"MYSTERY BABYLON"
“MYSTERY BABYLON"
Teaching from Jeremiah 50-51 and Revelation 17, 18 and 19)
April 19, 2020
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
We as a nation are facing an economic battle in the coming weeks. Like all the other battles this nation has faced, it will be fought in the realm of the spirit against powers and principalities. The beast system will unleash its full power to bankrupt our economy. If the “Church” will “faint not,” we will again defeat this full force of the dragon’s fury. It is the dragon who gives the beast it’s power.
There is a good end to this battle. Jesus Christ wins. I will give you the good news before I give you the bad news.
Christians who stay faithful and follow after the LORD during this next fiery trial will not lose their livelihood. It is a time to repent, consecrate and sanctify yourselves wholly unto the LORD. For Christians whose heart is pure before God, you will be promoted and increase in every area of your life.
In Revelation 19: 1-4, the collapse of godless rebellion and oppression on earth gives rise to jubilation in heaven. In chapter 18:20, the Holy Apostles and Prophets were told to rejoice over the destruction of Babylon. In chapter 18, we heard the woeful grieving of the kings, merchants and seamen who lost everything when Babylon fell. In chapter 19, the host of heaven is singing to us a Hallelujah chorus. This will surpass anything heard on earth and it comes in obedience to the command in 18:20: Rejoice over her (Mystery Babylon) all heaven, and holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
Rev. 19:1-4: After these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, to the Lord our God; For true and righteous are His judgments; for he has judged the great harlot, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and has avenged the blood of His servants; at her hand. And again, they said Alleluia. Her smoke rose up for ever and ever. The twenty-four elders and the four beasts fell down and worshiped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.
After these things, after which things? We have gone through a lot of tribulation in our nation. Through the plague, we have stood in prayer and faith crushing the head of the dragon wearing the crown of Coronavirus. God gave us the authority to crush His Head. He is the great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns with seven crowns upon his head (Rev. 12:3).
The attack on our economy is another head of the dragon from the beast of Rev. 13:1: I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Always keep in mind, the dragon gives the beast His authority.
The prophecies in Revelation also speak of “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
Rev 17:7And the angel said unto me,’ Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns.’
Jeremiah 50-51 and Isaiah 46-47 read almost word for word with Revelation 17, 18, and 19. Jeremiah’s prophecies are the prediction of the fall of the city Babylon, but also perpetual desolation of the spirit of Babylon. Mystery Babylon is the spirit of Babylon which means “confusion.” It is also rendered as “age of Bel the supreme deity of god in the Babylonian pantheon.” Babylon worshiped the god of Baal. Babylon was the most powerful financial center and powerful city of the world. The wealth of the spirit of Babylon continues to control the economies of the world/cosmos. The beast/world system carries her.
In Revelation 18: Babylon is presented in terms of the destruction of a great mercantile city---“what is here portrayed as not merely the doom of an ancient city, but the sure collapse of all human organization, commercial and otherwise, that leaves God out of its reckoning”. (Spenser)
18:1: After these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was a-light with His glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Jer. 51:7-8: Babylon has been a golden cup in the Lord’s Hand that made all of the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore, the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed; howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so, she may be healed.”
Next (Rev. 18:4) another voice from heaven calls upon the people of God to leave the doomed city in language drawn from Jeremiah 50:8; 51:6; Isa. 48:20; 52:11. We are not speaking of an ancient city today, but the financial system of the world that have left God out of their reckoning. It is an imperial dominion which sets itself against the Lord and against his anointed (Ps. 2:2).
Rev. 18: 4: And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, come out of her my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works; in the cup which she has filled fill to her double.”
Jeremiah 50:8: …Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the goats before the flocks.
Jeremiah 51:6: Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; he will render unto her recompense.”
This is a statement of the principle of retribution in human history which reoccurs throughout the Bible; with special reference to Babylon.
Jeremiah 50:15: Shout against her round about; she has given her hand; her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of the Lord; take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do unto her.
Rev. 18:7-8: How much she has glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her; for she says in her heart, I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore, shall her plagues come in one day…for mighty is the Lord who judges her.”
Isaiah 47:9: But these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; they shall come upon you in their perfection for the multitude of your sorceries, and for the great abundance of your enchantments.
Revelation 18: 8b: For strong is the Lord who judges her.
Rev. 18: 9-12: The Kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning. Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour is your judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buys their merchandise any more. The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine line, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thymine wood and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, brass, iron, and marble.”
Verses 1-19 is the lament by rulers and merchants who grew prosperous by their commerce with the great city (i.e. economic power and principality).
Our retail, service industry, and restaurant economy has been shut down for five (5) weeks.
Rev. 18:17: For in one hour so great riches is come to naught. And every ship-master, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What city is like unto this great city?’
Rev. 18:20: Rejoice over her, O heaven and you holy apostles and prophets; for God has avenged you on her.
