kingdom?

But what about those prophecies, other than Eze 40-48, that appear to describe animal sacrifice in the Kingdom (eg, Isa 19:19-25; 56:6,7; 60:6,7; Mal 3:1-4; Zec 14:16-19; and perhaps a couple of others)? What should we make of them?

1.	First of all (and this is fundamental!), are there any… ANY… NEW TESTAMENT prophecies about animal sacrifice in the Kingdom? If not, then the key point is this: Every such prophecy that even suggests animal sacrifice in the Kingdom was written BEFORE Christ’s sacrifice. Thus it is susceptible to interpretation and reorientation… now… in light of that final, absolute, “be-all-and-end-all” sacrifice. In the future fulfillment, therefore, what is merely ritual will understandably give way to the reality!
2.	Christ is the end (goal, completion) of the Law (Rom 10:4; Gal 3:24) because he is the antitype, or fulfillment (Mat 5:17; 3:15; Rom 8:4), of all the salvational aspects of the Mosaic Law — including the various animal sacrifices (Heb 10:3-12; 9:11-15).
3.	Christ expressly said that his Memorial Feast was the (new) Passover (Luk 22:15). He kept his “Passover” with his disciples in the upper room, where there was no lamb — because he was himself the Lamb (Joh 1:29,36; Act 8:32; 1Pe 1:19). So Paul exhorts NT believers to keep the “Passover” with Christ (“our passover lamb”) and the “unleavened bread” of sincerity and truth (1Co 5:7,8). In summary, after Christ’s crucifixion, Paul gives the OT Passover a NT spiritual application (the breaking of bread, memorializing believers’ deliverance from the “Egypt” of sin and death). This “spiritual allegory” of the Passover, employed by Paul and other NT writers, becomes a pattern for viewing the other OT prophecies about various feasts and animal sacrifices in a NT context.
4.	Moreover, there are other examples of OT prophecies which we easily interpret in a “modern” fashion. Consider, for example…
	(a)	Isa 2:4 / Mic 4:3 / Joel 3:10: Does anyone today actually suppose that these prophecies are literally about 20th (or 21st)-century swords and spears and plowshares and pruning hooks? No, of course not. For a “modern” interpretation, we readily substitute “tanks” and “missiles” and “tractors” and “harvesters”. But if that is what the prophecy is about, why didn’t Isaiah and Micah and Joel use such terms in the first place? Simply because their original audiences/readers would not have understood them. And so we (almost intuitively) learn to “modernize” certain OT language to align with our own changed and changing circumstances.
	Other examples…
	(b)	Zec 14: A kingdom prophecy in a context that suggests actual animal sacrifice (v. 16: the feast of tabernacles). But are those really literal bells on literal horses (v 20)? And will most nations in the future be seriously concerned about plagues coming upon their camels and donkeys and mules (v 15)? Isn’t some “allegorizing” required here?
		Perhaps the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles for all the nations, described in Zec 14, will resemble a grand and glorious and continuous “Bible school” of the Kingdom? One where the sacrifices offered to the Father will no longer be slain animals, but a prayerful and praise-filled participation in the “marriage supper of the Lamb”?
	(c)	Mic 4:4: Will everyone be required or expected to have his or her own vine and fig tree in the Kingdom? How literally should we read this verse?
	(d)	Amo 9:13: Literal treading out of grapes in the Kingdom?
	(e)	Isa 52:1: Will uncircumcised immortal saints be excluded from Zion? (Or do we give “circumcised” and “uncircumcised” symbolic meanings here? And if so, then what else may legitimately be given symbolic meanings?)
	(f)	Zec 9:10: Battle bows? Are these literal?
	The list could go on and on….

So why not see the “animal sacrifices” of Kingdom prophecies as signifying the continuing memorial — through bread and wine, even in the Kingdom age — of the one perfect and final offering for sin, the Lord Jesus Christ? “I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Luk 22:18); and then our Lord will celebrate with us, and others, the “marriage supper of the Lamb”!

And why not see the other “offerings” of the Kingdom age as, among other things, the “sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Heb 13:15). The writer to the Hebrews is quoting Hos 14:2, where the phrase is, literally, the “calves of our lips”– an interesting juxtaposition of ideas!

Such, it is suggested, will be — for immortals and mortals alike — the proper “sacrifices” offered to God in the Kingdom age.

“You do not delight (only?) in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings (only?). The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psa 51:16,17).

D. Who will be the priests of Christ’s Millennial Temple?

Who will be the “priests” of Christ’s Millennial Temple? WE — the immortal saints — will be the priests: Heb 13:15,16; 1Pe 2:5,9; Rev 1:6; 5:10 should be conclusive, and there are many similar passages.

And then there is Rom 15:15,16, which is properly — and pointedly — translated in the NIV: “I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the PRIESTLY DUTY of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an OFFERING acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” So by the New Covenant, Paul — of Benjamin, not Levi! — sees himself as a priest of God! And his “offering”? The Gentiles who believe through his preaching.

Even in OT times, it was always a significant part of the priests’ duty to read and interpret the word of God, and to instruct, teach, and exhort others (Deu 33:10; Ezr 7:10; Neh 8:2-9; 2Ch 15:3; 17:7-9; 35:3; Mal 2:7). This great function will be taken over in the Kingdom by the immortal saints, who under the authority of their Lord will then be God’s true “priests”.

But what about Jer 33:18? “Neither shall the priests the Levites want (or, never shall they fail to have: NIV) a man before me to offer burnt offerings… continually.”

The concept of “burnt offerings” in the Kingdom has been addressed already in section C above. The real question here is: will the Levites always have a man to serve God, on their behalf, even in the Kingdom Age?

To which three responses may be made, each in itself possible but not necessarily mutually exclusive of the others:

(1)	Exactly the same words (in Hebrew) are used in Jos 9:23: “You [the Gibeonites] are now under a curse: You will never cease to serve as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.” Does this mean an eternal curse on the Gibeonites, extending into the Millennium?
(2)	Will there be a “Levitical priesthood” in the future Kingdom, which will have to be composed only of literal descendants of Levi? No, no more than the “seed of Abraham” need be composed only of literal descendants of Abraham! So why not a “spiritual seed” of Levi as well?

And/or…

(3)

How about this? Put as simply as possible, this verse might be paraphrased: ‘The priests the Levites shall never fail to have a man to stand before me as their true mediator and High Priest, and that man is Jesus the son of David!’ He is the Levites’ “man” — no matter from whom he is naturally descended — just like he is our “man”– no matter from whom WE are naturally descended!

Postscript

The writer desires at this point to be a bit more personal…

For me, there is a significant issue here, which has deep roots in my personal feelings and attitudes.

Probably like many of you, I have meditated about what the Kingdom will be like. For me, what makes such meditation real is thinking about actually being in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, in a more tangible way than is possible now. 1Jo 1:1 comes to mind: “That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at, and our hands have touched — the Word of Life!” Will we — like John and the other apostles — actually see, hear, and even touch him then? The prospect of that fellowship makes the Kingdom real to me, real and inexpressibly beautiful.

But alongside this, I am asked to contemplate — right next door, as it were — herds of cattle and sheep and goats being slain, their blood flowing down and staining the ground… priests’ robes soaked in blood… while here, with me, is the great Son of God, himself alone the one true and perfect sacrifice!?

I can picture attending the “Marriage supper of the Lamb”, with candles, music, food and drink, the most exalted of fellowship and communion, conversation on the wonders and glories of God’s recreated “world” all around us with others whose experiences are so much like our own. Even, perhaps, the breaking of bread and drinking of wine in the very presence of Jesus, the presider, our “Lord”, our “Husband”… the actual marks and wounds in his hands and feet testifying who he is and where he came from, and what he has done… for us! “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on UNTIL that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Mat 26:29). That… THAT… is our salvation!

But then, to step right outside the door of the “bridal chamber”, as it were — and to see, always, the processions of more and more animals, to hear the bleatings of more and more lambs, and the bellows of more and more cattle — whose apparently endless streams of blood can never wash away sin — all I can say is, What a jangling of dissonant chords!

