This is going to be a different kind of a sermon. know if I can call it a sermon proper. It's really a study. I'm gonna be putting on, in a sense, the hat of a teacher. And if you've already looked at our notes, you know basically where I'm going with this. But by way of introduction, I want to remind you what we learned last week, because we're gonna be building off of that, all of it in preparation to look at Revelation chapter 17, Lord willing, next week. Behind everything that you and I see and experience is an entire world of supernatural beings. And that reality is just as real as what we experience and see and know about. But it's one that we oftentimes forget about. This is the realm of the angelic beings, both demons and angels, and the Bible gives us several places in it where the curtain is pulled back, as it were, and we find out how things function in that realm. Again, it's not a pretend realm. It's very much a realm that exists, and we must know that. God created angelic beings, yet they are part of the creation, so they are also creatures. They are therefore under his sovereign control. And he assigned some of them, at least, responsibilities to be over nations or cities and oversee them, in a sense. And there's a lot of questions that people will have about exactly what are they supposed to be doing. And we're only given a little bit of information because it's not our realm. But they were supposed to oversee these nations and peoples. And in the process of doing that, they were supposed to cause justice and righteousness to reign. They were to be instruments of good except that many of them rebelled. And the chief of them was one we know as the devil or Satan, or as the Bible likes to describe him, the evil one. So you have him as the chief of these supernatural beings who rebelled against God, and in the process, they corrupt these nations, and they're doing their work behind the scenes and underneath everything, and we must recognize that. that whatever you think is going on in this world, remember that you're only seeing half of it. There's much more going on behind the scenes as well, and much of it is evil. These beings are even called Elohim in the Bible, which is, we would translate the word as God or gods. Now there's only one true God, and the Bible is very explicit about that. But then there's these lesser beings, these angelic and demonic beings, who are also at times called gods and are treated in that manner. And so it's helpful when you grasp that to see that that's what's going on. Now, as a result of that, there is this constant invisible war that occurs where the demons are clashing against the angels. And again, we're not given a lot of details on it, but where we find it revealed, they are very tantalizing hints about this battle that takes place. The one in Daniel where Gabriel says that he was held back by the prince of Persia, and the prince of Persia there was a demon, was one of these gods, if you will, that over the land of Persia, and that he resisted and held back Was it Gabriel or Michael? Now I can't remember. Doesn't matter. Held back this very powerful angel for three weeks. And you're like, well, I'd like to have seen that. I want to know how that happened. How does one hold back an angel how do they fight what what is this and we don't have any information hardly at all to tell us but it is something that is happening and so the whole point that I was making in that sermon last week was that there's a lot more going on behind the scenes in how politics in how entertainment and religion and education develops so when you're reading a newspaper or reading some article online or you're watching things unfold at your job or you're watching things take place in the school system you got to understand that much more is taking place than just simply some people getting together and making some decisions there is this other realm at work influencing and moving things in a specific way and it's not a good way And it's all under the control of the God of this age, who is Satan. Now, if you want to read about this, and some of you might find it to be something you want to know more about, there's a great book. Bruce actually reminded me about it last week. It's called The Unseen Realm by Dr. Heiser. And he gives a very, very full treatment, worth buying and reading. If you're not a heavy reader, it is a fairly thick book. He has a smaller volume, and it's an edited down one where he gives you still the key information. So you can buy either one of those, and I think that you'll find them to be very eye-opening, because he just takes you through passage after passage and shows you how all of this stuff is working. And it will radically change how you view stuff that are going on around you. And you'll start to realize why it is the way it is. Now, I wanted to give you three quick examples of this invisible reality that we didn't have a chance to last week. The first one is in Genesis 6. in Genesis 6. It's a strange passage. It's also one that has controversy. It shouldn't be a controversial one, but like so many things, it becomes controversial regardless. Now this is before the flood, and it is as a result of the kind of events that are described here, the flood actually takes place as a result. It says, now it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, and here's the phrase, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. And then the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with men forever, because he also is flesh. Nevertheless, his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. And that mentions this strange people. