The Tale of Two Cities

You have Babel (Bavel) and remember that in the Hebrew Bible, we do not use the word, the Greek word, Babylon. Always, every time you read Babylon, it is the Hebrew Bavel all the way through. And now when you have the Hebrew New Testament and you have Babylon mentioned in Revelation, it is Bavel. So you have a continuity all the way through, from Genesis 11, right the way through to Revelation 19, where you have this Bavel. Even if it’s disappeared and Babylon has gone, still it’s spoken of as if it is a worldwide system, a worldwide fact, from Genesis 11 all the way through to Revelation 19. There it is destroyed and it’s the end of it.

In Genesis 12, you have Jerusalem, because Hebrews 11 tells us that when Abraham went out by faith, not knowing whither he went, he was looking for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and architect is God. In other words, you have one city produced by man and you have the other city produced by God.

The Bible, I think some of you have heard me say this before, can be described, entitled, The Tale of Two Cities. It is the tale of only two cities, and every human being, whatever their colour, whatever their background, whatever their race or ethnic origin, belongs either to Bavel (Babel) or to Jerusalem. All of us were born in Babel, but we are re-registered when we’re born again. And then Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all if we’re born of God. 

So you have that wonderful 87th Psalm about “glorious things are spoken of thee, oh city of God”. And then he goes on to talk and says, “This one was born in Babylon, Bavel.” But the Lord says, “When I write up the peoples, that person who was born in Babylon is no longer registered in Babylon. They’re re-registered in Jerusalem.” And then he speaks of Philistia and Tyre and all kinds of other cities. So, I mean, it is really an amazing revelation we have in the word of God.

What is interesting is that when you come to the book of Revelation, which sums up the 66 books of the Bible, Babylon appears again, yet there is no Babylon.

What is Babylon?

What is this Babylon? Washington. Washington is Babylon. London is Babylon. Berlin is Babylon. Paris is Babylon. Beijing is Babylon. Moscow is Babylon. Some of us would say straightaway, “Oh, yes, clearly some of these.” But it comes as a shock to us when we find that Rome is Babylon, when we find that Washington is Babylon. It is the whole genius of man. It is the production of fallen man. All his music, his architecture, his literature, it’s all there. If you read carefully those chapters 17, 18 and the beginning of 19 in Revelation, it speaks of the glory of Babylon. Its music, its merchandise, its economy, its commercial. It’s all there. So you have only two cities.

Now, Daniel clearly saw in Daniel chapter two and Daniel chapter seven, he saw the whole of world history in the guise of four great empires. They’re actual empires. They were literal empires. Babylon, Persia, Greek (Hellenistic), Roman.

Why those four? Why is the Chinese dynastic empire never mentioned? Interesting, isn’t it? Why is India not mentioned? These were also great empires in their own day. They’re not mentioned, only these four. Why? Because these four great empires were attempts by the enemy to take the world. They weren’t just empires, they were attempts to take the whole world. Babylon was the first. It’s Bavel, Babel.

That’s where it all began, and it goes all the way through. I don’t know if I’m boring you to death, but the point I’m trying to get at is that Daniel understood that the Kingdom of God, the Messiah, would come with the Kingdom of God in the fourth empire, the Roman Empire. Now, it is very interesting that he did come in the Roman Empire. That was when the Lord Jesus was born, when he lived, when he died, when he was buried, when he rose again and ascended to the right hand of God. The interesting thing is, if you read Revelation 13, John the Apostle tells us that these four empires are going to rise again as the fourth one, the fourth kingdom, but this time, homogenised. In other words, there’s something of every one of them.

You’ll read it in Revelation 13 and the first verses, it describes it completely. And you’ve got all the features of the four great empires of world history all homogenised into one last great attempt of Satan to take the world.