[0:00] Zechariah is a post-exilic prophet, so he is prophesying after Israel has returned from 70! years of exile in Babylon. Zechariah's name means the Lord remembers, and it's quite fitting! as we think about this weary people that has returned from Babylon. Perhaps they have felt as though God has forgotten them. Probably if I was to ask in this room, have you ever had that sense like that God has forgotten you? Maybe he stopped speaking to you? Probably every hand would go up. Yeah, there was this occasion this season. Maybe I'm currently there, and I love that we have this prophet whose name says the Lord remembers. And God's people, they had felt forgotten for 70 years, crying out, waiting. In fact, in Lamentations 3.16, we can hear the ache of their heart where they said, He has made my teeth grind on gravel and made me cower in ashes. My soul is bereft of peace.
[1:01] I have forgotten what happiness is. So I say, my endurance has perished. So has my hope from the Lord. So here's a people seeking the Lord, feeling like He has forgotten them, and yet God does hear them, does deliver them. And God delivers them in a very unlikely way. They are there in exile in Babylon, and then this Persian kingdom comes onto the scene. This king, Cyrus, who conquers, the Persians conquer the Babylonians in 539 B.C. That's historical fact. They liberate, Cyrus liberates the Jews, and then he commissions them to go back to their promised land, to Jerusalem, and rebuild their temple. And it's remarkable that God would use this pagan king to accomplish his purposes. And it just reminds us that God is so very sovereign. He's sovereign. Well, He's only at work around, you know, Christians. God's using everything, friends. In fact, in Isaiah 45.5, it says, I am the Lord.
[2:20] God's speaking to Cyrus here. I am the Lord. There is no other. Besides me, there is no God. And listen to what he says to Cyrus, this pagan king. I equip you, though you do not know me. Like, that's shocking.
[2:37] Friends, God is sovereign. Even archaeology affirms this reality. And I would say archaeology is like the Bible's best friend in many ways. I have a slide here. This is called the Cylinder of Cyrus.
[2:53] It was discovered in 1879 in the ruins of Babylon. It's a sixth century artifact. It's about nine inches. And it's on display there in the British Museum to this day. It's written in Akkadian.
[3:10] Ask Dr. Vreeland later what Akkadian is. It's like this ancient Babylonian, but it's not quite that. And I'm not going to explain all the different streams of Semitic languages, but it recounts Cyrus's conquest of Babylon and then liberating the Jews. And here's just a section. It says, I sent back to their places whose shrines had earlier been dilapidated, the gods who lived therein. He doesn't know that they're monotheistic. And made permanent sanctuaries for them. I collected together all their peoples and returned them to their settlements. I returned them unharmed to their selves.
[3:52] So friends, as we read Scripture, know that this is rooted in actual history. We can be confident then that what was predicted and is yet future will one day be actual history as well. So God is sovereign over history, friends. Amen? And He preserved the Jewish people through their exile in order primarily to see the Abrahamic covenant fulfilled. That a Messiah would come through the line of the Jewish people. And so He protected them. He preserved them.
[4:29] In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed, it says in Genesis 12.3. And the promises of His return, of Jesus' return, if this occurred already in past history, the fact that He says, I'm coming again, we can bank on it, friends.
[4:47] Now, where are we in our story? We are in the eight vision section of Zechariah. It's one night. Zechariah is experiencing all of these visions. They're given to encourage this demoralized people, reminding them that God remembers them, is working amongst them, and is writing their story. In fact, he's writing the entire story of reality. And so today we're here in chapter 5. As I said, it's a double feature. We're going to be looking at visions number 6 and visions number 7.
[5:23] The flying scroll and the basket. So these final three visions, by the way, are different than the prior five. These final three really deal primarily with judgment, including next week as we consider the four chariots. And really the essence of the visions are, are we a people? Ask ourselves this question, are we a people prepared for the Lord's return?
[5:53] Are we prepared to meet our returning King? God is going to judge sin for every man, for every woman. And either His blood covers us, and we stand righteous before Him because of Christ's finished work, or we will stand before Him and we will be graded on our own works for salvation. And we will all fail. And that is a judgment I don't want to be a part of. That judgment, the great white throne judgment, Scripture talks about it in Revelation 20, verses 11 to 15. You'll have to look it up later. There's a lot of revelation you're going to be looking up later today, just forewarning. But the great white throne judgment happens after the millennial kingdom completes. And so I've just basically summarized all of Revelation 20.
