Chapter 17 shows us one of the ways the beast and his
political system rise to power. He uses the religious
influence and power of the religious system that originated
in the land of Shinar in the city of Babel. Nimrod, the
great-grandson of Noah, is recorded as the founder of Babel,
later called Babylon (Genesis 10:10; 11:2-3, 5, 9). Babylon
comes from the Hebrew “Bab-el” which some say is a Hebrew
form of the Assyrian “Bab-ili” which meant “Gate of God,”
and is used of the ancient city on the banks of the
Euphrates River. However, in Hebrew “Bab-el” means
“confusion.”
Nimrod was a rebel from beginning to end. Genesis 11:3-4
records the rebellion of the people of Shinar against the
plan of God, undoubtedly under the leadership of Nimrod.
Their rebellion is seen in their attempt at building a city
and tower that would reach to heaven, high in the sky. The
purpose of this was to make a name in defiance of God’s
command to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”
(Genesis 9:1). God judged this act with the confusion of
their language (Genesis 11:7). Because of God’s judgment,
the descendants of Noah stopped building the city (Genesis
11:8).
Important to the study of Babylon and its origin is the
origin of its religion and idolatry that spread from Babylon
to surrounding nations and beyond.
With the scattering of the descendants of Noah Babylon
disappears briefly from Scripture, but appears again in
Genesis 14. Here is one of those passages of Scripture we
generally skip over, but it is a very important account in
the overall teaching of the Bible about Babylon.
First, Sodom and Gomorra were located in the land of Canaan
probably at a spot that is now under the southern end of the
Dead Sea, a part of the land God had promised to Abraham in
the Abrahamic covenant, recorded in Genesis 12.
Second, in Genesis 14:5 the leader of these kings was a man
by the name of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam. However, in
Genesis 14:1, Moses lists first Amraphel king of Shinar. It
seems that by mentioning this king first, we see whom Moses
viewed as the real leader of this confederacy. What is
interesting after Abram defeats these kings is what happened
when coming back into the land. He stopped at a place called
Salem that later came to be known as Jerusalem. There Abram
received a blessing from Melchizedek, King of Salem.
Melchizedek means “king of righteousness” and in the Bible,
he is a type of Christ (Hebrews 7:1f).
Babylon then disappears from the book of Genesis and the
next place we find Babylon mentioned is in Isaiah chapters
36-37. Here Hezekiah King of Judah is faced with invasion
and is threatened by Sennacherib King of Assyria. In this
passage, we find Hezekiah reading the terms of surrender
from Sennacherib, but Hezekiah turned the matter over to the
Lord and was delivered from the hand of Sennacherib.
However, in chapters 38-39 we have a lapse of faith by
Hezekiah. Because of this, Isaiah the prophet predicted that
all he had stored would be taken to Babylon where some of
the King’s sons would become officials of the palace of the
King of Babylon. This was a prophecy of the Babylonian
captivity that took place about 100 years later;
Nebuchadnezzar invaded the land, destroyed the city of
Jerusalem and the temple, and deported Judah’s king. This
was a product of God’s judgment against Israel for her
continued disobedience as He had predicted through the
prophets. Babylon, the first kingdom of the post-flood era
was the first to destroy Jerusalem and the temple. From this
point in history, there has not been a king from the line of
David sitting on the throne of David in Jerusalem.