Will the world really need “demonstrations” of the slaughter of countless animals at the hands of fallible, mortal Jews (or even immortal saints, for that matter)… when it can SEE the man who rendered such exercises essentially meaningless? The man who laid down his own life for all God’s children — past, present, and future — and who is now alive forevermore, enjoying the company of the great host of redeemed ones, out of all nations, whom he cherishes and who cherish him?

Is that what worship in the Kingdom will really be like? Maybe it is… maybe it will be just like that… and the fault is mine for not understanding and appreciating it as I should. But something inside me keeps whispering, ‘This just doesn’t seem right!’

What do you think?

First of all, there are numerous prophecies that speak of an Arab-Israeli conflict in the last days. These seven are remarkably similar: Psa 83; Eze 35; 36; Joel 3; Oba; Zec 14; Zep 2; 3; Amo 1; 2.

1. Each pictures an Arab attack upon Israel. While it is true that Psa 83 does not actually say that this attack will succeed, all of the other six do say so (consider Eze 35:5,15; 36:2-5; Joe 3:2,3,5-7; Oba 1:10-14; Zec 14:1,2; Zep 1:2,3; and Amo 1:3,6,9,11,13). And thus they supplement Psa 83’s lack on this one point.
2. There is an amazing conformity as to the nations named in each of the seven prophecies: Psa 83 lists the most nations (ten in all: Edom; Moab, Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Hagarenes, Ishmaelites, Philistines, Tyre, and Assur — the number may be significant: cp Gen 15:18-21 and perhaps Dan 7:7 and Rev 12:3; 13:1; etc). But four of those ten (Edom, Moab, Ammon, and the Philistines) figure in almost every other of the seven passages. These names closely correspond to Jordan and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) — who have, according to their views, been dispossessed of their territory by an expansionist Israel.
3. In two of the prophecies (Joel 3 and Zec 14), the phrase “all nations” occurs. This has led many to suppose (mistakenly, we believe) that these passages parallel Ezekiel 38 / 39, and describe a mammoth Russian-led coalition from Europe and Asia and indeed (through perhaps the United Nations) from virtually all nations on the face of the earth. This misapprehension arises, we think, from two causes: (a) failure to appreciate the reasonable limitations, in the Bible, of such all-inclusive language; and (b) failure to consider the context: whereas Joel 3:2 and Zec 14:2 both use “all nations”, Joel 3:11 and Zec 14:14 modify that phrase to mean ‘all nations round about’. Furthermore, each of Joel 3 and Zec 14 actually name only Arab nations in the Middle Eastern area.
4. Considering some of the nations involved (see #2 above), it is evident that the Arab nations will fight Israel in order to reclaim their land, which they believe to have been stolen from them. But, even more precisely, Psa 83 and Eze 36 state their objective to be the reclamation of the ancient high, or holy, places (Eze 36:2) — or the “houses of God” (Psa 83:12). Most likely, this means the ancient Temple mount, where now stands the Moslem Dome of the Rock. It is interesting that, though they are but a small minority in Israel, there are fanatically religious Jews bent on the destruction of the Moslem “abomination” and the subsequent erection of a new Jewish temple on its former site. Will some such act be the spark to set off the final Arab-Israeli conflagration?
5. Each of these seven passages predicts the manifestation of Divine glory to defeat Israel’s conquerors and to reveal the true God of Israel to all men. It may be argued that such prophecies have already been fulfilled in Old Testament times or perhaps in 1948 or 1967. Many Bible prophecies have more than one fulfillment. But surely the language in these passages is intended also to describe, in the final and most perfect fulfillment, the arrival in glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the establishment of his Father’s glorious millennial (ie 1,000-year) kingdom: “That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most high over all the earth” (Psa 83:18). “The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake… So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain” (Joel 3:16,17). “But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance… and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s” (Oba 1:17,21).
6. Whereas most of the nations enumerated are the immediate neighbors of Israel, Psa 83:8 seems to present Assur (or Assyria: cp Zep 2:13) in a very important role: “Assur also is joined to them; they have helped the children of Lot [ie Moab and Ammon].” The verse suggests that what had been threatened before (but never achieved) is finally made possible through the invaluable assistance of Assyria. Thus, what Edom and Moab and Ammon have been unable to accomplish — when helped merely by Syrians and Arabians and Palestinians — they at last accomplish with the intervention and help of the greater power from the northeast. And this is in keeping with the facts of history also. The early history of the nation of Israel contains several incidents in which David and Jehoshaphat, among other kings, defeated their immediate Arab neighbors and even expanded their territory (2Sa 5; 8; 10; 12; 1Ch 11; 18; 19; 20; 2Ch 20). But, later, when (first) Assyria and (afterward) Babylonia came as northern power leaders of these same Arab nations, then at first two-thirds and finally all of Israel and Judah (including Jerusalem) fell (2Ki 17:1-6; 2Ch 36:11-21; Zec 13:7-9). We suggest that we are in the midst of another fulfillment of this very sequence. It is true that in 1948 and 1956 and 1967 and 1973 Israel has defeated her closest Arab neighbors and has extended her dominion into their lands. And this Israeli supremacy has become so much a part of Christian “legend” and “lore” that many now find it unthinkable that the “clever” Israelis could ever lose to the “bumbling” Arabs. But history — Divine history — tells us that, what “Moab” and “Ammon” and “Edom” (Jordan?) and Syria could not do on their own, “Assyria” and “Babylon” (Iraq?) could help them to accomplish!
7. This defeat of Israel by Moslem/Arab nations is plainly marked out (in 5 of the 7 selected passages) as the very last defeat of Israel before an extraordinary fulfillment of Israel’s hope: “Neither will I cause men to hear in thee [ie the mountains of Israel] the shame of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more” (Eze 36:15). “Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no stranger pass through her any more” (Joel 3:17). “There shall be no more utter destruction” (Zec 14:11).

Significantly, we have not listed the Gogian invasion of Eze 38/39. Why? In ct with these seven prophecies, Eze 38/39 has an almost totally different cast of characters. These are by and large an outer ring of Moslem nations encircling the inner ring listed in Psa 83, etc. Thus Ezekiel’s vision should probably be relegated to the time immediately after Christ has defeated the first Arab wave and established his kingdom. (Note the relevance of “dwelling safely” in Eze 38:8,11,14 — cp with Eze 28:25,26; 34:25,28; Zec 14:11; Jer 23:5,6.)

There are numerous other passages that describe a final Arab-Israeli war resulting in defeat for Israel — a defeat which will be the very last suffered by Israel before her deliverance by Christ at his return. The constraint of space allows no more than the listing of a few such passages, with brief comments:

Psa 60 (cp with Psa 108:6-13): Moab, Ammon, and Philistia first scatter Israel, and then are trodden down by Divine power.

Isa 13 — 23: Ten “burdens” upon, among others, Babylon (Iraq?), Philistia, Moab, Damascus (Syria), Egypt (where many Jews have been carried captive — cp Isa 19:20-25 with Zec 14:2), Dumah (or Edom), Arabia, and Tyre (Lebanon).

Isa 34: Retribution upon an Arab enemy (called “Edom”), because of “the controversy of Zion”.

Jer 25: Certain nations are singled out to drink of the cup of the Lord’s wrath — ie Egypt, Philistia (modern Gaza), Edom, Moab and Ammon (Jordan), Tyrus and Zidon (Lebanon), and Arabia along with the king of Babylon. The first fulfillment of this prophecy was God’s punishment of those nations that assisted Babylon in the overthrow of Jerusalem. Are we on the verge of a repetition of history?

Jer 44 — 51: Extended prophecies of judgment upon Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus (Syria), Kedar (Arabia), and of course Babylon (cp Jer 25 above).