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them, those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. So you have this weird story, and it's like, what is going on? And there's all kinds of different ways that people approach it, but it's really quite straightforward. And that is that in those early days that demons, which were the sons of God, literally took women to be their wives, and the result was this offspring that was half demonic, half human. Now that sounds crazy and sounds strange, and because of that, people fight back against that story, and they say, no, that's not what it is, and they try to make the sons of God something else. The problem is, everywhere in the Old Testament, the term sons of God ever is used, it always refers to angelic or demonic people. beings. It's that simple. I mean, every time. So you would have to have some basis to argue that this can't be an angelic being here. But the simplest way to see it is what it says, that they came and they took these women and the result was this gross hellish offspring. In fact, there seems to be a connection between that offspring and these things that are known as the Nephilim. We don't even know how to translate that word, but these were powerful beings. These were giants, the Bible describes, and what you have are now this corrupting of the human race. Now why? Why would that happen? Why would that take place? Well, remember, first of all, that humans carry the image of God, so we are image bearers, but along with that, it was out of humanity that the one who would defeat Satan would come. And because of that knowledge, the attempt was to corrupt the human race, and therefore the Messiah couldn't come. And that's what you're gonna see all the way through the Bible, is this constant effort by the demonic realm to basically corrupt everything so that ultimately the Messiah is not able to come, the one who will redeem mankind, who will be their savior, Jesus Christ. And so that's what you have going on in this strange, strange story. And the result of it is that God wipes out almost all of humanity with the exception of Noah and his family. But then there's a strange place later on where God is talking about the destruction of a race of people. and in the promised land and that they were supposed to be utterly destroyed. And the reason for them is that they were the people that also had giants in the land. This is where Goliath comes into being. And it's very probable based upon what they're describing as, that they were the same as this Nephilim, and that they also were a corrupted human people who actually consorted, if you will, with demons. Now, people say, well, that's silly. It doesn't make sense, but it's no more silly than many, many, many other stories that you'll read in the Bible. And so I would commend to you to understand that here right away, early on in the human history, you see this invisible warfare become very visible in every way. Then you can go to another book, Job. It looks like job, but it's not. This is just before Psalms in chapters one and two. We won't take the time to read the whole of those two chapters, but I want you to again see that's a shocking story. And it starts out with a man named Job. He was a godly man. He was upright. He feared God, which is an Old Testament way of saying he believed in God. He was a follower of God, the true God. And he had plenty of sons and daughters, and he had much wealth, and it's all listed in the first part of this section. And then in verse 6, we get the curtain pulled back. So up to that point, there's Just Job living his life, taking care of his family, functioning even as a priest for his family. He would bring sacrifices to God and things like that. So it's just normal day-to-day life of a man named Job. But then in verse six, the curtain is pulled back. And it says, now there was a day when the sons of God, remember, here's that term again, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan also came among them. And so what you have is the Lord in heaven, and these angelic and demonic beings, both of them having to come and present themselves before Yahweh. That's the name there for Lord, the true God. He is their Lord, He is their God, and they have to give an answer for themselves. And so they're literally having to come and appear before Him and speak to Him, and He speaks to them. And then He tells us about one specific one, and that's Satan. And the Lord said to Satan in verse seven, from where do you come? And he answered, from roaming about on the earth and walking around on it. So now we have another sense of these angelic beings and demonic beings. They come and go from the earth and they are present there, watching, observing, and acting. And so then a conversation takes place between God and Satan. And basically it's, have you noticed? my man Job, and how he is a righteous man. And Satan says, the only reason he's righteous is because you let him have a good life. He's a wealthy man, a comfortable man, of course he's gonna be faithful to you. Who wouldn't, if they're getting everything? And so God then says, go ahead and afflict him, but no, don't touch him personally. You are allowed to go and mess with him. So now we're seeing a little bit more of what's going on. The curtain gets pulled back even more. And the Lord is the one who gives the permission to Satan to go and harm the life of Job. And so because he's not allowed to touch Job himself, he does it to his family. He kills the children. and he has all of his crops destroyed, and he has all of his animals. In other words, all of his riches are taken from him, and his beloved children are killed as well. So you have this terrible, terrible turn of events, and it's a shocking one. Again, it's not a vision of how you think God should work. This is one of the things we've been trying to do over and over again when we look in the book of Revelation Is to see that God is a serious God, and he doesn't play games, and he's not he's not your buddy That we are to with fear and trembling fear him and watch over Now watch over our hearts and to love him and to follow him and here we see him as the Lord of heaven and earth allowing this to happen. And so Satan does these things. Well, in the end, all Job does in verse 20, he tore his robe, shaved his head, he fell onto the ground, and he worshiped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. And the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And through all of this, Job did not sin, nor did he blame God. So you see what an amazing man Job was in this, and you also see that he has no problem attaching the responsibility