The ancient nation of Babylon was a shadow, and Israel’s exile in her was a shadow, as well. This is not to say that these events did not occur. Quite to the contrary. These were historical realities. But they were shadows, types.
History is cyclical; it repeats itself over and over again. God reveals this pattern to us in the Christian Bible. These cycles are not accidental or incidental. History is cyclical by the will of God.
In six days God created life on earth along with its requisite cycles and seasons. And then, on the seventh day, God rested. Perhaps one of the more surprising discoveries of the book of Genesis is that creation has not yet joined God on day seven. Creation is imprisoned on day six. As the writer of Hebrews has taught the Church:
1Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “As in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ” though his works were finished at the foundation of the world.
4 For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this place it says, “They shall not enter my rest.” 6 Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he sets a certain day—“today”—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. 9 So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; 10 for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.
Hebrews 4:1-11, NRSV
It was sin that led God to cage us here. When God first created humanity, He instructed us with these words:
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
Genesis 2:16-17, NRSV
The first woman ate of the tree, and then the man. The penalty, the consequence, the promise of God was death. But God sought to be merciful; God sought humanity’s reclamation. And so, God imprisoned humanity on day six. Sleep is a shadow–a type of death–as awakening is a shadow–a type of birth and creation. We still live on the day humanity fell, trapped in a repeating cycle of death and birth. We are barred from entering God’s rest.
As the writer of Ecclesiastes has observed:
9What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9, NRSV
We are imprisoned by our rebellions—the first rebellion and all that have followed thereafter. What has been is what will be. This is the shadow and the reality—the past which is simultaneously the future. There is nothing new under the sun.
As each evening we sleep and each morning we awaken, to be free from this cycle one must die and rise. As Jesus tried to explain to Nicodemus:
3 . . . . “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
John 3:3b, NRSV
But the worldly mind cannot comprehend its reality. And so, Nicodemus, like so many of us, responded with the wisdom of ignorance:
4 . . . . “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”
John 3:4b, NRSV
Only by faith, by trusting Jesus and walking in the way He carved before us can the gate between day six and God’s rest be passed through. Jesus is both the gate and the gatekeeper from day six to day seven, from death to life, from toil to rest.
History is typology—shadows and realities caught in an endless dance under the sun. Babylon was a type, a shadow, a permutation to be repeated through time. Babel, Sumeria, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, all these were both shadows and realities trapped in a timeless cycle. But the circle is not closed. The course of history is both cyclical and linear, repeating and yet moving toward a final cycle, a final reality, a final dusk followed by an eschatological dawn. History has both a beginning and an end, an alpha and an omega, an aleph and a tav. As John testifies in the book of Revelation:
5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
Revelation 21:5-6a, NRSV
The Lord instructed the prophet Jeremiah to speak the following words with respect to ancient Babylon:
34“King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me like a monster; he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has spewed me out. 35May my torn flesh be avenged on Babylon,” the inhabitants of Zion shall say. “May my blood be avenged on the inhabitants of Chaldea,” Jerusalem shall say.
36Therefore thus says the Lord: I am going to defend your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry; 37and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, a den of jackals, an object of horror and of hissing, without inhabitant.
38Like lions they shall roar together; they shall growl like lions’ whelps. 39When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink and make them drunk, until they become merry and then sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake, says the Lord. 40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.
41How Sheshach is taken, the pride of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations! 42The sea has risen over Babylon; she has been covered by its tumultuous waves. 43Her cities have become an object of horror, a land of drought and a desert, a land in which no one lives, and through which no mortal passes. 44I will punish Bel in Babylon, and make him disgorge what he has swallowed. The nations shall no longer stream to him; the wall of Babylon has fallen.
45Come out of her, my people! Save your lives, each of you, from the fierce anger of the Lord! 46Do not be fainthearted or fearful at the rumors heard in the land—one year one rumor comes, the next year another, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.
47Assuredly, the days are coming when I will punish the images of Babylon; her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in her midst. 48Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, shall shout for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north, says the Lord. 49Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.
50You survivors of the sword, go, do not linger! Remember the Lord in a distant land, and let Jerusalem come into your mind: 51We are put to shame, for we have heard insults; dishonor has covered our face, for aliens have come into the holy places of the Lord’s house.
52Therefore the time is surely coming, says the Lord, when I will punish her idols, and through all her land the wounded shall groan. 53Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height, from me destroyers would come upon her, says the Lord.
54Listen!—a cry from Babylon! A great crashing from the land of the Chaldeans! 55For the Lord is laying Babylon waste, and stilling her loud clamor. Their waves roar like mighty waters, the sound of their clamor resounds; 56for a destroyer has come against her, against Babylon; her warriors are taken, their bows are broken; for the Lord is a God of recompense, he will repay in full.