Rev: Whatever else Rev might mean (and there are various possibilities, and quite prob more than one fulfillment), it is surely noteworthy — in light of all the foregoing — that the Book pictures:

1. “Figs dropping from a fig tree” (cp Luk 21:29-31) at the end of a series of judgments (Rev 6:13). The fig tree is a common symbol for Israel (Hos 9:10; Luk 13:6-9).
2. A great “army” of locusts coming out of the Abyss (the Arabian Desert?) (Rev 9:1-11). (Note that, in Heb, “locust” = arbeh, or “Arab”; and see Joel’s prophecy of a locust invasion of Israel.)
3. A great destroying power bound at the Euphrates River — which flows directly through modern-day Iraq (Rev 9:12-21).
4. Jerusalem being trodden down by its enemies (Rev 11:1-19). This is equivalent to Luk 21:24 and prob the same as Zec 14:1-3. (Cp the great earthquake of Rev 11:13 with Zec 14:4,5.)
5. A great Beast (who is a man: Rev 13:18; cp esp Nebuchadnezzar in Dan 4:16,25,32,33!), with ten horns (cp Psa 83:5-8 and Gen 15:18-21), blasphemes God and kills His people (Rev 13:1-18).
6. Finally, great judgments are poured out upon the river Euphrates (Rev 16:12), and Babylon falls (vv 17-21).
7. The last chapters picture the final and complete victory of a renewed Jerusalem over her vicious enemy Babylon.

Such details are fascinating, in light of quite current events. They should stimulate us to keep our minds open, in the days ahead, to what may be exciting new insights of Bible prophecy being fulfilled in our lifetime!

Who are the “mixed” people described in Dan 2:41,43?

“Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay… And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.”

The word translated “mixed”, “mixture”, and “mixes” in the above verses is a word which is transliterated into English (according to Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon) as “arab”. In the Old Testament, however, this word is not identical with the other words (also transliterated as “arab” or “ereb”) which are often translated “Arab” or “Arabia” or “Arabian”, as referring to the land or peoples of that name.

Why a different word? Because the Daniel passage was originally written in Aramaic. (Only a very small portion of the OT — basically, parts of Ezra and Daniel — was actually composed in Aramaic: a Semitic language very closely related to Hebrew, which eventually replaced Hebrew as the common language during the latter part of the Old Testament times.)

So, technically, the Aramaic “arab” occurring in Dan 2:41,43 (and nowhere else in the Old Testament) is not identical with the other, Hebrew, “arab” occurring in a number of passages… although Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon states unequivocally that the two words are closely related — as shall be seen.

A brief review of a section of Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon may help to clarify:

6148 (arab)	is a primitive root, meaning “to braid, to intermix”. [6148 occurs 26 times in the OT, and is variously translated “mixing, mingling, etc” as well as “buying, trading, giving surety” and “meddling”.]
6150 (arab)	is “a primitive root” identical with 6148 through the idea of “covering with a texture”; signifying “to grow dusky at sundown — be darkened, (toward) evening.” [6150 occurs 3 times: Jdg 19:9; 1Sa 17:16; Isa 24:11.]
6151 (arab)	is the Aramaic, “corresponding to” 6148 (the Hebrew). [6151 is the word which occurs (only) in Dan 2:41,43.]
6152 (arab)	is derived from 6150, and signifies the land of Arabia. [6152 occurs in 5 verses: 1Ki 10:15; 2Ch 9:14; Isa 21:13; Jer 25:24; Eze 27:21.]
6154 (ereb)	is derived from 6148, and signifies a “web of cloth”, also a mixture (or mongrel race), and especially the people of Arabia, a “mingled people” or “mixed multitude”: This Hebrew word (6154) occurs in 15 verses: Nine of these — in one chapter (Lev 13:48,49,51-53,56-59) — all have to do with fabrics, mixed or woven or braided together. Of the other 6 verses where 6154 occurs,
	(1)	Exo 12:38 is about the “mixed multitude” who accompany Israel out of Egypt. Who these were we cannot know for sure, but it is certainly possible that they were other enslaved, oppressed people who seized the opportunity to escape Egypt along with the Israelites. Of what nations? The other occurrences of the same word (below) certainly give clues!
	(2)	Neh 13:3 refers to the people of “mixed” extraction in the Land at the time of return from captivity in Babylon (the immediate context points to the Ammonites and Moabites: Neh 13:1);
	(3)	Jer 50:37 refers to the “foreigners” amongst the Babylonians (the larger context mentions the allies of Babylon: Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, and Elam: Jer 46-49);
	(4)	Eze 30:5 refers to other “mixed” peoples (actually translated “Arabia” by NIV) alongside Cush, Put, Libya, and Egypt.
	(5) (6)	Especially interesting are the final passages, Jer 25:20 and Jer 25:24, where “ereb” occurs twice, bracketing a list of nations — “all the kings of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines (those of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod); Edom, Moab and Ammon; all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea; Dedan, Tema, Buz and all who are in distant places; all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign people who live in the desert.” Basically a checklist of all the “Arab” nations!
6163 (arabee)	is derived from 6152, and signifies “an Arab or inhabitant of Arabia”. [6163 occurs in 8 verses: 2Ch 17:11; 21:16; 22:1; 26:7; Neh 2:19; 4:7; 6:1; Jer 3:2.]

Each word in this whole cluster may be seen to be related to all the others in the cluster; a “family tree” diagram demonstrates these relationships (not in my words, but in Strong’s words!):

ARAB (6150) is identical with ARAB (6148) # — which corresponds to ARAB (6151) #.

ARAB (6150) is root of: ARAB (6152)*, Which traces to: ARABEE (6163)*

And…

ARAB (6151) Is root of: EREB (6154)*

(The three words marked * are indisputably descriptive of the Arabs. The two words marked # both indisputably mean “mixed”.)

It should be seen at a glance, therefore, that “Arab” and “mixed” are closely related terms; they all belong to the same “family” of words.

In other words — studying the chart above — it may be noted:

1. The primary words for “Arab” and “Arabia” are derived from the root word “arab” (6150).
2. The basic Hebrew word for “mixed, mingled” (6154) is derived from a root word “arab” (6148), which (says Strong’s) is “identical with” the root word for “Arab” (6150).
3. The Aramaic for “mixed, mingled” (6151) “corresponds to” the Hebrew root (6148), from which is derived the basic Hebrew word for “mixed, mingled” (6154).

Now we already know, from Strong’s, that the “arab” (6151) of Dan 2:41,43 is the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew “ereb” (6154) in the above passages. Both words — apparently without any doubt — signify “mixed or mingled”, and the second (the Hebrew word, 6154) plainly indicates, in a number of its usages, Arab peoples!

Smith’s Bible Dictionary also states that “Arab” and “mixed” are related terms and ideas:

“Arabia cannot be held to have a more extended signification than the Hebrew equivalents in the Old Testament. (a) ‘erb’ (Exo 12:38; Neh 13:3) and ‘erb’ (1Ki 10:15; Jer 25:20, 50:37; Eze 30:5), rendered in the AV “a mixed multitude” (Exo 12:38), here followed by ‘rb’, ‘the mixed multitude,’ kings of ‘Arabia’ so in Vulgate, and in Hebrew in corresponding passage in 2Ch 9:14, and (in the last two instances) ‘the mingled people,’ have been thought to signify the Arabs.”

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It should be noted that, even if — somehow — the linguistic connections outlined above are disputed, the same conclusion may easily be drawn from other lines of inquiry.

For example, let us ask the simple question: ‘What peoples in the Old Testament are described as the result of racial mixing?’ And the Bible answer would have to be, primarily… the Arabs!

Why? Because, first of all (and leaving aside the linguistic connections altogether), the last six verses cited above where “ereb” (mixed, mingled) occurs [6154] plainly point to the Arab peoples… which include: Ammon, Moab, Egypt, Philistia, Edom, Damascus (Syria), Kedar (Ishmael), Elam, Philistia, Tyre and Sidon (Lebanon), Dedan, Tema, and Buz (Bedouin, Saudis). (Does this sound something like Psa 83?)

Even if there were absolutely NO linguistic connection between “mixed” and “arab” in Dan 2:41,43… the Bible evidence would still point to the Arabs as the preeminent and predominant “mixed” people of Old Testament times! When Daniel the Jew hears, and writes, about the “mixed” people, of whom would he naturally be thinking?

