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Iraq In The Bible-1-3
by David L. Brown, Ph.D.
Israel is the nation most often mentioned in the Bible. But, do you know which nation is second? It is Iraq! However, that is not the name that is used in the Bible. The names used in the Bible are Babylon, Land of Shinar, and Mesopotamia. The word Mesopotamia means between the two rivers, more exactly between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The name Iraq, mean country with deep roots. Indeed Iraq is a country with deep roots and is a very significant country in the Bible. Here’s why. Eden was in Iraq – Genesis 2:10-14 Adam & Ever were created in Iraq – Genesis 2:7-8 Satan made his first recorded appearance in Iraq – Genesis 3:1-6 Nimrod established the Babylon & the Tower of Babel was built in Iraq – Genesis 10: 8-9 7 & 11:1-4 The confusion of the languages took place in Iraq – Genesis 11:5-11 Abraham came from a city in Iraq – Genesis 11:31 & Acts 7:2-4 Isaac’s bride came from Iraq – Genesis 24:3-4 & 10 Jacob Spent 20 years in Iraq – Genesis 27:42-45 & 31:38 The first world Empire was in Iraq – Daniel 1:1-2 & 2:36-38 The greatest revival in history was in a city in Iraq – Jonah 3 The events of the book of Esther took place in Iraq – Esther The book of Nahum was a prophecy against a city in Iraq – Nahum The book of Revelation has prophecies against Babylon, which was the old name for the nation of Iraq – Revelation 17 & 18.
Before I move on, it is important to note that the capital city of ancient Babylon (Babylonia) is also called Babylon. Jerusalem, the biblical capital of Israel is commonly known as the City of God. That being true, the City of Babylon can be called the City of Satan. Prophetically, in the end times good will come to and from Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:4-9) and bad and evil will come to and from Babylon (Revelation 14:8; 17:5-6; 18:2-4). In light of the prophetic significance of Iraq/Babylon, I believe we need to understand the history of Iraq/Babylon in the Bible. You may be surprised when you see how big a place in the Bible Iraq plays.
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 2:10-14. We see in verse 10 that "a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." Then four rivers are named: Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and the Euphrates. No one knows where the Pison was and neither do they know where the Gihon was. However, the Hiddekel River is sometimes called the Tigris River, even to this day. The Euphrates River is identified in the passage. Therefore, the greater part of Bible scholars believe that Eden was somewhere in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Eden was the perfect setting! Adam talked freely with the Lord in the cool of the day. But, their fellowship with God was shattered when Satan deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit and Adam knowingly ate of the forbidden fruit. Sin entered the world and spiritual death (separation from God) followed directly (Genesis 3). Physical death followed later. It seemed that all hope was lost. Man was doomed! However, God intervened and tucked in a promise, giving them hope. Genesis 3:15 is the first promise of a coming Savior in the Bible -- "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." But, Satan moved to block hope. He thrives on making people hopeless to this day. So, how did Satan try to block mankind’s hope. He tried to corrupt the entire human race. Genesis 6:1-2 tells us of the union between the sons of God and the daughters of men. Now I know that there are those like myself who believe the sons of God are fallen angelic beings who co-habited with human women. Others believe that this refers to intermarriage between the unrighteous line of Cain and the righteous line of Seth. I am not here to advocate either position, but merely to point out the result -- Genesis 6:5 "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." There was perpetual wickedness worldwide. God was grieved and regretted making man. It appeared that all of humanity was in the grip of Satan and had been totally corrupted by the unholy union between the sons of God and the daughters of men. However, not everyone had been corrupted as we see in Genesis 6:8 "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." As you will recall, God sent a world wide flood, destroying every human on the face of the earth except Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. On the other side of the flood God blessed faithful Noah and his family and gave them instructions to repopulate the world (Genesis 9:1). The line of the Savior was thus preserved.
If you follow the family tree of Noah, I would have you note his great Grandson. Turn to Genesis 10:8-9 "And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD." We know this from context that Nimrod was a rebel against God. "Nimrod" means let us revolt. Further, the phrase in verse 9 "a mighty hunter before the LORD" implies being a hunter of not only animals but of men. "Hunting," according to Aristotle, "is a part of the military art, which is to be used both on beasts, and on such men who are made to be ruled, but are not willing."
