Luke 21:8

Christian, Be Not Deceived!

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR 

"THEY ARE SEVEN KINGS: FIVE ARE FALLEN, AND ONE IS." 

WHO WERE THE FIVE WHO HAD FALLEN? 

Now there follows naturally the question: What of the five who are said by the angel to have "fallen"? If we commence with Egypt, the first of the nations to ill-treat God's people who had themselves then grown into a nation, that would make Assyria (2), Babylon (3), Medo-Persia (4), Grecia (5), and Rome (6). 

While presenting the enemies of Israel in this order advanced by eminent Bible students, it should be remembered that actually more than 7 nations have made war upon Israel. And after showing that this is so, the writer desires to suggest a reason why it may be satisfactory to mention the enemies of Israel in the manner and order already given. However, before discussing this aspect concerning a possible successful enumeration of the powers intended in the 7 heads of the beast of Rev. 17 (and Rev. 12 and 13 also), the writer desires to repeat what he stated in the previous chapter, namely, that he believes that the seven heads denote the complete representation of all the enemies of God's people down, through the ages, and as such it is not necessary that an actual number of 7 nations must be ascertained in order for the prophetic symbolism to have a literal fulfilment. The number 7, as , we have shown from the pen of the servant of the Lord, is symbolic", and as such it is not necessary to discover exactly 7 nations who persecuted Israel. 

After escape from the armies of Pharaoh that sought to bring the Israelites back to the bondage of Egypt, they were attacked by the Amalekites. "Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim" (Ex. 17:8). This was the occasion when, through Moses, the Lord was able to give a demonstration of the efficacy of the intercession of Jesus Who was typified by Moses on the top of the hill looking down at the conflict raging below-the success or failure of the battle, as the record shows, depended upon the intercession made by Moses above. 

It was to this battle between Israel and the Amalekites that the Lord, through the unwilling lips of Balaam, declared: "Amalek was the first of the nations that warred against Israel" (Num. 24:20, margin). This was but the beginning of a long list of kings and nations who fought against Israel. The Lord had forewarned Israel of the task before them, giving them assurance however that they would be successful in their conflicts with "the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the 201 

Hivite, and the Jebusite" (Ex. 33:2; 34:11; etc.). Repeating this list of formidable foes, Moses also mentioned the "Girgashites", saying: "seven nations greater and mightier than thou" (Deut. 7:1). In Josh. 12 there is a summary of the kings and nations with whom Israel fought up till that time. The chapter heading reads: "The two kings whose countries Moses took and disposed of, and the thirty-one kings on the other side Jordan which Joshua smote." 

The Edomites, or Idumeans, were enemies of Israel, and, whenever opportunity afforded, attacked Israel–see Num. 20:14-21; 2 Chron. 20:10, 11; Ps. 83:6; 137:7; Ezek. 25:12, 14; etc. Because of their enmity and their opposition to Israel (see also Obad. 10-18, which presents a recapitulation of the "violence" employed by the descendants of Esau against the Israelites; Jer. 49:7; Amos 1:11; etc.), they are employed in the Scriptures as a type of those who hate and oppose Christ and His people–see Isa. 34:6-10; 63:1-6 and compare with Rev. 14:10, 11, 18-20, etc. 

This does not by any means exhaust the list of those who have fought against Israel, for those familiar with Old Testament history will immediately recall Israel's conflicts with the Syrians, the Ethiopians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, etc. Thus it will be seen that the Scriptural records reveal that kings and nations who fought against Israel certainly numbered more than seven. While some of these enemies were indeed formidable powers, yet it is possible that the 7 powers represented by the 7 heads are selected because they come into the category of world powers, and also because they were a serious threat to the existence of Israel as a nation. Egypt held Israel captive. Pharaoh's command to destroy all the male children was a blow destined to cripple Israel from becoming a nation able to defend itself. And Pharaoh's pursuit of Israel was to totally enslave that nation. 

Assyria broke up the northern kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 17:6; 18:10, 11), as foretold by the prophet Hosea (13:16). Isaiah also prophesied that the land of God's people would be invaded by the Assyrians, but he was able to outline the defeat of this mighty nation that at that time held Babylon as a dependant upon the Assyrian monarchy. As students of Holy Writ will recall, the Assyrian army threatened Jerusalem. The figure drawn by the prophet Isaiah was that of the waters of Euphrates as a mighty, raging, devastating flood threatening to engulf the people of Judah in the city of Jerusalem. As a man in a raging flood just holds his head above water, so Jerusalem would be almost submerged by the raging torrent of Assyrians. The prophet Isaiah said: "Now, therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all channels, and go 

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over all his banks: and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, 0 Immanuel" (Isa. 8:7, 8). This threatened invasion did materialize in the days of Hezekiah, but as promised the trusting Hezekiah and his people, the mighty army of the Assyrians was destroyed by the angel of the Lord. 