[6:48] Revelation 20, 1 to 10, is about the millennial kingdom. Revelation 20, verses 11 to 15, to the end there is about the great white throne judgment. Okay? All right. Vision number six. And that's contained in the first part of chapter five here of Zechariah, verses one through four. But let's begin in the first couple verses. Again, I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll. And he said to me, what do you see? And I answered, I see a flying scroll. Its length is 20 cubits. Its width 10 cubits. Like this is full transparency confession. I just was thinking about this vision all week going, okay, I can't say flying squirrel. But it was in my head all week long. So now you know.
[7:46] I see a flying scroll. I have some artwork worked tirelessly on this week. I added wings. I don't know that the scroll had wings. But he's like, man, I see this flying scroll. And he says, behold.
[8:10] Behold is a word kind of pregnant with expectation or surprise. So he's like, whoa. Like, I didn't expect that. Right? I wasn't expecting that. What do you see? I see a flying scroll. I wasn't thinking I was going to see a flying scroll. But here I am looking at this thing. Now, scrolls. Scrolls were typically made of papyrus. We can think of that as ancient equivalent of paper. The papyrus plant, the stalks cut up, the reeds were cut up, and then strips of this plant were kind of dried and crisscrossed and created ancient form of paper. And so scrolls were typically made of papyrus.
[8:52] Vellum came on the scene a little bit later, which is just animal skins, far more durable. So that became more the technology that was happening in the first and second century AD.
[9:08] And Vellum often was not in a scroll form. It was in a codex. So that would be our modern-day equivalent of a book. So if you've ever heard codex, that's pages, right? Sort of like a book, but a scroll. Back in Zechariah's day, guys, scrolls were all the rage. And so this scroll, he sees a scroll. And the thing about the scroll is very unusual in terms of its size.
[9:33] We think of like the great Isaiah scroll that was discovered in 1947, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. That thing unrolled was about 25 feet long by 10 inches wide. That's a typical sort of dimension of a scroll. This scroll, it says its length is 20 cubits. Its width is 10 cubits, okay? And you're like, yeah, a cubit. What's a cubit? A cubit is an ancient measurement. And a cubit would be like from your elbow to like your forefinger, okay? Your pointer finger, okay? That would be a cubit, all right? And most people, right? Like Scott, he's got what you call, he's a wide wingspan, so he's got like a super cubit. But most of us, ordinary, normal people, it's about a foot and a half, okay? We'll have to measure Scott after the service to see if, see how that wingspan goes. But it's about a foot and a half. So as we have these dimensions here, okay, 20 cubits, 30 feet, 10 cubits, 15 feet. So it's 30 feet by 15 feet in size. Friends, this is a billboard in the sky.
[10:43] It's like a message, one of those messages flown behind an airplane. And something's being advertised. It's not a marriage proposal. This is a message of judgment. And here's what we learn. Look at verses three and four. Then he said to me, this is the curth that goes out over the face of the whole land.
[11:05] For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely, the context is by my name, shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name, and it shall remain in the house and consume it, both timber and stones. So this scroll, friends, is written on both sides.
[11:40] Sort of like the judgment scroll that only Jesus can open in Revelation. We kind of sing that song sometimes. Recall Revelation 5.1, then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. We also observe that the Ten Commandments written in a similar fashion, Exodus 32.15, then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides. Some of you guys didn't know that. You're like, whoa, you read your Bible, you learn things. On the front and on the back, they were written. Okay? So this scroll is one of judgment, and we see it kind of compared to these other documents that we find in Scripture related to the same sort of theme.
[12:32] And it's judgment to all who continue to disregard God's law. And so this scroll is like, Israel, I hope you learned the lessons in exile. God is still intending for you to repent, clean house, clean your hearts.
[12:53] And here on this scroll in the sky specifically, we have a couple of the Ten Commandments. It's the Third Commandment and the Eighth Commandment. Okay? These are the middle commandments. The third on how to relate correctly to God, and then the Eighth Commandment, that middle in the last section of how to relate to one another. The third commandment, swearing falsely against God. So as God is my witness, am I speaking that which is true? And I think that's sort of the other side or a different vantage point of the Ninth Commandment where it talks about, hey, don't speak falsely to a brother.
