Babylon - Past, Present and Future - Church of God - NEO

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It was the opportunity for afresh start. Some heeded, but thedesire to be self-reliant and independentwas a strong temptation.The old attitudes quickly sprungup again as men and womenthought they knew better thanGod. A few score years after theFlood a group of travelers w anderedinto Mesopotamia. As theyjourneyed " they found aplain in the land of Shinar,and they dwelt there" (Genesis11 :2).They needed a base, a centralrallying point. The plainof Shinar seemed like anideal location. There theyfou nd resources and materialsto build a substantial city.But it wouldn't be just anycity. " They had brick forstone , and the had asphaltfor mortar. And ther aid ,'Come , let us build our elvea city, and a tower who e tOpis in the heavens'" (Genesi11 :3-4) .According to the Jew ish histOrianJosephus, the leader ofthese people was Nimrod, agrandson of Noah's son Ham.The Bible tells us that hegained the reputation for beinga " mighty hunter beforethe Lord" (Genesis 10:9) , anexpression that implies oppositionto God.There have been manyartist's impressions of whatthe Tower of Babel may havelooked like. Most are fanciful,some ridiculous. The tower wasalmost certainly a far less ambitiousbuilding. The plain of Shinaris generally flat, and even today abuilding a hundred or so feet highcan be seen for miles around. Atower that " reached to heaven"would not have had to be anyhigher to be a landmark in thisregion. The attitude of thebuilders was " let us make a namefor ourselves, lest we be scatteredabroad over the face of the wholeearth" ( Genesis 11 :4, italicsadded).This was not w hat God had intended. The earth had to be repopulated,and the human racediversified . God allowed thebuilders to continue to w ork onthe tower for a while (Sumeriantradition has it for two years), buteventually he decided to intervene." But the Lord came down tosee the city and the tower whichthe sons of men had built" (Genesis11 :5).The little, baked brick tower,protruding impudently out of theplain posed no threat to God, butArtists' conceptions of biblicalTower of Babel, early focus ofmankind's defiance of God.it was a symbol of defiance and anexpression of the self-confident,independent attitude that had gottenAdam and Eve and their descendantsin trouble. God couldnot allow it to continue unchecked.The Tongues Are ConfusedThe Bible tells us that at thistime mankind shared a commonlanguage (Genesis 11 : 1) . Otherlanguages existed before theFlood, but it is quite logical thatthe first few generations of thedescendants of Noah would haveshared a common family tongue.It should have been a great advantage,but this fledgling civilizationwas clearly developing in thewrong direction.So as God reviewed the progressat Babel, he knew what had to bedone. He would not prevent humansfrom following their chosencourse, but he would slow themdown.Genesis tells us what happened."And the Lord said, 'Indeed thepeople are one and they all haveone language, and this is whatthey begin to do; now nothingthat they propose to do will bewithheld from them. Come, let Usgo down and there confuse theirlanguage, that they may not understandone another's speech' "(Genesis 11 :6-7) .The builders were unable tocommunicate clearly with eachother, and so the building of theTower of Babel came to a halt.Families went their separate ways,to be scattered over the face ofthe earth and eventually to becometribes and nations.It was the first time that Godintervened in the development ofa "Babylon," but it would not bethe last.5
Hammurabi's BabylonHammurabi, an Amorite, wasthe sixth king of the first dynastyof Babylon. He ruled Babylonover a millennium beforeNebuchadnezzar. Though he hasbeen sometimes (mistakenly)identified with Amraphel, king ofShinar (Genesis 14:1),Hammurabi was contemporarynot with Abraham but with Jacoband Joseph, Abraham's grandchildrenand great grandchildren.During his reign, one ofHammurabi's greatest desireswas to bring all of Mesopotamiaunder one rule. To achieve thisgoal, Hammurabi sought controlover the Euphrates. He engagedin conflict with neighboringCity-states, and eventually gainedtotal control. Hammurabi alsodevoted time to constructionprojects and internal reforms.Trade especially flourishedduring his reign. Clovesindigenousto the Moluccas orSpice Islands of farawayIndonesia-were among themany products imported.But perhaps Hammurabi is bestknown for his set of laws thathave been preserved to this day,the famous "Code ofHammurabi." Based on oldercollections of Sumerian andAkkadian ordinances, it was oneof the first law codes in history. Itcomprehensive and detailed thanwhat any civilization hadpreviously attempted. Its mainprinciple was that "the strongmay not oppress the weak."In the 12th century B.C., thefamous stele was carried off aswar booty by the Elamites totheir capital, Susa. It wasdiscovered there in 1902 by thearchaeologist Jean-VincentScheil. The largest cuneiformdocument yet discovered, it nowresides in the Louvre in Paris.During Hammurabi's reign ofmore than four decades, heforged one of the great butshort-lived empires of ancientMesopotamia and laid the basisof the Babylonian civilization thatwould continue for more than athousand years after his death.Today, little of Hammurabi'sBabylon remains. The Babylonvisible to the visitor today islargely that built byNebuchadnezzar.is inscribed on a polished blackdiorite stele or pillar (seephoto) bearing a bas-relief ofHammurabi receiving laws fromthe sun-god Shamash, god ofjustice. The stele stands about7% feet (2% meters) high andcarries more than 4,000 linesof Akkadian cuneiform script,containing nearly 300 legalprovisions.Hammurabi's code wasunique in many respects.Covering business, criminal,family and agricultural matters,the code was far moreSculpture of Hammurabi kneeling inworship (left); famous Law Code Steleof Hammurabi, on which is inscribedone of the first law codes in history(center); detail showing Hammurabistanding before the sun-god Shamash,the god of justice (above).
Page 3 and 4: CHAPTER ONEFrom Eden to BabelTo und
Page 8 and 9: CHAPTER TWO'Is Not This Great Babyl
Page 10 and 11: Artist's view of Nebuchadnezzar'sBa
Page 12 and 13: Carchemish, and Babylon onceagain b
Page 14 and 15: ing an ingenious plan. Some of hism
Page 16 and 17: "And I saw a woman sitting ona scar
Page 18 and 19: name" (Revelation 13: 16 -1 7) .Who
Page 20 and 21: CHAPTER FOUR'Come Out of Her, My Pe
Page 22: isk persecution, slavery, evendeath

Babylon - Past, Present and Future - Church of God - NEO

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