It is not without its significance that this invasion of Judah by the Assyrians and their utter defeat and destruction by God's intervention looms so large in the book of Isaiah–whole chapters being devoted to this purpose, see Isa. 36; 37; 38:6. See also 2 Kings 17:3 to 19:37. This destruction of the Assyrians is definitely employed in Isaiah to typify the attack upon God's people in the last days by the antitypical Assyrians–see Isa. 10:12-34, where "Israel is comforted with promise of deliverance from Assyria", see chapter heading. After outlining the doom of Babylon (the next enemy prophesied to afflict God's people, according to Isaiah)–see Isa. 13 and 14:1-23–the Lord said: "The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: that I will break the Assyrian in My land, and upon My mountains tread him under foot. . . . This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations" (vs. 24-26). Thus the Lord couples together, the doom of Babylon with the doom of the Assyrian army; that invasion of the land of God's people that threatened to engulf them like the overflowing of the waters of the Euphrates nearly submerging Jerusalem beneath its roaring, turgid waters. The Revelator partly has this in mind when he prophesies concerning the overthrow of Babylon and the antitypical army of the Assyrians at the time of the drying of the Euphrates under the 6th plague Rev. 16:12). In the chapter "Deliverance from Assyria , the Lord's servant in "Prophets and Kings", pp. 349-366, makes a last-day application of the overthrow o the Assyrians: "The God of the Hebrews had prevailed over the proud Assyrian. The honour of God was vindicated The rise and fall of the Assyrian Empire is rich in lessons for the nations of earth today." Isa. 30:29-31, quoted in PK. 36, is also quoted in GC. 635, and applied to the deliverance of God's people at the opening of the 7th plague when the voice of God, mentioned in Isa. 30:30, brings deliverance to His people. Thus the deliverance from the Assyrians whose invasion of Immanuel's land-where His people dwell, for He is ever with His people-which is likened to the waters of the flooding Euphrates being dried up, is applied by the servant of the Lord to the deliverance of God's people at the opening of the 7th plague which follows immediately (or in 

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association with) the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates under the 6th plague. "For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down" (Isa. 30:31). 

In the first five of the 7 last plagues there is a repetition of the plagues of Egypt. From other considerations we can quite easily conceive the purpose for making Egypt one of the heads of the beast that has assailed Israel, for in the might of her power she sought to destroy Israel from being a nation, and to reduce her to impotence and slavery when it looked as if Israel might become free. God had to afflict many of the people and destroy the Egyptian army and the firstborn, etc., when delivering His people, and for these reasons Egypt typifies nations in the last days who will endeavour to destroy or enslave the people of God. The overthrow of the invading Assyrian army typifies the overthrow of those who will in the last days seek to destroy the remnant people of God. The doom of the Assyrians and also of the Babylonians is coupled together in the book of Isaiah. Both these powers were overthrown after they had exalted their false gods above the name of Jehovah. 

Thus there are Scriptural reasons for believing that these three great powers, because of having exercised their enmity toward Israel, might well be represented by the three first heads on the beast that opposes Christ and His people. They could be chosen as representing other hostile powers who troubled Israel in her earlier days, and probably the reason they would be selected in preference to others manifesting hostility in those days is because they were in the category of world powers and as such would more fittingly represent the world confederation which will oppose God's people in the last days. After having reached this conclusion by independent study, the writer was interested in reading the following from Ellicott's New Testament Commentary, Rev. 17: 

"The wild beast belongs to no one age, but is a power which has risen in every age; the seven heads represent the successive culminations of the world-power . . . but two great powers had preceded Babylon, viz., Egypt and Assyria: these figure in the ancient prophecies as forces hostile to the righteous King. St. John, whose visions took the range of the world's drama, could not see the representative of the ever-rising spirit of worldly hostility to God's chosen without seeing Egypt and Assyria included. The voices of Moses and Isaiah called to him across the centuries that in these, the world principle of their day found its clearest and strongest manifestations. In various empires, the world-power showed itself: in Egypt, the house of bondage (Ex. 20:2); in Assyria, that exalted herself against God (Isa. 37:23); in Babylon, the hammer of the whole earth (Jer. 50:23) ; in Persia, and in Grecia; and in succession these kingdoms fell, only to be succeeded by another–Rome. Five fell ; the one is ... the seventh head must be rather an aggregation of monarchies than a single universal empire." 

