In our last chapter we sought
to show that in Rev. 17 "the great Whore", and
"Babylon the great", though intimately connected,
are yet distinct; the former being the representative of the
latter. While allowing, yea insisting upon it, that many
features of the symbolic prophecy contained in Rev. 17 have
had a striking fulfillment already, still that in which all
its varied terms are to find their complete realization is
yet future. We also reminded our readers that Israel supplies
the solution to most of the problems of prophecy, and this is
becoming more and more evident as the last prophetic book in
the Bible is receiving wider and closer study. Fifty years
ago the majority of the commentators
"spiritualised" the first half of Rev. 7 and made
the twelve tribes of Israel, there mentioned, to refer to the
Church. But this has long since been discredited. So, the
popular interpretation of Rev. 12 which had the
"woman" there a figure of the Church has also been
abandoned by many. An increasing number of Bible students are
recognizing the fact that "the Lamb's Wife,"
"the Bride" of Rev. 19 and 21 also contemplates
Israel rather than the Church. That the Church is the Bride
(a statement nowhere affirmed in Scripture) has been
sedulously proclaimed by the Papacy for over a thousand
years, and the tradition has been echoed throughout
Protestantism. But, as we have said, there is a steadily
increasing number who seriously question this, yea, who are
bold to repudiate it, and declare in its stead that the new
Israel, saved Israel, will be "the Bride". As this
truth becomes more clearly discerned, we believe it will also
be apparent that the great Whore is not the apostate church
but apostate Israel.
The future of Israel is a wide
subject, for numerous are the scriptures which treat of it.
It is, moreover, a subject of profound interest, the more so
because what is now prophetic is so soon to become historic.
The Zionist movement of the last twenty-five years is
something more than the impracticable ideal of a few
visionaries; it is steadily preparing the way for the
re-establishment of the Jews in Palestine. It is true that
the Zionists have been frowned upon by many in Jewry, and
that, for a very good reason. God's time is not yet fully
ripe, and He has permitted the mercenary spirit of many of
Jacob's descendants to hold it, temporarily, in check.
The millions of Jews now comfortably settled and prospering
in this land, and in the capitals of the leading European
countries, are satisfied with their present lot. The love of
money outweighs sentimental considerations. Zionism has made
no appeal to their avarice. To leave the markets and marts of
New York, London, Paris, and Berlin in order to become
farmers in Palestine is not sufficiently alluring. Mammon is
now the god of the vast majority of the descendants of those
who, of old, worshipped the golden calf.
At present, it is (with few
exceptions) only those who are oppressed in greater Russia,
Hungary, etc. who are really anxious to be settled in
Palestine. But soon there will be a change of attitude. Even
now there are faint indications of it. As Palestine becomes
more thickly populated, as the prospects of security from
Turkish and Arabian depredations grow brighter, as the
country is developed and the possibilities of commercial
aggrandizement loom on the horizon, the better class of Jews
will be quick to see and seize the golden opportunity. Few
American Jews are anxious to emigrate to Palestine when there
is nothing more than a spade and a hoe at the end of the
journey. But as hospitals, colleges, universities, banking
houses are opened, and all the commercial adjuncts of
civilization find a place in the land of David, then rapidly
increasing numbers of David's descendants will turn their
faces thitherward. High finance is the magnet which will draw
the covetous Hebrews.
Once Palestine becomes a
thorough Jewish State it is not difficult to forecast the
logical corollary. We quote from the excellent exposition on
Zechariah by Mr. David Baron - his comments on the fifth
chapter. Without any spirit of dogmatism, and without
entering at this place into the question of the identity and
significance of the Babylon in the Revelation - whether
mystical or actual - we would express our conviction that
there are scriptures which cannot, according to our judgment,
be satisfactorily explained except on the supposition of a
revival and yet future judgment of literal Babylon, which for
a time will be the center and embodiment of all the elements
of our godless civilization, and which especially will become
the chief entrepot of commerce in the world.
