Interpreting Zion (02/11/23)

At risk of entering into a set of sidebars within this sidebar, it really is needful, I think, to come to grips with a few persistent images, as I am terming them, which show up repeatedly as we consider the Last Days.  The first of these is Zion.  It’s funny, in that providential sort of way.  This morning’s Table Talk was commenting on the abrupt appearance of Elijah, about whom nothing is said until he bursts onto the scene to address Ahab’s ungodliness.  Zion strikes me as a term that likewise seems to have just suddenly shown up.  We have no explanation of the name, and near as I can tell, no clear indication of just where this Zion is.  But that may be simply because we are at such remove from the origins of our story.

What brought this to mind most immediately is a bit of prophecy from Micah 4.  This prophecy speaks of the ‘mountain of the house of the LORD’ being established in primacy, and with such renown that peoples from all nations come there, ‘to the house of the God of Jacob’, to learn His ways.  Then comes this message:  “For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”  Okay, so there seems a connection, certainly, between Zion and Jerusalem, and most specifically, with the Temple Mount.  But is this intended to indicate a geographic location?  That would seem a much larger question.

There clearly is a geographic location, and that clearly is Jerusalem.  Our earliest notice of this place comes in 2Samuel 5:7 – “Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.”  This, then, was Jerusalem, then in the hands of the Jebusites, a tribe of the Canaanites (Ge 10:16), which leads us inexorably back to Nimrod, and eventually to Ham.  Thus, they share lineage with Assyria, with Babel (and thus Babylon), and with the Amorites, which is hardly a glowing recommendation.   Nimrod and Babel will likely appear in our discussions again before too long, but for now, let me try and restrain myself from taking too many detours.

Really, other than reiterating this point of David’s victory over Jerusalem, and its establishment as the chief city of the kingdom, we don’t much hear the term in the historical texts.  It isn’t until we reach the Psalms that it really starts to gain a footing.  Interestingly, the very first of those Psalms to make mention of Zion is concerned with our very topic, the Last Days.  “Why are the nations in an uproar?  Why do the peoples devise a vain thing?  The kings of the earth take their stand.  The rulers counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, seeking to tear their fetters apart and cast away the cords of the LORD from themselves.  He who sits in heaven laughs.  The Lord scoffs at them.  He will speak to them in His anger, terrifying them in His fury.  ‘As for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.  I will tell the decree of the LORD, Who said to Me, “Thou art My Son.  Today I have begotten Thee.  Ask, and I will give You the nations as Your inheritance, all the earth as Your possession.  You shall break them with a rod of iron, shatter them like earthenware.”’” (Ps 2:1-9).

Well, here’s a marvel.  At level one, that certainly has some reference to David and his kingdom being established here on earth.  And yet, at the same time, it very clearly points far beyond David.  Of David, it could not be said, “You are My Son, I have begotten You.”  Indeed, though the capitalizations are not something that one could find in the original manuscripts, so far as I know, still, what is said is clearly more than even King David could lay claim to.  And David very clearly was not given the nations.  We could suggest he never asked for them as the reason, but overall, the Psalm leaves us no room for some earthly hero.  “Show discernment, you kings.  Take warning, you earthly judges.  Worship the LORD with reverence, and rejoice with trembling.  Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way.  For His wrath may soon be kindled.  How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” (Ps 2:10-12).  You know, there’s a reason this is considered a Messianic Psalm, and that is because it so clearly forces our attention off the mere mortal to something greater.  What is true of the King, I suspect, we must likewise find true of Zion, God’s holy mountain.  This is more than the Temple Mount.  The Temple Mount may have served as an earthly foreshadowing, just as David served as an earthly foreshadowing of our Lord and Savior.  But he was hardly the thing itself, nor is the Temple Mount, in my current estimation, at least, to be perceived as the full revelation of God’s holy mountain.

