Prewritten History, Part 2 A

God defends His Word through prophecy, even in His Word.

Now think about that. Prophecy is one of the great apologetics, and God even uses it as such. When God wanted to establish His Word with His people, He gave them predictions and then fulfilled them in their eyes. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. If you're a Christian, the Word of God is an all-you-can-eat buffet of spiritual nutrition. It's the sustenance you need to grow and survive and know the will of God.

With that said, let me ask this. If God's Word is that important, how are you doing when it comes to proclaiming it and defending it when it's challenged? That gets to the core issue of John MacArthur's current series here on Grace to You, a study he calls, Is the Bible Reliable?

I think you'll be better equipped to answer the attacks of Bible critics after the lesson today, so follow along with John. One of the seals of the veracity of the Word of God is its predictive accuracy. Any book that could predict what the Bible predicts and see the fulfillment absolutely accurate has to be written by God, for no human mind has that kind of foreknowledge or pre-science. Divine omniscience is stamped on the pages of this book because of its predictive prophecy. It is loaded with pre-written history and it becomes apparent, I think, in any careful study of the Bible that the prophets of the Old and New Testament were imparted with a knowledge of future things that was impossible to the human mind.

There is no way man could know those things. The only answer to solving the riddle of this book is that it was written by God. All the pre-written history and all the absolute perfect accuracy of fulfillment marks the Bible as revelation from God. I want to mention to you that God defends His Word through prophecy even in His Word.

Now think about that. Prophecy is one of the great apologetics, one of the great defenders of the faith, defenders of the truth of the Scripture, and God even uses it as such. When God wanted to establish His Word with His people, He gave them predictions and then fulfilled them in their eyes. And the response was, this must be God's Word.

It is coming to pass. And they gained their confidence in God from seeing Him fulfill prophecy in their midst. Illustrations. Abraham...Abraham was told that his wife Sarah would have a son and a great nation would come from that seed in Genesis 12 and repeated in chapter 15. Sarah was 90, Abraham was nearly 100. Both of them had not only been unable to have children through all their married life, but their faith was even failing. God then came and said in chapter 18, I promise you a son within a year.

And it came to pass, chapter 21. Sarah thought it was so ridiculous that she laughed and as if to rebuke her unbelief, Abraham named the child Laughter. That's Isaac in Hebrew. And so God vindicated His Word in Abraham and Sarah's life by fulfilled prophecy. Moses...Moses whom we think of as such a great stalwart, a great giant, was weak and vacillating in Exodus 3 and he needed something to transform him and God chose prophecy. God told Moses that the very place on which he stood by the burning bush would later be a place where he and the Israelites would worship God.

The Mount of God was called Horeb or Sinai. And in Exodus 19 to 40, that is exactly what happened. Moses returned to the very spot of the burning bush and there they worshiped God. God also predicted to Moses that his brother Aaron was at that very moment already on his way to meet him in Exodus chapter 4.

And it came to pass that after 40 years of separation, the meeting would occur at the place of the burning bush and that's exactly what happened. And God used fulfilled prophecy in the life of Moses just like He had in the life of Abraham and Sarah to prove to them that He was God, even Jesus. When Jesus came was the consummation of all the prophets and He Himself was certified by prophecy. The Jews, for example, came to Him and they said, we want a sign.

We want a sign of your authority. And you know what He said to them? He predicted His resurrection and then He fulfilled it. When John the Baptist wanted a sign and John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to find out if this really was the Messiah, Jesus alluded to the fulfillment of ancient prophecies and said, on the basis of such fulfillment I am the Messiah. So you see, here God from earliest times uses fulfilled prophecy as proof of His Word and His authority. The Old Testament is loaded with these kind of proofs.

