Nebuchadrezzar, aka Nebuchadnezzar, was not the kind of
person that one would think God would call his servant, but in fact he did.
There are many instances where God does use bad people for good. That does not mean
God is sending the evil, the devil does that. As we have studied, God is not
beating us up. God does use the evil within people as a resource to produce a
better result. The devil has schemes and plans, and accuses us before the throne
day and night. As we recently studied the four horsemen are keeping peace on
the earth. Underneath the relative peace are evil plans for people. If one of
those plans can be used for an intended purpose, God will allow it. For example,
God used Nimrod to scatter the people over the earth. That is what God told
people to do after the flood, but instead they did not spread out. Nimrod built
a city and tower, and became a self-appointed ruler/god to the people as we
studied last week. Because the people didn’t move out over the earth, God moved
them by confusing their language. It is interesting because while it seemed
like a bad thing to the people, it was really a good thing. God wanted people
to rely on him, not rely on other men. Our example of someone who relied on God
is Abraham. Abraham moved quite a number of times all by God’s direction to
avoid famine and drought. See the Book of Jasher. Today, people simply can’t
move if there is a drought, our system of living has become like Babylon, and
our dependence towards men and government has grown.
Another clear example we have is Joseph. Joseph’s
brothers were mad that Joseph had dreams and visions of his brothers bowing to
him, and that he seemed to be his father’s favorite son. Yet God used Jacob’s
son’s bad behavior to actually save their descendants. The many years Joseph
spent imprisoned or as a servant were quite painful. However, it prepared him
for his own future and the future of God’s people.
Gen 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but
God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much
people alive. KJV
Even though Nebuchadrezzar seemed like a crazy man, God
used him to fulfil his purpose. If you remember, there was male prostitution in
the temple in Jerusalem alongside the glory of God for about 300 years. While
God is merciful, he wanted the people to look to him for their sufficiency. He
told the people through Jeremiah that they would go into captivity for 70
years.
Jer 25:8-14 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts;
Because ye have not heard my words,9 Behold, I will send and take all the
families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of
Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the
inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will
utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and
perpetual desolations.10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and
the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride,
the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.11 And this whole land
shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the
king of Babylon seventy years.12 And it shall come to pass, when seventy years
are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation,
saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will
make it perpetual desolations.13 And I will bring upon that land all my words
which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book,
which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.14 For many nations and
great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them
according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands. KJV
God took the northern kingdoms, who were already in
captivity, and Nebuchadrezzar, to make Judah a desolation. Why? Because Judah
did not hear God’s words. The root problem which started with Nimrod was that people
were not hearing God’s words. Oh, really they heard God’s words, but they did
not heed them. Instead of doing what God said, they did what they wanted. That
is the key to understanding the world system of Babylon. There is no
compromising or negotiations with God, we humans can either obey or not. Not
obeying comes with consequences, while obedience comes with blessing.
Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah. He speaks of the
Chaldeans as bitter and hasty people who take possession of land that is not
theirs. Yet, don’t miss this, God raised them up.
Hab 1:5-7 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and
wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not
believe, though it be told you.6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter
and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess
the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.7 They are terrible and dreadful: their
judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. KJV
God used the Chaldeans for a purpose, someone needed to
destroy the temple that had been so horribly defiled. Baruch tells us that is
what the Chaldeans did.
Bar 1:1-2 And these are the words of the book, which
Baruch the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, the son of Sedecias, the son of
Asadias, the son of Chelcias, wrote in Babylon,2 In the fifth year, and in the
seventh day of the month, what time as the Chaldeans took Jerusalem, and burnt
it with fire. KJV
It was the plan of God to put the people in a position to
cry out to him. God wanted a personal relationship with his people, but people
either turned to idols or became atheists. Abraham is our example, and even
ancient people would put Abraham on a pedestal by claiming that Abraham was
their father (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), yet Abraham did not have laws to live
by, he lived by a heart relationship with God. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had a
personal relationship with God. That should be our example today. When 70 years
in captivity in Babylon was over, God used Cyrus to bring them back.
Isa 44:24-45:3 Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he
that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that
stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by
myself;25 That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that
turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;26 That
confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his
messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities
of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:27
That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:28 That saith of Cyrus,
He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to
Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be
laid. 45:1 Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right
hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of
kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be
shut;2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will
break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:3 And I
will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places,
that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God
of Israel. KJV
How strange, God used a guy who didn’t worship him to
bring his people back to Jerusalem. God even called him his shepherd and said
Cyrus was anointed. When Cyrus invaded Babylon and saw he was already written
about, he was quite impressed with the God of Israel. Can you imagine opening a
scroll only to find your name written in it from two hundred years ago, saying
you are God’s shepherd? I would want to know who this God is who is writing
about me.