There is an aspect of eternality about Zion, as there is with the dynastic legacy of David.  “Walk about Zion, count her towers and ramparts.  Go through her palaces so you can tell of it to the next generation.  For such is God, our God forever and ever.  He will guide us until death” (Ps 48:12-14).  Such an admonition is hardly needful for a city in which the people of God still dwell.  The next generation can see it for themselves.  “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone forth” (Ps 50:2).  Again, I don’t suppose we can reasonably look upon the works of man and think to have found the perfection of beauty, and Jerusalem, as we have seen, was built by Canaanite hands.  Would this really be where God chose to shine forth the perfection of beauty?  I mean, one can certainly understand how those of Judah would come to apply this to their capitol, and that, with great pride.  You can also see how pride would eventually warp the understanding, such that they took the presence of the Temple as an insurance policy allowing them to sin as they pleased without fear of repercussions.  That didn’t work out so well, did it?

Let me try another.  “The LORD reigns!  Let the peoples tremble.  He is enthroned above the cherubim.  Let the earth shake!  The LORD is great in Zion, and He is exalted above all peoples.  Let them praise Your great and awesome name.  Holy is He” (Ps 99:1-3), “Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at His holy hill.  For holy is the LORD our God” (Ps 99:9).  Okay, again, we can find an earthly referent.  The cherubim, as we learn in the details of the temple’s construction, were atop the ark of the covenant, their wings outstretched over the mercy seat of God’s throne.  But, however great the pride Israel took in her temple, and in the presence of God therein, it would have been a very foolish Israelite who supposed Him contained to that place, and even more foolish, the enemy of God who made such an assumption.  God so far transcends this earthly world of His making, that such a principle of containment should rightly be unthinkable.  “May the LORD bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth” (Ps 134:3).  Yes, that’s a song of Ascent, and as such, recognized as something sung on the approach to Jerusalem for the appointed feasts.  And yes, there is, as such, reference to God seated on the mercy seat, His throne.

Zion also takes its place of prominence with the prophets.  It’s almost immediate, isn’t it?  “The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, a watchman’s hut in the cucumber field.  She is like a besieged city.  Unless the LORD of hosts had left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom and Gomorrah” (Isa 1:8-9).  Okay, we move beyond a place to a people.  But observe that our first notice of this people comes in rebuking judgment.  It comes amidst warnings.  Your religious rites aren’t cutting it.  They aren’t enough.  “Cease to do evil, and learn to do good.  Seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan and the widow.  Let us reason together.  Though your sins are as scarlet, yet they will be white as snow, like wool.  If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land.  If you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword” (Isa 1:16-20).  You should know better, you people of God!  It’s not about ceremonial observance, it’s about heart obedience.  Chapter after chapter it continues.  Prophet after prophet it continues.  Here is the people among whom the Word of God so richly dwells, and what fruit has He had of them?  “When I look, there is no one.  There is no counselor among them who can give answer when I ask.  All of them are false.  Their works are useless.  Their molten images are vanity and wind” (Isa 41:28-29).

But, then, comes the marvelous news!  “Behold, My Servant!  He is My chosen one whom I uphold, in whom My soul delights.  I have put My Spirit upon  Him.  He will bring forth justice to the nations” (Isa 42:1).  “Former things have come to pass.  Now I declare new things before they happen, I proclaim them to you” (Isa 42:9).  Here is the God enthroned on Zion, His holy mountain, and He renders judgment upon His people in Jerusalem.  He does so through His appointed Judge, His Servant, Christ Jesus.  From here forward, it seems, Isaiah cannot leave this theme of a greater day to come.  Having seen this glimpse of Christ, he cannot look to anything else.  “I bring near My righteousness.  It is not far off, and My salvation will not delay.  I will grant salvation in Zion, and My glory for Israel” (Isa 46:13).

Okay, so is this just a message for the nation of Israel, for the remainder of David’s kingdom there in the Middle East?  At one level, I think we must allow that it does in fact apply to that nation as a nation.  And we have reference, yet again, to another of these persistent images.  “Sit silently, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans.  No longer will you be called queen of the kingdoms.  I was angry with My people, and profaned My heritage, giving them into your hand.  You showed them no mercy.  Even on the aged you made your yoke very heavy.  And you supposed you would be queen forever.  You didn’t consider the outcome, so hear this, you sensual one.  You thought you were secure, answerable to no one and subject to no loss, but these two things shall come upon you in one day:  Loss of your children and widowhood.  They will come in full measure in spite of your sorceries and your powerful spells.  You thought yourself secure in your wickedness, but your wisdom and knowledge have deluded you.  But evil will come upon you which you can’t charm away.  Disaster will be upon you for which you cannot atone.  Your destruction will come suddenly” (Isa 47:5-11).  But that is perhaps more appropriate to the next section.