Let me give you an interesting illustration. Turn to Ezekiel 12 and all I'm showing you is that if God used predictive prophecy as an apologetic, so should we. He set a precedent. Ezekiel 12, 12, the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight and shall go forth. They shall dig through the wall to carry out through it. He shall cover his face that he see not the ground with his eyes. My net also will I spread upon him and he shall be taken in my snare and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans, yet shall he not see it though he shall die there. Now that's an interesting prophecy. The reason I read verse 12 was just to get the name there, the prince. Now who is the prince referred to in Ezekiel 12? It is King Zedekiah. King Zedekiah is always referred to as the prince by Ezekiel because Jehoiachin was still referred to as the king of Judah, though in captivity.

So Zedekiah is always termed the prince. Now the prophecy says in verse 13 that there will be a net spread upon Zedekiah. He will be taken in a snare, brought to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, yet he shall not see it though he die there. Now how could you possibly understand a prophecy like that? A man is hauled off to Babylon. He stays there till his death but never sees Babylon.

How could that possibly be fulfilled? Go back to 2 Kings chapter 25 and I'll show you. Now just because we went backwards in the text doesn't mean we went backwards in time. The Bible is not in the Old Testament ordered chronologically. This is later than the prophecy. It came to pass in 2 Kings 25, 1, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his hosts, against Jerusalem and camped against it and they built forts against it round about. That's how they would siege the place. And the city was besieged under the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

There he is. And on the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine prevailed in the city, there was no bread for the people of the land and the city was broken up and all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden. Now the Chaldeans were against the city round about, they had it surrounded. And the king went the way toward the Arabah, that's south toward the desert. And the king...or the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, overtook him in the plains of Jericho and all his army were scattered from him. Now Nebuchadnezzar got Zedekiah. They took the king, brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, that is to Nebuchadnezzar, and they pronounced sentence upon him. They slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with fetters of bronze and carried him to Babylon. The king will be carried to Babylon, but he will not...what?...see it. The prophecy came to pass, one of the most cruel things you could ever imagine. The last thing Zedekiah ever saw with his eyes was the slaughter of his own sons.

That was dellibly imprinted as the last sight he ever had. And then they tore his eyes out, chained him and hauled him off to Babylon where he died. In Jeremiah 52 verse 10, it says this, And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He slew also the princes of Judah in Riblah. Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, carried him to Babylon, put him in prison till the day of his death. How did Ezekiel know that?

He knew it because God knew it, because God knows everything. This is a great testimony of fulfilled prophecy in the context of Scripture. Now broadening our study, you'll remember that last time we looked at some prophecies regarding great cities and great countries. We saw the prophecy of Ezekiel 26 on the city of Tyre, the prophecy of Ezekiel 28 on the city of Sidon, the prophecy of Ezekiel 30 on the land of Egypt, particularly Thebes and Memphis.

We saw the prophecy of Nahum on Nineveh. Continuing with a fifth city or country, we looked at the study of the prophecy on the city of Babylon. What happened to this great city of Babylon, this city where Zedekiah was taken in fulfillment of prophecy?

Turn in your Bible to Isaiah 13. Now Babylon was really it. You've heard, if you know anything about the seven wonders of the ancient world, of the hanging gardens of Babylon. Babylon may have been the greatest city in the world.

It was richer than its rival city, Nineveh. Some people have said it was without doubt the greatest city of ancient history. It was famous for its culture. It was famous for its education. It was famous for its trade. It was famous for its architecture.

It just was a marvelous city. Look at chapter 13 verse 19. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldean's excellency shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Now you've got to know a little bit about when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. I mean, He really did a job on that place.

He buried it. There were fire and brimstone eruptions that absolutely inundated and buried that city of Sodom and Gomorrah into oblivion. Today, Sodom and Gomorrah is in a place underneath the water at the end of the Dead Sea. When God said, I'll wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah, He wasn't kidding. And the prophet says that Babylon will be like Sodom and Gomorrah, totally wiped out. This isn't talking about some podunk place.