Just in case we don’t recognize shadows and types, there
is a big one here we should look at. Last week we read about Babylon being
destroyed in the tribulation time period by the Medes, Isaiah 13. At the time
of the writing Persia was called Elam. Elamites were originally descendants of
Shem, we don’t know if Shemites still dwelt there in the time period of
Babylon’s conquest when the Jews were finished with their 70 years of
captivity. Elam is what we know as Persia. Cyrus was a Mede from his mother’s
side and a Persian from his father’s side. Cyrus is a Medo-Persian. Cyrus took
Babylon without a fight as Daniel tells us. What will happen again, in the
tribulation, is that the Medes and Persians will overtake Babylon. Now if this
is a shadow, then we also must realize that Jews being in Babylon in the future
tribulation is a shadow of the past as well. We know that God calls his people
to come out of Babylon in Revelation. Why are the Jews in Babylon today? It
will make sense shortly.
This brings us to the realization that there is not a
“one world government” until the very end of the tribulation when the beast
destroys Babylon. Really, instead, today we are seeing a “new world order”.
This N.W.O. is becoming more prevalent. I read a recent article that stated the
United Nations considered it a human rights violation for a Detroit water
company to turn off water to non-paying customers. Really? Since when does the
UN weigh in on these matters? If someone does not pay their water bill they do
not get water in the USA. That is how our free market society works. There is
no obligation for a water company to provide water free of charge. Yet the
United Nations thinks water companies should provide water regardless of
getting paid? This type of Babylonian allegiance will become one side of a new
world order where many countries unite in all the ways listed in Revelation
17&18. The other side is a more religious side which has many factions that
do not get along. In fact they have been fighting each other for over one
thousand years, but they will team up in the tribulation time to take over
Babylon.
There are two very clear opposing governments in the
tribulation, Babylon and the Beast. The Jews are among Babylon. There will be a
wrestling within the Beast’s kingdom as there will be separate kingdoms that
will ban together to form one alliance. Yet clearly they are noted as
individual kingdoms that are the ten horns that are of one mind and give their
power and authority to the beast. What we know today is that someone from the
Medo-Persian Empire will join those two factions, the Medes and the Persians,
to kill Babylon. That is what God inspires the Beast to do. The “One World
Government” will be a forced allegiance, enforced by the sword. That is when
Jesus comes with his armies and destroys the beast. After that time, the Day of
the Lord, there will be a New World Order and a One World Government with Jesus
in charge. Daniel tells us via an angel that there are six reasons Israelites
ended up in this position until Jesus would come which was 30 A.D or so.
Dan 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and
upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression (1), and to make an end of
sins(2), and to make reconciliation for iniquity (3), and to bring in
everlasting righteousness (4), and to seal up the vision and prophecy (5), and
to anoint the most Holy (6). KJV
Seventy sevens (490 years) are determined to do these six
things. Unfortunately, Jesus was rejected as Messiah. What people had been
looking for is for the Messiah to restore the kingdom. Yet Jesus accomplished a
way to everlasting righteousness, he opened the kingdom of heaven. Now it may
indeed look as if the Israelites blew it again by rejecting Jesus. And they
did. However by rejecting Jesus, the door was open into the kingdom of heaven
for the non-descendants of Jacob. Everyone on earth has an opportunity to enter
in by believing Jesus is the Messiah. This is another example of using evil for
good, however the Israelites would probably not see it that way. They could
have been the elect nation that instructed the world regarding God. But Paul
says their hearts are hardened until the number of Gentiles is fulfilled,
Romans 11. Jesus said this:
Luke 21:24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword,
and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. KJV
God used a Roman, Titus Vespasian, to destroy Jerusalem.
On the one hand, we can gather this to be a longer punishment than the 70 years
in Babylon. These are the gap years Daniel tells us about. Technically, the
Jews have been “in” Babylon ever since they returned to Jerusalem, because
Jerusalem was overtaken by the Greeks, then the Romans, and eventually the
Ottomans. Once the Israelites got their homeland back in 1948, which was won
back for them by “Babylon” (figuratively the world system), “Babylon” has been helping
them to share control of the region with the Palestinians. Israel allies itself
with Babylon, while Babylon rides/controls the beast. The beast wants to kill
both Israel and Palestine, but is held back by the New World Order of Babylon.
After Jesus was cut off, as Daniel puts it, Jerusalem was
destroyed again. This continues until the war of the desolations are finished.