As to the New Testament, the few references we have to Zion are primarily in the form of quoting the prophets and noting association of these prophecies to the Prophet revealed:  Christ Jesus.  “This took place that the prophetic word might be fulfilled, which said, ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even a colt, the foal of a beast of burden”’” (Mt 21:4-5).  John likewise notes the fulfillment (Jn 12:14-16), observing that at the time, they didn’t get the significance of the event, “but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.”

Paul, in establishing the newly arisen Christian faith as fundamentally transcending the ancient faith of Israel, writes of the issue.  “What shall we say?  The Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained it, a righteousness which is by faith.  But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.  Why?  Because they did not pursue it by faith, but by works.  They stumbled over the stumbling block, just as it is written.  ‘Behold!  I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense.  He who believes in Him will not be disappointed’” (Ro 9:30-33).  Peter also looks back upon this verse, though with a somewhat different angle (only somewhat).  “You are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, as if living stones, a house in which to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  For Scripture says, ‘Behold!  I lay in Zion a choice stone, a cornerstone.  And he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed.’  This precious value is for you who believe.  But for those who disbelieve?  ‘The stone which the builders rejected became the very cornerstone, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.’  They stumble because they were disobedient to the word.  And to this doom they were appointed” (1Pe 1:5-8).

And perhaps most telling of all, we have this.  “You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly of the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel” (Heb 12:22-24).

Okay, so what, if anything, can we conclude?  Well, I think we can conclude that Zion has multiple applications, depending on its use and depending on the perspective.  There is, clearly, an association with the physical location of Jerusalem, but I would maintain it is as a type, not a fulfillment.  It has association with a people, because that people is associated with the place.  More importantly, I would say it is because that people is associated with God, whose place it is.  And then, fundamentally, we have this clarion notice that Zion, in its fulfillment, refers not to some former Canaanite city on the coast of the Mediterranean, but to a city built without hands, the heavenly Jerusalem which is, and is to come.

Here is that chief mountain to which Micah and others of the prophets looked.  Did they understand fully what they saw?  Probably not.  Did they see fully so as to understand?  Probably not.  But I suspect that they, unlike those whom they were appointed to rebuke and bring to repentance, recognized something greater.  This was the house of the LORD.  Yes, the temple in Jerusalem was the house of the LORD.  But then, that house had been built only to be destroyed.  For most of the prophets, that destruction remained future.  But then, we have Ezekiel, and those others who ministered during and after the Exile.  For them, it was a backward look.  Clearly, that temple wasn’t the final goal.  Clearly, that wasn’t the permanent house of the LORD, for it was gone, and He was not.

I think, too, for the prophets, there was recognition that this was greater than Israel. This went beyond tribal pride, and dynastic powers.  God, Who sits enthroned on His holy mountain is God not only of Israel the land, not only of Israel, the people, but of all the nations of the earth, of all that is.  This absolutely requires us to recognize in Zion something outside the present order, outside the temporal, outside the reach of sin’s stain, a place where God, in His perfect, jealous holiness dwells in His fulness.

As concerns matters of the Last Day, we must keep this manifold message of Zion in view.  It does have reference to God’s people, and as such, we must recognize that perfect Justice requires that God indeed judges not only those nations outside of Zion, but also those who dwell within.  But we must also recognize promises of security to those who are truly citizens of Zion, truly of God’s household.  We must recognize that this place in God’s house does not give us liberty to continue in sin, thinking nothing of His holiness.  It is not a free pass.  It is an assurance that judgment will, for us, produce life rather than perishing.  As to what may pass between our present and that final restoration, well, we have much to think about yet.

So let us heed the call of that message which brought me here.  “Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD and to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths” (Mic 4:2).  This should be our daily aim, to seek from our God that we might learn to not only know His ways, but walk in them.  This shall require of us a heart ready for repentance.  This shall require of us a joyful confidence that indeed, He is faithful to forgive.  This shall require of us that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our strength, all our mind, all our being.  For in Him we live.  In Him we move.  In Him and Him alone we have our being.  Glory be to His name!