57I will make her officials and her sages drunk, also her governors, her deputies, and her warriors; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake, says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
58Thus says the Lord of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for fire.
Jeremiah 51:34-58, NRSV
Over and over Babylon has risen, and over and over these words have been declared from on high, and over and over these prophecies have been fulfilled. Such is the fate of all who blaspheme the Lord, the God of heaven and earth. Such is the fate of all who seek to build a city and a nation by their own wisdom, their own strength, and under the leadership of their own kings.
These shadows are with us still. Babylon has arisen again. The cycle has repeated. And John heard Jeremiah’s words spoken anew with reference to the final permutation of Babylon in Revelation 18:
1After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was made bright with his splendor. 2 He called out with a mighty voice,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul bird, a haunt of every foul and hateful beast. 3For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxury.”
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and so that you do not share in her plagues; 5for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. 6Render to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed. 7As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, so give her a like measure of torment and grief. Since in her heart she says, ‘I rule as a queen; I am no widow, and I will never see grief,’ 8therefore her plagues will come in a single day— pestilence and mourning and famine— and she will be burned with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”
9 And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning; 10 they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,
“Alas, alas, the great city, Babylon, the mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.” 11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, 12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, choice flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, slaves—and human lives. 14“The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your dainties and your splendor are lost to you, never to be found again!”
15 The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
16“Alas, alas, the great city, clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! 17For in one hour all this wealth has been laid waste!”
And all shipmasters and seafarers, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off 18 and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?” 19And they threw dust on their heads, as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, the great city, where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in one hour she has been laid waste.
20Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints and apostles and prophets! For God has given judgment for you against her.”
21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,
“With such violence Babylon the great city will be thrown down, and will be found no more; 22and the sound of harpists and minstrels and of flutists and trumpeters will be heard in you no more; and an artisan of any trade will be found in you no more; and the sound of the millstone will be heard in you no more; 23and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more; and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more; for your merchants were the magnates of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery. 24And in you was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slaughtered on earth.”
Revelation 18:1-24, NRSV
Church of Jesus Christ around the world, those who have been faithful to the testimony of the prophets and apostles with Jesus as the chief cornerstone, who have not soiled their garments by adding or taking away from what has been written, who have never adulterated themselves with loyalty to the nations of the earth, God is now assaulting Babylon. The prophecies of Scripture are again being spoken and finding their fulfillment. Take heed and hear the call of the Spirit to the churches:
“Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and so that you do not share in her plagues; 5for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”
Come out by repentance; come out by the confession in word and in deed that Jesus is Lord; come out by forgiveness, by generosity, by hospitality, by patience, by kindness, by self-control, by the denial of self, and by faith in Jesus.
Thus says the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the One True God of the heavens and the earth and the Lord Jesus Christ:
The current tribulations of the earth have been asked for, even demanded by the wise and the learned of your nations. You have wished for a universe without me, and you have prayed for my death. If I answered your prayers, the waters would overwhelm you like a flood, and life would be extinguished. But, in the days of Noah I promised never again to allow the waters to overwhelm the earth and extinguish all life. I am a God of hesed, and I will not change my mind.
And yet, I am giving you a taste of your desire. I keep the chaos at bay. I set the boundaries and preserve life in my creation. By my Word the universe is maintained, and by my Spirit you live and breathe and have your being. The atheists and agnostics have described a world to you without me, and, as Goliath in ages past, they have blasphemed my Name. I am allowing you to sample the world for which they have wished, and the world in which they have longed to live. They are the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you from your tribulations.
I am making war against the false gods of the heavens and the earth. Come out, come out, My people. Trust in them no longer. I am the God who became flesh in the Person of Jesus. I am the God Who lays down my life only to take it up again. I am the God who, while you were in your rebellion, stayed my hand and made a way from life to death for those who believe in Me and in My way. Put no faith in principalities and powers. I am the Lord who delivers you. Come, enter my rest, by trusting the way and Word of my Son with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your life.
But, to Babylon and her children, the way is made for you into the waters. Logic and reason are taken; wisdom is darkened; and order is turned back. Light is darkness and darkness is light. Heaven and earth are turned against you, and no rescue will come for your transgressions. When hope is within reach, it will depart from you; when peace is at hand, strife will erupt; when respite arrives, despair will dispel it. So shall it be until you repent of your rebellions and ask my faithful ones to intercede on your behalf.
Am I a human that I desire the death of the wicked? Am I not the crucified Lord who desires that the lost be found and the rebel be reconciled? Come to me in repentance, and I will hear. Turn from your selfishness and lustful desires, and I will make you whole again. Can life persist without my Spirit? Can orderliness be maintained without my faithfulness? Can a covenant be upheld without my hesed? This is the way of things, people of the earth, and they can be no other? Do not persist in your rebellions. The Day of the Lord is at hand.