Tales of the cities

When Satan developed his plan of rebellion, He then went and merchandised that among the other angels. It was the selling of his plan and the promise of riches and positions of honor and crowns associated with it.

In the earth, the city of Tyre was a main vehicle through which he spread worldwide the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life.

Isaiah 23: [1] The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.
[2] Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.

They’re this seafaring people who carry merchandise around the world and they’re making people rich because of it, explains Richard Jordan.

[3] And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations. There’s the first Wal-Mart.

The destruction of Tyre and Zidon is going to bring sadness and gloom to EVERYWHERE that they’ve been. Their supply chain has been cut off. Their ability to sell their wares and to import things.

Verse 7: [7] Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.

It’s a city that brought joy to the whole world and they had a great ancient history of doing so.

This crowning city. It’s not a crown OF a city; it’s a crowning, an adverb. This is a city that crowns other people, distributes wealth.

Tyre was the place that went around and spread the wealth, spread honor, so when it goes away it destroys the economy of the world.

Verse 9: [9] The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.

God said Tyre is going to be destroyed. Why would He do that?

Ezekiel 26: [1] And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
[2] Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste:

When Tyre heard about Nebuchadnezzar coming in and laying Jerusalem captive, they said, “Aha, look at what He did to them! Now we’re going to prosper!”

[3] Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
[4] And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
[5] It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.

In fact, if you go to verse 12: [12] And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.

I mean, they’re just going to destroy this place right down to a nub.

Verse 13: [13] And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.

They’ve got riches, merchandise, commerce, protected cities, luxurious homes, entertainment, songs, harps, the music and instruments. They’ve got a luxurious culture and God says, “I’m going to destroy it.”

Verse 14: [14] And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
[15] Thus saith the Lord GOD to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?

You’re going to be a bare piece of rock. I’m going to sink you and people are going to fish on top of you.

Why is God against Tyre? What did they do? They spoke against Jerusalem: “Aha, she’s broken down.”

There’s a covenant God made with Israel: “Them that bless thee I’ll bless and them that curse thee, I’ll curse.” The reciprocity of the Abrahamic Covenant is any nation that curses Israel God’s going to curse.

In Isaiah 13-23 you’ll find every nation in there He curses because of the Abraham Covenant.

In Isaiah, when it talks about the ancient culture, Ezekiel calls it the “ancient hatred.” They have this ancient jealousy of the Abrahamic Covenant and God punishes them for that.

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In the coming tribulation period, when the Antichrist deceives the whole world into believing he’s God and Jesus Christ is the devil, the rebuilt city of Babylon (inside present-day Iraq) will once again be a mighty world power, i.e., a great commercial, political, banking and religious center in the world.

Satan, as the Assyrian Antichrist, will make Babylon the capital of his kingdom just as God chooses for Himself Jerusalem, meaning the whole of the “end-times” skirmish for Planet Earth will revolve around these two cities!

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The land of the ancient city of Babylon is site of the modern city of Hilla, Iraq, which is 40-50 miles south of Baghdad and on the Euphrates River. Its name was changed back around the 10^th century.

The reality is there is both a “mystery Babylon” and a literal city of Babylon in the Bible. References to the literal city can be found, in part, in Revelation 14:8, Revelation 16:19 and Revelation 18.

In Isaiah 47:5, Babylon is called “the lady of kingdoms,” and she’s the mother of harlots who goes out and prostitutes all of the cities of the earth. But that doesn’t eliminate the literal Babylon, which will actually be the headquarters for mystery Babylon, the religious system, in the “last days.”

While theologians continue to refer to Rome and/or the European Common Market as playing into “last days” prophecy, the ten nations through whom the Antichrist gains his ascendancy are in Palestine. They’re in the Mediterranean, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Persia, and that part of the world, not in Europe. There are no Europeans at all!

These so-called prophecy scholars get the idea Babylon will never be rebuilt from Isaiah 1:-9, which reads, “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.”

