Exiles In Babylon

Recently, the minister of the church we were visiting on a Sunday morning was preaching from Daniel, chapter one. To be honest, I’m not even sure what he said because it wasn’t what God wanted to reveal to me. As he was speaking, the Holy Spirit was sharing with me insights of truth from this same passage that need to be declared. They are words of warning for God’s people to wake up and come out of that which He is about to judge.

We, His people, must separate ourselves from Babylon, the religious harlot, so as to be prepared for the end of this age during her extreme judgments by the Lord (Revelation 18:1-8). In fact, the difficulties we are about to face will be used to pressure Christians in particular to separate from that which He will judge, and we are so very attached to. Thankfully, His mercy always precedes His judgments. He delays His wrath, as He is now doing in America, for our sake, in order not to cut us off (Isaiah 48:9).

Daniel was written during a time of exile when, as prophesied, Israel had been conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He took some of the Israelites with him back to his country, forcing them to serve him and his kingdom. A young man named Daniel was one of them.

In Hebrew, Babylon is defined as “confusion,” or “confusion by mixing.” She represents all origins of false religion. When her half-truth teachings are accepted as full truth, confusion and delusion are the end result. The proof of this is the numerous denominations within Christianity with their countless interpretations of the same Bible. Instead of God being glorified in their midst, her satanic deceptions lead to division and self-glorification among those who walk in agreement with her adulterous ways.

In Daniel, chapter one verse two, we see the Lord giving Israel into Nebuchadnezzar’s rule. Because of sin and rebellion against His leading, Israel, as had been prophesied by Jeremiah, was overcome and taken captive by her enemy. Because of their rejection of Him as their King, the Lord sent someone who would rule over them with an iron fist.

For those with ears to hear, the church in America has suffered the same fate. The deceitfulness of sin and rebellion has hardened her heart years ago and she has now been given over to her stiff-necked desires. Without repentance, she will die in her exile. Fortunately, the Lord has His modern day Daniels in their midst that will soon, at the appointed time, be brought into prominence through divinely orchestrated events. While in religious Babylon, they will not compromise their commitment to the Lord nor bow the knee to her blasphemous images she has established within her midst.

Babylon’s High Regard For The External

Once under his control, the king of Babylon gave the order to bring in some of the choice sons of Israel. They were to be reeducated in the language and literature of the Babylonians with the intent to serve him personally (see the last article entitled Noah Webster and Christian Education). We are told they were to be; "young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace." (Daniel 1:4) On the outside they would appear to be the best of the best.

This is the signature mark of religious Babylon in our day. The “kings” of these churches usually choose the most charismatic, eloquent, good looking men with all the right degrees from their seminaries in order to serve themselves, rather than God. Due to Babylon’s high regard for the external, they look for those with no defects on the outside. God, on the other hand, chooses those without inner defects of the heart.

Isaiah’s prophecy describing Jesus as the future Messiah says the following;

"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." (Isaiah 53:2-3/NIV)

With this same mindset, modern Babylon also rejects those who are being transformed through obedience into Christ’ likeness.

After God’s rejection of Saul as Israel’s king, He sent Samuel the prophet to Bethlehem to anoint the next king of Israel from the sons of a man named Jesse. When Samuel saw one of the sons named Eliab he thought;

"Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord. But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:6-7/NIV)

Eventually David, the youngest brother who was out tending sheep and seemingly looked over by his own father, was revealed as God’s choice to become the next king.

Man, outside of the will of God, will always look at external appearance in order to make a good outward showing in front of others. God looks at the heart. When Jesus chose the disciples that would become leaders of His church, He picked the “untrained and uneducated” men of His day who, after about a three year period of discipleship training, turned the world upside down (Acts 4:13). He didn’t go to the best religious schools of His day, looking for the best looking among the best students. He went instead to those who would listen to the truth, and who had not been corrupted by the leavened religious teaching of that day. He’s doing the same thing today, outside of our “best” schools of religion, teaching many currently unknown disciples His ways. From them will come the leaders of His final harvest on earth.

Interestingly, we are told that, like Jesus with His disciples, Babylon’s king commanded that the Hebrew young men be trained for a period of three years. The Bible says;

"The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king's choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king's personal service." (Daniel 1:5/NAS)

They could not enter the king’s service until finishing a three year period of training that involved daily food and wine straight from his table. In truth, all disciples chosen by the Lord must also spend a similar time eating and drinking that which comes directly from our King’s table (see the article The Daily Portion). It is our education period known as discipleship which prepares us for the time when we will be called to serve before the King of kings.

Today’s “kings” in Babylon have also mandated the training period to be three-plus years in their Divinity schools and seminaries through which they will earn a degree that qualifies them to be their leaders. In this manner, and of like kind, they become the official task-Masters of Divinity in the houses of religious bondage.

Like King Nebuchadnezzar, they also feed their servant leaders from their tables a daily ration of their mind-altering food and drink. These modern day kings train their disciples to serve them and their kingdoms (i.e. denominations), requiring them to be trained under their confusing mix of truth and lies to ensure the continuation of their rule over those held captive under their spell. They will soon be removed by God from leading His sheep astray. In the difficult times that are quickly coming upon earth, all self-serving, hireling hearts will be exposed and judged.