Daniel: Party Over (#6) - April 29, 2020

I don't know where you were on October the 24th 2000 18 but on that day I remember hearing a news story about a party that was taking place at an apartment complex about three miles from the campus of Clemson University and it was a group of young people and they were in this Clubhouse and there the music was playing and I'm sure the alcohol was flowing and they were out on the dance floor and a certain song came on at a certain time and it motivated all of the people in the party to start jumping in unison with the beat of the song the problem is that with all of them starting to jump at the same time the floor joists that were supporting them cracked and gave way and opened up and all of a sudden they were falling down into the basement and they were grabbing at pieces of broken wood to keep themselves from falling into this suddenly open pit that was giving way beneath their feet thankfully there were about thirty injured only with no deaths but the the truth of the matter is that if that's happening at a party it's safe to say the party is officially over and that's the title of tonight's message party over and I want you to open to Daniel chapter 5 if you would because we're looking into the pages of Daniels prophecy and we see another party going on and it was a party on a much grander scale than the one that I described in the introduction of this message this was a party that had over a thousand people participating in a beautiful banquet hall in the palace of the Babylonian king and what I want to do before we actually get into reading the passage I want to give you a little bit of the background and then we'll look into some specific verses and see what God has to say to all of us from Daniel the the fifth chapter the events of this party took place in the year 539 BC and almost 70 years have passed since chapter 1 in the book of daniel and the chapter where we are reading tonight the jewish people have been exiles in Babylon for the entirety of that almost 70 years because this was the determined number of years that they were to be judged by God because of their rebellion against him as his covenant people not only have 70 years of time passed between chapter 1 in the chapter where we are tonight but just between chapter 4 where we studied last week in chapter 5 where we are this evening there is a period of about 23 years that have passed Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon passed away in the year 562 BC and we believe that he passed away shortly after he returned to sanity from his seven years of grazing in the field as an animal in Chapter four we read how he was restored to sanity and we believe he had a conversion experience and he confessed faith in Jehovah God but it was shortly after that he must have passed away the focus of our story tonight is a man named Belshazzar Belshazzar is a descendent of Nebuchadnezzar historians aren't sure if he was a grandson or a great-grandson but we need to distinguish between Belshazzar who is now this king or a co ruling king of babylon and the nickname are the renaming of daniel if you'll remember Nebuchadnezzar renamed Daniel Delta Shazzer there's a there's an extra syllable in Daniels Chaldean name we're talking not about belt a Shazzer that's Daniel we're talking about King Belshazzar whose name appears here in chapter 5 whether it's belt a Shazzer which was Daniel's renamed name or Belshazzar the king of Babylon in chapter 5 both names are a tribute to the god of the Babylonians Belby II L so here is bel Chou and whether he is a sole monarch over this kingdom of his ancestor Nebuchadnezzar the kingdom of Babylon or he's what we would call a co-regent with a man who was the king whose name is nabonidus who might have been Belshazzar father we're not sure but what we do know is that nabonidus is nowhere on the scene that he is most likely being held as a captive because the Persian armies have surrounded the city of Babylon this capital of Babylonia the Persians were poised to conquer Babylon and nabonidus was most likely one of their prisoners as we think about Belshazzar this King he knows that his kingdom is surrounded by these Persians and that as they're surrounding his capital city he has this sense of invincibility he believes that his city this city that he is inherited from his ancestor King Nebuchadnezzar this the most glorious city on planet Earth if you'll remember we talked about the dimensions of the city and especially the laws that were built around the city that were 387 feet tall the third the height of the Empire State Building that were 87 feet wide and then this engineering marvel that the euphrates river flowed through the heart of this ancient city in fact it flowed underneath the walls and went through the city and flowed underneath the walls on the opposite side of the city so in other words Belshazzar has gotten a party together with with those who served in his kingdom a thousand of his most important people the VIPs and they were wining and dining even though they knew the Persian armies were encamped about their city they believed that the mighty city of Babylon would never be taken it was to architectural II superior it was militarily in pennant no enemy force could mount and scale those walls and no enemy force could certainly bring a conquering army through the river under the walls to capture the city from within now archaeologists have actually excavated this ancient capital city of Babylon that's