There is more:

The Book of Genesis describes in some detail how the people of the covenant — the descendants and relatives of Abraham — sinned against the LORD and violated His covenant by intermarrying with those who had no regard for that covenant:

1. Ishmael, the son of Hagar the Egyptian, mocks Isaac, the true “son of the covenant”, and Ishmael’s descendants (the results, of course, of further mixing) have done the same toward Isaac’s descendants ever since. (Abraham, meanwhile, takes careful steps to see that his seed of promise, Isaac, avoids marriage with the daughters of the Land.)
2. Lot, the nephew of Abraham and a righteous man, becomes the father of other “mixed races”, the Ammonites and Moabites, wicked and idolatrous nations who have no regard for the God of their father, and who hate God’s people.
3. Esau marries daughters of the Hittites (Gen 26:34); his family, the Edomites, are another group of “Arab” (mixed) peoples who hate their “cousins” the Jews, who have received the Promises. (Isaac warns his other son, Jacob, not to marry a Canaanite woman: Gen 28:1. Esau later compounds his previous marital errors by marrying a daughter of Ishmael: Gen 28:8,9.)
4. When the Jews were about to enter the Land they were warned by Moses not to make marriages with the people of the Land, lest they turn them away from God toward idols (Deu 7:3-4; cp Jos 23:12-13). Such errors by Solomon eventually turned his heart to idolatry (1Ki 11:1-6; cp 1Co 7:39; 2Co 6:14).
5. Ezra and Nehemiah — at a much later date — also lament that the priests and Levites have “mixed” and “mingled” their seed with the daughters of the land — specifically the women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab (Neh 13:23).
6. More generally, the earlier peoples of the Land — enumerated in Gen 15:19-21: “Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites” — were not all destroyed or driven out of that Land, and they remained as a continual snare to the people of Israel throughout their time there.

Three or four thousand years after the events outlined above, it is now impossible to mark out any individual Arab as an Ammonite or an Edomite or a Philistine… just as it is impossible to point out one who is a Canaanite or a Jebusite. In one sense, all these ancient peoples and nations have “disappeared”; the old national identities are gone. But the fact is (and the Bible is absolutely plain on this) these people were never completely wiped out by the Israelites. Their bloodlines remain, and ever since Bible times have been merging and mingling with one another to create the modern “Arabs”, the quintessential “mixed” people.

As has been pointed out in other studies, these “Arab” peoples bear a strong genetic likeness to, and linkage with, the Jews [see Lesson Jews and Arabs are cousins]. But they are different, they are “mixed”, and they hate their Jewish “cousins” with a fierce passion. Also, they desperately desire the same Land promised to Abraham’s seed… because they are (in part) — or believe themselves to be — Abraham’s “seed” too. Their prevailing religion, Islam, teaches them as well that they, and not the Jews, are Allah’s chosen people! They are the true rivals of Israel… by history, by blood, by proximity, by Old Testament example and type, and by (many) Bible prophecies.

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Question: ‘But isn’t Dan 2:41-43 all about the “ten toes” of the old Roman empire? How can the Arabs have any part in this?’

However, in fact, the Arabs do have ancient connections with the Roman Empire, and particularly as it related to the Land and People of Israel. For details on this, see Lesson, Ten toes, identity.

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Finally, TENS EVERYWHERE:

1. Ten nations in the Promised Land at the beginning: Gen 15:19-21.
2. Ten nations, the sworn enemies of Israel, in Psa 83.
3. Ten Gentile nations, neighbors of Judah, upon which God lays “burdens” for their treatment and hatred of His people: Isa 13-23.
4. Ten nations in Jer 25: Arabian enemies of Israel… (or 12 or 14 here, hard to group and enumerate… but a similar number, and a lot of overlapping with other lists).
5. And ten modern nations that came into existence in the same generation (between 1922 and 1971, a 50-year period centered on 1948). Ten Arab nations living on land that once formed part of the old Roman empire. With an 11th nation, Palestine, poised to be “born” after the others… a “little horn” springing up last, ready and eager to be the spearhead to destroy the State of Israel (see Lesson, Beasts, heads, and horns).

Possible connections with the (ten?) toes of Daniel’s image, and the 10 horns and kings of Daniel and Revelation?

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Also, there is a plain and evident connection between Daniel’s image in Dan 2, and the great image of Goliath, slain by the little stone flung by David (1Sa 17). And that “image” — so very much like the other — was… Philistine, or Palestinian!

Furthermore, Goliath, being Philistine, would probably have been of Greek lineage, as were all the Philistines. Therefore we have added to the “mixture” an element derived from the third portion of Nebuchadnezzar’s “four-part” image, Greece.

Now this gets interesting…

So we might see the Philistines as a Greek element in the decidedly varied “mixture” of Arab peoples in and around the Land today.

So the “mixed” peoples calling themselves “Arabs” (Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Bedouin, etc, etc) are not just the Last Days mixture of Abraham’s (apostate) seed and the Canaanites/Jebusites/et al of Gen 15.

They include a “spoonful” of Greeks too.

Is this surprising? Not really. Think about it. Conquering, ruling minorities always leave something of themselves behind. And one of the ways of controlling ruled-over peoples is to systematically undermine their ethnic uniqueness, their national identity. Thus the Assyrian conquerors of the Northern Kingdom moved all the conquered peoples here and there, with the purpose of mixing them all up with one another (and obscuring/obliterating the strains of national identity, and these people’s connections with their own lands): see the history in 2Ki 17:24ff.

Then of course there is the racial “mixing” that happens more or less “accidentally”. (Reminding us of the slur perpetrated against Jesus by some of the early rabbinical writings: that he was the result of an illicit relationship between Mary and a Roman soldier. How could such a story be told about any specific person, unless similar things had happened generally?)

Just a thought, then: the “Arabs”, in the broadest sense of the modern word, are plainly a very “mixed” peoples… genetic makeup contributed from 50 different ethnic groups — including, no doubt, all of Daniel’s “image parts / beasts” that ruled over their Land for hundreds of years. {This is no particular slur in and of itself: many peoples today are really a genetic mixture of a dozen or a score of earlier races. But… in the Middle East, and in the context of Bible teaching, God always desired that His people be “pure” of outside influences, that they not intermarry with the idolaters around them — not disparaging, of course, the occasional “Ruth” who in faith became a Jew.}

In fact, and naturally speaking, we should expect to see — in the area of Palestine/Israel/Canaan (the extended Holy Land) — even more mixing than is normal elsewhere in the world, because this land is the natural “bridge” connecting the three great continental land masses of the ancient world. Over this “bridge” passed Egyptians on their way to the east, and Babylonians on their way to Africa, and Greeks on their way to India, and countless other generals and armies, explorers and travelers, and traders.

One might ask, “Why would God deliberately put His people in a place where they would be exposed to so many other non-Jewish influences… if He really wanted them to remain pure and undefiled from such peoples?” And the answer — an aside to the main point here — would be: they were SUPPOSED to be a “light to the Gentiles”, a “city set on a hill”; that’s why they were placed at the “crossroads” of the world! In large measure, however, they failed — they did not “conquer” the world with the light of God’s truth, but the world “conquered” them instead! But later… from this same “crossroads” the Gospel message, carried by Jews, went forth in all directions, so that the Hope of Israel will yet “conquer” the world! And God’s purpose did not — and will not — fail after all!

Enough on the “aside”.

So… when we talk of the whole image of Dan 2 being joined together, and acting as one, to trample down the Land of God’s Promises… is it just possible that we can see, in the extended “Arab world” of today, the whole of Daniel’s “image” standing up together? A microcosm of practically the whole “world”, bent on the destruction of God’s people? A great blended “mixture” of Canaanites, Amorites, Jebusites, Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans… and others besides… whose one unifying feature is their bitter hatred of Israel?