A close analysis of the plagues will reveal why the first of the 7 last plagues refer back to Egypt, whereas the 6th and 7th plagues 

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particularly refer to the overthrow of Babylon. The drying up of the waters of the Euphrates is coupled in the prophecies of Isaiah with the overthrow of the Assyrians, and also with the overthrow of the ancient city of Babylon by Cyrus's strategy of drying up the waters of the Euphrates as a means of obtaining an entrance into the heart of Babylon, thus bringing about the downfall of that world metropolis. As Egypt preceded Assyria and Babylon, so the first of the 7 last plagues are similar to those which affected Egypt, while the 6th plague has reference to the experiences which befell the Assyrian army when it sought to destroy the people of God in Jerusalem; and the 6th plague also has reference to the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus drying up the waters of the Euphrates. In the experience of Assyria and Babylon is seen more of the religious element-false gods versus the true God of Israel-than that revealed in the case of Egypt. Thus in the 6th and 7th plagues there will be observed a greater significance pointing to the overthrow of the religious elements; it is under these plagues that Babylon is destroyed-see Rev. 16:19. Therefore the burning of the Babylonian whore of Rev. 17 and the same thing represented in Rev. 18 under the figure of the burning of the city Babylon, takes place under the 6th and 7th plagues. 

Those who have had some difficulty in understanding why the first of the 7 plagues seem to deal more with literal things than does the 6th plague, will find their problem partly explained (we have given other reasons in a previous publication) by the fact or the reference back to Egypt in the first of the 7 plagues, whereas the 6th) refers back to Assyria and Babylon. Egypt, at the time of the outpouring of the plagues upon her, was governed, by a Pharaoh who “boldly denied the existence of the living God, and resisted His commands. No monarch ever ventured upon more open and high-handed rebellion against the authority of Heaven than did the king of Egypt. When the message was brought him by Moses, in the name of the Lord, Pharaoh proudly answered. `Who is Jehovah, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go' (Ex. 5:2). This is atheism, and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God, and would, manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance.” (GC. 269) Thus the reference back to Egypt in the first of the plagues reveals the Lord's wrath upon nations and people who have participated in the enforcement of the mark of the beast, believing that by so doing the nations of earth would enjoy peace and security. God's people will be dealt with for "preventing their restoration to divine favour and temporal prosperity" (GC. 590). "It will be urged ... it is better for them [God's people] to suffer than for whole nations to be thrown into confusion and lawlessness" (GC. 269). 

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Nations will deny the claims of Jehovah for economic reasons and for the sake of national or international peace and prosperity, just as did Pharaoh when he thought of the national benefits accruing by keeping Israel a nation of slaves to build up the glory of his kingdom. However, in the case of the Assyrians and the Babylonians the contest was definitely between their gods, and Jehovah the God of Israel. The Lord's servant has written with reference to the gods of Assyria: 

"Not until some years later, toward the close of Hezekiah's reign was it to be demonstrated before the nations of the world whether the gods of the heathen were finally to prevail." "The rulers of Assyria pursued the fixed policy of causing all nations to acknowledge the supremacy of the gods of Nineveh whom they exalted above the Most High. God had sent Jonah to them with a message of warning, and for a season they humbled themselves before the Lord of hosts, and sought forgiveness. But soon they turned again to idol worship, and to the conquest of the world." PK. 339,363). 

It was while worshipping his false god that Sennacherib was slain Isa. 37:38; 2 Kings 19:37, and Babylon went down the night that Belshazzar and his lords "praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone." Dan. 5:4. 

While the first of the 7 last plagues deal with events more of a national character, the 6th plague pictures the time when Babylon–that false system of worship that has deceived the world–is to be utterly destroyed, and the first to be dealt with will be the religious leaders who will be forced by the demonstrations of God's almighty power to declare that they have deceived the people. The waters of the Euphrates–the multitudes–cease to do the bidding of their Babylonian leaders, and, after hearing the confession of their religious leaders, the multitudes turn and rend them, slaying them with the swords with which they had intended slaying the righteous; then they commence slaying each other; this slaughter continues all over the world until Jesus comes in glory to complete the work of destruction upon the unsaved (Rev. 19:21). 

The foregoing facts show Scriptural reasons for assuming that the first three of the heads upon the beast of Rev. 12, 13 and 17 might well refer to the powerful kingdoms of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. As Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome are brought into the prophetic limelight as world powers, it is fairly safe to assume that they make up the 6 heads of world powers to exist before the final combination of Papalism, apostate Protestantism, and the kings of the earth (which, as we have shown, comprise the 7th and last head with the ten horns), and which will be in existence at the time of the battle of Armageddon, when "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" will be led by Babylon's false teachings to their doom.

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