A study on acceptable time periods and the importance of prayer (Part 7)

Although the Bible only mentions Belshazzar as the king of Babylon when it fell, history tells us that Belshazzar and his father, Nabonidus (sometimes spelled Nabonadius), reigned conjointly, and that “during the reign of Nabonadius and Belshazzar, events of the greatest importance occurred“ (The Story of Daniel the Prophet, by Stephen Haskell, pg. 64). This is an important point that we will look into more at a later date.

We are told that Nabonidus tormented the inhabitants of his kingdom with unbelievable oppression and forced labor. This was the main power behind the affliction we read about in part 5 of this series. It was indeed “a time of trouble,” as Jeremiah had prophesied would come to them (Jer. 30:3-7). It was a foretaste of the great time of trouble that the people of God will pass through before the second coming of Christ (Daniel 12:1). Both periods are called by the same name, and it was under these extremely trying circumstances that the Jews had to preach the gospel, which they once had had the opportunity to give from Jerusalem in a time of peace! …History will be repeated.

Now, at the time of Babylon’s fall the people who had the Scriptures were scattered throughout the empire. Those Scriptures contained vital instruction, so that if they studied, they would know when the destruction of Babylon was near, and know what they themselves should do! They were told what nations would come against Babylon, they were told from what direction the armies would come, they were told the name of the leader of the forces, and they were even given a sign showing that the time was at hand! …We will look at more of this in a moment.

Also, the prophetic gift had been manifested in different parts of the empire. There was no hiding the fact that the God of the Hebrews had prophets! Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah… all had proclaimed prophetic messages, and because of these faithful few, even the nations around them, like Egypt, Tyre, Sidon, Moab, Edom, etc., were alerted and instructed.

Although God “suffered all nations to walk in their own ways, nevertheless he left not himself without witness, …” Acts 14:16,17.

When Egypt stood at the head of the world in power, wisdom, and influence, God made His power and glory known in that land, in such a way that all the nations heard of it! The Canaanites heard of it, and knew that the God that had delivered Israel, was God of Heaven and Earth (read Josh. 2:9-11).

The next nation that rose to power and influence in the world after Egypt was Assyria. And when Assyria had gotten corrupt, and had gone far away from God, the Lord graciously sent a Hebrew prophet to the people, and called them to repentance (Jonah 1:2,3). After this, again and again, He bore witness to Assyria that He is God above all, the most notable instance, perhaps, being the slaughter of the host of Sennacherib (read Isa. 37).

And so it was, that, when Babylon came into power, God also had witnesses, not just to Babylon, but to ALL THE NATIONS round about. In fact, we are told that Jeremiah was sent as a messenger TO ALL NATIONS!

“…I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. … See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.  ” Jeremiah 1:5,10

In Jer. 27:2-11 is the copy of a message from God that was written by the prophet Jeremiah, and was sent “to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem.” And from that day to this, God has not left Himself without witness to all nations! Interestingly, Scripture tells us that the gift of prophecy will once again be manifested in the last days among God’s people, and ALL nations, tongues and peoples will be alerted to the times in which they are living in too! (Read Joel 2:28-32; Rev. 14:6).

Babylon The Great:

Now, the city of Babylon was considered invincible. A large, well-fortified wall, too thick to break, surrounded it. The Euphrates River, which passed through the middle of the city, entered and exited through two gates that had bars reaching all the way down to the riverbed. When the gates were closed, all entrance by invaders was IMPOSSIBLE! There was only one fathomable way to get in, and a Persian general, by the name of Cyrus, planned to do it.

The Plan:

The historian Herodotus relays that, years earlier, Babylon had been ruled by a queen named Nitocris. She wanted to build a bridge from one side of the Euphrates to the other, but to accomplish this, she had to first reduce the water level of the river enough to allow workmen to build. So, she devised a massive plan that would do the trick – an artificial lake far upriver, into which the Euphrates could be diverted! It was done, and the workmen were able to set the bridge’s foundation stones. When the bridge was finished, the river was again returned to its original bed. Cyrus planned to do exactly what queen Nitocris had done. He diverted the waters of the Euphrates into her artificial lake, lowering the level of the water so that his troops could enter the city under its massive walls! There was only one problem. The walls of Babylon extended far upstream, along the bank of the river. If the Babylonians noticed the water level diminishing and saw the Persian army entering the river, they would gather along the walls and annihilate the Persians. Cyrus’ only chance of alleviating this problem was to wait for two important factors – DARKNESS AND DRUNKENNESS.