A significant aspect of the Abrahamic covenant is the promise of a special Land: Gen 13:14,15,17. This Land is specifically defined: Rev 15:18. It was (and this may be of real consequence in the study of Bible prophecy, esp of Rev) a land of ten peoples and therefore ten kings (Rev 15:19-21).

Elsewhere this Land is defined similarly — ie, as basically stretching from the borders of Assyria/Babylon to the border of Egypt (Exo 23:23; Deu 1:7; 11:24; Jos 1:4; Psa 72:8). It was within this extended Land of Promise (the full territory of which the people of Israel have never yet occupied) that much of Bible history has been played out. It is within this same extended Land that much of Bible prophecy has been set: it is a Land, for example, of ten kings and peoples (slightly more or less at different times) who have almost always been the enemies of God’s people.

This same Land — the Middle East in general — is the arena in which the Book of Rev is to be fulfilled; a Land where Israel is today surrounded by approximately ten Arab nations or kingdoms intent on her destruction (cp Rev 12:3; 13:1; 17:12,16; etc). Coincidence? Or something more?

The ten nations of Psa 83 occupy today the same area, generally, as the ten peoples of Gen 15:19-21. Thus, the extended “Land of Promise” (Gen 15:18) is a land, prophetically speaking, peopled by a (reborn) Israel and ten “kings”. (Did Jesus refer to this when he prophesied of the sprouting forth of the “fig tree” “and ALL the trees” in Luk 21:29,30?) Does all this sound familiar?

The ten nations of Psa 83, however, are different peoples than the ten nations of Gen 15. Those of Psa 83 are for the most part relatives and descendants of Abraham; those of Gen 15 were the earlier occupants of Canaan and the Middle East. Is there some continuity or connection between these two different groups, each of ten peoples?

Remember that “Arab” means “mixed”; a very similar word occurs — four times — in Dan 2:41-43, re the (presumably ten) toes of the Great Image: “Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron MIXED [ereb] with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron MIXED [ereb] with baked clay, so the people will be a MIXTURE [ereb] and will not remain united, any more than iron MIXES [ereb] with clay.” [See Lesson, Arab/”mixed”]

What evidently has happened is that, since the beginning, the (Arab) descendants of Abraham have intermarried with the Canaanitish peoples so as to create, over time, a mixed or mingled peoples. There are in fact Biblical cases of this very sort of intermingling:

“While he [Ishmael] was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt” (Gen 21:21).

“He [Esau] married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite [cp Exo 23:23; Jos 1:4], and also Basemath daughter of Elon the HIttite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah” (Gen 26:34,35).

Other instances of the word “ereb” — signifying “mixed” or “mingled” — related to peoples are:

• 1Ki 10:15: “all the Arabian kings”.
• Jer 25:20,24: “the foreign (or ‘mingled’: AV) peoples… the Philistines… all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the foreign (mingled) peoples… in the desert”.
• Jer 50:37: “all the foreigners (or ‘mingled people’: AV) that are in the midst of her [Babylon]…”
• Eze 30:5: “Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all Arabia (or ‘the mingled people’: AV)”.
• Neh 13:1,3: “Ammonite and Moabite… all who were of foreign descent (or ‘the mixed multitude’: AV)”.

So the “mixed peoples” of the Middle East are the “Arabs” — with blood ties to the original Canaanitish peoples and the corrupted descendants of Abraham. Both these groups of peoples have had, historically, intense hatred for the Jews.

Now, with the admixture of a unifying religion — Islam — these Arabs view the Jews as great “infidels”, who have no real claim to the Land of Palestine.

Certainly the stage is set for a battle between Israel and the ten “kings of the earth (or Land)”! And, as Daniel describes, it is in the days when these mixed/mingled (Arab) peoples trample down Israel (and that may be very soon!) that the God of heaven will set up His everlasting Kingdom (Dan 2:44)!

Assyria emerged as a territorial state in the 14th century BC. Its territory covered what is now the northern part of modern Iraq. From the beginning, Assyria was a strong military power bent on conquest and expansion. By the 9th century BC, Assyria had consolidated its control over all of northern Mesopotamia (the land “between the rivers” — ie the Tigris and the Euphrates). Then the Assyrian armies marched beyond their own borders — in brutal and efficient waves — to expand their empire, seeking booty to finance their plans for still more conquest. By about 850 BC, the Assyrian menace posed a direct threat to the small Jewish states to the west and south — Israel and Judah, the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of the Old Testament.

During the period from 850 to 700 BC, the Assyrian empire reached its zenith. During part of this time, the kings of Assyria, ruling in Nineveh on the Tigris, also exercised dominion over ancient Babylon on the Euphrates about 200 miles to the south; they were quite pleased to refer to themselves as “kings of Babylon” (much as Queen Victoria of England claimed the additional title “Empress of India”).

It was also during the latter part of this period (approx 720-700 BC) that king Sargon of Assyria conquered and occupied the Northern Kingdom of Israel (2Ki 17:1-6). His successor Sennacherib carried many thousands of captives away to Nineveh and Babylon (Mic 4:10; Psa 137:1-4), defeated 46 fortified cities of the Southern Kingdom of Judah (Isa 8:7,8;10:5,6), and finally threatened even the city of Jerusalem — before meeting a titanic defeat — at the hand of the Angel of the Lord (Isa 37:1-36).

This might seem like so much dry-as-dust history, except for these facts:

1. The modern-day Iraq of Saddam Hussein occupies the same territory as the OT Assyria. Its leader behaves in the same brutal fashion as did the ancient kings of Assyria — his mind ever set on the acquisition of land, wealth, and power. His lack of concern for human life allows him to use threats other world leaders would shrink from — and, when provoked, to carry out such threats. He styles himself the head of the whole Arab world, and he demonstrates an intense hatred for the Arabs’ common enemy Israel. And he is perhaps the greatest threat to the peace of the Middle East and the world.
2. A number of OT prophecies, about the coming and work of the Messiah, were written by prophets (most notably, Isaiah) who lived in Jewish lands under the long shadow of the Assyrian threat at the time of its greatest expansion. It is clear that many of their prophecies had immediate (but incomplete) fulfillments in:

• The deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib, through the faith of righteous king Hezekiah;
• The destruction of the Assyrian oppressors by the power of God;
• The return from captivity of many Jews whom Sennacherib and his predecessors had carried into slavery; and
• A new period of peace in a regenerated nation of Judah.

But it is even more clear that a number of such prophecies still await their final (and perfect) realization at the return of Christ.

It is possible that the development of a modern-day “Assyrian”, with avowed designs to expand its territory and, in the process, annihilate the people of Israel, is a precursor to a coming divine deliverance. This last deliverance will be so stupendous as to dwarf all previous revelations of God, for it will be none other than the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in great power and glory to vanquish the “Assyrian” and all his allies, to save his people Israel, and to establish God’s millennial (1,000-year) Kingdom on this earth.

A summary of Bible references to Assyria helps us to develop a fuller picture of the Last Days:

