Isaiah on Babylon

by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2014, all rights reserved.

Chapter 1

Isaiah speaks about Babylon in Isaiah chapter 13.

Here is the narrative from the Holy Bible, Hoehn Version, (Amazon.com).

___Isaiah chapter 13

1 The burden of Babylon, that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

2 Lift up a banner on the high mountain, exalt the voice to them, shake the hand, so they can go into the gates of the nobles.

3 I've commanded my ones who've been made holy, I've also called my mighty ones for my anger, even those who rejoice in my highness.

4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like of a great people, a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together, the Lord of hosts musters the host of the battle.

5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

6 Howl, for the day of the Lord is at hand, it shall come like a destruction from the Almighty.

7 Therefore all hands shall be faint, and every man's heart shall melt,

8 And they'll be afraid, pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them, they'll be in pain like a woman in childbirth, they'll be amazed at each other, their faces shall be like flames.

9 See, the day of the Lord comes, cruel both with anger and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he'll destroy its sinners out of it.

10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations of it shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened in its going out, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine.

11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their sin, and I'll cause the arrogance of the proud to stop, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

12 I'll make a man more precious than fine gold, a man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.

13 Therefore I'll shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of its place, in the anger of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

14 And it shall be like the chased roe, and like a sheep that no man takes up, every man shall turn to his own people, and flee everyone into his own land.

15 Everyone that is found shall be thrust through, and everyone that is joined to them shall fall by the sword.

16 Their children also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes, their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives raped.

17 See, I'll stir up the Medes against them, who won't regard silver, and as for gold, they won't delight in it.

18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces, and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb, their eye won't spare children.

19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellence, shall be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 It shall never be inhabited, nor shall it be lived in from generation to generation, nor shall the Arabian pitch tents there, nor shall the shepherds make their fold there.

21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall live there, and satyrs shall dance there.

22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces, and her time is coming close, and her days shall not be prolonged.

Chapter 2

Babylon was the headquarters of an important king, Nebuchadnezzar.  (Sometimes called Nebuchadrezzar.)

Babylon was in Chaldea.

It was the Chaldeans that took Israel captive to Babylon.  One of those taken was the Prophet Daniel, who wrote the book of Daniel in the Old Testament.

Also, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

The Babylonian captivity happened because of the disobedience of Israel to God.  The Lord brought various other nations against Israel when they disobeyed Him.

But the Babylonian captivity lasted for around seventy years.

Folks like Ezra and Nehemiah, who each have books in the Old Testament, went and rebuilt Jerusalem, and Israel returned to their land.

In modern times, it was said that Saddam Hussein intended to rebuild the Chaldean Babylon, but Hussein sort of ran into a roadblock by getting himself hung, after being found guilty in an Iraqi court of law.

At the time of his strength, some would probably have said that Saddam Hussein couldn’t be brought down, but God has ways of changing things.

Isaiah says in verse 20, above, that Babylon shall never be inhabited.

It might have been good for Saddam if he had bothered to read the above chapter in Isaiah.  Perhaps it would have prevented him from getting a dumb idea like rebuilding Babylon.

But then it’s hard to teach wisdom to someone who has no use for God.  One of Saddam’s staff, at one of their meetings, made a recommendation that Hussein didn’t like, so Hussein went with the man to a back room where Hussein shot the offending man.

Nebuchadnezzar had his day at Babylon, but after a while Nebuchadnezzar’s time went away.

The Bible says God puts one down, and sets up another.

Jesus said, “What is your life? It’s a puff of smoke that appears for a while, and then vanishes away.”

Babylon’s time will not return because the Prophet Isaiah has told us so.

But there’s another Babylon mentioned in the book of Revelation, chapter 14.  There, an angel announces, “Babylon has fallen.”

When John, the revelator, wrote that, he was seeing into the future.  But how can Babylon fall in the future if Babylon will never be rebuilt?

It’s because the Babylon talked about there in Rev 14, is not the Babylon that was in Chaldea.

There’s another example of representing a city by a different name in Revelation 11:8, “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, that spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.”

And where was our Lord crucified?  In Jerusalem.  So we see Jerusalem being referred to as Sodom and Egypt.

Now look down at Rev chapt 17.  We see that Babylon is also “the great whore that sits on many waters.”

The great whore is a city that sits on seven hills.

The only major city in the world, that I’m aware of, that sits on seven hills, is Rome.

And what else do we know about Rome?  It is the headquarters of the Catholic church.  (At Vatican City, adjacent to Rome).

So I suspect that the great whore that sits on the waters (and the waters represent people), which is also Babylon, is the Catholic church.

The Catholic church, of course, has a prayer called, “The Rosary.”  Two big things wrong with the Rosary are that it is prayed using prayer beads.  The person says the prayer, then moves a bead over, then prays the Rosary again for as many prayer beads as there are.

Seems like the Muslims also use prayer beads.

But Jesus said, “When you pray, don’t use vain repetition like the heathen do, for they think that they’ll be heard for their much speaking.”

Why would you use vain repetition, when Jesus said not to?

The other big thing wrong with praying the Rosary is that it is addressed to Mary.  Thus, to pray the Rosary is to commit the sin of idolatry, in violation of the Ten Commandments of Exodus, chapter twenty.

But a while back, David Wilkerson wrote a book.  I think it’s in his book, “The Vision,” where he predicts the merging of the Catholic church with some of the Protestants.  Perhaps this will happen before the fall of Babylon in the book of Revelation.