[13:35] Don't use the name of the Lord in vain. Don't use God's name to leverage your agenda. I think we got to be very careful with our language. Like God told me, I think we have to be very careful with that. I was a college pastor for too many years, and I heard a lot of God told me words, mostly from young men about who they were supposed to date. And it was like God told me. And I still remember a gal I met with one time, and she was like, yeah. So and so was like, God told him that I was supposed to date him. And her question to me is like, why didn't God tell me?
[14:23] I think we have to be very careful about that language. We have to go and test everything against God's Word. So I think we have to be careful there. But Christ's followers are to be people of their Word. Amen? With integrity, truthfulness, guiding all of our communication.
[14:45] Because, guess what? God is actually always our witness now. Because we're indwelt by His Spirit. And then you have the Eighth Commandment here, Eighth Commandment, stealing from your fellow man.
[15:02] Maybe back in this day, it's like, I'm going to move the boundary marker a little bit. I'm going to move my fence line encroaching on my neighbor's space, and I'll have more, and he'll have less. Don't steal from your fellow man. Don't use unjust weights in the market. And both of these commands really are dealing with deceit in the heart of men. Do you see that? Dealing with our words, and then dealing with our hands. Lying, stealing. And the bottom line here is God expects His people, His ancient people, Israel, His today people, to be those that walk in truth in all of life.
[15:44] And when we don't, we're out of step, guess what? With God's Spirit, who dwells within us. Do you guys realize in John, the Gospel of John, as Jesus talks about the sending of the helper, the prediction of the Holy Spirit, that in John 14, John chapter 15, and in John chapter 16, the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of truth. The Spirit of truth who indwells us.
[16:14] So we're called to walk in truth, live lives in truth, that we would be prepared for His return. And so we need to continue to be sanctified in this life, shedding off rhythms from our life where we walked in the flesh, in deceit, whether by our hands or our words. And I would say even as just a bonus, as we do this, guess what? Community is strengthened. Relationships flourish when we walk in truth.
[16:48] I mean, if you want to be a lonely person in life, just lie and steal. And you will be. Now, interestingly, I don't know if there's a connection here or not.
[17:04] There's a number of places in this, by the way, chapter where I will tell you where I lean, which gives me an out if I am incorrect. But there may be a connection here. The scroll is actually the exact measurements of the porch of Solomon's temple. And you can see that in 1 Kings 6, 3.
[17:24] And that's interesting because on that temple porch, that's where the law was typically read from. And it may be that these two commandments just simply represent the whole of the Decalogue, the whole of the Ten Commandments, which is then a summary of the Mosaic Law, which contains about 613 commandments. Okay? Don't you love the fact that we live today where God's law is written on our hearts? Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. This vision now, for those walking in this sort of cadence in life, this vision describes a curse on those. You're living in deceit. You're living in rebellion against God. This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. Okay? Curse. Curse. Now, remember, of the covenants in the Old Testament, the Mosaic Covenant was the conditional one. The Abrahamic
[18:31] Covenant, Genesis 12, unconditional. Davidic Covenant, 2 Samuel 7, unconditional. There's another one, Palestinian Covenant, Deuteronomy 30. It's sort of an extension, a little bit of the Mosaic Covenant, but this Davidic Covenant, Abrahamic Covenant, they were unconditional. God unilaterally promising Israel certain blessings regardless of their behavior. Right? Specifically, that Messiah King, it's going to come through the Jews, and it's going to come through the line of David.
[19:09] Now, related to the Mosaic Covenant, it was conditional. If Israel was obedient, then God would bless. If they disobeyed, then God would punish. The blessings and curses that are associated with this conditional covenant now are found in detail, and you just have to sort of take my word for it.
[19:29] You can look at them later. But in Deuteronomy chapter 27 and 28, you have some of the conditions. I'll just, let me just mention a couple. Deuteronomy 27, 17. Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor's landmark. Well, that's stealing. And all the people said, amen. Deuteronomy 28, 20. The Lord will send you curses, confusion, frustration, and all that you undertake to do until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of your evil deeds because you have forsaken me. So the Mosaic Covenant was conditional. And Israel had experienced a major consequence of their rebellion for the last 70 years.
[20:05] They get this. And in this vision, for those who have been walking in the sin of deceit, hands, mouth, the consequence is that person will be, it says, cleaned out. That's not a good thing here.