The Night of Attack:

The worldly condition of society in Babylon, and the characteristics of that last night, represent our society and its practices in these last days. This is clear because “Babylon” is used in Scripture to describe the condition of things in the last days (just read the book of Revelation).

During that fateful night, there was feasting, drunkenness, licentiousness and defiance of God (Dan. 5:1-4). Now, we usually confine this sort of scene only to “those that are of the world;” those that are considered “the wicked.” But in Ezekiel chapter 8, God revealed to Ezekiel that Israel, particularly the leaders, were taking part in some of the most horrific practices and influencing the people!

⁶“…’Son of man, seest thou what they do? [even] the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, … but turn thee yet again, [and] thou shalt see greater abominations.’ … ¹⁰…So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about. … ¹²Then said He unto me, ‘Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, ‘The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.’’ ¹³He said also unto me, ‘Turn thee yet again, [and] thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.’ ¹⁴Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which [was] toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵Then said He unto me, ‘Hast thou seen [this], O son of man? turn thee yet again, [and] thou shalt see greater abominations than these.’¹⁶And He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, [were] about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. ¹⁷Then He said unto me, ‘Hast thou seen [this], O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence’…” Ezekiel 8:6-17

 “My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray,…” Jeremiah 50:6     

The spiritual leaders were committing these abominations, and had led the people astray! Scripture reveals that in the last days many who claim to be servants of God will also be living just like the rest of the world and leading the people astray.

“⁴Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; ⁵Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. ⁶For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ⁷Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.  2 Timothy 3:4-7

“⁴⁸But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, ‘My lord delayeth his coming’; ⁴⁹And shall begin to smite [his] fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;…” Matthew 24: 48,49

This is only a brief picture of the condition of “Christianity” in the last days.

It is believed by reliable scholars that it was the feast of Tammuz that was being celebrated on Babylon’s last night:

“We are told in Daniel that Babylon was captured on the night of a great feast to the idol gods, at which the wives and concubines joined in a wild revelry. But the women were not in the habit of feasting with men—how is this? An account, by Cyrus himself, of his capture of Babylon, was dug up only three or four years ago. In it he declares that Babylon was captured ‘without fighting,’ on the fourteenth day of the month Tammuz. Now the month Tammuz was named in honor of the god Tammuz, the Babylonian Adonis, who married their Venus or Ishtar; and the fourteenth of Tammuz was the regular time to celebrate their union, with lascivious orgies. On this day of all others, the women took part in the horrible rites, and it was in this feast of king, princes, wives, and concubines that Babylon was taken and Belshazzar slain. The Bible is here fully and wonderfully corroborated.”—Wm. Hayes Ward, D. D., in Sunday-School Times, Vol. 25, No. 42, pp. 659, 660. (As quoted by AT Jones, Sept. 10, 1885 – Signs of the Times vol. 11).

Others believe it was the feast of Bacchus and some think it was a festival to the Moon God celebrated in the month of October. Whatever the case, except for a very few godly people, the ENTIRE city was caught up in this celebration of eating and drinking and sexual immorality. Learning of the approach of this annual festival, where the entire city would be intoxicated, Cyrus saw his opportunity. That very night, as soon as the water had sufficiently subsided to allow his men to walk in the riverbed, they crept underneath the bars, attacking and conquering the “impregnable” city! History tells us that in the confusion of the night, the double gates, with their spiked bars reaching down into the bottom of the riverbed, were left open.

Now, God had foretold all these details more than 100 years before by the prophet Isaiah!

“Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;” Isaiah 45:1

 Isn’t that incredible! …It was also written that they would be completely unaware of their danger.

“⁵Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, the lady of kingdoms. …¹¹Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, [which] thou shalt not know.  Isaiah 47:5,11(also read Jer. 50:24).

The direction that Cyrus would come from was also made clear. Isaiah had prophesied that Babylon would be conquered by the Medes and the Persians:

“Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,…” Isaiah 13:17

And we know they came from THE EAST! The Ram in Daniel 8 represents Media Persia (read Dan. 8:1-4, 20). It pushed west, north and south because Persia came from the east! I tell you, God doesn’t do anything without first letting His people know what is going to happen – What a God! Always out to save, never to destroy.

“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets” Amos 3:7.

So, in the middle of their feasting and rioting, no one had noticed that the waters in the Euphrates were steadily diminishing. In their feeling of security, lay their source of danger.