So then, perhaps the Babylon of Revelation (also called the great whore that sits on the waters) is this united church of Catholics and Protestants that Wilkerson predicted.

If you happen to be alive when that merging takes place, don’t be a part of that church.

___James chapter 1

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are dispersed around, greetings.

2 My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations,

3 Knowing this, that the testing of your faith works patience.

4 But let patience have its perfect work, so you'll be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God for it, who gives to all men liberally, and won't find fault, and it shall be given to him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.  For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.

7 For let that man not think that he'll receive anything from the Lord.

8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted,

10 But the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he'll pass away.

11 For the sun has no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower of it falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for after he's been tested, he'll receive the crown of life, that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any man,

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then when lust has conceived, it produces sin, and sin when it's finished, produces death.

16 Do not err, my beloved brothers.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.

18 He chose to father us with the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

19 So, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger,

20 For the anger of man doesn't accomplish the righteousness of God.

21 So, lay apart all filthiness and the unnecessary naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man seeing his natural face in a mirror,

24 For he sees himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

25 But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26 If any man among you seems to be religious, and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is for nothing.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

___James chapter 2

1 My brothers, don't have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

2 For if a man with a gold ring comes to your assembly in fancy clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes comes in also,

3 And you have respect to him that wears the fancy clothes, and say to him, "Sit here in a good place," and say to the poor, "Stand there, or sit here under my footstool,"

4 Aren't you then partial in yourselves, and have become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my beloved brothers, hasn't God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

6 But you have despised the poor.  Don't rich men oppress you, and bring you before the judgment seats?

7 Don't they blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called?

8 If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor like yourself," you do well,

9 But if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as sinners.

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

11 For he that said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not kill."  Now if you don't commit adultery, yet if you kill, you've become a breaker of the law.

12 Speak in such a way, and do, as those who'll be judged by the law of liberty.

13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has shown no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment.

14 What does it profit, my brothers, though a man says he has faith, and doesn't have works?  Can faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister needs clothes, and lacks daily food,

16 And one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you don't give them the things that are needed for the body, what good is that?

17 Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead, being alone.

18 Yes, a man could say, "You have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works."

19 You believe that there is one God, you do well, the devils also believe, and tremble.

20 But don't you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son on the altar?

22 Do you see how faith worked with his deeds, and by works faith was made perfect?

23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God."

24 You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

25 Likewise also wasn't Rahab the prostitute justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

26 For like the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

___James chapter 3

1 My brothers, don't be many masters, knowing that we'll receive the greater condemnation.

2 For in many things we offend all.  If any man doesn't offend in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

3 See, we put bits in the horses' mouths, so they'll obey us, and we turn around their whole bodies.

4 Look also at the ships, which though they're so large, and are driven by fierce winds, yet they're turned around by a very small helm, wherever the captain wants.

5 Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things.  See how great a matter a little fire kindles!

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of sin, so is the tongue among our members that it makes dirty the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.

7 For every kind of animals, and of birds, and of snakes, and of things in the sea, gets tamed, and has been tamed by mankind,

8 But no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With it we bless God, the Father, and with it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God.

10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be.

11 Does a fountain send out at the same place sweet water and bitter?

12 Can the fig tree, my brothers, produce olive berries?  Or a vine, figs?  So no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh.

13 Who is a wise man, possessing knowledge among you?  Let him show out of a good lifestyle his works with meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, don't glory, and don't lie against the truth.

15 This wisdom doesn't descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be reasoned with, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is planted in peace by those who make peace.

___James chapter 4

1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from?  Don't they come from your lusts that war in your members?

2 You lust, and don't have, you kill, and desire to have, and can't obtain, you fight and war, yet you don't have, because you don't ask.

3 You ask, and don't receive, because you ask wrongly, so you can consume it on your lusts.

4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.

5 Do you think that the scripture says for nothing, "The spirit that lives in us lusts to envy?"

6 But he gives more grace.  So he says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he'll run away from you.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and cry, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift you up.

11 Don't speak evil about each other, brothers.  He that speaks evil about his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil about the law, and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy, who are you that judges someone else?

13 Go on now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we'll go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and make a profit,"

14 Actually, you don't know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is a puff of steam, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

15 For you ought to say, "Lord willing, we'll live, and do this, or that."

16 But now you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil.

17 Therefore to him that knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.

___James chapter 5

1 Go on now, you rich men, cry and howl for your miseries that shall come on you.

2 Your riches are corrupted, and your clothes are moth eaten.

3 Your gold and silver are rusted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire.  You've heaped treasure together for the last days.

4 See, the wages of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which you've kept back by fraud, shouts, and the shouts of those who've reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.

5 You've lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, you've nourished your hearts, like in a day of slaughter.

6 You've condemned and killed the just, and he doesn't resist you.

7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.  See, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and latter rain.

8 You also be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is getting near.

9 Don't grudge against each other, brothers, so you won't be condemned, see, the judge stands at the door.

10 Take, my brothers, the prophets, who've spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

11 See, we count them happy that endure.  You've heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

12 But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, not by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, so that you don't fall into condemnation.

13 Is anyone among you afflicted?  Let him pray.  Is anyone merry?  Let him sing psalms.

14 Is anyone sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven.

16 Confess your faults to each other, and pray for each other so you'll be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man is does a lot of good.

17 Elijah was a man subject to the same kind of passions that we are, and he prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

19 Brothers, if any of you strays from the truth, and someone converts him,

20 Let him know, that he that converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.