Then someone rises to political power that seems like a savior to Israel. This
anit-Christ will confirm the covenant, break the covenant, and make desolate
until the consummation is poured out on the desolate, or the final punishment
is poured out on the anti-Christ. We know from Paul’s writings that this anti-Christ
will not just sit in the temple, but sit in the Holy of Holies. Remember how
much care the priests used to have to take in entering into the Holy of Holies,
complete with a rope around their ankle and bells on their clothes. Yet how is
it that this anit-Christ person can not only enter into the Holy of Holies, but
put his throne there? He doesn’t seem to need the bells on his clothing to let
the people on the outside know he has stopped moving, and he doesn’t seem to
need a rope on his ankles so someone can pull his dead body out, even though we
know he is a sinful person. It seems God will be using this man of perdition to
bring about another useful means, the crying out of Jerusalem for Jesus,
specifically crying, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
While the destruction of Babylon happened once with Cyrus,
it has never been completely desolate, people have always lived there.
Prophecies of Babylon have been and will be fulfilled. In Revelation, Babylon’s
ultimate destruction comes and Isaiah tells us her hidden secretes, her
nakedness and shame will be uncovered.
Isa 47:1-6 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin
daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans:
for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.2 Take the millstones, and
grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over
the rivers.3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I
will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.4 As for our redeemer,
the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.5 Sit thou silent, and
get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be
called, The lady of kingdoms.6 I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine
inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy;
upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke 7And thou saidst, I shall
be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart,
neither didst remember the latter end of it.8 Therefore hear now this, thou
that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine
heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall
I know the loss of children:9 But these two things shall come to thee in a
moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon
thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great
abundance of thine enchantments. KJV
The purpose of God’s people being given over to Babylon
is for refining. The burden the Babylonian world system puts on God’s people is
very heavy. Although God’s people are scattered all over the world, they are
burdened, oppressed, and enslaved to this system. Look around the world, in
every country there are burdened and enslaved people. Those are the people that
Babylon has put a heavy yoke on. Yet Babylon doesn’t see herself as a harsh
taskmaster or oppressor, but sees herself as a lady. In one day Babylon will be
destroyed, the day the beast rises up and slaughters people so that the blood
rises to the horses’ bridals and as long as 200 miles, Revelation 14:20. This
is the wrath of God.
Isa 48:10-22 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with
silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.11 For mine own sake,
even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I
will not give my glory unto another.12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my
called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.13 Mine hand also hath laid
the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I
call unto them, they stand up together.14 All ye, assemble yourselves, and
hear; which among them hath declared these things? The Lord hath loved him: he
will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.15 I,
even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall
make his way prosperous.16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not
spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and
now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.17 Thus saith the Lord, thy
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to
profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.18 O that thou
hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy
righteousness as the waves of the sea:19 Thy seed also had been as the sand,
and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not
have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.20 Go ye forth of Babylon, flee
ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it
even to the end of the earth; say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob.21
And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the
waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters
gushed out.22 There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked. KJV
When the tribulation starts, many Jews will recognize
Jesus is the Messiah, the I AM, the first and the last. By the end of the
tribulation there will be a few Jews left, about one third will still be on
earth when Jesus comes with His armies. Zechariah says two thirds will be
killed, martyred. So the one third of the Jews on earth will rejoice when
Babylon falls. But, after Jesus destroys the beast God’s people will increase
again.
Jer 3:16-18 And it shall come to pass, when ye be
multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall
say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to
mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither
shall that be done any more.17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the
throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name
of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the
imagination of their evil heart.18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk
with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the
north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers. KJV
It is interesting to realize that the Ark of the Covenant
will not be needed, instead the people will have a personal relationship with
Jesus, the King. People will not walk after their own evil imaginations that come
from their heart. They will not take on the attitudes of Babylon, which in part
is the independence of their own will, but they will depend on Jesus. It will
be a different age. A new dispensation. A New World Order. It hardly matters
what man does to attempt to thwart the plans of God, God specifically set up
times and seasons. The devil has control of the world and the spirits that go
out to keep peace will have a change in their mission. They will stop keeping
peace on the earth to allow a time on earth that will not be like any other. It
will be a time of great distress to break the hardness of people’s hearts so
that they will accept Jesus as Messiah and King. Israel’s redeemer has come,
and will come again. In the meantime, there will continue to be a New World
Order of Babylon, it will grow and strengthen and there will not be a one world
government until the beast kills Babylon. Today, people live in either Babylon
or the beast’s world system, regardless of religion, or race, or nation. Yet we
can change our citizenship to the kingdom of God, and recognize that we are
strangers and aliens until Jesus call us up or calls us home.
