_The vision of the flying roll--The vision of the woman in the
Ephah._
The three remaining night visions are of a different character. The
first visions the prophet had were visions of comfort for Jerusalem
and the dispersed nation, the overthrow of Babylon and all their
enemies, divine forgiveness and the theocracy restored. Now follow
the last three visions, and these are visions of judgment. Judgment
precedes Israel's restoration, and is very prominently connected with
it.
The sixth night vision is the one of the flying roll. The prophet's
eyes seem to have been closed after the fifth vision, for we read,
"And I lifted up my eyes again." The flying roll he sees is twenty
cubits long and ten cubits broad. The interpreting angel tells the
prophet that it is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the
whole land; for every one that stealeth shall be cut off on this side
according to it, and every one that sweareth shall be cut off on that
side according to it. The Lord of hosts has brought it forth and it
is to enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him
that sweareth by His Name to a falsehood, and it shall lodge in the
midst of His house and consume it, both its wood and its stone.
That this vision means judgment is evident at the first glance.
Ezekiel had a similar vision. "And when I looked, behold, an hand was
sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; And he spread it
before me; and it was written within and without: and there was
written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe" (Ezek. ii: 9,
10). Ezekiel was to eat that book. This reminds us at once of the
books in Revelation (chapters v. and x.), which are likewise
connected with God's judgments in the earth. The flying roll is
written on both sides, signifying the two tables of stone, the law of
God. Stealing and swearing falsely are mentioned because the one is
found on the one side of the two tables of stone, and the other on
the other side. However, it is no longer "Thou shalt not," but on the
flying roll are written the curses, the awful curses against the
transgressors of God's law which are now about to be put into
execution. The curse is found in its awful details, as it refers to
an apostate people, in Deuteronomy xxvii. and xxviii. The roll is of
immense size, and on it are the dreadful curses of an angry God. The
vision must have been one of exceeding great terror. Imagine a roll,
probably illumined at night with fire, moving over the heavens, and
on it the curses of an eternal God--wherever it moves its awful
message is seen; nothing is hid from its awe-inspiring presence. It
reminds one of the fiery handwriting on the wall in the king's
palace. Surely such an awful judgment is coming by and by, when our
God will keep silence no longer. One of the sublimest judgment
Psalms, the fiftieth, mentions something similar to this flying roll.
"When thou sawest a _thief_, then thou consentedst with him, and hast
been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy
tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speaketh against thy brother;
thou slanderest thine own mother's son. These things hast thou done,
and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one
as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before
thine eyes" (Psalm 1: 18-21). The flying roll stands undoubtedly in
connection with wickedness, theft and false swearing, as it is found
in so many forms in unbelieving Israel, but it finds also a large
application in the judgment of wickedness throughout the earth in the
glorious day of His appearing.
But the roll enters the house of the evil doer and remains there to
punish not only the wicked persons but also to consume the timber and
the stone. This may stand for the two facts: the secret places will
be entered in that judgment, and it will be a thorough judgment which
will consume all that is connected with wickedness. In Leviticus xiv.
we read of the cleansing of the leper, that the leper's house which
was infected was completely destroyed. Elijah's sacrifice was
consumed by fire, and not alone the sacrifice but also the wood and
the stones and the very water. God's fire will again fall from heaven
to consume the wood, hay, and stubble, nothing will be hid. Oh, what
a burning day that day of the Lord will be when His well earned
curses will be carried out, and none can escape.
Another application still of this vision of the flying roll may be
made in connection with the established theocracy during the coming
age. However, space forbids an enlargement.
The next vision is one of great interest and not a little difficulty.
It claims our attention more than any of the other visions. In it we
see again wickedness and judgment. The angel now calls the prophet's
attention to some startling vision. He sees an ephah going forth. And
he said, this is their aim (literally _aijn_ eye) in all the land.
And, behold, a round piece of lead was lifted up, and this is a woman
sitting in the midst of the ephah. And he said, This is wickedness;
and he cast her in the midst of the ephah, and cast the weight of
lead in its mouth. And I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and, behold,
two women came forth, and the wind was in their wings, and they had
wings like stork wings, and they lifted up the ephah between earth
and heaven. And I said to the angel that talked with me, Whither are
these taking the ephah? And he said to me, To build for her a house
in the land of Shinar; and it shall be established and settled there
upon its own base.
That we have here a most striking and intensely interesting vision is
at once evident. Alas! that so few students of the Word should pass
it by without digging down to the depths and comparing scripture with
scripture to find its true and final meaning! The vision is generally
taken to mean wickedness in connection with Israel, and having its
fulfilment in their captivity. Many other interpretations have been
advanced which are, however, unsatisfactory. We have to look deeper
and give this vision a very prayerful study. After much study and
research we believe that the whole vision is identical with the final
_Babylon_, the great harlot of Revelation, her fall and judgment, and
all that is connected with it--wickedness put away, sealed up, the
wicked one destroyed, and Satan chained.