fascinating to me that the very city that Nebuchadnezzar built which was his pride and joy the same city that his descendant nabonidus and now Belshazzar ruled over this city was unearthed it was uncovered by archaeologists years ago and we have reason to believe that the very banquet hall in which the party described in this chapter was taking place has been measured out by these archaeologists they have found the ruins not only of the city and of the laws of the city but of the palace and of this very room in which the events of tonight's story take place in fact this was such a large banquet hall the archaeologists tell us it measured 56 feet in width and a hundred and seventy-three feet in length that is one big banquet hall for ancient times so Belshazzar in the first four verses you can read these later he's made a feast and we have reason to believe it degenerated into a drunken orgy it was a foolish display of misguided confidence in these Babylonian deities and gods in whom he trusted and those of his kingdom trusted but here's what the Bible tells us in chapter 5 that the sacred articles of gold and silver that King Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from the temple of God in Jerusalem 70 years earlier when he raided the city and brought it down to ruins and set it on fire those sacred articles that had been housed in the babylonian treasury Belshazzar got so full of himself that he said let's go get the sacred furnishings of the jewish temple out of the safe in the Treasury and I want us to pour our wine into the sacred chalices that came out of the house of the Living God and so what they're doing is they're filling their cups with strong drink and they're getting inebriated they're getting intoxicated and as an act of blasphemy by getting drunk drinking their liquor out of the cups and out of the chalices that had been stolen from the temple of God in the holy city they are swearing oath of allegiance to their Babylonian gods I mean you can't get any more depraved than that and so they're having a wonderful time the band is playing they're probably rubbing up on one another they're doing their dance they're the the liquor is flowing and all as well even though the enemy is encamped around them on this fateful night they believed life is short party hard live any way you want to live but god interrupted the party now the floor didn't fall out from them jumping but I'll tell you something that did happen a hand appeared out of nowhere imagine this a hand appeared and started writing something on the plaster wall in this banquet hall in which the party was being held look in verse number five of Daniel 5 it says suddenly they saw the fingers of a human hand riding on the plaster wall of the king's palace near the lampstand the king himself saw the hand as it wrote and his face turned pale with fright his knees knocked together in fear and his legs gave way beneath him now I'm just gonna take some this is funny to me this is funny this is what you call a divine interruption to a lustful carnal worldly party they've been dancing they've been drinking and now King Belshazzar is doing a new dance I call it the Babylonian boogie you know why because it says his knees were knocking his legs gave way I believe his body started convulsing his face was flushed white and the Babylonian Boogie was a dance of fear the only difference between the dance he was doing before the Babylonian boogie and the Babylonian boogie is he was doing the Babylonian boogie after the music had all stopped because don't you know as soon as that hand started writing a message on the plaster wall of his palace the band stopped the crowd died down everyone was astonished to see this hand writing on this wall and so you can do all of that without any music but I'll tell you what they did do it with they stopped the party with blasphemy still in their hearts and liquor on their breaths so the king is astonished and he brings in all of you if you've seen this pattern before what's he going to do I don't know what that means it's the same thing Nebuchadnezzar did back in chapter 2 chapter 4 I need somebody to tell me what this means so he calls in all the magicians the soothsayers the astrologers the so-called wise men the Chaldeans whoever was on his payroll just like his grandfather or great-grandfather whatever Nebuchadnezzar was to Bel Shazzer just as he had done and he says to any of you who can tell me what message has been written on the wall of my banquet hall tonight I will give you a purple robe of royalty I will drape a golden necklace around your neck and I will give you unrivaled power in this kingdom I just want you to interpret what was written on that wall well guess what none of them could do it none of them can do it can you guess for whom the stage is being set it's a predictable pattern isn't it the stage is being set for God's men the prophet Daniel the Bible tells us that the Queen who was probably Belshazzar mother the Queen came in to this silenced party having heard that all the wise men were incapable they were unable of interpreting this this message that had mysteriously been written before their eyes on the walls of the palace and this is what she says in verse 11 she said there is a man in your kingdom who has within him the spirit of the holy gods now that's how she put it but you and I know it's the spirit of the holy God capital G dropped the s she went on to say during Nebuchadnezzar's reign this man was found to have insight