not to Satan, but to the Lord, to Yahweh. He understands that he's in control. He understands that all of this ultimately comes by God's permission, and therefore it's from God, and he accepts it, and he praises the name of God. So then a day comes again in chapter two, when the sons of God, again, these are angelic and demonic beings, have to present themselves before the Lord. Satan again is there, and he points out to Satan, so what do you think of Job? And Satan says, well, the only reason he didn't curse you is because you didn't let me touch him. Let me touch him, and I'll promise you he'll curse you. And so God again gives Satan permission to do this. And he says, but you can't kill him. And so he afflicts, Satan goes and afflicts Job with these horrible ulcers, these boils, they're open, they are oozing, they're of incredible pain from the top of his head to the bottom of his soles of his feet. He's in so great a pain that all he can do is sit in an ash pile and he's got a broken piece of pottery, he scrapes himself and he's just silent for seven days because of the intense pain. But he refused. to curse God. Finally, his wife came to him, verse nine says, why do you hold fast to your integrity? Just curse God and die. She's bitter, she resents the fact that God has done this, she knows it, but she's an angry woman, a bitter woman, and she has no appreciation at all for what's right to do. So she actually encourages him, just why don't you curse God and then die? I mean, just put yourself out of your misery. And so in the midst of all of this horror, in the midst of all this pain, Job again says, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? And in all this, Job did not sin with his lips. So what you have here, again, is in Genesis 6, you see this fantastic storyline of demonic beings mating with humans, and they have this horrible offspring. And the result of that, along with many other things, God ultimately wipes away humanity, with the exception of Noah. Now you have this story here, again, where the curtains pull back, and you see that Satan is coming and going from heaven, and that he is accountable to God, he talks to God, he can even challenge God, but God is the one in control. And so you again get this glimpse of this reality that none of us understand fully. But what I want you to know is at no point did God ever go down and tell Joe, hey, this is what's going on. This is just a discussion going on in heaven. This is just between him and Satan. I mean, it would be one thing if you then had, like, Michael the archangel show up to you and say, hey, Nicky, it's gonna get really rough for a while, okay? Just so you know, Satan was talking to God, and God said that he's allowed to mess with you, so you're gonna have a lot of bad things happen, but just... Stay firm, okay? Trust God will take care of you. See, that would be different, wouldn't it? I mean, I just, it wouldn't be fun. But at least you'd know what's going on. All he knows is one day he wakes up and he's a poor man and his children are dead. And he's just getting slammed over the head one time after another after another. And then after all of that, he gets afflicted with this horrible sickness. And then the rest of Job is him with his friends and they're all trying to tell him that he must have done something wrong. because God obviously is angry with them. And they were wrong on that, God wasn't angry with them. But God was permitting these things to prove and to show what was true about this man, Job. Then we can go to another passage in 2 Kings, chapter six. 2 Kings, chapter six. This is a cool story as well, but again, it's one of these fantastic stories where you're like, whoa. Starting in verse eight, now the king of Aram was warned against Israel, and he counseled with his servants, saying, in such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, saying, beware that you do not pass this place, for the Arameans are coming down there. And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God had told him. Thus he warned him, so that he guarded himself there more than once or twice. Now the heart of the king of Aram was enraged over this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, Will you tell me which of us is for the king of Israel? Because he assumes somebody has gone and told them. not to fall into the trap. And one of his servants said, no, my lord, O king, but Elisha, the prophet, who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom. So now we know who it is. It's this great prophet, Elisha, and he's the one that's aware of everything that's going on because God is making it known to him. And so he said, go and see where he is so that I may send and take him. And it was told him, saying, behold, he is in Dothan. And he sent horses and chariots and a great army there. And they came by night and surrounded the city. Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots were circling the city. And his servant said to him, alas, my master, what shall we do? And so he answered, do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And then, well, let's stop for a second. So right there you see the crisis, and you see a very real issue. I mean, it would be like waking up and finding the city of Kenosha completely surrounded by tanks and warriors, and you're like, we're dead. I mean, we are so dead. Especially if you know that they are there for one person, and that one person is you. And you're like, oh no, no, no, no, this is not good. So the servant's being normal. He's reacting like any one of us would. And Elisha, meanwhile, is just all chill. He has no concerns, not worried, because he says, hey, look, we got a bigger army with us. And so then Elisha, in verse 17, prayed and said, oh Lord, I pray open his eyes that he may see And the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. And so now again, the curtain is pulled back. Now, that curtain apparently was always pulled back for Elisha. So, you know, he walked around all day long totally at peace because he's like, I know what's going on. I mean, I know what people are saying in their bedroom, and I know who I have