What are the leading figures in the vision? An ephah--which is a
Jewish measure standing here for commerce. The aim (eyes) of all the
land (or earth) are upon it. Commercialism is very prominent in
Revelation in connection with the full measure of wickedness, the
climax of ungodliness. In Revelation xviii merchants are mentioned
who have grown rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Then the
merchants are seen weeping, for no man buys their merchandise any
more. And then a long list follows, including _all the articles of
modern commerce_. Compare this with the awful description of the last
times in James v. Rich men are commanded to weep and howl, for
miseries are come upon them. They heaped treasure together for the
last days, and it was a heaping together by fraud, dishonesty in
keeping back the hire of the laborers. They lived in pleasure
(luxuriously) and been wanton. Indeed, here is that burning question
of the day, capital and labor, and its final outcome, misery and
judgment upon commercialism, riches heaped up, and all in wickedness.
In Habakkuk ii: 12 the woe of judgment of that coming glory of the
Lord is pronounced upon him that buildeth a town with blood and
establisheth a city by iniquity! The people are seen laboring for the
fire and wearying themselves for vanity. Luxuries, increase, riches,
etc., are mentioned in the second and third chapters of Isaiah,
chapters of judgment. Other passages could be quoted, but these are
sufficient for our purpose. They show us that the climax of
wickedness as it is in the earth when judgment will come, and
Israel's time commences once more, will be connected with commerce,
riches and luxuries. The ephah points to this.
In the second place let us notice that in the _midst_ of the ephah
there is seen a _woman_. She is called wickedness. The Hebrew word
wickedness is translated by the Septuagint with "_anomia_". We find
that the Holy Spirit uses the same word in 2 Thes. 2: 8, and then
shall be revealed the wicked one (anomos) whom the Lord Jesus will
slay with the Spirit of His mouth. The woman in the ephah personifies
wickedness. She has surrounded herself with the ephah and sits in the
midst of it. Have we not here the great whore having a golden cup in
her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication?
Undoubtedly. This woman is the type of evil and wickedness in its
highest form. Let us glance at that wonderful description of that
woman in Revelation. She is the great whore sitting upon many waters.
She sits upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and ten horns. The woman is arrayed in purple and
scarlet decked with gold, precious stones and pearls. Upon her
forehead is seen her name, Mystery, BABYLON the Great, the mother of
harlots and abominations in the earth. She is drunk with the blood of
the saints. The woman in the ephah represents the same great whore,
Babylon the great. This becomes at once clear when we take into
consideration that the woman in the ephah is carried swiftly away and
a house is built for her in the land of _Shinar_, and it shall be
established, and set there upon her own _base_. Now the land of
Shinar is _Babylonia_. There it is where the God-opposing power has
its home and when it will end in final and total destruction.
But it is certainly worth the while to follow this up. The first city
erected after the judgment of the first age was the city in the plain
of Shinar. There they built a city and in it a tower, whose top was
to reach into the heavens, to make themselves a name. Self, worship
of the creature, had reached its climax, and confusion and judgment
came swiftly. The Babylon of the Revelation is the very same attempt,
only in its fullest development. It is Cain's city--human strength,
human wisdom, stored in it. A number of the wicked generation, after
the confusion of tongues, remained in the land of Shinar as
inhabitants of Babylon. In it wickedness, idolatry, luxuries, earthly
glory and commerce prospered. Only a few of the inspired descriptions
of ancient Babylon may be mentioned here: The Golden City, Isaiah
xiv: 4. The lady of Kingdoms, Isaiah xvii: 5. Stand now with thine
enchantments, and with the multitudes of thy sorceries, wherein thou
hast labored from thy youth, Isaiah xlvii: 12. The praise of the
whole earth, li: 41. Babylon! a golden cup in the Lord's land, that
made all the earth drunken, the nations have drunken of her wine,
therefore the nations are mad, Jeremiah li: 7. It is the land of
graven images, and they are mad upon their idols, Jeremiah l: 38. O
thou that dwellest in many waters, abundant in treasures, Jeremiah
li: 13. Babylon was in splendor and outward glory for the kingdoms of
the world, God opposing what Jerusalem was for the land. Jerusalem is
the city of a great King and Babylon may be termed the city of the
prince of this world. According to Herodotus, the walls of Babylon
were 60 miles in circumference. They were 87 feet thick and 350 feet
high. The city had 25 gates made of solid brass. The city contained
676 squares, beautifully and symetrically arranged. The river ran
through the city, surrounded by high walls, and in it were brass
gates and steps leading to the river banks. A wonderful bridge
spanned the river. No such city ever stood in the earth again. Even
the great cities of our days--Paris, London, New York and Berlin--do
not reach the splendor, luxury and wealth of ancient Babylon. The
king's palace had a wall around it six miles long. The hanging
gardens were considered the wonder of the world. The waterworks of
Babylon, supplying the immense city and its hanging gardens from the
river Euphrates, were more powerful and larger than any modern water
supplies. A Roman historian gives a vivid description of the city.
Nothing could be more corrupt than its morals, nothing more fitted to
excite and to allure to immoderate pleasures. The rites of
hospitality were polluted by the grossest and most shameless lusts.