understanding and wisdom like that of the gods your predecessor the King your predecessor King Nebuchadnezzar made this man Daniel chief over all the magicians enchanters astrologers and fortune tellers of Babylon which tells you that Daniel is no longer occupying that position verse 12 she goes on to say this man Daniel whom the king named delta Shazzer he has exceptional ability he is filled with divine knowledge and understanding he can interpret dreams explain riddles and solve difficult problems call for Daniel I can tell you this Daniel will tell you what the writing means now what a testimony Daniel had that the king's mother most likely this queen as she's called in Chapter five she comes and says these astrologers and magicians may be wringing their hands and unable to help you but I remember there is a wise man named Daniel now here's the thing remember from chapter one to now seventy years have passed this means that Daniel is now a man in his 80s don't miss that he is advanced in years and Daniel is called he comes in the King explains if you can interpret that I'll give you a purple robe a golden chain around your neck I'll give you money great position prestige authority well Daniel it had already had that under Nebuchadnezzar and you know what Daniel said to him I love it Daniel said you can keep your reward you can your purple robe you can keep your golden chain you can keep this promotion I'm in my 80s I don't need a promotion I'm getting ready to have the promotion that you can't even imagine it's the ultimate promotion when a child of God goes to meet the Lord Daniel says keep your reward but he says while I'm rejecting your reward and I don't need anything you have to offer me I am gonna tell you what that means and I'm gonna tell you Oh King what God wants you to know this is a man in his 80s with nothing to lose he is a man who's simply going to tell a powerful King what he needs to hear you know what I love about Daniel he was the same way as a young boy as he is now in his 80s this is a man who was always courageous enough to speak the truth and here is is what he said to King Belshazzar in verse 22 he says you are the successor to Nebuchadnezzar o Belshazzar and you knew all that happened to him yet you have not humbled yourself you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven you have had these cups from the temple brought before you and you and your nobles and your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them drinking wine from these sacred cups from the temple while praising gods of silver gold bronze iron wood and stone gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all but you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny and that's why God has sent that hand that mysterious hand a hand without an arm connected to a shoulder connected to a body this mysterious hand was sent by God to write the message on the wall the handwriting is on the wall you ever heard that expression it comes from this passage of scripture the handwriting is on the wall is a harbinger that things are not looking good in the city things are not looking good in the palace things are about to head south really really fast you see what daniel said is daniel said Belshazzar your ancestor nebuchadnezzar was prideful like you are God struck him with insanity he crawled around for seven years like an animal and grazed on the grass but then seven years later he came back to God was humble before God praised God most likely gave his heart to God and did you see what Daniel said to King Belshazzar he said and you knew this story everybody in this kingdom has heard that story because that story's been passed down from King to king - king all the way to the king who's having this party so there's some introductory comments there is some background scripture and now I just want to outline a few points for us to write down what can we learn from this story about a king throwing a party believing that enemy forces could not take him down and using sacred cups from the temple of God in which to pour his liquor and to intoxicate himself and all of his guests while praising pagan gods which are demonic gods what can we learn from this and from the message that was written on the wall well here's the first point you ready for this I want you to write it down God will not be mocked oh there's an Amen moment right there God will not be mocked they were doing all of this drinking dancing carousing worshipping false gods blaspheming the true and living God this was an act of mockery against God and you know what God proved when by having that hand right on the wall you may think you're mocking me but nobody gets away with mocking me I will not be mocked in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7 the Bible says do not be deceived God is not mocked for whatever a man sews that will he also read now listen that verse is not just a warning to the person who is mocking God to let them know God will not tolerate being blaspheme God will not tolerate being rebelled against God will not tolerate being cursed God will not tolerate disrespect that warning in Galatians is not just to those who think they can mock God and get away with it but I'm going to tell you what it is it's a word of assurance to all of us who watch people who mock God and it looks like they're getting away with it that verse is a promise to us don't think that anybody's getting away with anything God has promised to get the last word on those who mock him because