Can you believe the Bible? And does it really matter? How can you be sure that the Bible is all it's cracked up to be? Join David Curry, a pastor, author and worldwide traveler, as he shares his knowledge of many biblical places throughout the Middle East. He will take you on a journey through numerous archaeological finds that prove the validity of the biblical narrative, showing that you can believe what many have rejected. Welcome to the biblical wonders in the Middle East.
Here is your host, Pastor David Curry. I'm very happy that you're with us today and I'll tell you why. Because for years I dreamt about going to Babylon and that's where we're going today.
In our last presentation we took you to Persia, called Iran today and then we finished in Ur of the Chaldees, where Abraham first lived with his wife Sarah. We had already been to Mosul and travelled by train back to Baghdad. Baghdad is Iraq's largest city and it is the capital.
But the problem was when we arrived to the railway station, it was raining quite heavily. I asked a local man at the station how long this rain would likely to be lasting. He indicated there would be at least three days.
My traveling companion was inclined not to go to Babylon, as was about 70 Baghdad and he didn't fancy being in the rain. I persuaded him that even if it was raining when we got there, it would be still worth having the trip. We hired a taxi again at a very cheap price and it was good.
That was cheap, for the driver was extremely careful and travelled much slower than most Iraqis and much slower than what we wanted to that day. This slowness was somewhat frustrating as we had to see a lot of things that day. Well, as we were traveling towards Babylon, I was praying earnestly for God to do something, if possible, about stopping that rain.
I badly wanted some good picture records of Babylon that I could use in my presentations in Australia and New Zealand. We were nearing Babylon when all of a sudden it appeared that the clouds parted in the middle of the sky and were replaced by beautiful blue sky and lovely sunshine. I was so pleased about this, for while it rained it had caused the incessant dust of Iraq to disappear and our pictures came out crystal clear.
What a blessing. Well, why did I want to visit Babylon even if it was raining? The prophecies of the great prophets, especially Isaiah and Jeremiah, are so explicit about this great city and in my public lectures I'd use them over and over again in various countries and places. Let's visit a couple of these verses, though there are scores of them throughout the Bible.
First let's go to Isaiah 1319 to 20 and it reads this way and Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans'pride will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from generation. Nor will the Arabians pitch their tents there.
Nor will the shepherds pitch their tents there. Here, Isaiah writes about this beautiful and large city basically becoming nothing. Imagine a prophet rising up today and writing similar words about New York or Melbourne.
Let's look at what Jeremiah had to say about this city. In Jeremiah 51, seven and eight, babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand. The nations drank her wine.
Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed. And then later, in verse 58, it says, the broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken. Talking about those broad walls, it's believed that several chariots could ride around the walls of Babylon side by side.
It surely was a broad wall. And it says that Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand. You know, God used Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon's greatest king and builder, to take Judah captive.
These rebellious Jews against God were kept in Babylon for 70 years, just as the Prophet Jeremiah had predicted. He also predicted that the walls of Babylon would be no more. Those broad walls that kept the Jews captive for 70 years would not be any more.
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Bible give the history of the Jews being returned to the land of Israel under the Persian kings, specifically the King Cyrus, whom we mentioned last time, the Persian ruler. When we arrived at Babylon, outside the old city was a large replica of the famous Ishtar Gate. Much of the original of this gate is in Berlin's Pergamon Museum and taken there by Professor Caldwey, who was privileged to dig much of Babylon inside the old city.
We met up with three young Iraqi ladies. They were visiting and not wearing the burkas of which we saw so many in the north of Iraq. These ladies had learned English and were very happy to talk to us.
I asked them a question why are the Iraqis working inside Babylon but not living here? They don't even have any tents here. They said quite positively that they wouldn't live here, for there were too many demons hiding among the ruins. But the prophet wrote, the Arabian would not pitch his tent there.
As I wrote, it would never be inhabited. And this is exactly how old Babylon is today. That great city has never been inhabited.
On another occasion, in visiting the city through the vast ruins, we met the chief archaeologist of Iraq. He was supervising an archaeological dig at that time. He spoke very good English and made the observation that the UNESCO organization was involved in raising the temple of Romses II at Abu Symbol in Egypt, in order that it would not be covered by Lake Nasser when the Aswan Dam was finished.
Why then, he asked, could not they helped to rebuild Babylon? Because he was a Muslim and accepted much of the old Testament writings. I explained to him the prophecies of the Old Testament of the Bible. He never knew at all about the Bible's writings of Babylon, but he did accept the fact it was God's will that Babylon would not be rebuilt.
On visiting Babylon, one cannot help but see the heaps of ruins that are there. Just until recently, Iraqis would come and take the hard, sun baked bricks that were everywhere inside the old ruined city. I used them to build homes in a nearby village.
Fortunately, this had long since been stopped. When the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon in 538 BC, they took back to Persia thousands of donkey and camel, loads of gold and silver. No wonder that Babylon was called the Golden City.
It is mentioned by at least one other historian that the Procession Way from Nebuchadnezzar's palace to the Temple of Marduk was paid with gold. Just imagine that a whole road about nearly a kilometer long being paid with gold. If you look in Daniel, the second chapter, Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian kingdom is portrayed as the head of gold.