(1) Gen 10:8-11:	The first great rebel against God, after the Flood, was Nimrod, “a mighty one in the earth”. This great “hero” led an early apostasy from the One true God, and was probably instrumental in the building of the tower of Babel (Gen 11) — the first great symbol of man’s pride and worship of himself. It is interesting, then, that the beginning of his kingdom was in “Babel… in the land of Shinar”, and that “from that land he went forth into Assyria and built Nineveh”. So one of the earliest instances of man’s defiance of God and His will is to be traced to a builder and ruler of Babylon and Assyria. One cannot help but feel, upon reading today’s headlines, that sinful man has now come full circle — when another power centered in the modern-day land of old Babylon and Assyria prepares to stretch out its hand against the nearby land of God’s people Israel.
(2) Isaiah:	The first half of this lengthy book, especially, is concerned in large part with the threat of ancient Assyria against the twin Jewish nations of Israel and Judah. And that ancient Assyrian, Sennacherib, with all his mighty host — an army of 185,000 — was defeated by the Divine Hand (Isa 37). But, when he predicted and described this soon-to-come colossal overthrow of Israel’s enemies, much of Isaiah’s language was plainly Messianic… so much so that the careful Bible student will conclude that these prophecies of Isaiah (like so much of Bible prophecy) have dual fulfillments:
	a)	First, the overthrow of Sennacherib the Assyrian through the prayers and faith of the good king Hezekiah and his counselor Isaiah; and
	b)	Second, the overthrow of an even greater latter-day “Assyrian ” through the prayers of Israel’s faithful (and spiritual “Israel”, of all races), and the divine intervention led by Jesus Christ upon his return to the earth.
(3) Isa 7; 8:	“the Lord shall bring upon thee (ie the land of Israel), and upon your people… days that have not come” — ie the worst trials the people of Israel have ever faced, through “the king of Assyria” (Isa 7:17,20). In this context the land is referred to as the land of “Immanuel” (Isa 8:7,8). The introduction of Immanuel (cp Mat 1:23 and Isa 7:14) lifts this and similar prophecies out of a merely OT situation and points the way to a greater and more momentous final fulfillment in the Last Days.
(4) Isa 10:	A new and modern “Assyria” will at first be used by God to punish His own people Israel (Isa 10:5). But such punishment will be carefully measured (cp Jer 30:7,11), and when Israel has endured the proper duration and severity of God’s chastening, then see Isa 10:12.
	Possibly this carefully measured period of trial for Israel is the familiar 3 1/2 years / 42 months / 1,260 days of Dan 12:7 and Rev 11:1-3; 12:6,14; 13:5. This period will be sufficient for the final subjugation and captivity of Israel by an “Assyrian”-led coalition of Arab nations, and for the development of a remnant out of Israel who believe in their Messiah Jesus and who call upon him to deliver them from their enemies — which he will be only too glad to do (Psa 83:9-13; Zec 14; Rev 11:11,12,15-19; etc).
(5) Isa 11:	The march of the Assyrian upon Jerusalem, which is carefully detailed in Isa 10:28-32, is divinely countered (but only after the previously-mentioned period of great tribulation) by the coming of the Lord Jesus, a rod out of the stem of Jesse (Isa 11:1), upon whom God’s spirit rests (vv 2,3), who will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth (v 4; cp Rev 1:16; 2:26,27; 11:15; 12:5; 19:15,21). And so when Israel is delivered and God’s Kingdom is set up (Isa 11:9), then the Lord will recover his people from Assyria (Iraq), Egypt, Elam (Persia, or Iran) and Shinar (Babylon, Iraq again) (Isa 11:11,16). This Last Days deliverance of Israeli believers — who have evidently been carried into captivity by the invaders — is also alluded to in Isa 19:23-25; 27:12,13; 35:1-10; 43:1-7; 52:1-10; Jer 3:18; 16:14,15; Joe 3:2-7; Zec 10:9-11; 14:2; and prob Rev 13:10.
	The drying up of the Euphrates in its seven streams referred to in Isa 11:15, a part of the deliverance of the Jews from captivity, is probably the subject of Rev 16:12. This drying up immediately precedes the battle of the great day of God Almighty, called “Armageddon” (vv 15,16).
(6)	Isa 13-23: The nations, together with the already-mentioned Assyria and Egypt, who are responsible for the defeat of Israel, and the carrying of many Jews into a new “captivity”, come in for individual castigation in a series of “Woes” or “Burdens” beginning in Isa 13: Babylon/Assyria (Isa 14:25); Philistia/Palestine (Isa 14:28-32); Moab (Isa 15; 16). Damascus/Syria (Isa 17); Egypt (Isa 18-20); Dumah or Edom (Isa 21:11); Arabia/Kedar (Isa 21:13-17); and Tyre or Lebanon (Isa 23).
(7) Isa 30:31.
(8) Isa 31:8,9.
(9) Micah:	Micah a contemporary of Isaiah speaks of the Kingdom of God being established in Jerusalem, in a kingdom of peace and righteousness (Mic 4:1-4). Thus, a “Babylonian” captivity in the Last Days. How will the redemption be accomplished? By the child to be born in Bethlehem (cp Mat 2:1-6 and Luk 2:1-7). He will be “the Peace” when the Assyrian comes into the Land (Mic 5:5).
(10) Nahum:	The burden of “Nineveh” (Nah 1:1) — capital of ancient Assyria. Why? Because the wicked had passed through Judah (v 15) and dashed in pieces the people of Israel (Nah 2:1).

Is all this the fate of an Iraqi coalition led against Israel by that modern-day “Assyrian” Saddam Hussein (or some even-more-powerful successor)?

In the OT, “Babylon” and “Assyria” are sometimes used interchangeably of the same political power:

• The two powers spoke essentially the same language. The cultures, religions, economics, and ambitions of these two cities were practically identical.
• In the time of Isaiah, Assyria conquered Babylon, and then in the time of Zedekiah Babylon destroyed Assyria.
• Sennacherib had captured and subjugated Babylon. “King of Babylon” = one of titles of kings of Assyria. Names are switched in Ezr 6:22; Lam 5:6; Zep 10:10,11; Isa 14:4,25; Mic 5:5; 4:10. Cp 2Ch 33:11; Amo 5:27 with Act 7:43.
• Nahum read Isa 47 as prophecy of Assyria, not Babylon. He was Isaiah’s contemporary: cp Nah 3:5,4,16 with Isa 47:2,3,9,15; Nah 1:15 with Isa 52:7; Nah 1:13 with Isa 47:6; Zep 2:13,15 with Isa 47:8; and Zep 2:14,15 with Isa 13:21,22.
• Nahum also alludes to the “whoredoms, witchcraft, etc” of “Babylon” (Nah 3:4,5,16 = Isa 47:3,9,15) when his subject is still the end of Nineveh.
• In the reign of Josiah, Pharaoh-necho went against “the king of Assyria” at Carchemish (2Ki 23:29) — actually Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
• Stephen interchanged “Damascus” and “Babylon” in Act 7:43.
• In Isa 13:19 and often in Isa 14, “Babylon” is represented as the supreme world-power, exercising a cruel tyranny over many nations and esp over Israel. But in Isaiah’s day, Babylon was either a conquered state of the Assyrian empire or was making sporadic attempts at rebellion from the Assyrian yoke. Thus the “Babylon” here must be “Nineveh/Assyria”.
• The kings of Assyria took special pride in their domination of Babylon. Sargon records as one of his royal titles: “Viceroy of the gods of Babylon”. Tiglath-pileser proudly called himself “King of Babylon”.

The first great rebel against God, after the Flood, was Nimrod, “a mighty one” and “a mighty hunter”. Nimrod (the name in the Heb means “rebel”) was prob responsible for the building of the tower of Babel (Gen 11) — the first great symbol of man’s pride and worship of self. In fact, the building of Babel, in Shinar, and the building of Nineveh, in Assyria, are both attributed to this “great” (?) man.

Gen 14 gives a brief but interesting account of a confederacy of four kings from the east which attacked five kings in the land of Canaan, in the days of Abram — ie approx 2000 BC. The four kings were headed in Gen 14:1 by Amraphael of Shinar, which is the land of Babylon. (Some think “Amraphael” is simply another name for Hammurabi, the almost-legendary ruler of early Babylon, who promulgated civilization’s first great law code.) This army defeated its enemies and carried away spoils and captives, among which was Abram’s nephew Lot, but Abram and his servants mounted a daring raid to recover his nephew and other captives.

The kingdom of Assyria established a dominance over the ancient city of Babylon during much of the period from 850 to 700 BC. But in the 7th century BC Babylon began to rise again, and finally the tables were turned and she came to surpass Assyria as the dominant power in the whole of the Middle East. This empire is called by historians the Neo-Babylonian Empire. In a series of campaigns, King Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar pushed back the Assyrians to the west and north and controlled the heartland of Mesopotamia. In 612 BC the Babylonians, aided by the Medes and the Scythians, destroyed the Assyrian capital of Nineveh (cp Nah 3). The retreating Assyrian army, bolstered by the armies of its former enemy Egypt, tried repeatedly to stem the tide, but in vain. In 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar, now at the head of the Babylonian forces, won a decisive victory at Carchemish on the northern Euphrates.