"To this conviction we
are led chiefly by the fact that there are prophecies in the
Old Testament concerning the literal Babylon which have never
in the past been exhaustively fulfilled, and that Scripture
usually connects the final overthrow of Babylon with the yet
future restoration and blessing of Israel.
"And it is very striking
to the close observer of the signs of the times how things at
the present day are rapidly developing on the very lines
which are forecast in the prophetic scriptures. "The
fears and hopes of the world - political, commercial, and
religious, writes one in a monthly journal which lies before
me, are at the present day being increasingly centered upon
the home of the human race - Mesopotamia...As the country
from which the father of the Jewish nation emigrated to the
land of promise, it is also occupying the thoughts and
aspirations of the Jews'.
"Whatever may be the
outcome of the negotiations which have been carried on
recently with the Turkish Government by the Jewish
Territorialists for the establishment of a Jewish automonous
State in this very region, in which many Zionists and other
Jews were ready to join, there is so much truth in the words
of another writer that when once a considerable number of
such a commercial people as the Jews are re-established in
Palestine, ` the Euphrates would be to them as necessary
as the Thames to London or the Rhine to Germany. It would be
Israel's great channel of communication with the Indian
seas, not to speak of the commerce which would flow towards
the Tigris and the Euphrates from the central and northern
districts of Asia! It would be strange, therefore, if no city
should arise on its banks of which it might be said that her
merchants were the great men of the earth'"
Zech. 5 is most intimately
connected with Rev. 18, and a grasp of the former is of such
importance in studying the latter that we must here give it a
brief consideration. But first let us outline in the fewest
possible words the contents of the first four chapters of
Zechariah. After a brief introduction we learn, first, that
God's eye is ever upon Israel (1:7-17). Second, that His
eye is also upon her enemies and desolators (1:18-21). Third,
assurance is given of her future blessing (2) and of her
cleansing (3). Fourth, we learn of the blessings which shall
follow her restoration (4). Fifth, we are taken back to
behold the punishment of apostate Israel: the "flying
roll" symbolizes the destruction of wicked Jews (5:1-4).
Then follows the vision of "the Ephah" in 5:5-11 -
let the reader please turn to it.
We cannot do more than now
call attention to the prominent features in this vision.
First, the prophet sees as "ephah" (or bath) which
was the largest measure for dry goods among the Jews. It
would, therefore, be the natural symbol for Commerce. Next,
we note that twice over it is said that the ephah "goeth
forth" (vv. 5,6). As the whole of the preceding visions
concern Jerusalem and her people, this can only mean that the
center of Jewish commerce is to be transferred from Palestine
elsewhere. Next, we are told that there was a
"woman" concealed in the midst of the ephah (v. 7).
We say "concealed", for in vv. 5 and 6 the
"woman" is not seen - the leaden cover (cf v.8) had
to be lifted before she could be beholden. The writer is
satisfied that this hidden woman in the ephah is "the
Woman" which is fully revealed in Revelation 17 and 18.
Next, we are told that "wickedness" (lawlessness)
was cast into the ephah, before its cover was closed again.
Then, in what follows, we are shown this ephah, with the
"woman' and "wickedness" shut up therein,
being rapidly conveyed from Palestine to "the land of
Shinar" (v. 11). The purpose for this is stated to be,
"to build a house", i.e. a settled habitation.
Finally, we are assured, "it shall be established, and
set there (in the land of Shinar) upon her own base".
This vision or prophecy contains the germ which is afterwards
expanded and developed in such detail in Rev. 17 and 18,
where it is shown that "the house" which is
established for this system of commerce is "Babylon the
great". Let it be remembered that this vision is found
in the midst of a series of prophecies which have to do with,
first the faithful, and then the faithless in Israel, and we
have another clear and independent proof that the Corrupt
Woman of the Apocalypse is none other than apostate
Israel!
In his helpful and
illuminative work on the Babylon of the future, the late Mr.