Acts 7:2-4
"And he said, Men, brethren, and
fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when
he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, 3
And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and
come into the land which I shall show thee. 4 Then came he out of
the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when
his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell."
Abraham’s native city is believed to have been in
southern Mesopotamia, strategically situated about half way between the
head of the Persian Gulf and Bagdad, in present day Iraq. The inhabitance
of Ur worshipped the pagan moon-god Sin. We know that Abraham’s father
Terah and his grandfather Nahor were worshippers of false gods (Joshua
24:2).
Abraham obeyed God and left Ur, traveling northwest
about 800 miles to Haran called Charran in the New
Testament. Terah obviously believed he was supposed to accompany his son
into this "promised land." But, something happened before they got there
which caused them to make a temporary stop at Haran. Haran was on
the main trade route between Babylon and the Mediterranean Sea. They
stayed there till his father Terah died. Then Abraham continued on to the
land of Canaan, as the Lord had commanded him. While I do not know for
sure, I would believe that God sidetracked Abraham because He knew the
idolatrous influence of his father Terah would hinder the purpose He had
for Abraham.
Please remember, God promised to bless all the nations
of the earth through Abraham (Genesis 18:18) and, that comes to
pass in two ways; 1) the recorded Word of God was committed the
offspring of Abraham, the Jews (Romans 3:2) and
2) the Messiah,
Jesus Christ our Savior is, called the "…son of Abraham." (Matthew 1:1).
That is, Christ came through the line of Abraham.
Abraham sends Elieazar, his servant, to get Isaac a
wife. He comes back with Rebekah from Mesopotamia (Iraq) who becomes his
wife and later bares twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau is born first.
Genesis 24:3-4 & 10 "And I will make thee swear by
the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not
take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I
dwell: 4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred,
and take a wife unto my son Isaac. 10 And the servant took ten
camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his
master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia,
unto the city of Nahor." Probably located southeast of Haran.
Jacob, whose name is later changed to Israel, was a
schemer and deceiver. He traded his brother Esau the double portion of his
father’s inheritance for bread and red lentil soup (Genesis 25:30-34).
There was still the blessing of the eldest son that was to be Esau’s.
However, Jacob wanted to strip Esau of that blessing too. So he, with his
mother plotted, tricking his father Isaac into believing that he was Esau.
His father is deceived and gives him Esau’s blessing. As a result, Esau
hated Jacob and threatened to kill him (Genesis 27:41). As a
result, his mother, who was party to the deception, urged him to flee to
Haran and stay with her brother Laban until Esau calmed down (Genesis
27:42-45). Now, Laban has two daughters. The older was Leah. She had
poor eyesight. Her younger sister, Rachel was very attractive. Jacob
agreed to work for sever years for Rachel. When he had fulfilled the
agreement, Laban tricked him and gave him Leah. When he discovered what
had happened, he would not be deterred. He worked another seven years for
Rachel (Genesis 29:15-28). The deceiver was deceived. All
together, we know the Jacob spent twenty years in Iraq and God
blessed him while he was there (Genesis 31:38).
So, why is that import to us? Nebuchadnezzar represent
the beginning of what is called the times of the Gentiles.
Luke
21:24 says, "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall
be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down
of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Let
me give you a simple explanation of this verse. Gentile nations will
dominate the Jewish nation beginning with Nebuchadnezzar until a divinely
appointed ruler from the tribe of Judah and of the line of David sits on
the throne in Jerusalem. That is none other than Jesus Christ the Lord.
Let’s look at the giant image Nebuchadnezzar dreamed
about and find out what nations are represented. We will see that this
image gives us an historical overview of the key Gentile powers that will
reign during the Times of The Gentiles.
Nebuchadnezzar was the dread sovereign of the
Babylonian Empire. You will recall that he was responsible for one of the
seven wonders of the ancient world, the hanging gardens of Babylon. Daniel
tells Nebuchadnezzar that he is the head of gold. Turn to
Daniel
2:36-38 "This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation
thereof before the king. 37 Thou, O king, art a king of
kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and
strength, and glory. 38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell,
the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into
thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art
this head of gold."