on my side, I'm not worried. But it wasn't for everyone else, certainly not as a servant. And yet here in this moment, God allows the man to see that unseen realm that I keep telling you about. And so you have to understand that that is the reality, that even now, there's that reality of these fiery chariots and these powerful, mighty, angelic beings, and also these very powerful and mighty demons, and they exist, and they are around us at all times. We just don't know it. And some people say, well, I'd like to see that, and I get the suspicion that you wouldn't. I think we're good talkers, but the reality is something very, very different. Now, with that, let's go to Revelation. Chapter 17, last book of the Bible. Chapter 17. And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, and I shall show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names and having seven heads and ten horns." So we have this extremely symbolic imagery in this passage. And this woman was clothed with purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having on her head a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality. And upon her forehead, a name was written, a mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly. And the angel said to me, why do you wonder? I shall tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the 10 horns. The beast that you saw was and is not and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth will wonder. whose name has not been written in the book from the foundation of the world when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come." Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. And there are seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must remain a little while. And the beast which was and is not is himself also an ape, and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. The ten horns which you saw were ten kings. who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will wage war against the lamb, and the lamb will overcome them, because he is the Lord of lords and the king of kings, and those who are with him are called the chosen and the faithful. And he said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are the peoples and the multitudes and the nations and the tongues. The ten horns which you saw and the beast, these will hate the harlot, and will make her desolate and naked and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose for having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God should be fulfilled. and the woman who you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. Now this again is a strange passage, it's filled with imagery that people stumble over at times but it really explains all of that imagery and we'll do all of that Lord willing next week. But I just want you to take note of a few things. In verses one and two you have that woman with whom the kings or the leaders of the earth commit immorality with. We'll discuss what that means again next week. But you have all of the kings and leaders of the earth connected to her. So if I were you and I would take my pencil and underline the leaders or the kings of the earth or just the phrase of the earth. Because I want you to see how total this is. That she, whoever she is, that she has this influence over all of the leaders. And so she it's a stream of reality that goes through out all of humanity But also time in verse 5 a mystery is revealed And she is now identified as being Babylon the great and also she is called the mother of harlots and of the abominations again of the earth so all of the evil and All of the harlotry there, and I'll just quickly tell you what that means there. The harlotry, it's not talking about prostitution. It's talking about spiritual prostitution. It's idolatry, false worship. So that she is the mother of all false worship and every abominable thing that is on the earth. So again, underlying of the earth. Just to show you the vastness of her influence. Then in verse six, we find her drunk with the blood of the Old Testament believers, that's the saints, and also the New Testament believers. So now we see that her influence goes across time, from the beginning of sin in the world to the end of time that we're now reading about in Revelation. So you have to get that, that throughout all of that time, she still exists. Then in verses seven through 13, we see that she's a power behind kings and kingdoms. So why is North Korea still here? North Korea is still here because she is the power behind it. She is the one that props it up and does the things. Why is the United States still here? Same issue. She is behind the power of the United States. In verses 16 and 17 it says that she will ultimately be destroyed by the very kingdoms that she used. And then finally in verse 18, she now becomes a city which reigns over the kings of the earth. So it is the city of cities. It is the most powerful one. And so we have, she's called a woman, then she's identified as Babylon, and now a great city. So, don't take the woman literally, because she's not a literal being, but she is a personification of a great power and influence that controls kingdoms and people across time. At least four times it speaks of her power over the leaders of the earth. Second, understand that her influence is immense, and it's all about evil. Third, she is an ardent enemy of those who love and follow God. And fourth, she can be seen as a city. Now, this person is called a city and given the name, and that is Babylon. And what I want to do is show you the importance of Babylon throughout the biblical record today. It sounds strange, but I think it will help you appreciate what's going on in Revelation 17 and 18. I find that it's shocking, actually, that two entire chapters of Revelation deal with this city known as Babylon. Two chapters. There's only seven verses that talk about the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ on the earth. Only seven verses, but two whole chapters about this thing called Babylon. So in John's mind and in God's mind, this is an important issue and something that we must understand. So how do we