you don't mock God and get away with it let me tell you something else I want you to write down you ready for it be careful when you feel invincible be careful when you feel it what does it mean to be invincible invincible means nothing will ever get me down invincible means nothing will ever get the best of me invincible is when you believe no one will ever get the upper hand invincible is when you think well I'm gonna live forever I'll be an exception to the rules that apply to every body else be careful when you feel invincible you see Belshazzar understood that the Persians and the Medes these were an allied force that would be called medo-persia eventually but these two people groups and clans had allied themselves to come against Babylon and this King having this party committing such sacrilege in the palace he knew they were outside the walls and yet he just thought that he was safe and secure that no one would ever take down the mighty city of Babylon the Bible has something to say about this in first Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 12 you see it on the screen Paul wrote it let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall oh what a powerful warning that is for all of us let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall that is a message Paul wrote in the New Testament but that's exactly what Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar that's what Daniel is saying to his descendant Belshazzar just when you think that it's impossible for you to be brought down that is the very moment when God will show you that he can take you down because you see I don't care who you are how powerful you are nobody's a match for the Almighty God and I have to wonder it with what's going on in our own country we have this idea will always be strong as a country America is always going to be standing tall America will always bounce back I'm gonna tell you something when I hear people saying that in my spirit I know there there will come a time when America will be unable to bounce back there will come a time when we have crossed the line because we thought we could Mont God we've pushed him out of school we've pushed him out of the government we pushed him out of our society all together and and do you just think we can keep on doing this and still come back strong and proud the United States of America there will come a time when we will fall and it'll be beyond repair unless God brings our country to repentance I want to tell you something else write this down we are responsible for the truth we know we're responsible for the truth we know well what do I mean by that I'll tell you what I mean we're responsible for the Bible that we know now I'd like to think someone's listening tonight who's not a regular churchgoer that's great but I also believe with all of my heart that most people watching this live stream of a study through an Old Testament book called Angela most people listening this have been listening the Bible for years and years reading the Bible for years and years and years and do you know the danger of knowing so much about the Bible is that we're responsible for what we know we're responsible and I think about how many children have grown up in Christian homes and they know the truth some of you I'm talking about your children your grandchildren but they got to a point said I don't need that church stuff anymore I don't need God anymore but let me tell you something they're still responsible for what they've heard and what they know they can walk away they can say well my church was too legalistic there were too many rules and regulations in my house I want to live a free life I want to experience the happiness of living the life without all of the guilt and the shame that comes with reading the Bible and going to church you're still responsible for what you know you'll be judged for it I hate to tell you that was true you're responsible for the truth you know you know what else we're not only responsible for the Bible lessons and truths that we know we're responsible for all the faith lessons that we've learned you know what when I think about this I often think of my grandparents my grandparents were such a vital part of my life when I was a child and not only my grandparents but there were other people from an older generation that that I learned from when I was growing up in a small town and I can remember older people especially telling me things that God had done in their lives prayers that got it answered and and as a child hearing those stories of faith told maybe not with a Bible verse but just people who who knew the Lord talking about what all God had done for them and what they'd seen him do you know I'm responsible for that because those things are faith lessons instilled in my heart and then God will hold me accountable for whether or not I trust him since I've heard all the stories of people who have trusted him and have seen him to be faithful you what I'm saying you're responsible for the Bible that you've heard and that you know you and I are responsible for the faith stories and the faith lessons that we've heard and you know what else we're responsible for the history that we know history is one of the greatest teachers that we could ever have when we see how God is judged his people and brought them back when they repented why do we think that God will stop working in our day the way he worked in the days of the Bible with Israel God is not a man that he should change he is