The chest and arms of silver was the kingdom of the
Medes and Persians (vs.32, 39). Cyrus (580-529 BC) founded his empire by
uniting the two original Iranian Tribes, the Medes and the Persians. The
unity was enabled because his father was a Mede and his mother was a
Persian. He did not conquer Babylon in the days of Nebuchadnezzar but
during the reign of his grandson Belshazzar. Although he was known to be a
great conqueror, who at one point controlled one of the greatest Empires
ever seen, he is best remembered for his unprecedented tolerance and
Next we come to the Roman Empire. Turn to Daniel
2:40 "And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as
iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that
breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise." As you can see,
the Roman Empire is depicted by the legs of Iron. It was the Roman Empire
the ruled over Israel when Christ was born. In 66 A.D. the Roman came to
Jerusalem to put down a rebellion. Four years later, they broke through
the city wall, ransacked the city, destroyed the Temple and dispersed the
Jews all over the face of the earth.
The Roman empire was never really conquered, it simply
degenerated.
The feet and 10 toes depicts the fourth empire’s
revival in some form at the end of the age, only to be destroyed. Turn to
Daniel 2:33-35 "His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which
smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake
them to pieces. 35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the
silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff
of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no
place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a
great mountain, and filled the whole earth."
The stone is Christ and His kingdom.
There is more to come. |
I believe we will be in a war with Babylon/Iraq before
the end of February 2003. In fact, Saddam Hussein, the iron-fisted,
fanatical dictator considers himself to be the second Nebuchadnezzar and
was pouring in massive resources to rebuild the ancient city of Babylon
before the Gulf War.
Further, we know that Nimrod was the builder of the
city of Babel (later called Babylon) and several other cities in "the land
of Shinar" which is the nation Babylon or Iraq (Genesis 10:10). He was
also the prime mover in the building of the Tower of Babel.
Herodotus informs us that "the tower of Babel, was a furlong, or 660 feet,
in length and breadth;’ and, according to Strabo, it rose to the same
altitude. It was of a pyramidical form, consisting of eight square towers,
gradually decreasing in breadth, with a winding ascent on the outside, so
very broad as to allow horses and carriages to pass each other, and even
to turn.
The purpose of the city was to centralize power into a
single kingdom. It was an effort at man-made unity and one world
government (Genesis 11:4-6), when God had instructed the human race to
spread all over the earth (Genesis 9:1). There’s more. Babel and its tower
is the mother of all false religions. The tower was erected for the
practice of astrology and to worship the sun. According to ancient
writings, Semiramis was the wife of Nimrod. She became the high priestess
of the Babylonian religion and was called the Queen of Heaven." As the
ancient legend says, Nimrod died and became the sun god. His wife
Semiramis was impregnated by a sunbeam and gives birth to her son Tammuz
(a counterfeit miraculous birth). Later Tammuz is killed by a wild boar.
However, after Semiramis cries for 40 days, Tammuz comes back to life
again, which is a counterfeit of the resurrection. In fact, this is the
origin of a counterfeit religious system that revolves around the
worship of a mother and child. In fact, during the Babylonian
captivity Jeremiah the prophet Israel’s worship of Semiramis "Queen of
Heaven." (Jeremiah 7:18-19; 44:15-30). In fact, at Jerusalem, in the
Temple, they were worshipping Tammuz, the son of Semiramis (Ezekiel
8:14-15).
This diabolical worship spread across the world. In Egypt Semarimis is called Isis and her son is Osiris. In Assyria it was Ishtar
and Bacchus. In Asia it was Cybele and Deoius. In ancient Greece it was
Aphrodite and Eros and in ancient Rome it was Venus and Cupit. The names
and places of mother-child worship change from country to country down
though the ages. It permeates Roman Catholicism. But know this, from
Babylon has emerged all the false religions of history. We should not
be surprised when Babylon is called "…BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF
HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." Revelation 17:5
I have a genuine cuneiform tablet that comes from the
area of Abraham’s hometown, and from about the time that he lived there.