understand these references of Babylon? Are we to view them only as symbolic? And that's how some will approach it. Do they connect with any specific time in the future history? Some will say yes, I would be one. Others will say no. Are they to be taken as a literal physical city? Some will say absolutely not. And others, like myself, will say absolutely yes. Or is it possible that they are both symbolic and literal? And I would say yes to both of those. So let's do a jet tour, go back all the way back to Genesis again, and we'll do a jet tour through the Bible and just see this influence of this city. In verses, in chapter 10 you have what are called the table of nations. So you have the descendants of Noah and his sons, the flood has come and gone, and now we're having this listing of these various people and nations. And in verses 8 through 10, just follow along. Now Cush became the father of Nimrod, that's a very important word or name, and he became a mighty one on the earth. And he was a mighty hunter before the Lord, and therefore it is said that like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Achaid, and Chalna, in the land of Shinar. I want you to remember that phrase, the land of Shinar. So he was the king, he was the ruler through his sheer power of this area of land, and part of it was known as Babel. Now, we pick that back up in the very next chapter in verses one through nine. Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words and it came about as they journeyed east that they found a plain in the land of what? The land of Shinar and they settled there and they said to one another come let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly and they will use bricks for stone and they use tar for mortar and they said come let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into the heavens and let us make for ourselves a name lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth And the Lord came down to see the city and the town, and the sons of men had built them. And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. So come, let us go down, this is the triune God speaking, let us go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech. And so the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth and they stopped building. the city, and therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the languages of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth." So again, early in the history of humanity, this land of Shinar, also known as Babel, and eventually it just becomes known as Babylon, becomes this key place. This is a place where rebellion manifests itself. This is only 100 years about after the flood. And humanity has been told by God, go and spread out over all the earth and be fruitful and multiply. And their response is, when they get to this place, no, we're not going to. We're gonna stay, and not only are we gonna stay, but we're gonna make a great big city, we're gonna build a ziggurat, basically, and that would be a place of great worship. And it's out of that that then ultimately God says, you know what? If you don't wanna do it my way, then I'll do it the easy way, I'll make you guys do it the hard way. And so the Lord literally comes down and takes the one language and takes that from them and now all of them have various languages. And the force, it was so disrupting that literally they had to leave. They couldn't understand each other and so they would find anybody else that spoke the same kind of language that they had and they would by necessity hook up with each other and in that way they would spread out. And it's kind of cool to understand how languages work and how diverse our languages are and understand how all of that came about just simply from this story. But it's a simple high-handed rebellion that's going on here. They have a motivation. They don't want to obey God. They want to build a city that's for the glory of man. And so this city that is a city of rebellion and it's a city of false worship is a city of Babel. And so what happens here again is we have this place called Shinar that the mighty man Nimrod was the king of, and then we have the story of it trying to be built, and then God's scattering it, and then we'll pick it up again in Genesis 14. So chapter 14, and it came about in the days of Aremphal, king of what? Shinar, which is Babylon, Ariok, king of Elessar, Kedo-Leomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, the king of Goim. So that they made war with the Bera, the king of Sodom, and with Bersha, the king of Gomorrah, Shanab, king of Adma, and Shem-Eber, king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, and all these came as aliens to the Valley of Sidim, that is the Salt Sea. Now in all of this, what happened is that we have this king, who hooks up with other kings, he's the king of Babylon, and they go and they decide they're going to do some raiding, and they capture these other kings, and they capture many of their people, of money and treasure and stuff. And the person who's caught up in all of this is a man named Lot. Well, Lot happens to be the nephew of Abraham. And so here we have Abraham coming into the picture now, and he is gonna be that representative of godly line, the people who love God and will follow God. He, of course, is the one who is gonna receive the promise to become a great nation, which was Israel, and that through him, the Messiah, the Savior, would come and bless the whole earth. And so what happens is Abraham is a very powerful man himself. He's like a king. And so he has to go and do war with the king of Shinar and the other kings and defeat them so that he can rescue his nephew. So again, this kingdom and this land and this city is coming into the picture once again. And here it's opposed yet again to the people of God, specifically Abraham. And so, once again, we see this people group. Then go over to Joshua. It pops up in a strange way here. Joshua chapter seven. Now they have entered into the land, the promised land, Israel. They've left Egypt. There's a city. named Jericho that they defeat by God's miraculous work. And one of the things