the same yesterday today and forever and we are so ignorant of history we don't even understand why it is we're going through what we're going through right now there is no doubt in my mind God can bring good out of this but this is this is a token of God's judgment to get our attention what we're going through right now now you say where are you getting this out of the passage I want to tell you where I'm getting it out of the passage and in verse 22 Daniel looked at Belshazzar and said Belshazzar you are his successor in other words he had just told him this whole story about Nebuchadnezzar eating grass and coming to his senses he says Belshazzar you knew all this please look at that you knew all this yet you have not humbled yourself and there you have it Daniel was saying Belshazzar for you to be partying like this drinking like this dancing like this all kinds of sexuality in this banquet hall for you to be blaspheming the holy God of heaven drinking your liquor out of these cups that came out of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem which really are stolen property from Almighty God himself and for you to be raising a toast to all these demonic deities these pagan gods you are without excuse because whether he was your grandfather great who cares what he was you know the story of what happened in Nebuchadnezzar's you're responsible for what you know and you know better than to be acting like you're acting you know what James says in the New Testament about this in James chapter 4 and verse 17 he says remember this it is sin it is what's a sin sin say it sin it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not to do it to know what you ought to do and to do the opposite that is called sin you see we are responsible for the truth we know let's look at what what Daniel says our Daniel says okay now I've preached the sermon I'm going to tell you what what the message is written over here on the wall and in verse 25 he says this is the message that was written men a men a tech ell and parson you say my goodness what does this mean well he's going to tell us this is what these words mean men a means numbered okay Daniel goes on to say God has numbered the days of your reign as king and has brought it to an end verse 27 Tech L means Wade you have been weighed on the balances and have not measured up parson means divided your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians the very ones who are encamped around this city even now verse 29 then at Belshazzar zku man even though I'm sure he didn't like what Daniel told him Daniel was dressed in purple robes that gold chain was hung around his neck and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom now I think you would agree with me have some kind of message written up there on that wall over there men a men a tech L parson three messages your days are numbered and tonight time is up number two you have been put on the balances the scales and you do not measure up you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting or lacking and you know back in those days they used the balancing scale where the measure of weight was put on one side and whatever you were measuring out whether it was grain of some kind wheat of some kind or some other type of commodity and you measured it until it was leveled so you know that that was the weight of whatever was on the scale and he says King you think you are big stuff you think you're all that you think you're such a big man but you see the only one who really is qualified to determine who is important to determine someone's value and worth is that God who made us and the God before whom we will all give an account one day and Daniel said one of the messages is you have been put on the scales and you're not a big man at all you've been found wanting because as big as you are your little stuff you're nothing and your time is up I mean this do you do you agree with me that this message is titled appropriately party over and then what's the third message the third message is your kingdom has been divided and is being given to the Medes and the Persians so there's the interpretation there's no misunderstanding there no ambiguity there no need for further clarification their time is up for Babylon I want you to write this down though no one can fight God and win no one doesn't matter who they are how powerful they are how convincing they are have charismatic they are how effective they are and for how long they seem to have gotten away with their choices with their decisions with their treatment of other people no one say no one no one can fight God and win God wins every time and in the New King James Version when Daniel was speaking to Belshazzar preaching the sermon he preached before he interpreted the handwriting on the wall this is how it's translated Daniel said to him you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven you have lifted yourself up boy is that not a powerful way to put it think about this with me folks who those of you listening to me right now think about this what does it mean to lift yourself up against the Lord you know what I think it means I think it means you have raised your fist to God you've raised your fist to God who can raise their fist to God and get away with it so far no one so far no one you say well what about people who died having never repented they got away with it oh don't you think for one moment that just because someone dies in a state of defiance against God Roubaix don't