We have also been warned:

“³For when they shall say, ‘Peace and safety’; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. ⁴But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. ⁵Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. ⁶Therefore let us not sleep, as [do] others; but let us watch and be sober.” 1 Thessalonians 5:3-6 

The Sign:

Much had been prophesied about Cyrus, the work he would do and what direction his armies would come from. But not only that – God’s people in Babylon had even been given a sign by which they would know when Babylon’s end would come and know to be ready – this is incredible!

⁴⁵My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. ⁴⁶And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come [one] year, and after that in [another] year [shall come] a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler” Jeremiah 51:45, 46.

God had told them that there would come two rumors in the land, and the rumors would be a year apart. This was their sign! …Two rumors of what? Two rumors of her fall. When that second rumor came it was their cue! Let’s look at it.

The Two Rumors:

This thing is so fascinating, I just had to share; history relays the incident:

“Cyrus started for Babylon in early spring, B.C. 539, but he went only about half way that year. The cause of this delay is stated by Greek historian Herodotus: – ‘Cyrus on his way to Babylon came to the banks of the Gyndes, a stream which, rising in the Matienian Mountains, runs through the country of the Dardanians, and empties itself into the river Tigris. . . . When Cyrus reached the stream, which could only be passed in boats, one of the sacred white horses accompanying his march, full of spirit and high mettle, walked into the water, and tried to cross by himself; but the current seized him, swept him along with it, and drowned him in its depths. Cyrus, enraged at the insolence of the river, threatened so to break its strength that in the future even women should cross it easily without wetting their knees. Accordingly he put off for a time his attack on Babylon, and, dividing his army into two parts, he marked out by ropes one hundred and eighty trenches on each side of the Gyndes, leading off from it in all directions, and setting his army to dig, some on one side of the river, some on the other, he accomplished his threat by the aid of so great a number of hands, but not without losing thereby the whole summer season. Having, however, thus wreaked his vengeance on the Gyndes by dispersing it through three hundred and sixty channels, Cyrus, with first approach of the ensuing spring, marched forward against Babylon.’” – Book 1, chap. 189, 190.’” (quoted by E.J. Waggoner, January 10, 1895, The Present Truth Articles).

The work of channeling the Gyndes took longer than expected, and the soldiers are said to have worked through the summer and into the fall. During the winter, they camped near the river, and then in the spring of 538 BC, they continued their march towards Babylon. They crossed the Tigris, apparently without any trouble, and soon came in sight of the capital. Here they came face to face with the Babylonian army under the command of Nabonidus himself. Some sort of a battle went on, which we don’t have much details on, except that Nabonidus was defeated and most of his army retreated into the capital, while Nabonidus himself and a few of his soldiers threw themselves into Borsippa, an important town a short distance from Babylon toward the southwest.

So, we see the two rumors that Jeremiah prophesied about.  First, when Cyrus started out in the spring of 539, but because of the delay, he could not continue until the spring of 538, when the second rumor of his approach spread. When the first rumor came, they were to prepare, so that when the second rumor came, they would be ready. Notice the following carefully:

“And so it was; one spring the rumor came, but the army failed to appear. The careless and unbelieving scoffed, but to the believing this was an opportune time. The next spring the rumor came again, but there was no time then to sell or prepare to leave, for the army came also, and the Babylonian and Medo-Persian forces met in open battle. The Babylonians were defeated, and returned within the fortifications of the city.

 “The gates were closed and the siege began. Those who were now in Babylon must live or die with the Babylonians, except God stay the hand of the destroyer.

 “The climax was reached by the greatest of earthly governments. All heaven was alive with anxiety. Only man was asleep to his impending destruction.” (The Story of Daniel the Prophet by Stephen Haskell chapter 5 pg. 67).

God’s people had sufficient clues as to know the time in which they were living and what they must do. God’s word is a lamp to the feet and a guide to the life, and this all shows us how important it is for God’s people to know the time in which they live FROM THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY!

 “Despise not prophesyings.”  1 Thessalonians 5:20

Daniel and all of Israel were living in an acceptable time period and so are we! Right now, there are prophecies that are unfolding and being played out before our very eyes! Are we aware of it? Do we have such signs in our day, as they did back in Daniel’s time, that will alert us to the nearness of the next event? Do we know what is going to happen next? Remember, Daniel did not have superior abilities above ours; he also had to study and pray to know the time he was living in.