that God had told them to do was do not take anything from it. Kill every human being, every one of them, and destroy everything. It all belongs to me. You're not allowed any of it. Unfortunately, a guy named Achan took some treasure, and the result of that is the next battle they go against another city, the battle goes bad for them, and people die as a result of that, and now they're, and they lose the battle, and so they're like, what's up? God promised to deliver us and go before us, and so they know that something's wrong, and so they have this way of singling out and finding out from God who it is that has sinned so they can deal with the sin. And so down in 19 to 26, you have the description of this. It's a frightening story. Again, if you could put yourself in Achan's shoes. So Joshua said to Achan, my son, I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give praise to him, and tell me now what you've done. Do not hide it from me. And so Achan answered Joshua and said, truly I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle or robe, from where? From Shinar. And 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold, 50 shekels in weight, I coveted them and took them and I hid them. And so as a result of all of that, he and his entire family are killed. Now the robe must have been an amazing robe. One of the things we don't have time to, I tell you several stories, the people group from the line of Noah that the land of Shinar is part of, they were the ones who were experts at metal work and also textiles. It's not just by chance that Persian rugs are so fancy and so expensive, because they were the masters of them. They were the ones that came. And so whatever this robe was, Everyone knew where it came from because of the beauty of what the robe was. It must have been an amazing one. But the result of that, here we have again this Babylon popping up in this little tiny story in a weird way, and the result of it is that Israel suffers a defeat and some of the people have to be killed because of their sin. Now go into the big prophet Isaiah, chapter 11. Like I said, this is a different kind of sermon. Isaiah 11. One through 11. And then a shoot. will spring from the stem of Jesse, and the branch from his roots will bear fruit, and the spirit of the Lord will rest on him, and the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. And he will delight in the fear of the Lord, and he will not judge by what his eye sees, nor make a decision by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he will judge the poor. and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. And righteousness will be the belt around his loins, and the faithfulness the belt about his waist." and the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, and their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den, and they will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord and the waters as the waters cover the sea then it will come about in that day that the nations will resort to the root of Jesse who will stand as a signal for the people and his resting place will be glorious and then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with his hand the remnant of his people who remain from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, and there it is, Shinar and Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. What you have here is a prophecy that spans the first and second coming of Jesus Christ. And part of it was fulfilled in the beginning, but this is really a description of what is going to be known as the millennial kingdom. We'll look at that in chapter 20 of Revelation. It's a time of unusual prosperity, but it's also a time where God takes the people, his people, and he gathers them. back to His place. And that place is Israel. That's where the Messiah, the King, Jesus, will rule. And one of the places that He will gather His people who have been scattered is back away from Babylon. Then in Daniel, go to the prophet Daniel, just a little ways past. If you get to Ezekiel, it's just one more book after that. Now, we're gonna learn about, if you read Daniel, you'll learn in detail about the city and kingdom of Babylon. And it says, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, the Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Israel, I mean Judah, into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar. to the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his God." So here we have God using Babylon to become a great nation so as to punish his people because of their sin. And then the Lord is the one that even enables Jehoiachin the king to give to Nebuchadnezzar as a gift vessels that are holy to God. They belong only in the temple of God and yet he allows them to be taken out and placed into the temple of the false god that is in Babylon. And the imagery there that the world is going to take away is that the king, the god of the king of Babylon is greater than the god of Israel. And so once again, what we have is this image of this distinction between this land of Shinar, of Babylon, and being at war with the people of God and of God, and literally even trying to shame God by taking the temple vessels. One last passage. Go to Zechariah. you're not sure where it's at, right after Zechariah is Malachi and then Matthew in the New Testament. So you have to find Matthew and then go backwards. Zechariah 5, 5 through 11. Now we've looked at a lot of passages In Zechariah 5, there's a series of visions that are given. And the seventh vision is found for us in chapter 5. I know my notes say chapter 6, but that's a typo. It's chapter 5, verses 5 through 11. And then the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, lift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth. And I said, what is it? And he says, this is the ephah, which is a basket. And some of your translations will do it that way. This is the ephah going forth. And again, he said, this is their appearance. or their iniquity, or some translations, their eye in all the land. And behold, a lead cover was lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah. And when he