The Bible tells us that it’s an amazing thing that the man of God can stand in the face of great peril and of great trial and stands in courage. In Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, there are many, many individuals that are recorded who were either persecuted severely or martyred for their faith. One of the early leaders of the church, he was a disciple of John the Apostle.
He became the pastor of some of those churches of Polycarp. Polycarp was a tremendous man of prayer and the Roman government hated him. The emperor desired that Polycarp be arrested and executed and his great crime was believing in God.
His great crime was having such faith and power in the Lord that his prayers were heard in heaven and God responded and lives were changed. When the soldiers came for Polycarp, Polycarp had one request. He asked if he might have just a few more moments to go in and pray before they took him away.
He was willfully willing to go with them, but he asked if he could but pray one more time. They saw no harm in this because here’s an old man who has no weapons, who is not a threat to them, and so they allowed him to go back into his home and pray. Polycarp began to pray for the souls of the men who came to take him and kill him.
The Scriptures record’s in Fox’s Book of Martyrs that an interesting thing happened when Polycarp prayed. The Spirit of God, in great conviction, came upon the soldiers that had come to get him. By the time that Polycarp had said that he would be done with his prayer, he came out and there were barely enough men left to take him and bind him to take him to his execution.
The others were crying and looking to God for salvation. Sometimes it appears that we are losing, but God is winning. In the city of Babylon, it appeared that they had totally desecrated the temple, they had destroyed Jerusalem, they had taken the people of Judah captive, and they appeared to be the ones that were in control, but God was ultimately in control.
And when God showed his strength, their weakness was revealed. Verse , One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at once. Now, if you don’t understand and don’t have a historical background, you’re probably going, what does this mean, one post run to another, one messenger run to another? Babylon had a unique series of ways to communicate throughout its empire.
They had runners, and these runners would run from post to post with the messages of importance, so that those that were in the outlying areas could understand what the center of the kingdom wanted them to do and what was happening. Well, as Babylon begins to fall, and we see that it’s falling under the hand of the Medes and their allies, as it’s foretold by Jeremiah that will occur, when that occurs, an interesting event occurs, the whole kingdom of Babylon doesn’t fall at once. As a matter of fact, the city doesn’t immediately fall at once, although Belshazzar, the king, dies that night, and many of his princes as well, as they were desecrating the precious things and instruments of the temple of the Lord, and mocking God, and God judged them immediately, but the kingdom itself did not fall immediately.
But as Babylon, the city, fell, what happened is that they sent out messengers, and as they sent out the messengers, what they did is they told what was happening. And you can imagine as it roared throughout the kingdom, Babylon’s falling, Babylon’s falling. If you go back to Revelation, in chapter and , the spirit of Babylon in our age is a real spirit.
It’s going to be the same motivating spirit that was behind the spirit of Babylon at the time of Jeremiah, and we see that this same spirit lived on throughout the various kingdoms that we’re studying in Daniel, through the Babylonian kingdom, through the Medo-Persian kingdom, through the Greek kingdom, and ultimately through the Roman kingdom, and the resurrected Roman kingdom in our age. But as this spirit of Babylon rises in the last days, which we’re seeing, men freely mock God, and freely mock Christians, and freely mock that which is right. One doesn’t have to go very far in order to see good called evil, and evil called good.
And that’s the spirit of Babylon. But God’s going to judge it, both in its religious concepts, as well as its political concepts, and as well as its commercial concepts. And the response is going to be much the same as we saw in Jeremiah chapter , when the judgment comes, those that are wicked begin to tremble, and shake, and fear.
And chapter , And after these things I saw another angel come from heaven, having a great power, and the earth was lightened, but with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has come to the habitations of devils, and the hold of every fowl, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
And I want you to remember Babylon’s delicacies. They’re that which destroys, because in a moment if we have time, we’re going to look at other delicacies. And I heard another voice of heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye may receive not of her plagues.
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Just as he did during the time of Jeremiah when Judah was taken captive, he remembered. And he told through Jeremiah the people were going to come back, and he said, Come out of Babylon, come back to Judah.
What’s amazing is when God said for them to do that at the end of the years, you know that not all the Jews did go back. As a matter of fact, there were Jews that remained scattered throughout the Middle East. Because they all didn’t listen to the Lord and go back.
But he’s telling us in the day in which we live, we’re surrounded by the same evil, the same wickedness. He says, Don’t drink of her fornication, don’t be involved in her evil, and come out of her and come back to me, to the truth. Go to chapter and it says, And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Hallelujah, salvation, glory and honor and power to the Lord our God, for the true righteousness and his judgments.
For he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. The very thing that God did during the city of Babylon and the nation of Babylon, when he allowed the Medes to conquer them and destroy them, will happen in the last days. And he will remember what they did to his people.
And he will remember what they did to his name. And again they said, Hallelujah. And her smoke rose up forever and ever, and the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat upon his throne saying, Amen, Hallelujah.
And the voice came out of the throne saying, Praise our God, all ye servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings saying, Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. That is going to be what happens in the last days when God judges Babylon and what happens in the heavens as they see his judgment coming on the earth against this wickedness and whore.
