Praying & Prophesying Through The War
The past is not just for remembrance but also serves
as a cautionary reminder!
Ancient Babylonia was where
modern-day Iraq is. Babylon, its ancient walled capital, was located
between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers This pagan city was situated
about 485 kilometers (300 miles) northwest of the Persian Gulf and
about 49 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of modern Baghdad in Iraq.
According to Babylonian
tradition, Babylon was built by the god Marduk before 2300 B. C. It
was one of the oldest cities of the ancient world. Genesis 10:10
mentions Babel as part of the empire of Nimrod.
I have
gathered some links between Iraq and Babylon, and between Saddam and
Nebuchadnezzar for your prophetic information and insights:
Iraq - Babylon
Broadcast: 29/4/1997
Reporter: James Schofield
http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/stories/s349108.htm
"In the sixth century BC
Babylon, with its Hanging Gardens and Tower of Babel, was the
greatest city in the world. Today it's been largely rebuilt by
Saddam Hussein in an effort to acquire for himself, the mantle of
greatness that surrounded Babylon's famous king, Nebuchadnezzar. But
with sanctions destroying the economy and Saddam an international
pariah, Babylon is a tribute solely to former glory, despite
Saddam's dreams."
Saddam's Babylon
Rick MacInnes-Rae, CBC Radio | August 2002
http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/iraq/correspondents/macinnesrae.html
"A plaque on the wall outside
Babylon makes it clear Saddam sees himself as the Nebuchadnezzar of
his generation. He plainly believes rebuilding Babylon makes him its
modern-day patron, and a modern-day king. But the bricks of Babylon
did not survive the onslaught of time and neither will Saddam. Pity
so many have to die as he learns it."
Saddam Hussein and History 101
By Eric H. Cline
http://www.gwu.edu/~bygeorge/030403/clineedit.html
Although Nebuchadnezzar was
neither Arab nor Moslem, Saddam Hussein’s "Nebuchadnezzar Imperial
Complex," as one psychologist called it, has been remarkably
consistent. In the late 1980s he promoted the Iraqi Arts Festival
called "From Nebuchadnezzar to Saddam Hussein." He also had a
replica of Nebuchadnezzar’s war chariot built and had himself
photographed standing in it. He ordered images of himself and
Nebuchadnezzar beamed, side by side, into the night sky over Baghdad
as part of a laser light show. He has spent millions rebuilding the
ancient site of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar’s capital city, provoking
fears among Christian fundamentalists who see this as one of the
signs of the end times and the imminent approach of Armageddon.
47 Countries take part in Iraq's
Babylon Festival
http://www.atour.com/news/assyria/20001003a.html
More than 47 countries take part
in the 10-day Babylon cultural festival which opened on September
22, 2000 in sanctions-hit Iraq, according to Information Minister
Human Abdel Khaleq. Their participation in the festival bore
"witness to the solidarity of several countries with Iraq in its
struggle to get the embargo lifted and put a stop to the plots by
the US and British administrations, supported by the Saudi and
Kuwaiti regimes," he said.
In keeping abreast with the
current war in Iraq, I come across Jeremiah 50 & 51 which I believe
we can use in sending prayer ammunitions and prophetic missiles into
the current war in Iraq:
(*Note that I am neither on the side of
USA or Iraq...I'm on the Lord's side. <Joshua 5:13-14>)
Jeremiah
50
- Babylon This is the message
from the Lord against Babylon and the Chaldeans, spoken by
Jeremiah the prophet:
- "Tell all
the world that Babylon will be destroyed; her god Marduk will be
utterly disgraced!
- For a nation shall come
down upon her from the north with such destruction that no one
shall live in her again; all shall be gone-- both men and
animals shall flee.
- "Then the people of Israel
and Judah shall join together, weeping and seeking the Lord
their God.
- They shall
ask the way to Zion and start back home again. 'Come,' they will
say, 'let us be united to the Lord with an eternal pledge that
will never be broken again.'
- "My people have been lost
sheep. Their shepherds led them astray and then turned them
loose in the mountains. They lost their way and didn't remember
how to get back to the fold.
- All who found them devoured
them and said, 'We are permitted to attack them freely, for they
have sinned against the Lord, the God of justice, the hope of
their fathers.'