Interpreting Babylon (02/12/23)

As already noted, Babylon brings is to Babel, the beginning of the kingdom of Nimrod, son of Cush, son of Ham.  He is, then a nephew of Canaan (Ge 10:6-10).  Here we find the roots of not only Babylon, but also Assyria, both of which nations would play a significant role in the history of God’s people, most notably as instruments of God’s judgment upon them, and thus, instruments of correction and restoration.  But they ever proved far more zealous in their roles as punishers of God’s people than suited the case, took more pleasure in it.  In truth, though, Nimrod gets very little mention, other than to note his place in the lineage of Noah’s sons.  And yet, we are of course familiar with the story of Babel and its tower, a proud people determined to make a name for themselves, and so they did.  But it was not the name they intended.  For they intended to make themselves as gods – isn’t that always the way?  And God determined to make them a scattered people, no longer of one language or in one place (Ge 11:1-9).  Interesting that this pretty much terminates review of Ham’s lineage, as attention turns to Shem.

What makes things a bit muddy is the sense that Babylon and Chaldea are one and the same.  But we have Abraam coming out of the land of his birth, Ur of the Chaldeans (Ge 11:28), and he, of course, is not of the line of Ham, but rather, of Shem.  Being closely related, I don’t suppose it’s a great surprise that the descendants of these two brothers lived near to hand with one another.  But they were not the same people.  And yet…  Ezra, returning from the Exile to rebuild Jerusalem, observes, “Because our fathers provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed his temple and deported the people to Babylon” (Ezra 5:12).  King Cyrus, of course, also arises out of Babylon.  At the same time, even so far back as Job, we find the Chaldeans serving as an irritant, a Chaldean raiding party being responsible for the loss of his camels, and the death of many of his servants (Job 1:17).  So, whatever they shared in lineage, family ties seem to have been severed rather a long time ago.

Between these two points, we have the records of the kings of Israel, which are certainly a mixed heritage, aren’t they?  There were occasionally kings more in keeping with David’s example, but for the most part, they were a rather ungodly lot.  So, we have God bringing Nebuchadnezzar – again, king of Babylon of the Chaldeans – sent against Jehoiakim, who did evil in the sight of the LORD.  And the LORD sent this king to destroy Judah as He had warned through his prophets.  It wasn’t just Jehoiakim.  This went back a ways.  It went back, certainly, to Manasseh, who had, per the Chronicler, filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and whom the LORD would not forgive (2Ki 23:36-24:4). 

Babylonians were among the peoples brought in to populate Samaria after Assyria carried northern Israel away captive, and through them, and those other foreigners, significant idolatries were once more becoming prevalent.  This had been a problem all along, at least since Solomon, if not even in David’s day.  Foreign wives brought foreign gods, and foreign allegiances meant tolerating this.  It had been so even before Israel reached the promised land, had it not?  But here it was again.  (2Ki 17:24-34).  And so, we find this summation.  “The feared the LORD and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile.  To this day they do according to the earlier customs:  They do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances of the law, or the commandments which the LORD commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel; with whom the LORD made a covenant, commanding, ‘You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down yourselves to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them’” (2Ki 33-35).  And this, even when these foreign practices included child sacrifice.  Of course, before we get to judgy about them, we had best take a look around at our own condition.  Some things, it seems, never change.

Okay, so historically, the key story of Babylon begins with a visit to Hezekiah, one of the better kings of Judah, and for most of his reign, a true heir to David.  But something happens with this visit.  He shows off a bit, so that Babylon might know that Judah, too, is a wealthy and powerful nation.  But this, to nobody’s great surprise, only attracts their attention.  Isaiah is quick to note the error, and make Hezekiah aware of it.  And this also seems to be something of a turning point in Hezekiah’s record.  His is a sad case, and one I’ve commented on, no doubt, many times before.  Here is this king who has been faithfully leading his kingdom as God would have him do.  But he gets news that his days are coming to an end, and what does he do?  He seeks an extension.  But he doesn’t want to do things God’s way, he wants this on his own terms.  And God gives it to him.  The record speaks for itself.  Henceforth, such wisdom as he had displayed and such successes as he had known would be pretty much reversed completely.  All this for an extra few years.  As has often been said, there is nothing worse than for God to say, “Have it your way.”  (Isa 39).