Judah, the southern Israelite kingdom with its capital at Jerusalem, now fell under the sway of Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki 24:1; 2Ch 36:1-10). From 605 to 586 BC Jewish kings continued to reign as “puppets” of the Babylonian overlord. But when the last, Zedekiah, attempted to reassert Jewish independence, Jerusalem was besieged and crushed by the Babylonians, assisted by legions from the neighboring Arab nations of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Syria, and the Philistines (2Ki 25:1-8; 2Ch 36:11-17; cp Jer 47-49). The city fell, the glorious Temple of Solomon — which had seen the very Presence of the Almighty — was left in ruins, some of the Jews were enslaved and carried away to Babylon, and others were scattered to the four winds (2Ki 25:9-17; 2Ch 36:17-20).

Babylon continued as the dominant power in the area, and as the oppressor and “treader-down” of Israel, until 539 BC, when it was conquered by the Medes and Persians of Cyrus. But the city itself was not destroyed; it became one of Cyrus’ capitals, and he appropriated to himself the coveted title “King of Babylon”. More than 200 years later, it was still a trading center of great importance when visited by Alexander the Great (IBD 1:246).

In fact, the city of Babylon was never really destroyed, but rather fell victim to a sort of benign neglect — sinking bit by bit, century by century, further into decay. There were, however, both Jews and Christians living in Babylon in NT times and beyond (cp 1Pe 5:13 and Josephus, Ant 15:2:2 and 18:9:5-9). A Jewish traveler of the 12th century reported, for example, that there existed an active synagogue within a mile of the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s temple of Marduk [M. Allen, “Benjamin of Tudela, Itinerary of”, Jewish Quarterly Review 17 (1905), 514-530]. It is historically confirmed that, from its beginnings, Babylon has never totally ceased to exist. This simple fact has tremendous impact on the interpretations of certain Bible prophecies.

Such prophecies speak of the fall of Babylon as one of the great events of the Last Days, and an event seemingly associated with the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on the earth again. To a certain extent, some prophecies (such as Jer 50 and 51) have already been fulfilled with the defeat of Babylon by Cyrus in 539 BC. Sometimes it is even proposed that Cyrus himself, as the conqueror of Babylon, was AN “Anointed One”, or “Christ”, sent by God to destroy evil Babylon (cp Isa 44:28; 45:1; Dan 6:28). There is certainly some merit in this idea. Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon did fulfill Bible prophecy. However, certain of the relevant prophecies may have a further fulfillment, since the NT prophecy about the fall of Babylon necessitates another fall of the city — a fall that is demonstrably yet future.

Some of the relevant OT prophecies are discussed in light of possible further fulfillment, and the Rev passages are examined for the best interpretation possible:

(1)	Isa 13: “The burden of Babylon” (v 1): Babylon will be destroyed by God’s “sanctified ones” (v 3) in “the day of the Lord”: “it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty” (v 6): “Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonian’s pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flocks there” (vv 19,20).
	It is true that, as v 17 states, God would stir up the Medes against Babylon. But history confirms that even after its defeat at the hands of Cyrus, Babylon continued to exist and to be inhabited. And so the precise prediction of vv 19, 20 has not been fulfilled as yet! Is it not likely, then, that the Medo-Persian conquest of Babylon, in the 6th century BC, was only an initial (and not a complete) fulfillment of this prophecy? And if so, that complete fulfillment yet remains for the last days.
(2)	Isa 14 continues in the same vein: At the time when Babylon falls, and when a taunt is taken up against the king of Babylon (vv 4,12) — at that very time — Israel will be especially blessed by God: “The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Aliens will join them and unite with the house of Jacob. Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the Lord’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors. On the day the Lord gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage…” (vv 1-3). It is true that the defeat of Babylon by the Medes and Persians led, after another few years, to the return of some Jews to Jerusalem. No doubt the return and rebuilding under Ezra and Nehemiah and Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest was A fulfillment of this and similar prophecies. But is it the ONLY, or even the FOREMOST, fulfillment? Or does a greater fulfillment await us in the Last Days? Notice the language: “they will… rule over their oppressors” (v 2) — that was not at all true of the Israel of Ezra’s day, who continued subservient to successive regimes of Persians and Greeks and Romans long centuries after Babylon’s defeat. And again, in v 3, “the Lord gives you relief from suffering… and… bondage” may point to more than the limited and temporary OT restoration of Israel.
(3)	Isa 47 and 48 picture a fall of Babylon: “The Lord… will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans” (Isa 48:14). At the same time the Lord will deliver His people who have been held captive there: “Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, ‘The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.’ They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out” (Isa 48:19,20). Fulfilled in the days of Nehemiah? Surely. Totally fulfilled then? Maybe not. Because a last-days (and miraculous) deliverance and return of Jewish believers — who will have evidently been carried into captivity by the Babylonian invaders — is alluded to in Isa 11:1-16; 19:23-25; 27:12,13; 35:1-10; 43:1-7; 52:1-10; and elsewhere.
(4)	Jer 50 and 51 is the most detailed prophecy of the fall of Babylon. And again, this passage was certainly fulfilled in 539 BC. But a number of verses suggest a future fulfillment: ” ‘In those days, at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the Lord their God. They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten’ ” (Jer 50:4,5). When in the past has Israel bound itself in a perpetual covenant to the Lord at Jerusalem, a covenant that cannot and will not be broken? Never. So these verses have yet to be fulfilled.
	” ‘But I will bring Israel back to their own pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan; his appetite will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead. In those days, at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare’ ” (Jer 50:19,20).
	Israel will experience true forgiveness only when they accept Jesus as their Messiah. That event is yet future.
	“Like a lion coming up from Jordan’s thickets to a rich pastureland, I will chase Babylon from its land in an instant. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? Who is like me and who can challenge me? And who is that shepherd who will stand before me?” (Jer 50:44). Only by a real stretch may such words be applied to Cyrus, the Old Testament conqueror of Babylon. But they are quite appropriate to Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:9,10; Rev 5:5; 10:3), the Good Shepherd (Isa 40:11; John 10:11), and the One “like God”!
(5)	Rev: The Apostle John wrote Revelation at least 600 years after the fall of the original city — so plainly there will be another fall of Babylon at the time of Christ’s coming (which is of course the main theme of Rev). Since the days of Luther, a common interpretation of Revelation has been to see in “Babylon” a mystical, or hidden, name for Rome. Thus the fall of “Babylon” is interpreted as the ultimate overthrow of the Apostate Church system centered in Rome. Roman Catholicism is demonstrably a corrupt system that, along with all other equally wicked systems, deserves to be, and will be, destroyed by Christ at his coming. But is that the best way to interpret “Babylon” in Revelation? It was the drying-up of the Euphrates River that led to the fall of ancient Babylon — this is suggested in Jer 50:38; 51:36 and confirmed by secular history: After the waters of the river were secretly diverted in the dead of night, enemy troops made their way along the empty river-channel right into the heart of the city, and Babylon fell. In Revelation, surely there is again a geographical and a cause-and-effect connection between the drying-up of the Euphrates River and the fall of Babylon in the Last Days (cp Rev 16:12 with Rev 16:17-21; 14:8)
	Consider that the Euphrates River and the historical Babylon were connected geographically. The drying-up of the one led, in the past, to the fall of the other. And there is only one “Babylon” through which the Euphrates River flows! So the case is strengthened for a more literal interpretation of the Babylon of Revelation — ie that it applies to the real city being rebuilt today, and to the nation occupying the ancient territory of Babylonia. And so the last chapters of Rev picture the defeat of a vicious and depraved Babylon, the hateful and cunning enemy of God’s people — coinciding with the complete victory of a spiritually renewed Jerusalem. The age-old conflict between the two cities — the one standing for sin and rebellion from practically the beginning of time, and the other standing for peace and righteousness — will come at last to a soul-satisfying conclusion. “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird… for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes” (Rev 18:2,5). “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem… It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal” (Rev 21:10,11).