- "But now,
flee from Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans; lead my people
home again.
- For see, I
am raising up an army of great nations from the north, and I
will bring them against Babylon to attack her, and she shall be
destroyed. The enemies' arrows go straight to the mark; they do
not miss!
- And Babylon
shall be sacked until everyone is sated with loot," says the
Lord.
- "Though you were glad, O
Chaldeans, plunderers of my people, and are fat as cows that
feed in lush pastures, and neigh like stallions,
- yet your mother shall be
overwhelmed with shame, for you shall become the least of the
nations-- a wilderness, a dry and desert land.
- Because of the anger of the
Lord, Babylon shall become deserted wasteland, and all who pass
by shall be appalled and shall mock at her for all her wounds.
- "Yes,
prepare to fight with Babylon, all you nations round about; let
the archers shoot at her; spare no arrows, for she has sinned
against the Lord.
- Shout
against her from every side. Look! She surrenders! Her walls
have fallen. The Lord has taken vengeance. Do to her as she has
done!
- Let the farmhands all
depart. Let them rush back to their own lands as the enemies
advance.
- "The Israelites are like
sheep the lions chase. First the king of Assyria ate them up;
then Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, crunched their bones."
- Therefore the Lord, the God
of Israel, says: "Now I will punish the king of Babylon and his
land as I punished the king of Assyria.
- And I will bring Israel
home again to her own land, to feed in the fields of Carmel and
Bashan and to be happy once more on Mount Ephraim and Mount
Gilead.
- In those days," says the
Lord, "no sin shall be found in Israel or in Judah, for I will
pardon the remnant I preserve.
- "Go up, O
my warriors, against the land of Merathaim and against the
people of Pekod. Yes, march against Babylon, the land of rebels,
a land that I will judge! Annihilate them, as I have commanded
you.
- Let there
be the shout of battle in the land, a shout of great
destruction.
- Babylon,
the mightiest hammer in all the earth, lies broken and
shattered. Babylon is desolate among the nations!
- O Babylon,
I have set a trap for you and you are caught, for you have
fought against the Lord.
- "The Lord
has opened his armory and brought out weapons to explode his
wrath upon his enemies. The terror that befalls Babylon will be
the work of the Lord God.
- Yes, come
against her from distant lands; break open her granaries; knock
down her walls and houses into heaps of ruins and utterly
destroy her; let nothing be left.
- Not even her cattle-- woe
to them too! Kill them all! For the time has come for Babylon to
be devastated.
- "But my people will flee;
they will escape back to their own country to tell how the Lord
their God has broken forth in fury upon those who destroyed his
Temple.
- "Send out a
call for archers to come to Babylon; surround the city so that
none can escape. Do to her as she has done to others, for she
has haughtily defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
- Her young
men will fall in the streets and die; her warriors will all be
killed.
- For see, I
am against you, O people so proud; and now your day of reckoning
has come.
- Land of
pride, you will stumble and fall, and no one will raise you up;
for the Lord will light a fire in the cities of Babylon that
will burn everything around them."
- "The Lord says: The people
of Israel and Judah have been wronged. Their captors hold them
and refuse to let them go.
- But their
Redeemer is strong. His name is the Lord Almighty. He will plead
for them and see that they are freed to live again in quietness
in Israel. "As for the people of Babylon-- there is no rest for
them!
- The sword
of destruction shall smite the Chaldeans," says the Lord. "It
shall smite the people of Babylon-- her princes and wise men
too.
- All her
wise counselors shall become fools! Panic shall seize her
mightiest warriors!
- War shall
devour her horses and chariots, and her allies from other lands
shall become as weak as women. Her treasures shall all be
robbed;
- even her
water supply will fail. And why? Because the whole land is full
of images, and the people are madly in love with their idols.
- "Therefore this city of
Babylon shall become inhabited by ostriches and jackals; it
shall be a home for the wild animals of the desert. Never again
shall it be lived in by human beings; it shall lie desolate
forever.
- The Lord
declares that he will destroy Babylon just as he destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns. No one has lived in
them since, and no one will live again in Babylon.
- "See them
coming! A great army from the north! It is accompanied by many
kings called by God from many lands.