But as we know from history, ancient Babylon wasn’t destroyed suddenly, it just sort of wasted away and fell into oblivion and disrepair.

The Bible says in three different places (Jeremiah 49:18 and Jeremiah 50:40 are the other two verses) that when God overthrows Babylon, it will be like when He overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Obviously this predicted overthrow hasn’t yet been fulfilled.

The final overthrow of Babylon is repeatedly synchronized in prophetic Scripture with the restoration of the nation Israel by God into her kingdom.

In Jeremiah 50, for example, the description of Babylon’s future destruction is connected with the fact God’s going to bring Jerusalem back and establish it as His city. As God destroys Babylon, He Himself comes to reside in Jerusalem.

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To know just what kind of dominant world power Babylon will become, many insights can be found in Revelation 18. Verse 3 says, “The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” Verse 9 says the kings of the earth have “lived deliciously with her.”

“And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more,” reads the chapter starting in verse 11. “The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

“And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

“And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

“The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

“And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

“For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, 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!

“And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.”

Obviously, Babylon’s going to have concourse with the kings of the world and be a mega-political power and commercial center that pumps wealth into the earth.

As Jordan summarizes, “The first worldwide apostasy (Gen.10) started from there, and the last one centers up there. You name it, they got it. They’ve got everything from gold to the souls of men.”

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On April 22, 2006, exactly nine years ago today, the front page of the New York Times carried a disturbing photo of a 21-year-old Islamic Jihad suicide bomber who killed nine people the day before at a falafel restaurant in Tel Aviv. Next to it was a story about rebuilding modern-day Babylon to rival its former power and splendor.

“One day millions of people will visit Babylon,” assured Donny George, head of Iraq’s board of antiquities, in the Times story. “I’m just not sure anybody knows when.”

An official with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which was said to be currently “pumping millions of dollars into protecting and restoring Babylon,” predicted in the article that “cultural tourism could become Iraq’s second biggest industry, after oil.”

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As the Times informed, both United Nations officials and Iraqi leaders were “working assiduously to restore Babylon, home of the Seven Wonders of the World, and turn it into a cultural center and possibly even an Iraqi theme park.”

“Factories are churning, Iraqi security forces are patrolling and the streets pulsate with life—children bounding to school, crowds wading into markets, taxis gliding by,” reported the Times. “Emad lafta al-Bayati, Hilla’s mayor, has big plans for Babylon. ‘I want restaurants, gift shops, long parking lots,’ he said. God willing, he added, maybe even a Holiday Inn.”

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Jordan says preachers and others will look at Paul’s warnings about the “last days” and say the events we’re seeing in the Middle East today represent “shadows” of end-times prophetic events.

“The little caveat preachers like to use is, ‘Well, maybe it’s a shadow,’ and maybe it is—I don’t know,’ ” says Jordan. “I do know that Jerusalem has to be in the land of Palestine before the Antichrist can ‘rescue’ them. I know they have to have a temple in order for it to be destroyed, so that isn’t there yet. That still has to be rebuilt.”

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Specifically, Paul warns in II Tim. 2: 3-9 “that in the last days perilous times shall come.

[2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
[3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
[4] Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
[5] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
[6] For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
[7] Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
[8] Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
[9] But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.”

Jordan says of this passage, “Notice there’s not a thing in that list that couldn’t fit today. You say, ‘Does that means it’s the last days?’ Yep, sure does. You look down through that list and there are general moral and spiritual conditions of declension that are true in any age.

“You know why it is that way? These are general trends, because at any time the Lord could come and take away the Body of Christ. It’s a mystery age and the conclusion of it is a mystery too.

“So when you look around and think, ‘Boy, things are so bad the Lord’s just gotta come,’ that’s what you’re supposed to think! You’re not supposed to look around and say, ‘Man, things are so good, the Lord could leave us here for another 5,000 years anyway!’ You’re supposed to be conscious of the imminence of His coming at any moment.”