July 04, 2020, Psalms 114, Revelation 14 continnued.

Happy Independence Day!

 The United States commemorated the Declaration of Independence of the United States, on July 4, 1776. The thirteen American colonies were no longer subject (and subordinate) to the monarch of Britain , King George III , and were now united, free, and independent states.

Psalms 114

When Israel came out of Egypt, 

Jacob from a people of foreign tongue, 

Judah became God's sanctuary, 

Israel his dominion. 

The sea looked and fled, 

the Jordan turned back; 

the mountains leaped like rams, 

the hills like lambs. 
Why was it, sea, that you fled? 

Why, Jordan, did you turn back?

Why, mountains, did you leap like rams, 

you hills, like lambs?  

Tremble earth, at the presence of the Lord, 

at the presence of the God of Jacob, 

who turned the rock into a pool, 

the hard rock into springs of waters.

Revelation 14 Continued,

The Three Angels

 

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel it proclaim to those who live on the earth-to every nation, tribe, language, and people. He said in a loud voice, Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgement has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water. 

A second angel followed and said, Fallen, Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries. 

A third Angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives the mark on their forehead or on their hand, they too, will drink the wind of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and the image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name. This calls for patience endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. 

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. 

Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them. 

Some people stood in awe of the beast; they liked his power. He was wounded; and he was healed. They had a fear of him but we are instructed to fear God. 

Secondly their fear of the beast made them do what he told them to do. 

What is Babylon?

The Babylonians lived by codes; it is ideas; it is the laws people live by. How they handled right and wrong. 

1. Babylon was an ancient city; and God used Babylon when he wanted to punish Israel for their sins! They were taken captive by Babylon. Babylon had many kings reign. 

2. The city is long gone but when you research what they believed their codes were contrary to what God wanted or what he put in his laws.  . 

Do you believe in an eye for an eye?

Do you pay people back when they wrong you?

Then you believe like the Babylonians 

A harsh and unequal law

The Code of Hammurabi: Ancient Babylon

https://www.livescience.com/39393-code-of-hammurabi.html

Each law consists of a potential case followed by a prescribed verdict. The verdicts could be very harsh indeed, and Columbia University professor Marc van de Mieroop notes in his book "King Hammurabi of Babylon" (Blackwell Publishing, 2005) that the death penalty is listed as punishment no fewer than 30 times. It was the punishment given even for “the theft of temple or palace property or when a runaway slave is given refuge,” van de Mieroop writes.

Furthermore, the punishments ordered were by no means uniform but rather depended on the social status of the accused and the accuser. The punishments were only “eye for an eye” if the two individuals involved were socially equal.

(If you were wealthy or considered to be of a higher social class you would receive better treatment or favor. Under their laws the poor, lame, and low status were treated unfairly. On the other hand God desires to help the fatherless and the poor. He also defends them.)

For instance, van de Mieroop notes that if a member of the elite blinded a commoner or broke the commoner's bone, that elite person had to pay one pound of silver as penalty. On the other hand, if a person struck someone who was of a higher social status, then that person can expect severe punishment:

“If a member of the elite strike the cheek of a member of the elite who is of a higher social status than him, he shall be flogged in public with 60 strikes of an ox-whip,” reads one law (translation from van de Mieroop’s book).

Women could not necessarily expect equal treatment either. One law reads, “if a finger has been pointed at a man’s wife because of some male but she has not been caught copulating with another male, she shall leap into the River for the sake of her husband,” (translation by H. Dieter Viel).

(They had very severe punishments. They lacked mercy, they lacked compassion, and of course forgiveness did not exist unless you were of a high social status. It is similar to one group people being held accountable for their wrong and another group does what they want.)

On the other hand a woman could, depending on the circumstances, get an inheritance. There were laws protecting a woman in the event that her husband was taken captive in war and had to live with another man when her food ran out. There were also laws that governed the support a temple-woman should receive from her brothers after her father had died. 

Burden on the accuser and judges

In the laws, it is clear that not only is there a burden on the accused but also on the accuser should they be unable to prove their case.

For instance, the penalty for homicide states that “if a man has made allegations against another man, and he has laid a charge of homicide against him but is unable to substantiate his guilt, the one who made the allegations against him shall be killed.” (Translation by H. Dieter Viel)

Judges were also held to a certain standard in the laws. Hammurabi ruled a vast empire and would not have been able to rule on every case himself. Van de Mieroop notes that in the king’s absence, a committee of men from the communities involved could act as a judge in Hammurabi’s place.

The penalties for a judge trying to change a sealed verdict was severe, “he shall pay 12 times the amount of the loss.

How were the laws formed?

Hammurabi was not the first ruler in the Middle East to write down laws. Dominique Charpin, a professor at École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, writes in his book "Writing, Law and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia" (University of Chicago Press, 2010) that scholars know of the existence of three law codes, set down by kings, that preceded Hammurabi.

The oldest was written by Ur-Nammu, a king of Ur, who reigned 2111-2094 B.C., about three centuries before Hammurabi. “These older codes obviously inspired that of Hammurabi,” Charpin writes.

In addition, Hammurabi would probably have drawn on his own personal experiences in putting together his laws, basing them in part on past cases that he had ruled on.

There is so much to learn about Babylon on the web. Today we have a lot of unfair social laws

Babylon city was destroyed but their ideas still live on. 

Jesus taught that we must not live by an eye for eye, but he said to turn the other cheek, The Babylonians were harsh. 

Jesus laws will endure forever but as we read revelations Babylon the great is fallen.  The grass withers and the flowers fade but the word of God will stand forever.