This is the greatest city in the world. It seems ridiculous for some peanut prophet in the middle of a little obscure place called Israel to stand up and say Babylon will be destroyed. And it isn't only that, he says in verse 20, it shall never be inhabited again. Neither shall it be dwelled in from generation to generation. Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there. And the Bedouins, believe me, pitch tents almost everywhere around the area of the Middle East, but not there. Neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. Now watch these prophecies. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, ostriches shall dwell there, he goats shall dance there.

The wild beasts...incidentally the word ostriches could equally be translated owls, perhaps better. The wild beasts of the coast land shall cry in their desolate houses, jackals in their pleasant palaces and her time is near to come and her days shall not be prolonged. The prophet said Babylon has had it and it's going to fall and when it falls, it's really going to come down hard. In chapter 14 of Isaiah, verse 23, something else says it's going to be a possession for the porcupine and pools of water.

It's going to be a swamp and I'll sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts. Over in Jeremiah chapter 51 to add to the prophecy, Jeremiah 51, 26, they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but thou shall be desolate forever. Verse 43, her cities are a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness. Now watch this, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass by it. Now friends, you have so many prophecies there in regard to this city that I can hardly count them all up. Certain animals are going to be there, Arabians won't pitch their tents there, no sheepfolds are going to be there, swamps are going to be there, it's going to be uninhabited, not even going to be traversed and it's going to be totally desolate. That was absolutely a staggering prophecy, the great civilization of Babylon.

But you know something? Babylon was wiped out. Encyclopedia Britannica says, until the nineteenth century, the knowledge of Babylon was based on the Old Testament and a few Greek writers. They didn't even know where it was.

It was so flattened. The inscriptions found there recently give us accounts of stupendous building projects by Nebuchadnezzar. In fact, the city was originally built in the seventh and sixth centuries before Christ into its greatness by Nabal Palacer who was the father of Nebuchadnezzar. Nabal Palacer and Nebuchadnezzar built the city into its greatness. They were tremendously wealthy and you remember in Daniel's image of the four kingdoms of the world, the Babylonian kingdom was made of gold showing that it was the richest of any world kingdom in the history of the world. It was a tremendously wealthy kingdom and they made a city that was unbelievable. In recent archeological digs since the nineteenth century, they've discovered what was once that place. But up until the nineteenth century, it was so desolate they never even knew it existed.

There wasn't anything to even indicate it. But now that they've uncovered parts of it, they found that according to ancient authors that there was a river that ran through the middle and split it into two parts. And it was the river that we know as the Euphrates River. It split the city into two parts and the city was surrounded by marshes and swampy areas. It was 196 square miles. That's a walled city. Its sides were 14-mile walled sides, 56 miles around. It had a 30-foot moat and double walls.

The outer wall was 311 feet high and 87 feet wide. They had 100 gates of solid brass, 250 watchtowers and the watchtowers were 400 feet high. Now that's a city and that's a well-guarded one. And that whole thing collapsed into so much oblivion they couldn't even find it until the nineteenth century. Herodotus translated, tells us about how it felt. The Persians, you remember the Medo-Persian Empire conquered the Babylonian Empire. The Persians saw that city and they wanted it. They knew that was the gem of the world. But they knew they couldn't break the walls down. I mean, 311 feet high and 87 feet thick, you'd have to be picking away a long time to get that wall down. So they knew that was ridiculous.

There was no way they could do that. And the towers were so high that they couldn't get any higher than the towers and so they were always being watched. But they observed that the Euphrates River ran through the middle of the city and it ran under the walls and they measured it as they besieged the city and they found that the Euphrates was deep enough and wide enough to march an army through. And so Cyrus ordered his troops to get out their shovels and start to dig. And they dug some tributary canals off the river and drained the river off, diverting it from the city and the river dried up and they marched in on the dry ground and destroyed Babylon. It fell so easily, they simply diverted the river, marched in and took the city. The amazing thing about this thing is when it happened all the Babylonians were so secure, here they were being stormed by the Persian army which was a mighty army, and they were having a party.