think for one moment they got away with it do you not understand that every person who dies whoever they are will face god one day no one listen to me no one gets away with anything you know the only way that we are pardoned the only way we find mercy is for us to come to God through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and to trust in what Jesus did for us on Calvary because Jesus took the judgment we don't have to take if we will but turn from sin and acknowledge Jesus as our Lord that's the only escape from the wrath of God the judgment of God because the truth be told we all deserve judgment the same judgment that was to fall on Belshazzar and on all these Babylonians who was so ungodly we all deserve judgment I does I'm at the top of the list I deserve more judgment than anybody that I'm talking to tonight but praise be to God the blood has availed my heart has been washed and mercy has been pronounced over my life because I took my fist out of the air and I bowed down at the foot of an old rugged cross and asked Jesus to be my Lord and my Savior when I was sixteen years old and that is the only reason that I will escape the judgment of God is because Jesus took it for me I hope you're thankful that he took it for you as well you see no one can find God and win and do you know what Daniels final words were after Daniel preached this sermon so let me tell you about your grandpa let me tell you how he strutted his stuff beat his chest said look at my great kingdom well he ended up living seven years out in a field with animals grazing grass and then he came back to God and repented just before he died he confessed Jehovah as his Lord and Savior and then he says this is what the handwriting means you know your days have been numbered time is up you've been weighed in the balance and found wanting and your kingdom is now being divided between the Medes and the Persians and then he topped it all off in verse number 30 look at it he says that very night Belshazzar the Babylonian King was killed I'm telling you Daniel wrote this after the fact the Babylonian King was killed and do you know that we can pinpoint the exact date of that night you'd say the night of the party the night of the party the night of the handwriting the night of the handwriting the night when Daniel came in and said I don't want your lords but I'm gonna tell you what God wants you to hear and I'll interpret them that very night it was October the 12th of 539 BC not only was Belshazzar killed that night by the invading Persian armies but the whole city and Empire Babylon yielded up control and succumbed to an unexpected unanticipated defeat from the invading Medes and Persians so if Babylon was so invincible how did this happen how did those three hundred and eighty seven feet high walls get scaled 87 feet wide remember for chariots abreast could race atop these walls that surrounded this beautiful city with all of its hanging gardens that were irrigated from the water that flowed through the center just so you know scholars tell us that the river gave them a reason to believe that because it flowed through the heart of the city they would never have a shortage of water which was a big source of life back then as it is now but in a desert building your city right on a river was a was a key was a key component of sustaining life there they knew would ever run out of water and historians tell us that there were about twenty years of food stored up in reserves inside the walls of Babylon so they were thinking we've got water and we've got 20 years of rations we can wait out the enemy they'll give up and go their separate way but there was an ancient historian by the name of Herodotus and Herodotus tells us how how all of this played out that there was a Persian general who got some of his engineers together and they they went north of the city and they looked down towards the city and they saw where that river flowed under the walls of the city and they knew that they could never scale the heights of the walls but if there was some way they could get under the pass where the river flowed under the wall and what those engineers did was they found a swampy area north of the city of Babylon and they cut out of the earth a canal and that canal diverted the water from the freitas River into these low-lying swampy areas and over time as the water flowed and was diverted through the canal off the main river channel to fill these low-lying swamp areas do you know what happened downstream the level of the river dropped and dropped and dropped and the historian Herodotus says that right there where the river went under the wall into the city the level of the water because it was being diverted upstream dropped to the extent that us a Persian soldier could Ford the river could wade out into the river and the the height of the water the level of the water was mid-thigh on a Persian soldier and all of a sudden this impregnable fortress has now been stripped of its invincibility and the water level has dropped and the entire invading Persian force could wade into the river and could simply walk up to the wall duck down walk inside and they were - they were able to go in and catch these Babylonians by complete surprise and listen to me all of this happened just moments after Daniel interpreted the handwriting on that wall you know what blows my mind is the Bible is true we know it's true because it's God's Word but here we have the ancient historian Herodotus corroborating what Daniel