In Daniel three, king Nebuchadnezzar was not satisfied with being just the head of gold. It records that he built a huge golden statue for the Babylonians to worship. He obviously had gold to spare.
One of the remains of Babylon is the Istar Gate. The walls were finished and glazed bricks, mostly in blue with animals and deities at intervals. These also made up of bricks.
They're molded, glazed and colored differently. The procession way, which was a kilometer long, which we've already mentioned, was paved with gold, extended north from the Ishtar Gate, and was designed with brick relief images of lions. The symbol of the goddess ishtar also known as Inanna, the war goddess.
There's also the dragon of Maduk, the Lord of the gods, and the bull of Adad, the storm god. Worshipped as the mistress of heaven. Ishtar represented the power of sexual attraction and was thought to be savage and very determined, symbolized by the star and her sacred animal, the lion.
She was also the goddess of war and the protector of ruling dynasties and their armies. Apart from the Ishtar Gate, most of Babylon is just heaps, heaps of bricks from previous buildings that are broken down. As the prophets wrote, Babylon would never again be inhabited.
That great golden city has been reduced to rubble and amazement to all who see it. South of Babylon. Something like 17.
Place called Biznom Rud. We paid our taxi driver another dina to go that far, and he was happy to do it. Here was a temple tower built by King Nebuchadnezzar.
When first discovered, some archaeologists thought it may be the Tower of Babel. It's such a big place. However, this has been discounted, as foundations of temple towers have also been discovered on a corner of the city of Babylon.
Every brick found at Bursnumrud has the name of Nebuchadnezzar on it and of course, these bricks are from a much later era than when the Tower of Babel was built. Obviously, this bursnimrud tower was another temple for Nebuchadnezzar to worship his numerous gods. Our taxi finally returned us to Baghdad and the weather continued to be fine.
We visited the Baghdad Archaeological Museum where there were many out of artifacts from Ur of the Chaldees which we covered in our last presentation of biblical wonders in the Middle East. Many of these articles have been replicated and are to be found. The British Museum when Saddam Hussein's Iraq came under disrepute and rebellion took place, many of the museum's fine artifacts were stolen by locals.
Fortunately for us, most were recovered when Iraq's pride began to be restored. And the museum itself now is able to be visited by many tourists who are glad to see these returned objects. We traveled further, about 30 km southeast of Baghdad along the banks of the Tigris River.
Here was once the largest city of the world, holding about 500,000 people and very much larger at its heyday than the city of Rome. It's called cecin. It was first built by the Persians and was one of its capitals long after Persia had destroyed Babylon.
These days, the only surviving structure in Cesaphon is Tachasra, the massive single spanned bolt of unreinforced brickwork in the world and considered to be a landmark in the history of architecture. This arched hall was about 37 meters high, 26 meters across and 50 meters long. It was the largest manmade freestanding vault constructed until more modern times.
You just imagine this, all this brickwork, all unreinforced and having such a big dome. It covered the dining hall for the kings of Persia and was lit with magnificent chandeliers which have long since disappeared. Today you can see locals climbing the arch.
But the damage being caused may yet destroy this last remaining part of this great old city of Cesaphon. Much of the city continued until the tigers flooded in 1888 and most of the old buildings of the city were completely destroyed. Our visit to Iraq fulfilled some of my dreams when we visited er, the Chaldees that we mentioned last time, nineveh and Kosova, which we'll mention next time, and Babylon, which we have mentioned in this presentation.
As we have seen today. The Bible predicted the fall of the great city of Babylon, built largely by King Nebuchadnezzar. He was a very proud king, as seen in the translation of the cuneiform writing on what are known as Nebuchadnezzar cylinders found in Babylon.
There were three cylinders all told, and they contained the inscriptions written in ten columns. So if you can just imagine three cylinders and all told they have ten columns of writing. This was in Cuneiform writing, which was discovered by Sir Henry Rawlinson, who was able to translate it and provided the translation for the rest of the Middle East, most of which used cuneiform writing.
A part of the 10th column was translated as follows and this is Nebuchadnezzar speaking. For thy glory, O exalted meredak a house I have I made. May its greatness advance, may its fullness increase in its midst abundance, may it acquire, may its memorials be augmented, may it receive within itself the abundant tribute of the kings of nations and of all peoples.
Well, this translation fits in very well with Nebuchadnezzar's own words in Daniel 430 is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty? Indeed, Nebuchadnezzar was a very proud king, not only written by Daniel, but also in the 10th column of the Nebuchadnezzar cylinders. Nebuchadnezzar had conquered the then known world and built a wonderful golden city that straddled the Euphrates River. The amazing thing about this was the king's change of heart, which is seen in the same chapter four of Daniel.
God humbled him for seven years when he became as an animal, eating grass, as the oxen in the field. In the same chapter, he gives his own biography, at the end of which he is praising the God of heaven instead of his own Babylonian gods. When Daniel wrote in Daniel Two a great prediction that has astounded many people over the years, he wrote about a great image.
Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed about this, but he'd forgotten the dream. But he knew that the dream was very important, and he called all of his magicians and the scholars of the day to not only interpret the vision, but to give what the vision was. They couldn't do this, and Nebuchadnezzar was almost about to kill them all when Daniel came onto the scene.
And King Nebuchadnezzar asked Daniel, can you provide an answer to my dream and give the interpretation about it? And Daniel told him that he himself could not, but that a God of heaven could do this. That night, Daniel and his friends prayed earnestly that God would give him the dream and the interpretation. And this is exactly what God did.
The next day, Daniel appeared before Nebuchadnezzar and told him that he himself could not interpret dreams or give dreams, but the God of heaven could. And then he proceeded to tell Nebuchadnezzar that he dreamt about a great image, an image whose head was of gold, whose arms and breasts were of silver, whose belly and thighs were of brass or bronze, and legs of iron, and then the feet were of iron and of clay. Nebuchadnezzar remembered that this was the dream exactly as Daniel had portrayed it.
And then Daniel said, I'll give you the interpretation as God has given it to me. You know, King Nebuchadnezzar, you are the head of gold. There'll be another kingdom who will follow you, and that is that of the Medes and Persians.
After they defeated by the Greeks, then the Romans came to power, and they ruled longer than any of those first kingdoms. But they also came to their end. And finally the Roman Empire was broken up into ten kingdoms, sometimes less, sometimes more.
This was represented by the feet of iron and of clay. And then Daniel said, you saw a stone cut out of a mountain without hands and spiting the image on the feet, and it became just like the chaff of a summer threshing floor blown all around. We know today that Nebuchadnezzar was a golden kingdom and that head represented his kingdom.
Then the Medes and Persians. Then the Greeks and then the Romans. Isn't amazing how Daniel could tell Nebuchadnezzar? Through inspiration, of course, the role of the kingdoms to come.
And that's exactly what history shows us. And it shows us also the ten kingdoms arising out of Europe, mainly. And then sometimes there were more, sometimes seven, sometimes 14, but they never would cleave one to another.
As Daniel said to the king. These kingdoms would mingle themselves with a seed of men, but they'll never cleave one to another. And that basically means that, yes, these kingdoms would mingle, but never again be a big kingdom like Babylon, Persia, Greece or Rome.
They'll be separate kingdoms until the time when the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, the great kingdom of God would be set up, destroying all the kingdoms and the heavenly kingdom set up. When Nebuchadnezzar heard all of this, he was absolutely amazed and bowed himself before Daniel. But it didn't sink home.
And the next chapter of Daniel tells us that he made a great big golden image head, arms and breasts of silver, thighs of brass and legs of iron. But now it was all gold. And Nebuchadnezzar asked all of his nobles and people to come down and worship this golden image.
He would have music playing, and as was played, the people were to kneel down and worship. But three men did not do that. They were Shadrach, meshach and abednego.
When some of the people reported to Nebuchadnezzar that these Hebrews had not kneeled down, he was quite angry about it, and he told them that he had put them in the fire. If they did not worship, he would play the music again. Maybe they didn't understand, because they were Hebrews, what had been said.
No, they said, we cannot and will not worship any other image or God that you have because we worship the God of heaven. Nebuchadnezzar became so angry that he had his people heat up the furnaces seven times hotter. And even when their soldiers were putting them in, they died of the heat.
But the men themselves, the binds that bound them, were burnt off and they could stand inside this heat. But as Nebuchadnezzar looked in, he not only saw three, but he saw four. Was he seeing Jesus? And there with the men, jesus, who's always there to help people and even to help us in this modern day, this was an amazing prediction.
Nebuchadnezzar had made a golden image. But now all that went to oblivion. And particularly, as I said earlier, that in chapter four, he is humble before God.
He becomes like an oxen out in the field, eating the grass, his fingernails growing like claws, his toenails growing the same way, just like claws of an animal. But after seven years, God brought him back. His mind was given back to him, and he praised the God of heaven.
You know, no matter what circumstances we go through, god is always at our side. He's always there to bless us, to help us, to heal us, to strengthen us, and above all, to give us salvation. God wants us in his kingdom, just as he wanted King Nebuchadnezzar in his kingdom.
And as we think about Babylon, that great city that was reduced to nothing, we think about its great leader, King Nebuchadnezzar, who was reduced to nothing and then revived. Sometimes we may feel that we're reduced to nothing, but God lifts us up, god strengthens us. God has salvation in mind for us.
God has a place in his kingdom for us, just as he has for Nebuchadnezzar. You know, we can have great confidence in the scriptures that God has provided for us, so that we might understand better and that we might grow in the knowledge of our great God. May I encourage you to read the Scriptures and study them today we can again take confidence in their reliability and in their credibility.
By the way, you can listen again to this program on our website, 3abnaustralia.org.au When you open that, then click on the Listen button, which will be at the bottom of the page or near the bottom of the page, the Listen button, and you will find this and many other programs that you may like to listen to.
Well, we look forward to having you in our next presentation of Biblical Wonders of the Middle East. Until then, God bless and keep you in his mighty love. You've been listening to biblical wonders in the Middle East with Pastor David Curry.
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