And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa. 13:19).
This is a promise of prophecy, a prediction, to be fulfilled in history.
I was walking over the ruins of Babylon. There they were, the foundations of the ancient palaces, the hanging gardens, the impregnable walls, the great temple, or ziggurat, the great avenues of victory. But they were all a great ruin.
I found exactly what Isaiah had prophesied. Babylon, "the golden city of a golden age," lay in vast disorder with no human inhabitant within its ancient walls. Its worldwide commerce was gone, its terrible armies vanished into the mists of time.
King Nebuchadnezzar had looked out over his world capital and said, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Dan. 4:30). But now it is only a memory and a name. The history of this world is really "a tale of two cities," Babylon and Jerusalem. Ancient Babylon declared war against God's people and God's city, Jerusalem. But Babylon collapsed and is forgotten in its grave of the past, from which no Gabriel of future history will ever call it forth to pleasant memories. It is indeed like Sodom and Gomorrah. Any nation, any city, any man, that forgets God and opposes God's plan for this world is on the road to ruin.
Great Pharaoh's hosts with tossing plumes,
Like echoes now in empty rooms,
All Assyria's marching death,
But a memory and a breath.
Babylon and her golden strand,
The place, the name, and drifting sand.
MEDITATION PRAYER: "But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee" (Ps. 55:23).
This is a promise of prophecy, a prediction, to be fulfilled in history.
I was walking over the ruins of Babylon. There they were, the foundations of the ancient palaces, the hanging gardens, the impregnable walls, the great temple, or ziggurat, the great avenues of victory. But they were all a great ruin.
I found exactly what Isaiah had prophesied. Babylon, "the golden city of a golden age," lay in vast disorder with no human inhabitant within its ancient walls. Its worldwide commerce was gone, its terrible armies vanished into the mists of time.
King Nebuchadnezzar had looked out over his world capital and said, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Dan. 4:30). But now it is only a memory and a name. The history of this world is really "a tale of two cities," Babylon and Jerusalem. Ancient Babylon declared war against God's people and God's city, Jerusalem. But Babylon collapsed and is forgotten in its grave of the past, from which no Gabriel of future history will ever call it forth to pleasant memories. It is indeed like Sodom and Gomorrah. Any nation, any city, any man, that forgets God and opposes God's plan for this world is on the road to ruin.
Great Pharaoh's hosts with tossing plumes,
Like echoes now in empty rooms,
All Assyria's marching death,
But a memory and a breath.
Babylon and her golden strand,
The place, the name, and drifting sand.
MEDITATION PRAYER: "But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee" (Ps. 55:23).
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