With that bridge, it’s no surprise to find Babylon playing a large role in Isaiah’s prophecies.  The earliest of these, in Isaiah 13, observes Babylon’s invasion as a thing yet future, and lays it clearly to the LORD’s doing.  Indeed, one of our key phrases pops up.  “They are coming from a far country, from the farthest horizon:  The LORD and His instruments of indignation, to destroy the whole land.  Wail, for the day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty” (Isa 13:5-6).  For our purposes, let us note two things, one of which we shall return to later.  First, we must surely take notice of the connection of Babylon with the Lord’s wrath.  They may come as serving their own interests, but at a higher level, they remain instruments in the hands of God, serving God’s purposes and under His control, though they acknowledge Him not.  Second, we can’t fail to notice that the day of the LORD is a day for judgment in the house, as it were.  It is not, as yet, judgment upon Babylon, but upon Judah.  It comes in response to the sins of God’s own.  “The day of the LORD is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land a desolation.  And He will exterminate its sinners from it” (Isa 13:9).  It is a purifying fire, this jealous anger of God.  Keep that in mind as we proceed.  But I don’t wish to get ahead of myself.

Babylon has its place, but it exceeds its place.  Even before events have come about, this is clear to Isaiah, for God makes it clear.  “‘I will cut off from Babylon, both name and survivors, offspring and posterity,’ says the LORD” (Isa 14:22).  He also says, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened.  As I have planned so it will stand” (Isa 14:24).  This plan is against the whole earth, against all nations.  “For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it?  Who can turn Him back?” (Isa 14:27).  And look where this ends!  “How will one answer the messengers of the nation?  That the LORD has founded Zion, and the afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it” (Isa 14:32).

Soon enough, we have news.  “Fallen is Babylon, and all the images of his gods are shattered on the ground” (Isa 21:9).  Interesting, is it not, that these messages precede events with Hezekiah?  Surely, he should have known better.   Surely, he did know better.  He did not act in ignorance, but in pride.

But the message, in spite of the terrible news of God’s wrath, does not leave off with wrath, not for His own.  “For your sake I, the LORD, have sent to Babylon, to bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, into the ships in which they rejoice.  I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King” (Isa 43:14-15).  This, it strikes me, lies at the very heart of the troubles.  God is King, and He will not share His rule.  He may appoint subordinates to govern regions of His kingdom, but He remains King, and woe to that subordinate who seeks to rise above his station!  Woe to that subordinate who takes it into his head to govern according to his own lights and his own interests.  So we are given to understand that on the one hand, Babylon comes at God’s behest, and Babylon will be punished at God’s command.

Listen!  The LORD loves him.  He shall carry out His good pleasure on Babylon.  His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.  “I have spoken, even I!  I called him and brought him, and will make his ways successful.  Come near and listen to Me:  From the first I have not spoken in secret.  From the time it took place, I was there.  And now, the Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit.”  Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel!  “I AM the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.  If only you had paid attention to My commandments!  Then your well-being would have been like a river, your righteousness like waves of the sea… Go forth from Babylon!  Flee from the Chaldeans!  Shout joyfully, and proclaim it!  ‘The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob’” (Isa 48:14-20).

Jeremiah, of course, is also heavily concerned with Babylon, for he prophesies in a time when the events Isaiah pointed to were coming to pass, lived through the worst of it, and continued to hold forth the word of God to His people, if only they would listen.  Then, too, we have Ezekiel, who prophesies while dwelling in Babylon with the exiles.  And Daniel as well, who even served Nebuchadnezzar, and served him well, during that time. 

But let us come forward into the New Testament era.  Babylon’s time of empire has come and gone, like so many before it, and so many after, and now we have Rome as the chief power in the world.  Yet, the shadow of Babylon, or the type of Babylon continues.  Matthew notes it as one of the three turning points in his lineage of Christ (Mt 1:17):  There is the establishing of the Davidic kingdom, the dissolution of that kingdom when Judah is deported to Babylon, and finally, the arrival of Christ the King, the Redeemer promised in that last bit of Isaiah I looked at.

Stephen reminds the temple authorities of the prophetic message as he stands falsely accused before them.  “God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven, as it was written in the prophets: ‘It was not to Me that you offered victims and sacrifices those forty years in the wilderness, was it, O house of Israel?  No, you also took along the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of Rompha, images which you made to worship them.  So I will also remove you beyond Babylon’” (Ac 7:42-43).  An observation:  Moloch was, by God’s testimony, with them all along.  This was not, then, solely the result of Assyria’s repopulation of Samaria.  They had done it themselves.  And God knew.  He knew all along.

