Tag Archives: greedy

THE BABYLONIAN ASPIRATION

Bible Study, ,

THE BABYLONIAN ASPIRATION

See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright – indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples (Hab. 2: 4a; 5).

What was the aspiration of Babylon’s ruler? He wanted to own and rule the world. The Babylonian army was raised up and trained to fulfil his dream. King followed king with the same ambition – to be the ruler of the greatest empire on earth. They were accurate representatives of the god they worshipped – Satan – the deceiver of men and usurper of God’s throne.

What is the spirit of Babylon? Greed! Babylon represents the drive to possess – in this case not only things but people. Death and the grave are perfect pictures of the spirit of Babylon – never satisfied; always wanting more. Hitler, Stalin, and even some of the modern religious sects and cults are Babylonian at heart – and so is every individual who has the insatiable desire to control and to possess.

Satan spawned Babylon because, through Babylon, he aspired to rule the world and to hold every human being captive to his ambition to take the throne from God and to be Lord. Babylon is symbolic of every person and everything that is anti-God and anti-Christ – every person who wants to control and, in the end, every individual who dominates others by intimidation or manipulation. The spirit of Babylon is the spirit of witchcraft.

But Babylon not only symbolises the spirit of the world; it also symbolises the counterfeit church – the great prostitute of John’s visions in the book of Revelation. Babylon, the city and the false religious system, was the source of every false religion which still infests and infects the world today.

Nimrod and his evil wife, Semiramis, set out to defy the living God by establishing cities to keep the people together and a tower to rescue the population from destruction by any further flood and to get nearer to heaven by their own efforts. It was a fist shaken in the face of God. It was the spirit of Frank Sinatra’s song, “I did it my way.”

However, God was always in charge, now as then. He had instructed them to fill the earth with people, not to stick together in cities. Confusion drove them apart and sent them out to populate the earth.

They went, taking their false religion with them. Instead of obeying God’s instruction to manage their earth for Him, they went out as representatives of Satan to sow disobedience and destruction wherever they went. Every nation in the Old Testament had its own form of the Babylonian mystery religion, symbolised by the mother and child cult – and all over the world today the same ancient religion is practised under many names.

What is the fate of Babylon?

“Woe! Woe to you, great city, you mighty city of Babylon! In one hour, your doom has come!” (Rev. 18: 10).

What is God’s prescription for His church?

Then I heard another voice from heaven say, “‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you may not share her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues, for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes (Rev. 18: 4-5).

Yes, God raised up the Babylonians in history just as He revealed to Habakkuk. What they did to God’s people was no happenstance. He intended to be a wake-up call to His people to separate themselves from the spirit of the world. God has raised up today’s “Babylons” to awaken and purify His church. His word to us today is still the same:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? . . . Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Cor. 6: 14; 17-18).

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God (2 Cor. 7: 1).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide

The Babylonian Aspiration

Bible Study, , ,

THE BABYLONIAN ASPIRATION

See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright – indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples (Hab. 2: 4a; 5).

What was the aspiration of Babylon’s ruler? He wanted to own and rule the world. The Babylonian army was raised up and trained to fulfil his dream. King followed king with the same ambition – to be the ruler of the greatest empire on earth. They were accurate representatives of the god they worshipped – Satan – the deceiver of men and usurper of God’s throne.

What is the spirit of Babylon? Greed! Babylon represents the drive to possess – in this case not only things but people. Death and the grave are perfect pictures of the spirit of Babylon – never satisfied; always wanting more. Hitler, Stalin, and even some of the modern religious sects and cults are Babylonian at heart – and so is every individual who has the insatiable desire to control and to possess.

Satan spawned Babylon because, through Babylon, he aspired to rule the world and to hold every human being captive to his ambition to take the throne from God and to be Lord. Babylon is symbolic of every person and everything that is anti-God and anti-Christ – every person who wants to control and, in the end every individual who dominates others by intimidation or manipulation. The spirit of Babylon is the spirit of witchcraft.

But Babylon not only symbolises the spirit of the world; it also symbolises the counterfeit church – the great prostitute of John’s visions in the book of Revelation. Babylon, the city and the false religious system, was the source of every false religion which still infests and infects the world today.

Nimrod and his evil wife, Semiramis, set out to defy the living God by establishing cities to keep the people together and a tower to rescue the population from destruction by any further flood and to get nearer to heaven by their own efforts. It was a fist shaken in the face of God. It was the spirit of Frank Sinatra’s song, “I did it my way.”

However, God was always in charge, now as then. He had instructed them to fill the earth with people, not to stick together in cities. Confusion drove them apart and sent them out to populate the earth.

They went, taking their false religion with them. Instead of obeying God’s instruction to manage their earth for Him, they went out as representatives of Satan to sow disobedience and destruction wherever they went. Every nation in the Old Testament had its own form of the Babylonian mystery religion, symbolised by the mother and child cult – and all over the world today the same ancient religion is practised under many names.

What is the fate of Babylon?

“Woe! Woe to you, great city, you mighty city of Babylon! In one hour your doom has come!” (Rev. 18: 10).

What is God’s prescription for His church?

Then I heard another voice from heaven say, “‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you may not share her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues, for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes (Rev. 18: 4-5).

Yes, God raised up the Babylonians in history just as He revealed to Habakkuk. What they did to God’s people was no happenstance. He intended to be a wake-up call to His people to separate themselves from the spirit of the world. God has raised up today’s “Babylons” to awaken and purify His church. His word to us today is still the same:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? . . . Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Cor. 6: 14; 17-18).

