Stephen
Terry, Director
Earth's
Closing Events
Commentary
for the June 22, 2024, Sabbath School Lesson
"Cush was the father of Nimrod, who
became a mighty warrior on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord;
that is why it is said, 'Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.' The
first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar." Genesis 10:8-10
The story of the Bible may be
summed up from early post-flood accounts in Genesis to the last chapters in
Revelation as the opposition of two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. We know from
the Bible that Babel, later Babylon, was the site where mankind challenged God
and the languages were confused, thwarting humanity's purpose. Nimrod was the
man directing that enterprise and despite a common language deconstructing into
a babble hindering further progress on an immense building project, he was
still able to develop a powerful empire, first in Babylon and then in Nineveh.
Without his continued existence, those city states warred against one another
with Nineveh plundering Babylon and later Babylon in alliance with the Medes
returning the favor against Nineveh, bringing an end to the Assyrian Empire.
Eventually Babylon also fell before the same Medes who had been their allies
who were now allies of the first Persian empire, the Achaemenids.
Midrash sources add insights to
Nimrod's relationship to God's chosen people, the Jews. Midrash may be
understood in some ways as being like our own Seventh-day Adventist Bible
Commentary which seeks to deepen understanding of the Bible as informed by traditional
Adventist understandings. While the oldest existing Midrash is only as old as
the second century, the oral traditions included in Midrash are much more
ancient. Those traditions[i]
tell us that Terah, Abraham's father was a general in Nimrod's army, but when
an astrologer told Nimrod that a son born to Terah would be the forerunner of a
great nation, Nimrod ordered Terah to have the child put to death. Terah offered
up the child of a slave instead, placating Nimrod. But eventually the ruse was
discovered. The Midrash then says that Nimrod, like Nebuchadnezzar later would
do to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, had Abraham cast into a fiery furnace
from which he was miraculously delivered.
In the fall out from this event,
Terah's family split. Haran, Abraham's brother, after witnessing the miraculous
deliverance proclaimed for Abraham and was murdered by Nimrod. Nahor, Abraham's
other brother declared for Nimrod and remained in Ur. Nimrod, unable to slay
Abraham, sent him into exile with Terah and his nephew Lot, son of the martyred
Haran. Terah, Abraham, and Lot found shelter until Terah's death in Haran, which
was a city in the Mitanni Empire and later absorbed into the Hittite Empire. This
began a long association between Abraham and his descendants with the Hittites.
Abraham purchased a burial plot for his wife Sarah from the Hittites, and as
late as the reign of King David, we find Uriah the Hittite as a mighty warrior in the king's army.
It was not until King David's reign
that Jerusalem became representative of God's kingdom, although there may be an earlier
reference to the city in the identification of Melchizedek as King of Salem. It
stood as a city of peace in opposition to the Babylonian city of chaos and
confusion. Perhaps the most dramatic portrayal of this conflict in the Old Testament
is found in the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the
Jews in Babylon for three quarters of a century, a relationship that gave us
the dramatic prophetic book of Daniel that attempts to outline world history in
advance from Daniel's day to the time of the end. The thesis of that book being
the necessity to choose wisely lest one be on the wrong side of history. Daniel's
prayer of repentance on behalf of God's people leaves no misunderstanding about
his identification of the right course being to return and rebuild Jerusalem
even though he himself did not return.
Given this historical conflict
between Jerusalem and Babylon, we see it figuring prominently in other
apocalyptic literature, especially in Revelation. Interestingly a common thread
runs through from the miraculous deliverance of Abraham from fiery death in Ur,
to Daniel's three friends being delivered from a similar fate in Babylon, and
then the author of Revelation, John, was delivered from being thrown into a
cauldron of boiling oil and subsequently exiled to Patmos, exile seeming to be
the consistent fate for those who cannot be killed. John makes plain his
disdain for Babylon, although the application seems much more global than
simply a city state in Mesopotamia. Perhaps living during the time of the Roman
Empire helped him see how much bigger the conflict between Babylon and God's
people was. Rome existed as a Republic and an Empire for a millennium and half,
stretching from Parthia in the east to Iberia in the west and from the Northern
Marches of Britain to the defeat of the Carthaginian and Egyptian Empires in
Africa. The Romans conquered far more than Nimrod ever hoped to, first from
Rome on the Italian peninsula, then from Constantinople on the Bosphorus after the fourth century.