We know that Abram lived in Mesopotamia, which is present day Iraq (Acts
7:2). Further, we know that Ur was the city he lived in when
God called him. Genesis 11:31 "And Terah took Abram his son, and
Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son
Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees,
to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
There
is about 1500 years between the establishment of
Babylon by Nimrod and the world wide Babylonian Empire established and
ruled by Nebuchadnezzar (604-562 B.C.). Israel had rebelled against God.
They were serving other gods. Therefore, God judged the nation Israel,
using Babylon as His instrument of judgment. This took place "In the third
year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah…" (Daniel 1:1). What
was the result? "The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah [609-597 B.C.]
into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he
carried into the land of Shinar [Babylon] to the house of his god;
and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god." (Daniel
1:2). Many of the best youth were taken captive to Babylon. "Now,
among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah." (Daniel 1:6). Altogether, the
Jews spent 70 years in Babylonian captivity.
Now, back to Nebuchadnezzar. In Daniel 2, we
read the account of a dream that king Nebuchadnezzar had. He could not
remember and did not know the meaning of his dream. The king calls in all
of his occult advisers: magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans,
(the pagan priests of their occult religion). He demanded that they
interpret his dream. However, they are totally helpless to give the king
an answer. However, Daniel, one of the Israeli captives, comes forth and
made this statement – "But there is a God in heaven that revealeth
secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the
latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are
these;" Daniel 2:28. Daniel then recounted the dream the king had (Daniel
2:28) and then proceeds to interpret the prophetic dream. In our next
message, we will look at the giant image Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about. We
will look at the nations the image represented and find out what the
identity of the stone that destroys the image.
magnanimous attitude towards those he defeated. When he
conquered Babylon, he did so to cheers from the Jewish Community, who
welcomed him as a liberator. In fact, he allowed the Jews, 40,000 of them,
to return to the Promised Land. He showed great forbearance and respect
towards the religious beliefs and cultural traditions of other races.
These qualities earned him the respect and homage of all the people over
whom he ruled. In Cyrus’ time his kingdom was opulent. However in the
hands of later kings it shrunk much, in prosperity, grandeur and glory,
especially in the reigns of Cyrus the younger, and of Artaxerxes Mnemon.
The events of the book of Esther take place during his reign when wicked
Haman saught to exterminate the remaining Jews from the 127 provinces of
the Persian Empire. It is only through Queen Eshter, who is a Jew, that
this disaster is prevented. I am reminded of the words of Mordecai to
Esther -- Esther 4:14 "For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at
this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to
the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be
destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for
such a time as this?" These words remind us that we are all here for a
purpose under God’s plan! Finally, the Persian Empire ceased in reign of
Darius III (Codomannus) (336–330 B.C.) because it was conquered by
Alexander the Great. Today the country of Iran encompasses much of
that old empire.
Alexander III, more commonly known as Alexander the
Great, was one of the greatest military leaders in world history. The
exact date of his birth is uncertain, but most likely he was morn either
July 20 or 26, 356 B.C. He conquered Persia in a military campaign that
lasted from 334 to 329 A.D. Alexander’s Grecian Empire is represented in
the belly and thighs of brass (39b). Alexander had seven wives.
Roxanne was his favorite wife. He married her in 327 B.C Roxanne was a
Persian, and by the time he married her, he had total control of Persian
Empire. However, his leadership of the Greek Empire was short-lived. Toward
the end May 323 B.C. Alexander became ill after a party. He died in early
June of that same year. He was just 32 when he died. His death hastened by
his heavy drinking and being shot in the chest with an arrow. He was
buried in Alexandria, Egypt. Out of this empire arises a diabolical leader
named Antiochus Epiphanes. His persecution of the Jewish people and
defilement of the Temple is prophesied by Daniel in Daniel 8:9-14. His
atrocities are recorded in the first six chapters of the apocryphal book
of Maccabees. To be sure the apocryphal books are not Holy Spirit
inspired. However, some of them record important historical information.
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