Newton devoted a separate chapter to Zech. 5. His remarks are
so excellent that we cannot forbear from making an extract:
"If human energy is to be permitted again to make the
Euphrtean regions the scene of its operation - if prosperity
is to be allowed for a brief moment to re-visit the Land of
Babylon, it might be expected that the Scriptures would
somewhere allude, and that definitely, to such an event. And
we find it to be so. The Scripture does speak of an event yet
unaccomplished, of which the scene is to be the Land of
Babylon. The passage to which I refer is at the close of the
fifth chapter of Zechariah.
"That the event predicted
in this remarkable passage remains still unaccomplished, is
sufficiently evident from the fact of Zechariah's having
prophesied after Babylon had received that blow under which
it has gradually waned. Zechariah lived after Babylon had
passed into the hands of the Persians, and since that time,
it is admitted by all, that declination - not establishment -
has marked its history. From that hour to the present moment
there has been no preparation of an house, no establishment
of anything - much less of an Ephah in the Land of Shinar.
But an Ephah is to be established there, and a house to be
built for it there, and there it is to be set firmly upon its
base.
"An Ephah is the emblem
of commerce. It is the symbol of the merchants. In the
passage before us the Ephah is described as "going
forth", that is, its sovereign influence is to pervade
the nations, and to imprint on them a character derived from
itself, as the formative power of their institutions. In
other words, commerce is for a season to reign. It will
determine the arrangements, and fix the manners of Israel,
and of the prophetic earth. The appearance of every nation
that falls under its control is to be mercantile. He said,
moreover, this is their appearance (or aspect) throughout all
the earth."
The theme is of deep interest,
and we are tempted to enter at length into details. But that
is scarcely necessary. Every one who has a general knowledge
of the past, and who is at all in touch with political
conditions in the world today, knows full well the radical
change which the last two or three centuries have witnessed.
For a thousand years the Church (the professing church)
controlled the governments of Europe. Following the
Reformation, the aristocracy (the nobility) held the reins.
During the first half of last century democratic principles
obtained more widely. But in the last two or three
generations the governmental machines of this country and of
the leading European lands have been run by the Capitalists.
Of late, Labor has sought to check this, but thus far with
little success. In the light of Zech. 5 and Rev. 18
present-day conditions are profoundly significant. It is
commerce which is more and more dominating the policies and
destinies of what is known as the civilized world. "If
we turn our eyes abroad upon the world, we shall find that
the one great object before the nations of the earth today is
this image of commerce, drawing them with all the seductive
influence a siren woman might exercise upon the heart of men.
The one great aim on the part of each is to win the favor of
this mighty mistress. The world powers are engaged in a
Titanic struggle for commercial supremacy. To this end mills
are build, factories founded, forests felled, lands sown,
harvests reaped, and ships launched. Because of this struggle
for mastery of the world's market the nations reach out
and extend their borders" (Dr. Haldeman). The recent war
was caused by commercial jealousies. The root trouble behind
the "reparation" question, the
"Strait's" problem the cancellation or
demanding repayment of United States loans to Europe, each go
back to commercial considerations.
Sixty years ago it was asked,
Is not commerce the sovereign influence of the day? If we
were asked to inscribe on the banners of the leading nations
of the earth, an emblem characteristically expressive of
their condition, could we fix on any device more appropriate
than an ephah?" With how much greater pertinency may
this be said today! And how this is preparing the way for and
will shortly head up in what is portrayed in Rev. 18, it is
not difficult to see. There we read, " Thy merchants
were the great men of the earth" (v. 23). This was not
true four hundred years ago: for then the ecclesiastics were
"the great men of the earth". Now was it true one
hundred years ago, for then the nobility were "the great
men of the earth". But today. Ah! Ask the man on the
street to name half a dozen of the great men now alive, and
whom would he select? And who are behind and yet one with the
"merchants"? Is it not the financiers? And who are
the leading ones among them? Who are the ones that are more
and more controlling the great banking systems of the world?