Sadly, it is also from the fourth
century that God's people willingly became subject to Babylon once again. They
had descended to theological infighting and asked the emperor, Constantine, to
arbitrate the disputes. He willingly stepped in, seeing an opportunity to use
the church as a tool for imperial power. God's people sold themselves into
captivity to the Babylonish state for pottage. Constantine sided with
Athanasius against Arius in the controversy over the nature of Christ and seized
lands and properties belonging to Arius. However, once the principle was established
that the state could direct the church, Constantine relented and restored all
to Arius. To this day, some, like the Jehovah's Witnesses hold to an Arian view
of the nature of Christ, so Athanasius was not as successful as he hoped in
quashing Arianism, and the church has paid a tremendous price ever since. This is
why John in Revelation issues an end-time call for God's people to come out of
Babylon for that captivity for many continues until the end of time.
There is a means to tell if we
are in Babylon or not. Those who are not "keep the commandments of God and have
the testimony of Jesus." (Revelation 12:17) The church in captivity to Babylon
teaches that because of God's grace the commandments of God are null and void.
But let us look at some of those commandments. Jesus, quoting from the Old
Testament, said that the two greatest commandments were to love God with all
your heart, mind, and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew
22:34-40) Have these then been done away with because of grace? Do New Testament
Christians no longer need to love? That does not seem likely since John told us
that he who does not love does not know God. (1 John 4:8)
The church in Babylonish
captivity tells us that the law they were referring to was the Ten Commandments
that were done away with, "nailed to the cross." Really? The first four
commandments are derived from our love for God. The last six from our love for
our neighbor. Even in their captivity to Babylon, many would agree that we should
still have no other gods before God, should not make idols, and should not take
the name of God in vain. They also would agree that murder, adultery, stealing,
lying, coveting the things others own and even honoring one's parents are still
applicable for the Christian. When the captive church says that the commandments
have been done away with, they only mean one, the fourth commandment, the
Sabbath commandment. Why would that be? Revelation tells us that the final call
for God's people to come out of Babylon urges them to worship him as Creator.
The Sabbath, as the commandment text reminds us, was established at Creation
and so is a memorial of that Creation. (Exodus 20:8-11) Just as the Jews
memorialize their deliverance from Egypt with the annual Passover celebration.
Each week we remember God as Creator when we observe the Sabbath. Since both are so closely tied to each other, it follows that rejection
of one is a rejection of the other.
Sunday began to be substituted as
an ersatz Sabbath by some Christians as early as the second century for
antisemitic reasons. Christians did not want people to think they were Judaizers.
It is not surprising therefore that not long after the modern captivity of the
church to Babylon at the Council of Nicaea that soon after, at the Council of
Laodicea, Judaizing was outlawed, including the keeping of the Sabbath,
justifying the change as being in honor of the resurrection. Much
of the Christian world joined in this rejection of the Sabbath, and even when
breaking from the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation continued to remain
captive to Babylon on this point. Daniel foretold that a power would arise that
would think to change times and laws. (Daniel 7:25) Since the only one of the
Ten Commandment statutes dealing with time is the fourth regarding the Sabbath,
it follows that the change respecting the Sabbath was
foretold.
One interesting aspect of this
change is related to the Mark of the Beast in Revelation, chapter 13, versus
the Seal of God in Revelation, chapter 7. The Seal of God is in the forehead,
meaning it is only received if one is fully convinced. But the Mark of the
Beast can be either in the forehead or the hand, indicating that while some are
fully convinced of Babylon's correctness, those who only receive the mark on
the hand are simply going along to avoid the hassle of commitment to something
that might create a hardship for themselves. This is the case with the Sabbath.
It requires commitment. But support of Sunday observance requires little in the
way of commitment. One can go along with Sunday observance without believing it
has any religious significance. Going along with the status quo is nothing new.
When the Jews returned from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem in the sixth century
BCE, most remained in Babylon, finding it inconvenient to abandon their lives
there to return to Israel. Based on this failing of human nature, it is reasonable
to expect that most will choose to remain in Babylon now when God is calling
them to come out and worship him as Creator, honoring the commandment that
recognizes him as such. Though God's patience, compassion and grace are
abundant, the call will not go out forever. "Seek the Lord while he may be
found; call on him while he is near." (Isaiah 55:6)