Then, we have mention of God’s church in Babylon, from which Peter pens his first epistle (1Pe 5:13).  Much conjecture arises around this.  Was he in fact in Babylon, or was this a coded message, as it were, given rising animosity towards Jews generally, and Christians specifically amonsgt the rulers in Rome?  Of course, those who are determined to hold forth that Peter was the first pope, serving in Rome, that latter view gains ascendency, and for those who reject that idea, there is something of an innate preference for taking the reference more literally.  But we don’t rightly know, to be honest.  The best clue we may have is the testimony of Paul as to how he and Peter saw their respective missions.  Peter would be Apostle to the Jews, Paul to the Gentiles.  It wasn’t a hard and fast division of labor, certainly, but it would suggest that Peter’s focus was likely to remain around the Middle East, rather than the western reaches of Rome and beyond.

Of course, as concerns the focus of this study, the chief imagery of Babylon with which we need to deal is the appearance of that name in the Revelation.  Even there, mention of Babylon comes nearer the end.  I need to back up just a bit from the first point of mention, in hopes that perhaps we can set the scene.  The Lamb is standing on Mount Zion, with His 144,000, and a great voice, thundering loud yet harp-like, comes out of heaven, as this army sings a new song before the four living creatures and the twenty four elders.  These 144,000, we are told, are those who have not been with women, having kept chaste, and they follow the Lamb wherever He goes, having been purchased from among men as the first fruits to God and the Lamb.  They are blameless and truthful in all things (Rev 14:1-5).  And now, comes forth an angel proclaiming ‘an eternal gospel’ to all the nations, and saying, “Fear God, and give Him glory!  For the hour of His judgment has come.  Worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and springs of water.”  And another angel came after, saying, “Fallen!  Fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”  A third angel follows, with warning for those on the earth.  “If anyone worships the beast and his image, receiving his mark upon forehead or hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, mixed full strength in the cup of His anger.  He will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.  And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.  They have no rest day or night, those who worship the beast and his image, and receive the mark of his name” (Rev 14:6-11).

The scene develops more fully.  There were flashes of lightning, peals of thunder, and a greater earthquake than had ever been known since the beginning.  Cities fell.  “And Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.”  The land itself is pummeled to dust, as hundred-pound hailstones come down.  “And men blasphemed God because of the hail, for its plague was severe in the extreme” (Rev 16:18-21).  And continuing in the next chapter: One of the angels spoke.  “Come.  I shall show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”  He carried me away in the Spirit to the wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, and having seven heads and ten horns.  She was clothed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious jewels, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and the unclean things of her immorality.  Upon her forehead was written a mystery, “Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.”  I saw her drunk with the blood of the saints, of the witnesses of Jesus.  And when I saw her, I wondered greatly (Rev 17:1-6).

What to make of all this?  It’s a terrifying vision, is it not?  Who are these 144,000?  Should we take them to be the sum of all who are saved?  I don’t think so.  And if she is drunk with the blood of the saints, does that imply that the saints undergo the tribulation, and die along with sinners in this time of judgment?  Or is the tribulation something different than judgment?  It seems this queen of Babylon raises at least as many questions as she answers.  And of course, over the years, there have been plentiful attempts to ID her.  Perhaps she was Rome, a natural enough supposition for those living through the birth of the Church.  Perhaps she is the papal system, thought the Protestants, for they certainly seem to have made rather a harlotry of things, or at the very least, had done so in that period that brought us to the Reformation.  Or perhaps, it’s Great Britain with her dreams of empire, and her mastery of the seas.  Was not Babylon associated somehow with oceans and ships?  Maybe that’s it.  And it certainly doesn’t require too much imagination to set modern-day America in the place of one making the world’s nations drunk with her harlotries.  No, hardly a difficulty at all.