The modern-day Iraq of Saddam Hussein occupies the same territory as the OT Neo-Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar. And the links between Saddam’s Iraq and Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon are even more pronounced, since for some time the government of Iraq has been involved in a massive archaeological reconstruction of ancient Babylon. The modern restoration of Babylon began in 1978 and was, at least until the gulf war began, scheduled for completion in 1994. There is no information about damage to the project from allied bombing of Iraq; but ancient Babylon, 40 miles of so south of Baghdad, is not known to be near any major strategic sites and so may have been spared.

As of February 1990, over 60 million bricks had been laid in the reconstruction of Nebuchadnezzar’s city. Despite the objections of archaeologists, Saddam Hussein has insisted on rebuilding directly over the most ancient ruins. His reconstruction includes the Southern Palace of Nebuchadnezzar, a Greek theater, many temples, Nebuchadnezzar’s Throne Room, and a model of the famed Ishtar Gate. He plans also to rebuild the legendary Hanging Gardens and several artificial hills, including one to be called “The Tower of Babel”. Why such infatuation with an idea? It has been said: “President Hussein’s decision to rebuild Nebuchadnezzar’s Palace… is the centerpiece of a campaign to strengthen Iraq’s nationalism by appealing to history… Mr. Hussein’s campaign also serves subtler ends; it justified Iraq’s costly war with Iran as the continuation of Mesopotamia’s ancient feud with Persia. And it portrayed Saddam Hussein as successor to Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s mightiest ruler” (Paul Lewis in the New York Times, April 19, 1989). And Saddam himself has referred to: “Nebuchadnezzar, the national hero who was able to defeat the enemies of our nation in the land of Canaan [Palestine, or Israel] and to take them as prisoners of war to Babylon. What we need now is to increase awareness in this regard” (quoted in the Babylonian International Festival brochure for September 22, 1987).

And so a rebuilt Babylon is Saddam’s way of conjuring up the magic of Arab unity and greatness, and authenticating his call for the Arab nations to help him accomplish what his hero Nebuchadnezzar accomplished before him: i.e. the destruction of a Jewish Jerusalem.

“The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up… The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air… God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath” (Rev 16:12,17,19).

“With a mighty voice he shouted: ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’ ” (Rev 18:2).

The whole prophetic narrative of the Bible is in many ways a tale of two cities: Babylon and Jerusalem. There are times when Babylon masquerades as Zion — a false city of God with a false Messiah leading her. And there are times when Zion in her apostasy has appeared as Babylon. But in the final conflict of the last days, these two cities will be literally pitted against each other. Zion will briefly succumb under the might and pride of Babylon, to rise again in eternal glory. It was in Babylon where Nimrod first built the tower of Babel, the first organized rebellion against God; and it was there that God first entered into open judgment of flesh and humanity en masse. And it is here likewise that His purpose with sin and His true people will likewise be fulfilled. Babylon was also called Su-anna, “the holy city”. Yet “the holy city” is Jerusalem, thus making Babylon a fake Zion. Herodotus says the city was square, just as new Jerusalem.

Unfulfilled Prophecies: “Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians’ pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah” (Isa 13:19). And yet Babylon was never suddenly overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah in their fiery destruction. It was conquered by the Medes and Persians and fell into decline, but it was not violently destroyed. Likewise: “The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and settle them in their own land… They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors… On the day the Lord gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!… All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing” (Isa 14:1-4,7).

When Babylon is ultimately destroyed, Israel will finally be at Peace and will dwell in safety. Israel has been a nation since 1948, but not for one day has the nation of Israel known real peace or ease. It has never been able to claim all the lands God promised the Israelites, and Israel’s Arab neighbors have been a constant threat and danger.

There is the assumption by many that all the OT prophecies about ‘Babylon’ were fulfilled in the overrunning of Babylon by the Medes. However, there are many details of those prophecies which did not have a total fulfillment, and thus what the Medes did as but a partial, incipient fulfillment of what is going to come in the last days. This also requires that ‘Babylon’ be understood as literal Babylon — for it was against her that the prophecies were uttered in the first place. And quite clearly, the prophecies of Revelation against ‘Babylon’ are extensions of those of the Old Testament. We therefore are encouraged to see the ‘Babylon’ of Rev as the Babylon of the prophets — ie literal Babylon.

Unfulfilled details, which require a latter day fulfillment:

• Literal Babylon decayed due to the ravages of time, whereas Babylon was to fall “suddenly” in her prime (Jer 51:8; Rev 18: “one hour”). This must be future in its fulfillment. Rev. 18:22; 14:8 both speak of “Babylon is fallen” as applying to a latter day scenario. And yet these words come directly from Isa 21:9 and Jer 51:8, prophecies about literal Babylon being destroyed suddenly — a destruction which is clearly future, seeing the city was never so suddenly destroyed in the past. The suddenness of the destruction is a keynote of these prophecies.
• It is not true that Babylon has been uninhabited “forever”. “The city of Babylon has never ceased to exist. Although its name was changed on two occasions, it has never been totally unpopulated. Hillah presently has 250,000 citizens and was built almost entirely of bricks from the parts of the old city of Babylon” (Joseph Chambers, A Palace For The Antichrist 146). Note too that the Babylonian Talmud was written by Jews living in Babylon in the 6th century AD. 1 Pet 5:13 implies there was even an ecclesia there in the first century.
• “For the Lord will have mercy upon Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them [the Babylonians], and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors” (Isa 14:1,2). This passage has never been fulfilled yet. It will be in the last days; and at this time, as Is. 14 goes on to detail, Babylon [literal Babylon, in the context] will fall.

Other prophecies about the sudden destruction of literal Babylon — which can only be latter day in their application — are also the basis for the words of Rev about latter day Babylon. Consider: (a) “Thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me: I shall not sit a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (Isa 47:8), compared with: “How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously…for she hath said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow” (Rev 18:7). (b) “But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood” (Isa 47:9), compared with: “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning” (Rev 18:8). (c) “Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up” (Isa 47:13), compared with: “For by thy sorceries…” (Rev 18:23).

The Babylon of Rev is the Babylon of Jeremiah and Isaiah, literal Babylon, which awaits her full punishment. This conclusion is strengthened once it is appreciated how the harlot Babylon of Rev 17, loud, gaudy, decked with jewelry and painted face, is replete with reference to Semiramis, the goddess / mother of Nimrod, and one of the patron gods of literal Babylon.

The antichrist is a mimic of the true Christ; his kingdom is a parody of God’s Kingdom. And the King of Babylon claiming “I am and none else beside me” are the very words of Yahweh — the King of Babylon is clearly to be identified with the man of sin, who sits as God in God’s temple (2Th 2). But the similarities run deeper. The Babylonian epic of creation is a parody of the Genesis account; the flood has its counterpart in the epic of Gilgamesh; and the Code of Hammurabi, an early ruler of Babylon, was clearly an anti-law of Moses. And Saddam Hussein’s supporters greet him as the Messiah of the Arab world (Chambers 45). Now Saddam may pass off the scene, but the point is that a similar charismatic leader could arise and be the antichrist.

The accounts of the latter day invasion of Israel all feature a single charismatic individual, who will be destroyed personally by the Lord Jesus at His coming. This is Paul’s “man of sin”, Daniel’s aggressive king of fierce countenance, Ezekiel’s Gog, the chief prince. It is also the person referred to by Micah: “And this man [Messiah] shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land” (Mic 5:1,2). The Lord Jesus will save His people in the latter days from an “Assyrian”. It has been shown that Assyria and Babylon are used almost interchangeably in Scripture. Gog was a Jew who apostatized and went to live in Assyria / Babylonia, according to 1Ch 5. This is why he has the appearance of spirituality; and he may even be an Arab Christian. 2Th 2 describes him as “the son of perdition”, exactly the phrase used about Judas, the false disciple of Jesus. Notice how Tariq Aziz [Iraqi foreign minister at the time of writing] and other leading members of the Iraqi cabinet are in fact Arab Christians, not Muslims.

(Adapted from LD, by DH)