- They are fully armed for
slaughter; they are cruel and show no mercy; their battle cry
roars like the surf against the shoreline. O Babylon, they ride
against you fully ready for the battle."
- When the king of Babylon
received the dispatch, his hands fell helpless at his sides;
pangs of terror gripped him like the pangs of a woman in labor.
- "I will send against them
an invader who will come upon them suddenly, like a lion from
the jungles of Jordan that leaps upon the grazing sheep. I will
put her defenders to flight and appoint over them whomsoever I
please. For who is like me? What ruler can oppose my will? Who
can call me to account?"
- Listen to the plan of the
Lord against Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans. For even little
children shall be dragged away as slaves; oh, the horror; oh,
the terror.
- The whole
earth shall shake at Babylon's fall, and her cry of despair
shall be heard around the world.
Jeremiah
51
- The Lord says: "I will stir
up a destroyer against Babylon, against that whole land of the
Chaldeans, and destroy it.
- Winnowers
shall come and winnow her and blow her away; they shall come
from every side to rise against her in her day of trouble.
- The arrows
of the enemy shall strike down the bowmen of Babylon and pierce
her warriors in their coats of mail. No one shall be spared;
both young and old alike shall be destroyed.
- They shall fall down slain
in the land of the Chaldeans, slashed to death in her streets.
- For the Lord Almighty has
not forsaken Israel and Judah. He is still their God, but the
land of the Chaldeans is filled with sin against the Holy One of
Israel."
- Flee from
Babylon! Save yourselves! Don't get trapped! If you stay, you
will be destroyed when God takes his vengeance on all of
Babylon's sins.
- Babylon has
been as a gold cup in the Lord's hands, a cup from which he made
the whole earth drink and go mad.
- But now,
suddenly Babylon too has fallen. Weep for her; give her
medicine; perhaps she can yet be healed.
- We would
help her if we could, but nothing can save her now. Let her go.
Abandon her and return to your own land, for God is judging her
from heaven.
- The Lord has vindicated us.
Come, let us declare in Jerusalem all the Lord our God has done.
- Sharpen the
arrows! Lift up the shields! For the Lord has stirred up the
spirit of the kings of the Medes to march on Babylon and destroy
her. This is his vengeance on those who wronged his people and
desecrated his Temple.
- Prepare
your defenses, Babylon! Set many watchmen on your walls; send
out an ambush, for the Lord will do all he has said he would
concerning Babylon.
- O wealthy
port, great center of commerce, your end has come; the thread of
your life is cut.
- The Lord Almighty has taken
this vow and sworn to it in his own name: "Your cities shall be
filled with enemies, like fields filled with locusts in a
plague, and they shall lift to the skies their mighty shouts of
victory."
- God made the earth by his
power and wisdom. He stretched out the heavens by his
understanding.
- When he speaks there is
thunder in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to rise around
the world; he brings the lightning with the rain and the winds
from his treasuries.
- Compared to him, all men
are stupid beasts. They have no wisdom-- none at all! The
silversmith is dulled by the images he makes, for in making them
he lies; for he calls them gods when there is not a breath of
life in them at all!
- Idols are nothing! They are
lies! And the time is coming when God will come and see, and
shall destroy them all.
- But the God of Israel is no
idol! For he made everything there is, and Israel is his nation;
the Lord Almighty is his name.
- "Cyrus is
God's battleaxe and sword. I will use you," says the Lord, "to
break nations in pieces and to destroy many kingdoms.
- With you I will crush
armies, destroying the horse and his rider, the chariot and the
charioteer--
- yes, and the civilians too,
both old and young, young men and maidens,
- shepherds and flocks,
farmers and oxen, captains and rulers;
- before your eyes I will
repay Babylon and all the Chaldeans for all the evil they have
done to my people," says the Lord.
- "For see, I
am against you, O mighty mountain, Babylon, destroyer of the
earth! I will lift my hand against you, roll you down from your
heights, and leave you, a burnt-out mountain.
- You shall
be desolate forever; even your stones shall never be used for
building again. You shall be completely wiped out."
- Signal many
nations to mobilize for war on Babylon. Sound the battle cry;
bring out the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a
leader; bring a multitude of horses!
- Bring against her the
armies of the kings of the Medes and their generals, and the
armies of all the countries they rule.