And he told them just as he told Judah, Come out from amongst you. It’s interesting going back to Jeremiah . And I want us to go down and read some of the things on why God judged so severely Babylon.
Remember in Revelation it talks about that the whole world and all the leaders of the world are eating of Babylon’s delicacies. That is they’re enjoying what they’re learning and bringing in from Babylon. Verse of chapter , it says, And thus said the Lord of hosts, which is Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, the daughter of Babylon, is like a threshing floor.
It is time to thresh her. Yet a little while and the time of her harvest shall come. And what he’s saying is there’s coming a day where the chaff will be separated from the wheat, where the truth will be revealed and judgment shall be coming.
If you go to a threshing floor, the interesting thing about a threshing floor, we don’t thresh anymore, we combine. And the combine does what the threshers used to do. When my dad was little, they were still threshing.
And they had some machinery that they didn’t have in Israel at the time of threshing. But when you would thresh in Israel, it was done very similar throughout the ages, just you have different techniques to do the same thing. Well, at the time of Israel, what they do is they go and gather up the wheat and they’d have the fruit of the crops.
And they gather them up and they put them in shocks. And that is they’d bring them in bundles, they’d take a sign, they’d cut them out and they’d tie them together. And then they would either carry them on their shoulders or place them on carts.
And they would carry them to a threshing floor. Now the threshing floor wasn’t used except at the time of threshing. Because that’s the purpose of it.
And you’d bring the crops to the threshing floor. And there, what they would do is they’d separate the fruit or the berry or the wheat seeds or the corn seeds or whatever type of plant you had where you’re trying to get the fruit of the plant. You’d separate it from the chaff or that which is unusable.
If you’ve ever been on the farm and we were wheat farmers when I was growing up and you’d go out in the wheat field. I remember as a kid you’d go out there and you’d do mini threshing while you were waiting for the combine to come in. So you’d go out and grab some heads of wheat and you’d take them in your hand and you’d go like this and you’d blow in all the chaff, that is the beards of the wheat and the husks of the wheat, not what you couldn’t eat would be blown away.
And then you’d take the seeds and you’d pop them in your mouth and you had cheap gum. And that’s what we did for entertainment while we were waiting for the combine. Mini threshing.
Well, what they would do is they’d take all of these sheaves of grain, they’d take them into the threshing floor and then they, through various means, some did it different ways, some would take instruments and beat them and so they’d beat the grain from the stalks and the beards and the husks and then they’d take it and they’d put it on, some of them would put it on blankets and they’d throw up in the air and the wind would come and it would blow the chaff away and the grain would fall down because it was heavy and it would fall down. And they’d do this until the chaff was gone and you had nothing but the good grain left. Well, Jesus is saying, I’m coming and the threshing floor hasn’t been used but it’s going to be used now.
And it’s going to be used for Babylon. Only problem is there isn’t going to be any good stuff coming down. When I thresh, I’m going to take away all that’s bad.
Jesus himself used similar arguments, or similar examples rather, from agriculture when he talked about coming again, he talked about the judgment of the nations. What did he do? He used an agriculture example. He talked about two groups of animals, one were goats and one were sheep.
Goats, although you can use them for milk and they can be used for food and stuff, but one of the problems he got with goats, we had a goat on the farm one time and it was horrible because this goat would be in everything. It would go into the feed boxes of the horses and the cows and do its duty in the feed boxes. It would climb up on everything, it would eat everything, it was always a pest.
Sheep are dumber and they’re not as pesty as goats. As a matter of fact, sheep will follow where a goat sometimes will do its own thing. If you’ve got a herd of goats, I remember we were out at the zoo and we were looking at the goats and if you turned your back on this one goat, it would come up and it would want to butt you.
But if you’re looking at it, it wouldn’t do anything. That’s a goat. Well, Jesus said and gave the example of the nations.
And he said there would be those nations who had fed and clothed and took care of his brethren, the sheep. And there would be those nations who hadn’t done that, who thought they had, but really had been doing the exact opposite and been really coming against his brethren, and they’re the goats. And he said there’s coming a day of separation.
Much like the threshing floor. There’s going to come a day of accountability and judgment. Much like the day of Babylon at the end of the age where God will judge and it doesn’t matter that they’ve got wealth and they’ve got power and they control the world and they control the religious beliefs of the people and the political beliefs of the people and the economic welfare of the people.
It’ll be judged and it’ll be seen whether they’re fruit or wheat or chaff, sheep or goats, and that which is evil and wicked will be dealt with. And that’s what God was saying as he’s dealing with Babylon during the time of Jeremiah and with Babylon at the end of the age. Now I want us to look at verse .
It says, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, is the word in the King James. It could also be translated delicacies. He hath cast me out.
In other words, what the Lord is saying is Nebuchadnezzar saw everything that I had, saw my temple, saw my city, and what he did instead of standing in awe and amazement, destroyed it. And instead of taking that which was the delicacies of the Lord, the fact that God had called and shown grace and mercy and love and peace and holiness and prosperity and revealed it through the temple worship, pointing to his coming son who would bring it all in fulfillment of a promise given to all of our father Adam at the beginning of time. Instead of understanding and receiving that, he destroyed it and took it away, mocking God.