[20:29] To be cleaned out is to be removed. And to be removed thoroughly because it says here, and it shall remain in his house and consume it both timber and stones. It's a complete cleaning out.
[20:45] And what's interesting about this imagery, it actually comes from Leviticus 14, 33 to 57. But in Leviticus 14, we have basically what would occur if there was a diseased house with leprosy inside, how do you deal with it? You quarantine it, you quarantine it, you see if it improves, if it doesn't, ultimately you have to go then pull the rocks and get new rocks and tear it down and completely rebuild it. But this image is basically, if you're walking in this posture, God sees you.
[21:16] There's nowhere to hide from God's judgment, not even in your perceived space of safety, which would be in this day your house. No, the judgment's going to come to the house, consume it, timber and stones, the whole thing.
[21:33] I actually believe here, friends, there is a reference of judgment that was true in Zachariah's day, but it's also looking forward. I believe it's looking forward to the seven years of tribulation that are yet in front.
[21:50] That period when Jesus purges the land of sin to prepare it for his coming kingdom. There's a lot of eschatology in Zachariah, friends.
[22:00] The ultimate fulfillment of this vision for Israel will be that the king returns. And when he returns at the end of the tribulation period, he's going to set up his millennial kingdom where righteousness dwells.
[22:17] And in fact, the next vision follows this theme with sin being dealt with in the land. It's not just, it's actually sent away in the next vision, which we're about to see, which I'm stalling for because it gets even more complicated.
[22:34] And you're just like, Jay, I don't want the curse promised to Israel for their disobedience. I don't either. Then you need Christ.
[22:46] You need Jesus in this life. Because Jesus, what did Paul say to the Galatians in Galatians 3? He said this in verse 13. He said, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
[23:03] For it is written, cursed is everyone who hanged on a tree. Jesus became the curse. We don't have to live under that. Friends, Jesus makes Jesus the best. That's why we worship him.
[23:16] That's why we come and we talk about him and we want to serve him and use our lives for his glory, not our own. He's the best. He became a curse. All right.
[23:27] These visions, they go together. They build. You ready? Vision number seven. The basket. Look at verses five through eight. Then the angel who talked to me came forward and said to me, lift your eyes and see what this is that's going out.
[23:41] And I said, what is it? He said, this is the basket that's going out. And he said, this is their iniquity and all the land. And behold, the leaden cover was lifted. And there was a woman sitting in the basket.
[23:53] And he said, this is wickedness. And he thrust her back into the basket and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening. You guys ready for this art?
[24:06] Yeah, you are. I know Noah was my art consultant this week because I'm like, what about this one? He's like, Jay, can't do that one. I'm like, what about the too creepy? What about that one? Too sensual?
[24:16] Okay. What about this one? You know? So finally, this was many iterations to get this out of my brain. Thank you, chat GBT. And this is what you got.
[24:30] All right. What do we have? We have replaced the scroll with a basket. A basket, the Hebrew word ephah.
[24:41] What is an ephah? It is the largest dry measurement in Israel. You're like, oh, okay. But what is it? Well, it's a tenth of an omer.
[24:53] Oh, okay. Just go, seriously, go to Trader Joe's and ask, can I get an omer's worth of asparagus?
[25:05] Or just see what they say. Which is .6 of a bushel. I don't know. Wade, you might have to help us, farmer.
[25:17] Maybe you know what a bushel is. But essentially, let's bring it back to America, Jay. Six gallons, roughly.
[25:29] This is, I mean, obviously not to scale. I don't know how anybody fits into a six-gallon bucket, but so we have it. Recall that the scroll had two sins highlighted.
[25:41] The basket is all of man's rebellion. Okay? This is their iniquity in all the land. This is wickedness.
[25:52] So this vision builds on that of the scroll, highlighting the utter rebellion in men's hearts towards their maker. This basket has a cover.
[26:05] It says, the leaden cover was lifted. Laden. Made of lead. It's a talent of lead in Hebrew.