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God (2 Cor. 7: 1).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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A House of Prayer

Christian Life, , ,

A HOUSE OF PRAYER

“Going into the Temple He began to throw out everyone who had set up shop, selling everything and anything. He said, ‘It’s written in Scripture, “My house is a house of prayer,” but you have turned it into a religious bazaar.’

“From then on He taught each day in the Temple. The high priests, religion scholars, and the leaders of the people were trying their best to find a way to get rid of Him. But with the people hanging on every word He spoke, they couldn’t come up with anything.” Luke 19:45-49 (The Message).

Jesus had made His intentions clear on Palm Sunday when He turned towards the Temple, not Pilate’s residence. The Temple, symbolic of God’s desire to make His dwelling with His people, was His focus. It was the place where He expected to find people whose hearts were after God and who were there to worship Him in the appropriate way. It was there that He spent time, while He was in Jerusalem, teaching the people about the kingdom of God.

What He found when He reached the Temple, appalled Him. Luke’s Gospel gives us few details, but we learn from the other gospels that the opportunists had set up shop in the outer court – the court of the Gentiles, which was the farthest non-Jews were allowed to go in the Temple. The merchants were no doubt there under the protection of the religious leaders who would take a cut of the profits for their co-operation!

So what were they doing? They were making a fine business out of selling ‘unblemished’ sacrificial animals at Passover. This seems innocent enough but a closer look, coupled with Jesus’ accusation, reveals that they were engaged in crooked business.

Every animal had to pass the scrutiny of the priests to be declared fit for a Passover offering. Many animals ‘failed’ the test which meant that they had to be scrapped and another bought from the merchants. The ‘failed’ animal was then sold to the next worshipper whose lamb had been rejected. This practice, together with the exorbitant exchange rate charged by the men handling the forex, was a lucrative business both for the merchants and for their religious overlords.

Jesus was incensed by the whole scene. It angered and sickened Him because it exposed the disposition of the human heart. It was the basest thing any human being could pull off on sincere worshippers, and it hijacked the only place in the Temple where Gentiles were permitted to worship God.

Since Jesus’ action has deeper significance than simply an outburst of righteous anger, we have to go to John’s Gospel to find out the underlying meaning of this incident. John records this event as happening at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It was a prophetic action which revealed the purpose of His coming. John’s record is authenticated by false witnesses at Jesus’ trial, which we find in Mark’s Gospel (14:57, 58). “Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against Him. ‘We heard Him say, “I will destroy this man-made temple, and in three days will build another, not made by man.”‘ Yet even then their testimony did not agree.”

By cleansing the Temple of the greedy merchants in cahoots with greedy religious leaders, Jesus was declaring the purpose of His own death. He had come to uncover and deal with the deep-seated reason why human beings need to be cleansed and reconciled to God so that He can make His dwelling within us. By giving His own sinless life as a sacrificial Passover lamb, He would set people free from their slavery to selfishness, greed and wickedness, and give us the right and power to become a ‘house of prayer’ for God, a place of loving, intimate fellowship with Him.

It was this ‘zeal for His house’ that sent Jesus to the cross, and it is still the zeal for God’s spiritual house that motivates His passion for people. God has purposed and will fulfil His plan to complete what He began, to build a family of men and women, boys and girls from every nation, tribe and clan on earth who will receive His love, and will love and worship Him in return.

Will you be one of them? It’s your choice…

Light Up Your World

Christian Life, , , , ,

LIGHT UP YOUR WORLD

“’No one lights a lamp, and then hides it in a drawer. It’s put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they’re going. Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life a well-lighted room.’” Luke 11:33-36 (The Message).

As a Jew, Jesus would have used the words, ‘light’ and ‘darkness’ from the understanding that they would be interpreted functionally, not literally. The ‘eye’ represented a person’s perspective on life. To have an ‘eye of light’ indicated that the person had a heart that was one (echad) with God with an unselfish and generous disposition. To have a dark or evil eye meant that the person was selfish and greedy, unable to see beyond his own nose.

People who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and have responded to His invitation to take His yoke, follow and learn from Him, have been relocated from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of light. They have had a change of master and a change of disposition. They are no longer ruled by greed. They have become generous givers, not only of their resources but also in attitude towards other people.

Jesus used this as the test of a person’s true response to Him. When Zaccheus received Him, his first action was to overturn his old life by being generous to the poor and by making restitution for his dishonesty. This, to Jesus, was evidence of a truly changed life.

That kind of life cannot be lived in secret. Just as there is no value in putting a light under a bed, there is no value in hiding your new life. A changed and generous disposition is intended to be a witness to God’s grace, setting the person free from the greed that brings judgment and replacing it with the joy of giving.

In his letter, James made a case for the futility of faith without good works. Good works in themselves cannot save, firstly because anything ‘good’ we try to do comes from polluted hearts, and secondly, because God is not impressed by our best self-effort. But when our sins have been removed and our hearts changed by God’s power, we are free to express the new life in us by a changed attitude to other people. We can now see them through God’s eyes and feel their need in our hearts.

God’s way of involving us in His government of mercy is to meet the needs of others through us. He provides for us through others so that, in turn, we can give away to those in need. In this way we create a current of resources which keeps circulating as long as we keep giving. What we hoard stops the flow of that current and shuts down the joy that comes from doing life God’s way. ‘Keep the current flowing,’ said Jesus, ‘and your life will be lit up with God’s presence and joy.’