And the very things that were delicacies, he did not want to ingest but trampled them under. In the book of Hebrews it talks about a very similar thing. It talks about the man who is faced with an understanding of the gospel.
The gospel is presented to him. He is revealed to the fact that the blood of Jesus has come to redeem man from his sin, that it’s the only means of salvation. And he hears that and at one moment he appears to receive that message but then all of a sudden he rejects it and says, No, there’s another way.
There’s my God. There’s my way. In the book of Hebrews it says that the man who does that has trampled under his only means of salvation.
There is no other means and he has mocked the very thing that would redeem him and the very delicacies that would give him life, he has trampled under and rejected them. That’s exactly what Nebuchadnezzar did when he came and destroyed the temple and destroyed the worship of God and destroyed everything that was pointing to God. God had brought Israel to be a light to the world.
Now Israel, because of its rebellion, didn’t choose to follow what God created them as a nation to do and often times they would go the wrong way and then God would chastise them, bring them back to the path and then they would have a revival and they would once again become somewhat of a light to the nations but then they would forget again. And they would think that the delicacies of Babylon were greater than the delicacies of the Lord and they would fail to see that when God’s judgment came, even though Nebuchadnezzar had trampled under the delicacies of God, those were the delicacies that were real. And the delicacies of Babylon were that which would be ultimately destroyed and burned.
I want you to understand what’s happening in our world. A microcosm can be seen in our own city. You have people that think it’s helping people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol to continue to give them the implements and tools so they remain in their addiction and it’s viewed as a delicacy, as a help.
That’s the delicacy of Babylon. Oh, look at what wonderful things we’re doing. We’re helping these people.
We’re preserving their lives. And the very delicacies of the Lord are, the delicacy of the Lord is, I am a means that can transform the inside and get you out from control of those substances because the real problem is your heart. But they trample under that, they won’t let you talk to them about Jesus because you can’t say you bring your religion here, but I can bring mine.
We’ll eat of my delicacies all day long even though my delicacies are poison. And I’ll trample under your delicacies and I’ll say they are worthless. And we’re not even going to look at them, we’re going to destroy them.
You be silent and you listen to us. That was the difference between Nebuchadnezzar’s delicacies and God’s delicacies. We understand ultimately God’s judgment will come and the truth will be revealed.
But look at the number of people’s lives that were destroyed during the time of Nebuchadnezzar in the nation of Babylon because they believed in Babylon and not in God. They had the same opportunities to believe in God. They had the same creation all around them.
We studied a little bit when we were looking at the origins of Halloween that all nations of the world have some form of myth about this great catastrophe that occurred by water and that there were a few people saved in the boat. They know because it’s in their memory and it’s been passed down from generation. But they do not want to believe the delicacies of God.
Instead they want to believe the delicacies of the world and Satan. And it destroys them. You look at young children and they don’t know how dangerous some things can be.
But that’s what adults are supposed to be there for because they’re supposed to understand the difference between that which is poison and that which is food. As you look at these chapters and we’re going to come to a close. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon.
Shall the inhabitant of Zion say and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea? Shall Jerusalem say? That’s a powerful statement. Sometimes we read over powerful statements. But really what Jeremiah is saying is may the blood of all those that wanted the truth but you kept giving them the lies may their blood rest on your head.
That’s pretty powerful. Because if I’m not willing to tell the truth but I’m more than willing to tell a lie if I’m instead of giving good food to a child I continually give him poison his blood is on my head. All the blood of Judea was on the head of the Babylonians.
It was their trust in their God and mocking the God of Israel instead of saying the Jews have something. We should seek that. Instead they encouraged them in their wickedness and took them away into captivity.
May we learn from the judgment of Babylon. Let’s just close in prayer. Heavenly Father we come before you this evening Lord I pray that you just help us to understand the verses that we’ve looked at this evening.
Help us understand there’s two delicacies there’s yours and there’s Satan’s. There’s delicacies of Jesus and the delicacies of the world. And may we desire that of Jesus and not that of the world.
May we desire that which leads to life and not that which leads to death. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight,
they have remained in their holds:
their might hath failed;
they became as women:
they have burned her dwellingplaces;
her bars are broken.
31 One post shall run to meet another,
and one messenger to meet another,
to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,
32 and that the passages are stopped,
and the reeds they have burned with fire,
and the men of war are affrighted.
33 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;
The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor,
it is time to thresh her:
yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me,
he hath crushed me,
he hath made me an empty vessel,
he hath swallowed me up like a dragon,
he hath filled his belly with my delicates,
he hath cast me out.
35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,
shall the inhabitant of Zion say;
and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,
shall Jerusalem say.
Jeremiah 51:30-35
And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Revelation 18:1-5
And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: 2 for true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. 3 And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. 4 And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.
5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. 6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Revelation 19:1-6