[26:20] What talent? 75 to 100 pounds. This is a heavy, heavy lid. we have another image of a talent uh which actually is the final bowl judgment uh of of revelation uh where you have a talent of ice image of judgment and you maybe you've never read this before and you thought like oh but revelation 16 21 says and a and great hailstones oh hail about 100 pounds the word actually there is talent 100 pounds each fell from heaven on people as they cursed god for the plague of the hail because the plague was so severe so you have like can you even imagine that like 100 pound bowling balls of ice just and the velocity from heaven judging sin like i hope that you have this picture of god like hating sin judging sin and you actually have the angel here who's like putting the putting the lid back on top of this basket it's interesting because that revelation uh passage revelation 16 21 great hailstones in job 37 job uh it talks about god sending weather sometimes for correction says that in in job 37 13 and that is the ultimate like case of it in the book of revelation and i think it actually then ties in with leviticus 24 16 where uh you were stoned uh for blaspheming god and god is going to stone the planet in a sense for blasphemy for the utter utter evil of mankind now this image in the basket this one's this one's the the the g rated version uh it's a little disturbing like cover popping off basket you kind of see a person there that would not be what i was thinking was going to be in there it this sort of reminds me of if you've seen disney's adaptation of the christmas carol the second spirit children of men beneath the robe and you ignorance and want and a little hand creeps out you're like oh you know that doesn't feel good well that's kind of this image here um there's a woman who manages to lift the lid making her appearance in the vision uh it's said of her who is she it says this is wickedness um notice that the the woman is sitting inside the ephah the this basket um and it's it's this actual this measurement used in commerce it's an image of her having comfort in the midst of the economy i think there's a connection here friends as we look to if you've read the book of revelation and there's a woman in there called the great harlot and she's actually adorned with gold jewels and pearls this may be a prophecy pointing forward to that uh time in history right and this makes sense because what time in history is wickedness and lawlessness at its zenith it is there in the tribulation the seven years of tribulation i believe this image is pointing to that time i could be wrong i don't think i am um and if you want to read like hey this is probably not evening reading with the kids but if you want to read about the tribulation period revelation chapter 6 through 16 describes it in detail jesus said of that time in the olivet discourse matthew 24 12 he says hey because that time lawlessness will be increased the love of many will grow cold and why will lawlessness increase at that time because second
[30:21] thessalonians 2 3 says that the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction the antichrist that works in cooperation with the great harlot okay now this image i know for some of you is like what why did god pick a woman to be in a basket uh women are very good please don't have some weird theology leaving here genesis 127 male female god made them in his image this basket this is not a woman this is a personification of wickedness in the form of a woman the hebrew word for wickedness is in the feminine hence that's what you get um and i think this image of wickedness it's it's trying to escape in all its forms in civil and economic and in ethical and religious and the angel that's interacting with zachariah quickly thrust her back in the basket places the lead covering over the opening and i think it's this image of god saying hey evil is going to be contained it's going to be restrained uh even evil that's plagued the land through the generations guess what i'm sovereign over it in zachariah's day today and in our future god is sovereign over it yesterday today and tomorrow and there's great comfort in that friends because i think sometimes we we go around go man evil's out of control and god's sleeping or what's going on but god's sovereign over it and there's a day where it will be completely contained and not just contained but actually removed let's continue on with this vision look at verses 9 to 11 then i lifted my eyes and saw and behold two women coming forward the wind was in their wings they had wings like the wings of a stork and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven and i said to the angel who talked with me where are they taking the basket and he said to me to the land of shinar shinar or shinar to build a house for it and when this is prepared they will set the basket down there on its base there's a base awaiting this basket so wickedness is being carried flown away by these two angelic creatures for some of you like well why is there a woman in the basket i don't know maybe god was like i'm gonna redeem the image this is the only place in the bible where you actually have angelic creatures that are in the form of females this is it zachariah 5 9 different scholars see different things i'm not going to get into the stork being an unclean bird and could these be demon i don't know i just think they're angels and god's sovereign and they are flying wickedness away i think this is an important image god is sovereign god is in the process and will ultimately remove wickedness he's disarmed rulers at the cross he's made possible forgiveness of sins committed by all of us and if i was a little bit more neat and tidy in my eschatology if i was just a good sort of reformed like you know covenant theologian i would conclude the sermon here and say hey psalm 103 right 12 as far as the east is from the west so does god remove our transgressions from us right gift of a lifetime that's beautiful i believe that the problem is i'm not a covenant theologian and i ascribe to what today primarily is a little bit more minority and uh but i have a friend in scott so we can commiserate together in this um we are of a more dispensational uh persuasion and i believe actually the kind of the key tenet of dispensationalism is that god still has a distinct plan for his ancient people okay israel and it's unique to the church and i believe these eight