You say, how do you know that? It tells all about the party in Daniel 5. You want to see the party? Turn to Daniel 5.

It's not a good time to have a party. It's a great illustration of how men go merrily on their stupid way while destruction awaits. And of course, Belshazzar made a great feast and all, everybody was drunk. And they were drinking out of gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple which was in Jerusalem when he sacked Jerusalem. And all this was going on. All of a sudden, oh, something happened that wasn't planned at the party. Verse 5, the same hour came forth, fingers of a man's hand. And when you start seeing fingers without a man, without a hand, something's going on. And the fingers wrote against the lampstand upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. He watched part of the hand writing in his wall. And the king's countenance was changed, I guess. And his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the soothsayers. Astrology something new?

No. And just as ill-advised today as it was then. And the king spoke who said to the wise men of Babylon, whosoever shall read this writing and show me its interpretation shall be clothed with scarlet, have a chain of gold about his neck and be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then came in all the king's wise men. They couldn't read the writing. They couldn't make it known to the king. And the king was really upset and his countenance was changed in him and his lords were perplexed. And the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords came to the banquet house and the queen spoke and said, King, live forever.

Let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed. There's a man in thy kingdom whom is the spirit of the holy gods and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods was found in him whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father the king I say, thy father made master of magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans and soothsayers. For as much as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding, interpreting of dreams and revealing of hard sentences and dissolving of doubts were found in the same Daniel.

Boy, that's really one super build-up. Get that Daniel. And so Daniel comes. And the message that Daniel gives is not too good.

You remember the message? Verse 18, O thou king, the most high god, gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor and for the majesty they gave him all people, nations and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would he slew, whom he would he kept alive, whom he set up and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne and they took his glory from him. He was driven from the sons of men and his heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wild asses. They fed him with grass-like oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till he knew that the most high god ruled in the kingdom of men and that he appointed him over whomsoever he will.

You know what he says? He says Nebuchadnezzar was all right, but when he stopped acknowledging that God gave him the right to rule, God made him like a madman. And thou, his son, old Belshazzar, has not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this, but has lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, that is of the temple. And thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines have drunk wine from them and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold and bronze, iron, wood and stone which see not, nor hear, nor know. And the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorified. Then was the part of the hand sent from him and this writing was written and this is the writing that was written, mani, mani, takle you farcen. What does it mean? This is the interpretation. Mani, God has numbered thy kingdom and finished it.

Takled, thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. Charis, the kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. Verse 30, and in that night Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was slain and Darius the Mede took the kingdom. That night. Listen, God rules the kingdoms of men.

God calls the shots. 539 B.C. Babylon came crashing down and from then on it began to rot and decay and the prophet Isaiah said in chapter 13 of Isaiah that it would be decaying and that it would fall to the place where it was uninhabited. By 116 A.D. Trajan described it as a pile of mounds.

That was all that was left. Today 45 miles south of Baghdad lies the windswept ruins of Babylon destroyed and never, ever inhabited again. Professor Kerman Kilprecht says, and he's an archaeologist, it is wild animals, boars, hyenas, jackals, wolves and an occasional lion that infest ancient Babylon.

Exactly what Isaiah said would happen. And in fact, they have found owls in flocks of a hundred and interestingly enough Bedouins, those are the traveling Arabs that move about, Bedouins do not even live there. They are superstitious and to this day they will not pitch their tents inside the ancient city of Babylon. That's what the prophet said, didn't he, that the Arabs would not pitch their tents there?

They will not. The soil there prevents vegetation. Consequently there is no growth and so no sheepfolds are there. Peter Stoner says in his book, the large rocks that were imported to build the foundations of Babylon have never been removed. That's what the prophet said. Remember that the stones would never be taken away. The prophet said men will not pass by the ruins. Did you know that there is no route, there is no road going anywhere by Babylon? People don't even pass by there.