- Babylon
trembles and writhes in pain, for all that the Lord has planned
against her stands unchanged. Babylon will be left desolate
without a living soul.
- Her
mightiest soldiers no longer fight; they stay in their barracks.
Their courage is gone; they have become as women. The invaders
have burned the houses and broken down the city gates.
- Messengers
from every side come running to the king to tell him all is
lost!
- All the
escape routes are blocked; the fortifications are burning, and
the army is in panic.
- "For the
Lord, the God of Israel, says: Babylon is like the wheat upon a
threshing floor; in just a little while the flailing will
begin."
- The Jews in Babylon say,
"Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has eaten and crushed us and
emptied out our strength; he has swallowed us like a great
monster and filled his belly with our riches; he has cast us out
of our own country.
- May Babylon be repaid for
all she did to us! May she be paid in full for all our blood she
spilled!"
- And the Lord replies: "I
will be your lawyer; I will plead your case; I will avenge you.
I will dry up her river, her water supply,
- and Babylon shall become a
heap of ruins, haunted by jackals, a land horrible to see,
incredible, without a living soul.
- In their
drunken feasts, the men of Babylon roar like lions.
- And while
they lie inflamed with all their wine, I will prepare a
different kind of feast for them and make them drink until they
fall unconscious to the floor, to sleep forever, never to waken
again," says the Lord.
- "I will
bring them like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.
- "How
Babylon is fallen-- great Babylon, lauded by all the earth! The
world can scarcely believe its eyes at Babylon's fall!
- The sea has risen upon
Babylon; she is covered by its waves.
- Her cities lie in ruins--
she is a dry wilderness where no one lives nor even travelers
pass by.
- And I will punish Bel, the
god of Babylon, and pull from his mouth what he has taken. The
nations shall no longer come and worship him; the wall of
Babylon has fallen.
- "O my
people, flee from Babylon; save yourselves from the fierce anger
of the Lord.
- But don't
panic when you hear the first rumor of approaching forces. For
rumors will keep coming year by year. Then there will be a time
of civil war as the governors of Babylon fight against each
other.
- For the time is surely
coming when I will punish this great city and all her idols; her
dead shall lie in the streets.
- Heaven and
earth shall rejoice, for out of the north shall come destroying
armies against Babylon," says the Lord.
- "Just as
Babylon killed the people of Israel, so must she be killed.
- Go, you who escaped the
sword! Don't stand and watch-- flee while you can! Remember the
Lord and return to Jerusalem far away!"
- "We are ashamed because the
Temple of the Lord has been defiled by foreigners from Babylon."
- "Yes," says the Lord. "But
the time is coming for the destruction of the idols of Babylon.
All through the land will be heard the groans of the wounded.
- Though Babylon be as
powerful as heaven, though she increase her strength
immeasurably, she shall die," says the Lord.
- "Listen! Hear the cry of
great destruction out of Babylon, the land the Chaldeans rule!
- For the
Lord is destroying Babylon; her mighty voice is stilled as the
waves roar in upon her.
- Destroying
armies come and slay her mighty men; all her weapons break in
her hands, for the Lord God gives just punishment and is giving
Babylon all her due.
- I will make
drunk her princes, wise men, rulers, captains, warriors. They
shall sleep and not wake up again!" So says the King, the Lord
Almighty.
- "For the
wide walls of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her
high gates shall be burned; the builders from many lands have
worked in vain-- their work shall be destroyed by fire!"
- During the fourth year of
Zedekiah's reign, this message came to Jeremiah to give to
Seraiah (son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah), concerning Seraiah's
capture and exile to Babylon along with Zedekiah, king of Judah.
(Seraiah was quartermaster of Zedekiah's army.)
- Jeremiah wrote on a scroll
all the terrible things God had scheduled against Babylon-- all
the words written above--
- and gave the scroll to
Seraiah and said to him, "When you get to Babylon, read what I
have written and say,
- 'Lord, you have said that
you will destroy Babylon so that not a living creature will
remain, and it will be abandoned forever.'
- Then, when you have
finished reading the scroll, tie a rock to it, and throw it into
the Euphrates River,
- and say, 'So shall Babylon
sink, never more to rise, because of the evil I am bringing upon
her.'" (This ends Jeremiah's messages.) (TLB)