4 Babylons – Prologue

And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.” 

Revelation 14:8 

Let’s talk about Babylon.  

Why? 

Because Babylon forms a powerful, biblical thread that sheds super important light on the reality of our world and the end times. Babylon plays a central role in the big picture narrative of the Kingdom war in which we live. 

Because God our Father does a deliberate work in Scripture at showing us what is going on “behind the scenes.” From the moment we wake to the truth that what is going on in the spirit is more essential than the physical, we must set our hearts and minds to learning about the unseen.  

Because you have a spirit. And so much of your daily living is driven by your spiritual health. So the Apostle Paul trains his disciples, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). 

Because you are DEEPLY connected to your generations. We will see in our study today the depth of generational connectedness. We must, you MUST, wake to the influence of the specific generational family line into which you were born.   

We who follow Christ in the West are far too physical, far too in the natural, far too isolated from our family histories. May God our Father through the Holy Spirit continue to make our spiritually far more reflexive and constant as we follow our King.   

Let’s get to work on Babylon. 

Biblically there are three Babylons, historically there is a fourth. Let’s outline them. Then, for today, we are going to do a prologue study on the Babylon issue. We have to set the table right.   

1. The Tower of Babel – Genesis 11 

2. First Babylonian Empire – 1894-1595BC. Most famous king is your good friend Hammurabi. The Bible says nothing about this empire.  

3. Neo-Babylonian Empire – 626-539BC. Most famous king was Nebuchadnezzar. The Bible has a lot to say about this iteration of Babylon. 

4. Revelation Babylon – Revelation 14:8-18:24. Most famous leader is the Apostle John’s vision of a woman riding a seven-headed, ten-horned beast!  

In the beginning of our Babylonian review, I want you to see that Revelation Babylon is a continuation of the Babel thread begun in Genesis 11. We are going to see some significant events in Genesis that will carry to Revelation.  

Second, I want you to see that Babylon becomes synonymous with the kingdom of Satan. This is going to have PROFOUND implications on our understanding of geo-politics in our world today.  

For today, let’s do a prologue on Genesis Babel. 

PROLOGUE TO THE TOWER OF BABEL 

In Genesis 1-2, God our Father makes creation. As the center piece of His work, He makes man and woman in His image and places them in the Garden of Eden. He gives them dominion and authority over all creation commanding them to be fruitful and multiply. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made creation so that man can enjoy LIFE and intimacy with Them and with each other.  

In Genesis 3, an enemy appears. One who hungers to lead man into rebellion against the One True God, stealing intimacy. Pay attention. The enemy, Satan, wants to lead man into rebellion that destroys intimacy. Destroying the intended love relationship between Creator and created is the goal.  

Satan succeeds. 

Man sins, handing over earthly reign to Lucifer.  

By Genesis 6, mankind has fallen into such rebellion and depravity that Scripture records in verses 5-6, 

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.                                  

Because of man’s debauchery, Yahweh wipes out the world with a flood. Noah and his family are saved through Noah’s faithful boat building. Yahweh starts over.  

Noah has three sons – Shem, Japheth, and Ham. Eventually, Abraham, the father of the Jews, will be birthed in the lineage of Shem. (Shem, by the way, is where the terms “Semite” and “anti-semitism” come from. To be an “anti-semite” literally means to be against Shem.)  

We are told in Genesis 9:20 that one of the first things Noah did when he stepped off the Ark after the flood was to plant a vineyard and get drunk! Wouldn’t you?! Apparently, when Noah got drunk, he also got naked. From the time of man’s fall in Genesis 3, being naked was a source of shame and guilt. Noah’s nakedness because of alcohol was an embarrassment.  

Ham, Noah’s youngest son, finds his dad passed out and naked. Instead of turning his head and covering his father in a dignified manner, Ham ran and told his brothers, dishonoring Noah. Shem and Japheth do what Ham should have done and respectfully cover their father’s condition.  

When Noah wakes, he disciplines Ham for his rebellion and blesses Shem and Japheth for their honor. The way Noah disciplines Ham is by cursing one of his sons. You will recognize Ham’s son who is cursed, for his name is Canaan. Yes, that Canaan. Canaan who would first populate the Promised Land. Who Israel, under the leadership of Joshua, would route out of the land. Canaan, cursed son of Ham, would be a LIFETIME enemy of Israel, the blessed son of Shem.  

See the generational connectedness? 

The intrigue gets better. 

For one of the other sons of Ham is Cush. Cush fathers Nimrod. Nimrod is a skillful hunter and a wildly successful builder.  

One of the places Nimrod builds is Babel, or Babylon.  

Nimrod, son of Ham cursed by Noah, is the builder of Babel. By Genesis 11, Babel becomes the center of unified man’s rebellion against their Creator. All of mankind is together with one language in the town built by a son of Ham, cursed enemy of Shem and Japheth. Sound familiar? By the time we get to Revelation 14, we will see that Revelation Babylon is the “behind the scenes empire of empire” leading all of mankind in rebellion against their Creator. 

You just can’t make up this stuff. 

Biblically, Babylon is a menace. An empire of evil leading mankind into rebellion. And the beginning of the empire was a man named Nimrod, grandson of the cursed Ham who wars against Shem and Japheth. 

All of what we see today geo-politically in China, the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, etc. is a physical manifestation of the supernatural war exposed in the story of Babylon.  

Learn Babylon.   

What’s going on in the spirit is far truer than the flesh.  

And what’s going on in the spirit is historically connected.  

The historical connection is something you must see and appreciate. 

For your life, the life you are living now, was not birthed in isolation. You are not an island. You are not your own person. Those are lies specifically crafted by an enemy to blind you to the reality of your generational connections and the larger historical, creation story. You are deeply connected to your generations. And you are absolutely in the middle of a cosmological war between Babylon (the kingdom of darkness) and Jerusalem (what we will see as the “capital” of the Kingdom of God).   

The excellent news in all of this is that Jesus offers to deliver us out of our generational rebellion and woundedness. He offers to overpower our generational trajectories and deliver us into a new family, the family of His Father, and the purity of Divine lineage. Further, He offers to fill us with His Holy Spirit in such a way that we can continually learn about the reality of life in such a way that we can become stronger, internally solid and confident, empowered. Mostly, He offers to restore us to our created intent of a love relationship with Him, our Father, and the wonder of the Holy Spirit.  

LIFE in the OVERFLOW grows in understanding Babylon and its hunger to destroy intimacy. LIFE in the OVERFLOW is drenched in spiritual vitality. LIFE in the OVERFLOW is eyes-wide-open to the true nature of the Kingdom war.