The few visitors. Isaiah said it will be covered with swamps. The Encyclopedia Britannica says a large part of the old city of Babylon is buried under a deep bed of silt lying beneath the water table. The probability says Dr. Stoner of this happening by chance is one in five million.

It can't happen by chance. Why did God wipe it out? Well, you heard what Daniel said to Belshazzar.

But I'll give you another good example. Werner Keller in his most helpful book, The Bible is History says this, and that's a book that Christians ought to have for historical background. Altogether there are in Babylon 53 temples of the chief gods, 55 chapels of Marduk, 300 chapels for the earthly deities, 180 alders for the goddess Ishtar, 180 for the gods Nergal and Adad, and 12 others of different gods.

Idolatry destroyed that city. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary in the Los Angeles area. Today's lesson is from John's current study titled, Is the Bible Reliable? Now John, I'm confident that for many people the pre-written history from the Old Testament that we've been looking at is so fascinating and so encouraging that they want more, much more than we can cover in these next few days.

But the good news is there is still more teaching available and it is compelling and it is within reach. It is within reach because we have finished the commentary on the Old Testament book of Zechariah. I wouldn't be surprised if you're saying, hmm, I don't know that I've read Zechariah.

I'm not too sure what it's about. Zechariah is the first of several commentaries on the Old Testament that we're in the process of producing. Zechariah is the most clear prophetic book in the Old Testament. It runs from the beginning of history to the very end. It is powerful, powerful revelation from God.

And I hate to say it, but it's so often overlooked. I was looking at a book that came out recently on the second coming by a very famous author and I went to the back of the book to look at the index and there wasn't one reference to the book of Zechariah. How could you write a book on the second coming of Christ and overlook the book of Zechariah?

This is the heart and soul of Old Testament presentation of God's plan for the future when his Messiah comes to establish the kingdom and fulfill all his promises. This is a compelling book. It's a powerful book. It's riveting material full of images that you would find hard to understand if we didn't give you some help. But it will open up a full understanding of the future.

And if there are those of you who are saying, you know, I don't know if I'm on mill or post mill or premill or whatever I am, I'm not sure how it all works out. I'll tell you one thing, Zechariah will clear that up very, very fast. Again, the name Zechariah means Yahweh remembers, God remembers. That is the theme of the book of Zechariah. It's amazing 14 chapters that affirm the covenant keeping God of Israel who remembers his promises and will fulfill each of them through the Messiah on behalf of Israel and the world. This commentary volume is an excellent resource for pastors, Sunday school teachers, and frankly, anyone serious about understanding the Bible, particularly prophecy and who doesn't want to understand that. The commentary on Zechariah hardcover 465 pages available now with free shipping on U.S. orders and as always, affordably priced.

You can order it today. Thanks, John. Friend, biblical prophecy can be tricky to interpret. John's new commentary on the book of Zechariah gives a thorough and easy to understand explanation of even the most difficult passages, making them clear. To pick up a copy, get in touch with us today. John's Zechariah commentary costs $25 and shipping is free. Call us at 1-855-GRACE or place your order at our website, gty.org. Again, to order, call 800-555-GRACE or shop online at gty.org. And remember, if you're looking for further study on a particular topic or passage of Scripture, we have thousands of Bible study tools available free of charge at our website, gty.org. That includes blog articles, daily devotionals, John's entire sermon archive, again, that's more than 3,600 sermons, free to download in MP3 and transcript format. Our website, one more time, gty.org. And friend, if today's lesson on prophecy has encouraged you, if you've been challenged by our recent blog series called Does Doctrine Matter?, or if someone you know has come to faith in Christ after hearing this broadcast, we'd love to hear your story. Email your feedback to letters at gty.org or if you prefer, you can send a letter to Grace to You, Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Join us again tomorrow for the next installment of John's study called Is the Bible Reliable? It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.