said, this is wickedness, and she threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight upon his opening. And then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there were two women coming out with the wind, in their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens. And I said to the angel who was speaking with me, where are they taking that ephah? And he said to me, to build a temple for her, where? in the land of Shinar, which is another word for Babylon. And when it's prepared, she will set there on her own pedestal. So now you have this vision. And this vision is of this big basket. And it's a very big basket. It's an actual proper size of measurement. And when they take the lead cover, so it's a very heavy cover off of it, inside's a woman. So it's like, whoa, we got a woman. And what is her name? Her name is Wickedness, or Evil. And then she tries to get out of it, so then she's cast back into it, and they slam the lid, and they keep her in this basket. And then these creatures, they're women with wings like stork, store, come and take her and fly her away. And Zechariah is saying, so where are you going? And the answer is to Babylon. I'm going to take her to Babylon and then I'm going to build a great city. And there she will sit. And it's the image of the iniquity of the world, the iniquity of all of the world personified in this woman named wickedness. And she is heading to Babylon, which is where she will be set up and she will do her deed. Now this is very important to understand. that this is a time, this is a city that doesn't even yet exist at that time. Babylon has been taken over and this is now talking about a city, a rebuilding of the city and of a temple in the land of Shinar that has still not to this day occurred. But it is going to occur and in it there's going to be this centralized worship around this personified woman who is also known as wicked. What's very interesting also is, though, the correlation between this passage and chapter 17 of Revelation. Remember what we saw. It was a woman, and she was on this leopard, and that she was the woman who was the harlot, and all the abominations or wickedness of the earth were from her. So what I wanted you to see in this strange message is that over and over again, and we could spend a lot more time, we won't do, over and over again, this passage comes up, this city comes up. And it comes up and almost always it's involving sin, wickedness, or rebellion. And this is a place where evil abounds. This is a place where God's people are resisted. And it ultimately will be the place that's ordained by God where the center of wickedness will reside. Now I told you again last week there's that great invisible war taking place. And what it is is nothing less than the clash of kingdoms. And what you're going to see next week and the week after in Revelation 17 and 18 is God literally dismantling the kingdom of Satan. He is literally undoing all of the stuff that we've been witnessing since the beginning of sin in creation. And this brings up the necessary reality then that every other religion that's out there is really just one religion. In fact, it's gonna ultimately become just one in the city of Babylon. They worship in whatever way they want, but ultimately the one who they are worshiping is Satan himself. And one of the other fascinating things that you can do, but we don't have time, is do a study of comparative religions, and what you will find is how common, how certain common aspects show up time and time and time in various religions all around the world in very different cultures. And yet they have these constant common themes. And the reason is it all comes from one religion. It's the religion of the kingdom of Satan. Now all of this comes out of Revelation 13. Revelation 13, all the veneer is ripped away and what we have is everyone in verse four, that they worship the dragon, who was Satan, and he gave his authority to the beast, which is the Antichrist, and they worship the beast, saying, who is like the beast and who is able to wage war with him? And it's here that all of the world stops doing their various types of religion, and they all just come up and begin to worship Satan and his minions. And then in chapter 14, we're given a name for this place where everyone is worshiping. And it says, fallen, fallen is Babylon, the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality. And then in chapter 16, verse 19, if you'll remember, the great city, This is at the pouring out of God's wrath, that right at the end, three things take place. The great city is split into three parts, the cities of the nations fall, and specifically Babylon, the great, was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath. So you have Jerusalem, which is the great city, you have the cities of the Gentiles, which would be Chicago, Paris, whatever, but specifically is the city Babylon. And so then in 17 and 18, God will turn his focus on that one city, Babylon, and it will be horrible what will happen to it. So what do you have? In all of this, what you have is God saying, it's done, no more. My kingdom shall be established and that is what we will watch we'll watch him literally do war against the kingdom of Satan and how utterly easy that is and how he dismantles it in every possible way and It will be a time of horror for all who belong to that kingdom But it will be a time of great joy for those who are faithful in trusting God and his promise of salvation in Jesus Christ So it's the same message. I've been giving you every week in the book of Revelation. It is Beloved, you belong to one or the other kingdom. Where do you stand? There is no neutral ground. There is not some place to say, well, I reject this. You're either with Christ or you're with Satan. You're either in the kingdom of light or you're in the kingdom of darkness. And the only way that you can be part of the kingdom of light is by trusting in Jesus, by turning from your way, turning from your wishes, your desires, what you want to worship, and you come to see him as Lord and Savior. So again, I ask you to consider that situation and pursue Christ.