And, as every well-informed person knows, the answer is,
Jews. How profoundly significant, then, that the head on the
image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream (which symbolized the
Babylon Empire) should be of gold, and that the final Babylon
should be denominated "the golden city" (Isa.
14:4). And how all of this serves, again, to confirm our
interpretation of Rev. 17, namely, that "the great
Whore" with "the golden cup in her hand"
(17:4) is apostate Israel, whose final home shall be that
"great city", soon to be built on the banks of the
Euphrates. Not yet is it fully evident that the wealth of the
world is rapidly filling Hebrew coffers - only a glimpse of
the "woman" in "the midst of the Ephah"
was obtained before it became established in the Land of
Shinar. But it cannot be long before this will become
apparent. At the End-time it will fully appear that "the
woman...is (represents) that great city" (17:18). This
explains the words of Rev. 17:5, where we learn that the
words "Babylon the great" are written upon
"her forehead" - it will be obvious then to all!
Apostate Israel, then controlling the wealth of the world,
will personify Babylon.
And what part will the
Antichrist play in connection with this? What will be his
relation to Babylon and apostate Israel? The Word of God is
not silent on these questions, and to it we now turn for the
Divine answer. As to Antichrist's relation to Babylon,
Scripture is very explicit. He will be "the King of
Babylon" (Isa. 14:4); the "King of Assyria"
(Isa. 10:12). As to his relation to apostate Israel, that is
a more intricate matter and will require more detailed
consideration. We shall therefore devote a separate chapter
(the next one) to this interesting branch of our subject.
Here we shall deal briefly with what Rev. 17 and 18 say
thereon.
Rev. 17 presents the relation
of apostate Israel to the Antichrist in three aspects. First,
she is supported by him. This is brought before us in 17:3,
where we are shown the corrupt Woman seated upon the
scarlet-colored Beast. This, we believe, is parallel with
Dan. 9:27, which tells us that "the Prince that shall
come" will make a Covenant with Israel. This covenant,
league, or treaty, will insure her protection. It is
significant that Dan. 9:27 tells us the covenant is made by
the one who is then at the head of the revived Roman Empire,
which corresponds with the fact that Rev. 17:3 depicts him as
a "scarlet colored Beast...having seven heads and ten
horns". It is the Antichrist no longer in his
"little horn" character, but as one that has now
attained earthly glory and dominion. As such, he will, for a
time, uphold the Jews and protect their interests.
Second, Rev. 17 depicts
apostate Israel as intriguing with "the kings of the
earth". In v. 2 we read that the kings of the earth
shall commit fornication with her. Note how this, as an item
of importance, is repeated in 18:3. This, we believe, is what
serves to explain 17:16 which, in the corrected rendering of
the R.V. reads, "And the ten horns which thou sawest and
the Beast, these shall hate the Harlot, and shall make her
desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn
her utterly with fire". What it is which causes the
Beast to turn against the Harlot and hate and destroy her is
her unfaithfulness to Him. Not content with enjoying the
protection the Beast gives to her, apostate Israel will
aspire to a position of rivalry with the one over the ten
horns. That she succeeds in this we learn from the last verse
of the chapter - "And the woman which thou sawest is
(represents) that great city, which reigneth over the kings
of the earth". As to how apostate Israel will yet reign
over the kings of the earth we hope to show in the next
chapter.
Third, Rev. 17 makes it known
that apostate Israel will ultimately be hated by the Beast
and his ten horns"(v. 16). The 12th verse tells us that
the ten horns are "ten kings". This has presented a
real difficulty to many. In 17:16 it says that the ten horns
(kings) and the Beast hate the Whore, and make her desolate
and naked, and shall eat her flesh (that is, appropriate to
themselves her substance, her riches), and burn her with
fire; whereas in 18:9 we read, "The kings of the earth
who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with
her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall
see the smoke of her burning". Yet the solution of this
difficulty is very simple. The difficulty is created by
confusing "the kings of the earth" with
the"ten horns", whose kingdoms are within the
limits of the old Roman Empire (see Dan. 7:7). The
"kings of the earth" is a much wider expression,
and includes such kingdoms as North and South America, China
and Japan, Germany and Russia, etc., all in fact, outside the
bounds of the old Roman Empire. It is the intriguing of
apostate Israel with "the kings of the earth" which
brings down upon her the hatred of the Beast and his
"ten kings".