Why would we rejoice? In the year 2020, New York City continues to wear the crown of the financial capital of the world. This week Governor Cuomo in his speech said God did not lessen the Coronavirus’ deaths. It was because they “the city” and him as governor did such a good job. This sounds like Pharaoh who was described as the dragon in his day.
Last week I heard a pundit say that if New York City does not recover from the Pandemic by Summer, it will no longer be the financial capital of the world. On 11/9/08, I wrote referring to New York City: "Jeremiah 51 is prophetic of Babylon being destroyed by the Medes and Persians under the leadership of Cyrus. The verses were partially fulfilled by Cyrus. However, some of them are prophetic of “Mystery Babylon” and its destruction. I believe the United States is under siege in the financial arena in the year 2008 by “Mystery Babylon.” I heard President Bush say today (11/9/08); 'New York City will always be the financial capital of the world.'"
We grieve for New York because we love the city. However, the government of New York State and New York City have left God out of their reckoning. The statue of Baal is in New York as well as a reproduction of the temple of Baal. Baal was the god of Babylon.
Queens Burroughs in New York has been hit the hardest with the Coronavirus. President Trump said this week, the Queens’ hospital floor is covered in body bags. She sits as a queen (Rev. 18:7).
Isa. 26:9: When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness”.
In the judgments of God, rightly considered, the people of God can properly rejoice, but they will rejoice with trembling, remembering that His judgments begin with the Household of God.
1 Peter 4:17: For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begins at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
Rev. 18:21: And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
This is a heavenly action exactly like the prophetic action performed by Jeremiah in obedience to the Word God:
51: 59-64: The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah, the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah (the brother of Baruch 31:12; 45:1)…So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all those words that are written against Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, ‘when you come to Babylon, and shall see, and shall read all these words; then shall you say, O lord, you have spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever. And it shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates. And you shall say, thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
Historical Babylon fell to Persia (50:1-3). The gods of Babylon were confounded by the prophecy of Babylon’s demise. The disaster came out of the “north,” a reference to Cyrus the Persian who took Babylon in 539 B.C. (Dan. 7:4-5).
Then we see the return of the exiles. Jer. 50: 4-7: In those days, and in that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and their children of Judah together, going and weeping; they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces hitherward, saying, Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.
The prophecy of the fall of Babylon is resumed (50: 8-16). The vast ancient city of Babylon on a branch of the Euphrates near the modern town of Hilla, southwest of Baghdad, was excavated by the Germans under Robert Koldewey (1899-1914) and later by Heinrich Lenzen. Its brilliant palaces, hanging gardens, temple tower, Ishtar Gate, walls and fortifications are now well known.
No nation, however mighty, can defy God with impunity!
Her prediction of “cast her up on heaps” was fulfilled after the destruction of Babylon. The people dug in the ruins for bricks which resulted in mounds that exist to this day. The prophecy of the drought upon her waters (38) was fulfilled when Cyrus ordered his troops to divert the Euphrates which was flowing through the city. This allowed Cyrus to march into the city in the dry river bed during the night of Belshazzar’s feast. (Dan. 5). Babylon was so completely ruined that she has no longer been inhabited by man. Her sole inhabitants are the wild creatures taking refuge in the holes and caves of her ruins.
We can take this prophetically to the present judgment of the financial systems of the world. We can look to see Israel come in to salvation through the acceptance of the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jer. 50:20: In those days, and in that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon them whom I reserve.”
Revelation 19: 1-5: And after these things, I heard a great voice of man people in heaven, sayings, Alleluia; salvation and glory, and honor, and power unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are his judgments: for he has judged the great harlot, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
Babylon is described as dwelling upon many waters (51:13). Because
she straddled the Euphrates and was surrounded by canals, dykes and marshes. Waters also symbolize people, or the turbulent masses of humanity.
Rev. 17:1 refers to those masses. “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto you the Judgment of the great harlot that sits upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made dunk with the wine of her fornication.”
This same language has been used to describe other cities such as Nineveh (Nah. 3:4), Tyre (Isa. 23:15), Samaria (Ezek. 23:5) and Jerusalem (Ezek. 16:15).
Jeremiah 51:13: O you that dwell upon many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, and the measure of your covetousness.
If prosperity is not proof of divine approval, neither does it arouse divine envy. But godlessness brings on its own nemesis, and where godlessness is conjoined with the unconscionable exploitation of the innocent, underprivileged and the persecution of the righteous, noting but timely and whole-hearted repentance can avert the death-sentence. Where, however, the sins of civilization reach their utmost limit and there is no further room for repentance, the judgment falls with the decisiveness of the millstone.
The collapse of godless rebellion and oppression on earth gives rise to jubilation in heaven. For mortal men the vindication of God’s righteousness is a sobering spectacle. For there is none who is not liable to His judgment in some degree. If you, O lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?
But saints and angels in heaven with purified vision see this lower world in the light of God’s glory through the Blood of Jesus.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V., Text from F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary (F.F. Bruce) and Principles of Present Truth of Jeremiah by: Kelly Varner. Comments and conclusions are my own. Babylon by Carolyn Sissom 3/3/2009.