_Money dissolved_ every tie, whether of kindred, respect or esteem.
Drunkeness and the grossest immoralities were practised in public.
The worship of Babylon was idolatry, and it is a fact that all
idolatry can be traced to Babylon. She is the mother of all
abominations. Babylon was destroyed, but has a promise of restoration
and return of her glory before her final and total destruction comes.
Roman Catholicism is generally taken to be the Babylon of the
Revelation. It is more correct to say Rome is an offspring of
Babylon. Ancient Babylon had a religious ceremonial like the Rome of
to-day, Indeed, the ancient Babylonian worship is revived in modern
Rome. Babylon is the mother and Rome is the living daughter; while
Rome again has her daughters--the "isms" of Christendom. Babylon
means concentration and confusion. A boasting, high minded
Christendom--Roman and so-called "Protestant"--is rapidly nearing its
awful apostacy and judgment. The cry, so popular in our times--the
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men and of a social
Christianity--is really the cry of old, Let us make us a name; it is
concentration. Money, riches and commercialism play a very important
part in the popular religious enterprises. All is getting ready for
Laodicea--increase in riches and proud boastings. Influential men,
money, etc., control the affairs of Christendom. Error and loose
morals are spreading in every direction. Great schemes are planned;
institutions of learning--in which infidelity, in the form of higher
criticism, is taught--are erected and endowed by the "church" with
millions of dollars, as if this earth were to be the home of the
church for ever. The twentieth century is prophesied to become the
most glorious, and one would not know where to stop if all the
beautiful air castles and promises of would-be prophets were to be
named. The supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race, its civilising
influences and power for good, etc., are harped upon at present as
being a mighty factor in the final conversion of the world. But in
the midst of this boasting Christendom, heaping their bricks together
for their proud tower, blindness has already become greater than the
blindness of the Jews. In the midst of Christendom, the sorceries and
idolatries of ancient Babylon are being strangely revived and leading
many astray. The luxuries of Babylon, fostered by modern inventions
and commercialism, are seen on all hands. One only needs to study
statistics to see what this "Christian nation" expends a year for
luxuries and what for the preaching of the gospel, the only power for
salvation. The near future will undoubtedly bring the long looked-for
union of churches, concentration for reformation, lifting up of
humanity, etc., etc., and when man in his own thoughts and making
himself a name seems almost to have succeeded, He who sitteth in the
heavens and who laughs at their foolish efforts will no longer laugh
but will speak once more in His wrath, and Babylon will fall. Whoever
has eyes opened by the Word and the Spirit, must see how well the
_woman_ has succeeded in putting the leaven of error and wickedness
into the fine flour, and the leaven is doing its perfect work in
leavening the whole lump.
But we must return to the vision. The ephah is carried, and in it the
woman, by two women with wings of storks into the land of Shinar, and
there a house is built and it is established on her own base. Babylon
as it is described in the Revelation xvii and xviii can hardly mean
exclusively corrupted ecclesiastical systems, apostate Christendom as
it is seen to-day. The Babylon of the Revelation is still future, and
its fullest development falls in the time when the body of the Lord
Jesus Christ is no longer in the earth.
It is remarkable that certain prophecies concerning Babylon in Isaiah
and Jeremiah have not yet been fulfilled. If we hold to a literal
interpretation of the Scriptures then of necessity Babylon is to be
rebuilt. The desolations of Babylon prophesied by these two prophets
have not yet taken place. The destruction is to be suddenly by fire,
and that destruction has never been. Still more startling is the fact
that the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah concerning Babylon and its
final destruction are identical with Revelation xvii and xviii. The
vision of the ephah and the woman in it being swiftly carried to
Shinar and housed there upon her own base, as well as other
prophecies concerning Babylon, point to an actual rebuilding of
ancient Babylon as a great commercial center and world power as well
as religious centralization. There are many indications in this
direction in our times. Railroads are planned to India. Russia is
advancing in the same direction. Maybe the restoration of the Jews in
_unbelief_ as it has commenced will hasten such a project as it has
been already mentioned by statesmen, an international center for
commerce and arbitration in central Asia. It concerns the true
believer very little what the final Babylon will be. He does not
belong to it, neither to the present Babylon as it exists in
Christendom; nor will he see the future Babylon, for the Lord will
then have gathered His saints. The removal of the church from the
earth will bring about a great change, and all that is to be done
will be done swiftly, indicated by the stork's wings. What men in
that gross darkness, when the light of God, His Spirit, and His
praying church is removed, will do in their rebellion against God and
His Anointed no human being can now estimate or imagine. Finally, the
vision of the ephah and the woman, so to speak, sealed up in it, may
denote also the overthrow and judgment of wickedness. Babylon fallen,
cast down. Anti-Christ, the man of sin, slain by the brightness of
His coming. Satan chained in the pit for a thousand years. The last
vision of the prophet is likewise a vision of judgment, followed by
the crowning of Joshua with the double crowns of silver and gold.