In closing this chapter we
wish to call attention to some of the many and striking
verbal correspondences between Rev. 17 and 18 and the Old
Testament Prophets: -
1. In Rev. 17:1 we are told
the great Whore "sitteth upon many waters".
In Jer. 51:13 Babylon (see
previous verse) is addressed as follows: "O thou that
dwellest upon many waters".
2. In Rev. 17:2 it is said
that, "The inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk
with the wine of her fornication".
In Jer. 51:7 we read,
"Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand,
that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of
her wine".
3. In Rev. 17:4 the great
Whore has "a golden cup in her hand".
In Jer. 51:7 Babylon is termed
"a golden cup in the Lord's hand".
4. In Rev. 17:15 we are told,
"The waters which thou sawest, where the Whore sitteth,
are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and
tongues".
In Jer. 51:13 we read, "O
thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in
treasures".
5. Rev. 17:16 tells us that
Babylon shall be burned with fire - cf 18:8.
So in Jer. 51:58 we read,
"The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and
her high gates shall be burned with fire".
6. In Rev. 17:18 we are told
that the woman who represents the great city "reigneth
over the kings of the earth".
In Isa. 47:5 Babylon is
denominated "the lady of kingdoms".
7. Rev. 18:2 tells us that
after her fall, Babylon becomes "the habitation of
demons, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of
every unclean and hateful bird".
Isa. 13:21 says, "But
wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses
shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell
there, and satyrs shall dance there".
8. Rev. 18:4 records God's
call to the faithful Jews - "Come out of her My
people".
In Jer. 51:45 God also says,
"My people, go ye out of the midst of her".
9. In Rev. 18:5 it is said,
"Her sins have reached unto heaven".
In Jer. 51:9 it reads,
"For her judgment reacheth unto heaven".
10. In Rev. 18:6 we read,
"Reward her as she rewarded you".
In Jer. 50:15 it says,
"Take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto
her".
11. In Rev. 18:7 we find
Babylon saying in her heart, "I sit a queen, and am no
widow, and shall see no sorrow".
In Isa. 47:8 we also read that
Babylon says in her heart, "I am, and none else beside
me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss
of children".
12. In Rev. 18:8 we read,
"Therefore shall her plagues come in one day".
Isa. 47:9 declares, "But
these two things shall come to thee in a moment, in one
day".
13. In Rev. 18:21 we read,
"And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great
millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with
violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and be
found no more at all".
So in Jer. 51:63, 64 we are
told, "And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of
reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and
cast it into the midst of the Euphrates: And thou shalt say,
Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil
that I bring upon her".
14. In Rev. 18:23 we read,
"And the light of the candle shall shine no more at all
in thee, and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride
shall be heard no more at all in thee".
In Isa. 24:8,10 it is said of
Babylon, "The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of
them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the heart ceaseth...the
City of Confusion is broken down: every house is shut up,
that no man may come in...all joy is darkened, the mirth of
the land is gone".
15. In Rev. 18:24 we read,
"And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of
saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth".
In Jer. 51:49 we read,
"As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so
Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth".
These parallelisms are so
plain they need no comments from us. If the reader still
insists that the Babylon of Rev. 17 and 18 is the ultimate
development of the Papacy as it envelopes apostate
Christendom, it is useless to discuss the subject any
farther. But we believe that the great majority of our
readers - who have no traditions to uphold - will be
satisfied that the Babylon of the Apocalypse is the Babylon
of Old Testament prophecy, namely, a literal, re-built city
in "the land of Nimrod" (Micah 5:6), a city which
shall be the production of covetousness ("which is
idolatry" - Col. 3:5), and a city which shall yet be
the home of apostate Israel.