[34:25] visions speak to this now are they completely separate the storylines intersect friends of course they do and it's true that all who are saved are saved by trusting in the finished work of the cross for the forgiveness of sin but god still has a plan for ancient israel and if you don't believe it you can go ahead and spend some time and paul talks about this in romans chapter 9 through 11 and you can read it and one of the jewish storylines of the bible is the promise of a millennial kingdom prior to the eternal state where promises to saved israel will be fulfilled well don't we get to participate yes we get to help as the church rule with christ during that thousand year period i believe we will be in glorified bodies i believe that the bmc judgment is that testing of our works not for salvation but for reward and based upon how faithful we have walked with christ in this life will determine the responsibilities that we have in this thousand year rule where we get to rule with christ that's beautiful but much of what zachariah records points to this future millennial kingdom pastor scott a couple weeks ago read from isaiah chapter 11 that talks about the millennial kingdom right the lion and the lamb laying down and you can play with a cobra and so it's pretty cool revelation 20 specifically that's the key key text on this and this is where we take a deep dive sweet we have 10 minutes you ready where are these creatures taking the basket to containing wickedness where are they taken to the land of what shinar shinar what occurred in shinar we'll go back to genesis chapter 11 and we'll find out verses 1 and 2 now the whole earth had one language and the same words and as people migrated from the east they found a plain in the land of shinar and settled there what did they do genesis 11 verse 4 and they said come let us build for ourselves a city and a tower with its top to the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth if you've grown up in church you know the story this is the location of babel right that man built this ziggurat to the heavens we don't need god we are gods and this is man's first in scripture in the history of mankind his first organized attempt to throw off the yoke of god shinar is the birthplace of idolatry friends idolatry setting up worshiping that which is not god sex leisure power possessions experience creation self and the worship in shinar epitomized this and in fact back in genesis 11 this was mutiny against god because what did god say in genesis 128 be fruitful multiply right scatter fill the earth subdue it subdue it not exploit it subdue bring order where there's disorder and what did man say no we're going to stay in one place and build us a big tower and we're going to become gods ourselves how did god handle confused language scattered them but there was a cost because as god scattered man so did he scatter idolatry in their hearts across the land as well what city was birthed in the region of shinar modern day iraq on the banks of the euphrates what what city baby babylon okay babylon built by nimrod i think nimrod is actually kind of a
[38:27] foreshadow a type of antichrist in the old testament we learn in genesis 10 8 to 10 cush fathered nimrod he was the first on earth to be a mighty man he was a mighty hunter before the lord therefore it is said like nimrod a mighty hunter before the lord the beginning of his kingdom was babel eric akad and kelna in the land of shinar so the land of shinar where babel occurred that is the birthplace of babylon do you see the image is this starting to kind of come together whoa this woman she sort of represents wickedness which is sort of identified in throughout scripture as babylon you go to the book of revelation the whore of babylon the mother of prostitutes like uh yeah i there are six chapters in the bible that talk about a restoration of babylon you got to read these on your own for future study isaiah chapter 13 and 14 jeremiah chapter 50 and 51 got that you want to you want to you want to read about the restoration of babylon isaiah 13 and 14 jeremiah 50 and 51 and then revelation 17 and 18 you guys got that revelation 17 and 18 um the modern site of babylon 55 miles south of baghdad uh there's a city just under a million people halah about three to six miles uh away from the ancient site of of babylon um it's not a thriving metropolis today it's an archaeological site there's farmlands there's settlements um if you're a history buff sudan hussein tried to try to build a fortress there you know he's the next nebuchadnezzar and and that's that kind of became a little bit of a ghost town site um and so maybe you're going jay are you are you saying that you believe that babylon is going to be rebuilt and i am going to say eileen i think so but i could be very wrong okay um some view this simply as symbolic certainly we know that babylon is used symbolically in scripture to talk about evil uh governing uh organizations and and uh religious apostasy uh in fact we just studied first peter first peter 5 13 he calls rome babylon uh i know that you know revelation 17 9 talks about like future babylon's going to be built on seven mountains and you're like oh seven mountains right that's rome rome's you know the city of seven hills and but then it talks about well those are seven kings so maybe i i actually don't know but as i study scripture it it it seems kind of unthinkable that babylon will actually like the actual place babylon will will return and yet i i lean there i could be wrong but i think anytime we want to like put our mind to something it happens it's shocking julie and myself spent like a day in dubai that city came from that it was instantaneous and that is the most opulent place i've ever been in my life i i you know if man decides he's going to do something and if it fits into god's ultimate uh timetable uh to fulfill his promises it'll happen now regardless of where