prophesied in Chapter five in the year 539 BC and that leads me to this final point I want you to write down what God decrees will come to pass you get that sometimes it takes hundreds of years sometimes it takes a few thousand years but in this case it only took a few moments no sooner had God decreed it with the writing on the wall then BOOM little did the Babylonians know the river level had been dropping all along and the Persian forces were finally able to penetrate the city and bring it down and Bill Shazzer was murdered by the invading forces why don't we raise our alcohol and toast to that one now do you remember the dream Nebuchadnezzar had 60 or 70 years earlier and he required his magicians astrologers not only to interpret the dream but first to tell him what he dreamed and you remember Daniel prayed with his three friends and God showed him what Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed and then he went and explained Nebuchadnezzar this is what you dream and this is the interpretation of the dream and I want to display it was this it was this warrior image and it was more than a warrior but it was a timeline denoting that one day the head of goal which symbolized the Babylonian Empire would give way to the chest and arms of silver which was the medo-persian Empire and the reason I wanted to show you that just looking back is because Daniel had already given Nebuchadnezzar an understanding of that dream that vision that the Babylonian Kingdom would one day come to an end and here we are 60 or 70 years after the fact and the head of gold has now given way to the chest and arms of silver and now the medo-persian Empire has taken over Babylon and Babylon is no more you see all of this happened in 539 BC 539 BC Jeremiah had actually prophesied that Babylon would be destroyed Jeremiah prophesied that Babylon would destroy Jerusalem first but then that that Babylon itself would be destroyed he says in Jeremiah 51 58 thus says the Lord of Hosts the broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken and her high gates shall be burned with fire so the same prophet who forewarned that the Babylonians would destroy Jerusalem also prophesied that God would destroy Babylon and that's what happened on this October 12th night in 539 but in addition to jeremiah the prophet Isaiah predicted the downfall of Babylon in the Isaiah chapter 21 and verse 9 it says and look here comes a chariot of men with a horse with a pair of horsemen and he answered and said Babylon is fallen is fallen and all the carved images of her gods he has broken to the ground so Isaiah there is prophesying that Babylon would fall do you know when he prophesied that 700 BC so think about it this is a hundred and sixty years before it happened and I think it's interesting when you see how Isaiah prophesied the fall of Babylon it's the same expression that John used in Revelation chapter 18 speaking of the fall of the last days Empire of Babylon the kingdom of the Antichrist in Revelation 18 and verse 2 it says the angel cried mightily with a loud voice saying Babylon the Great is fallen is fallen do you see the exact same wording Isaiah said Babylon is fallen is fallen he was talking about the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar but when John prophesied Babylon the Great is fallen is fallen he was talking about the empire of the Antichrist that would fall just before the final return of Christ don't you just love seeing how the Bible has all of these connections between old and new Testament now here's what I want to say before we close in prayer tonight is that when Babylon was conquered by the Persians this was God Himself providentially arranging for Babylon to be moved out of the way and for the kingdom of Persia to be given superiority and dominance and do you know as soon as the Persians to control there was a king over Persia named Cyrus who in the very year that he led the conquest of Babylon issued a royal decree as the Persian king over all the kingdoms of the earth he said I decree that the Jewish people who were captured by Nebuchadnezzar who been exiled for 70 years as their new king I decree that they be allowed to leave this region and to begin going back and repopulating their homeland that was given to them by the god of their fathers you see God is in charge of the transfer of power between human governments and human leaders and what a message of hope it must have been to all of these Jewish exiles like Daniel who had been so mistreated ripped away from their homelands taken away from everything sacred and familiar to see Babylon come crashing to the ground and to hear the kingdom of Persia through the voice of King Cyrus say all you Jews can go back home it was God's Way of saying judgment has come to an end it's time for you to be restored what a faithful covenant keeping God we have father thank you for this study thank you for the lessons that we learn from from a people led by kings who defied you rejected you turn their backs on you and yet you and your sovereignty and your holiness brought them down to ruin and you raised up a different Gentile power to show mercy in favor to your people to allow them to return to their homeland and we want to thank you God that through Jesus Christ you will allow all of us to return to our homeland in heaven one day for we pray in Jesus name Amen

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Length: 49min 33sec (2973 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 29 2020