After the Great Flood, Nimrod, a grandson of Noah’s son Ham, built a number of cities in Mesopotamia. One of them was Babel, which means Gate of the Gods. Babel became the great city of Babylon. Its center of worship was the Tower of Babel.
The citizens of Babel said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name.” Genesis 11:4 Let us build for ourselves, let us make for ourselves a name, expresses the spirit of human civilization.
The religion of Babel, Gate of the Gods, was polytheistic. Babel, with its Tower, was probably the religious center for all of Mesopotamia. A tower whose top will reach into heaven, was the goal.
The seed of their religion was sown in the Garden of Eden by the fallen angel, Satan. He spoke through the serpent, the most most crafty of the wild beasts in Eden. Its appearance then was much different from that of the present day snake. “You will be like God,” (not Godlike), said the serpent to Eve. Genesis 3:1-5
Isaiah prophesied concerning Satan, “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” Isaiah 14:12-14
Ezekiel also prophesied concerning Satan, “You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering….you were on the holy mountain of God, you walked in the midst of the stones of fire, you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.” Ezekiel 28:12-15
The Apostle John, in Revelation, describes the evil one. “The great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” Revelation 12:9
From out of Babylon spread polytheistic religion involving worship of the sun, moon, and stars, human sacrifice, the use of little boys and girls as temple prostitutes, sexual perversions and venereal diseases. An example of polytheistic religion is India’s with its 330 million gods and even a temple dedicated to rats.
We like to think that today’s Western Civilization is far advanced and better. But Godlessness takes many forms. We don’t need the god Moloch to get rid of our babies. We have abortion clinics now. Nor do we need cult prostitutes in order to practice sexual perversion. Human trafficking of children used for perverted sexual abuse is a growing international industry, the US having a major part in it.
The dream of Babel is still with us. President Johnson’s “Great Society” has evolved into President Bush’s “One World Order.” We even have our own Tower of Babel, radio telescopes sending messages out into space. In 2010, the United Nations appointed Dr. Mazien Othman, an astrophysicist from Malaysia, as Earth’s Alien Greeter. Contact with fallen angels, devils, and demons is nothing new.
King Solomon, one of the wisest of men, said, “Is there anything of which one might say, ‘See this, it is new?’ Already it has existed for ages which were before us. There is no remembrance of earlier things; and also of the later things which will occur, there will be for them no remembrance among those who will come later still.’” Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 Solomon was right. We do not learn from history; nor does education or refinement change the human heart. For those of us who were alive in the 1940’s, we remember the horror of the Holocaust perpetrated by Germany and ignored by other “enlightened” nations of Western Civilization.
Solomon, who had experienced just about all that the world could offer, realized the futility of it all. We may feel the same way if we look just at man’s city. But there is more, much more. There is the City of God; and what is so wonderful is that God is building the foundation of His City right here on earth; and He has purposed that a Man should build it, that Man being His Son, the Seed of the woman.
Noah would have preserved, through the Flood, a record of mankind’s history. Even in Godless Mesopotamia, there were those who knew the Truth of God. Abraham was one of them. Why God chose Abraham to be the father of His chosen people, the nation that would bring forth His Messiah, is hidden in the counsel of His sovereign Wisdom.
God told Abraham to go out of his country and from his people to a land that God would show him. The obedience of Abraham’s faith lay in the fact that he was not satisfied with man’s city. “He was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Hebrews 11:10 God’s city has a foundation, that which is true and eternal. Godless civilization is founded on a lie, the lie sown in Eden. Its end is “a tale full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
God’s city was going to be man’s city because God’s Son of Man was going to be its foundation. The Incarnation, God become flesh, was no afterthought. Yes, sinful man, having fallen short of the Glory of God, had to be delivered from sin, but that was just the beginning, a means to an end, that end being Godlikeness.
In the nation of Israel, God was preparing a body for Himself. Hebrews 10:5, Septuagint Translation The role of Israel in God’s economy was not easy. They were given rigid laws to follow, separated from other nations, and disciplined severely. Their role was to bring Salvation to the human race which, in the fullness of time, was finally accomplished in the birth of the virgin Mary’s holy Son. God had promised Abraham that through his Seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
The Land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was not possessed by their descendants for many years. Even under the leadership of Moses’ successor, Joshua, Israel failed to fully possess the Land that God had given them. But the tribe of Judah, from which the name Jew comes, possessed Jerusalem through David; and David’s son Solomon was permitted to build the Temple that his father David had planned.
Yes, the sons and daughters of Israel were scattered among the nations, as God warned them that they would be. Now they have been gathered, by God, back into their land, as God promised that they would be.
“Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed: ‘Let us tear their fetters apart, and cast away their cords from us!’” God’s answer is, “I have installed My King upon Zion, my holy mountain.” Psalm 2:1-6
Zechariah prophesied, “It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.” Zechariah 12:3
Why is Jerusalem at the heart of the world’s political unrest and war? Because our ancient enemy, that fallen angel, Satan, who would be like God, knows that his time is short, that the true King of the Earth, God’s human Son, is coming back to set up His Kingdom in Zion, on His holy mountain.
When Jesus ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives, two men, in white clothing, appeared to the disciples and said to them, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:10-11
Before Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead, he warned His disciples, “Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:34-36
God is building His Eternal City, and it is to be mankind’s city. God is building it with human hearts and hands. He used the nation of Israel to establish Jerusalem as His capital here on earth. Jerusalem’s Temple was just a symbol and promise of the real and true Temple of God.
To those who were determined to do away with Him, Jesus said, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up,” speaking of the Temple of His Body. John 2:19 We were made to be filled with all of the fullness of God. Jesus realized this in His own Being, and died to make it possible for each one of us to be a part of that Temple, to be a dwelling place for God. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our home with him.” John 14:23
The Apostle Peter tells us that we are to be living stones in that heavenly Temple. 1 Peter 2:5 He quotes from Isaiah 28:16, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.” (in haste, panic, ashamed).
Jesus, the Man from Heaven, and of our own flesh and blood, is the Cornerstone of the foundation of God’s Temple. All who trust in Him, as God’s sure foundation, need not be disturbed or panic about what we see happening in man’s city today because God’s promises have been made secure by His living Cornerstone. “This is the Lord’s doing; and it is marvelous in our eyes.” Psalm 118:23
It was no accident that Jesus was a carpenter. How beautifully His hands would have finished a piece of wood. Later on in His life, those hands touched and healed broken, marred, and dead human bodies. His Holy Spirit is calling us to join Him, to become a living stone in His Father’s Temple, the City of God, the New Jerusalem.
Rosemary E Hyslop November 14, 2013