[42:32] future babylon is why take wickedness back there because it said hey these angels are taking the basket to the land of shinar taking the basket to babylon literal or figurative okay i know some of you taking the basket to america are we back no i don't think we but okay we always think we're more important in end time events than we actually are but that's another that's another conversation another sermon um but you have here wickedness being taken to to babylon what does the interpreting angel tell zachariah taking the basket evil personified within to do what to build a house for it a godless temple and when this is prepared they will set the basket down there on its base this is shocking friends but it's talking about future events right that there is an antichrist that there is a tribulation period that there is godliness running amok and you have a picture of there is going to be this entity like the mystery babylon in the future and there will be some sort of godless place of worship that will be erected friends there are godless places of worship being erected today all around here's a unique one uh this could be easily leveraged by a one world government system the antichrist but for instance i have a slide of this this here uh is actually the abrahamic family house it's an interfaith complex this opened in 2023 brand new it's in abu dhabi it consists of three buildings with gardens what are those buildings it's a mosque it's a synagogue and it's a catholic church friends we have a planet moving towards this space of tolerance pluralism that's the highest value way above truth so to read things in scripture go man that's so far-fetched that could never happen that could never happen stuff like that's happening okay and and and this wicked organization this entity like the harlot the the the this this babylon thing it's it's going to have a place where it's going to be set down but that's actually the actual historical site or some other place it's part of god's unfolding plan in future history the place where organized idolatry began this is what's interesting is also where it's going to end so back in genesis 11 where where organized rebellion began i'm taking this basket back there to shinar so where the tower of babel began may be where the antichrist actually uh sets up his main headquarters from the overthrow of babylon is a major piece of end times prophecy by the way um and if you're like explain that mystery babylon best explained as this ungodly end time religious system that the antichrist leverages for a season to deceive the nations and so history is going to culminate with god destroying the engine of idolatry known as babylon and i think the vision that we had we can go back to that that vision of them taking this uh wickedness personified to shinar i think is a foreshadowing it's a prophecy of that event history will culminate with god destroying that engine of idolatry known as babylon right revelation 17 6 says babylon's drunk with the blood of the saints this godless
[46:32] religious government sort of entity god's going to judge it revelation 18 2 says and he called out with a mighty voice fallen fallen is babylon the great she's become a dwelling place for demons a haunt of every unclean spirit a haunt of every unclean bird a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast revelation 18 21 then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea saying so will babylon the great city be thrown down with violence and will be found no more it may be on the ancient site maybe it's representative of a city currently that is figuratively the future babylon either way guess what god wins babylon will be put down and this will then prepare the way for the king's final return where he will then set up the millennial kingdom which will then usher in the eternal state two applications friends first one is this i hope as you look at this and you see like whoa i didn't realize that the old testament was pointing forward and like all of these pieces fit together and could the storyline arc be that that where god was where man was rebellious once is actually where god's going to actually like finish history and it's like oh my goodness like god takes sin seriously he takes it seriously that's why he went to the cross like and if god takes sin seriously we should be vigilant to to seek to eradicate it from our lives the wrath of god is poured out as a result and should stir us to be serious about our god and about dealing with sin in our life and the second application is this guess what the king returns jesus wins the story actually ends as it should he's the victor god is working in history every day friends whether we recognize it or not amen father we thank you for these visions they're a little bit complex and pray that we have gleaned something from them and lord maybe it stirred us to to go whoa maybe i'm going to read the book of revelation this summer i mean you did say that there's a blessing revelation 1 3 that if i would read these words aloud there's a blessing in this and lord i want us to be a people not that gets our charts out and starts to sort of geek out and putting pieces together and it doesn't actually change us we want to be a people that is changed because we recognize that we serve the god of history and that you are working all things according to your purposes and lord we love the fact that in in our day sometimes we get weary like like those that felt 70 years of exile we feel like we're in exile we see sin and brokenness and we know then the story that you're going to judge evil you're finally going to put it down and lord we look forward to those days but lord today help us to be vigilant to fight sin in our life and to be a people that proclaim good news that you would give us each people that we could be talking to about jesus and we will give you thanks and it's in your name we pray jesus amen