But we have one more to consider yet.  There is one more angel to come in John’s visions, and he has great authority, and such glory as illumined the whole earth.  Now there’s an image that must give us pause, I should think.  Is this still just an angel, or is this now the Lord Himself?  Well, he’s identified as an angel, and John has already seen the Lord in many forms through the course of this set of visions.  So, let’s accept it’s an angel.  He cries out, “Fallen is Babylon the great!  She has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison of unclean spirits, and of every unclean, hateful bird.  For all the nations drank of the wine of the passion of her immorality.  The kings have committed immoral acts with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality” (Rev 18:1-3).  Again, hardly a stretch to see that identify with present affairs of state. 

But lo!  God’s people are called out of this.  “Come out!  Don’t get sucked in to her sins, don’t receive her plagues.  For God has remembered her iniquities.  Indeed, pay here back!  Give her double for her deeds.  Mix twice as much for here in the cup.  As she has glorified herself with sensuality, torment her with mourning.  For she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen.  I am no widow, and I will never see mourning.’” (Rev 18:4-7).  And in one day, plagues, pestilence, famine, and mourning come upon her.  One day, and she is burned up with fire.  “For the Lord God who judges her is strong.”  Those who comported with her mourn at the loss, but at a distance due to fear of joining her torment.  “Woe, woe!  The great city, Babylon, the strong city!  In one hour your judgment has come.”  They weep for her, but because no one buys their goods anymore, not precious materials, not slaves and horses.  And yet, amongst the godly, the response is very different.  “Rejoice, O heaven, and you saints, apostles, and prophets!  God has pronounced judgment for you against her.”  Thus, Babylon will be thrown down with violence, no more to be found, “because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.  And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints and of all who had been slain on the earth” (Rev 18:8-24).

So, does Babylon represent a specific place, a specific people?  Sometimes, it clearly does.  Certainly in the early setting of the prophets, it is literally Babylon and the Babylonians who are in view.  They come as something of a replacement for their kin in Assyria.  And they come, as we have seen, as instruments of God to punish His own.  But that, terrible though the thought must surely be, is done as disciplinary action, not as final judgment, certainly not on those who continue in service to God.  And in the end, Justice is upheld.  Babylon is destroyed.  For her, judgment truly is final.  For her, having usurped a throne with more authority than had been granted, an utter abasement must transpire, and it shall.  For God is powerful to do so.

And I am very much struck by the point stressed in that last section.  It is but an hour’s work for God to see this abomination put to an end.  Of course, we shall have to retain Peter’s observation that a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day to the Lord.  So, we cannot, particularly in such a setting as this, assume that hour to be a literal hour as we experience time.  The point is brevity, at the very least, comparative brevity.  But whose blood is this being avenged?  It is the blood of prophets, of saints, of ‘all who had been slain on the earth’.  This, I should think, must point us beyond even the most lasting and most vile of nations or empires.  The span is simply too great.  No nation, not even Rome at the point this is delivered, could claim responsibility for the slaying of all the prophets.  After all, Israel herself must share in the blame for that.  Not even the original Babylon could lay claim to this distinction, even if we go chasing back to Nimrod, or even further.  Sorry.  But no nation stretches back far enough to account for ‘all who had been slain on the earth’.  We have to go back to Cain and Abel for that one.  And Cain didn’t last long enough to account for the Apostles, certainly, except perhaps we are looking at roots of a people.  Still, at that point, we can continue on back to Cain’s father, Adam, the first man.  And certainly, in him we find the legal source for all our sins.  His fall was our fall, one and all.  But that leaves no saints, no prophets, no apostles to redeem.

All of this being said, I think we arrive at a simple division of peoples.  There is the New Jerusalem, and there is Babylon, and in the end, every last person ever to live or have lived is citizen of one or the other.  The 144,000 seem to me to be a specific subset of the redeemed.  I don’t know as we have a tiered system in view, with some accounted super-saints.  But they do have the distinction of being the first fruits, and they have this unique testimony that they had not been with women.  The implication would seem to be that these had been eunuchs for the sake of Christ, given that they follow Him wherever He goes.  Perhaps it only intends to speak to a particular fervency of faith and devotion, a singleness of focus in their lives.  But it seems a group apart from prophets and apostles, and it’s clearly not the full number of the saints.  One can hardly be a first fruit if he is the only fruit, after all.  Being first implies more to come.

So, to wrap this part up, as I say, my understanding would be that Babylon ought not to be identified too closely with any specific person, place, or people group.  She is the kingdom of all the fallen, all who have rejected and rebelled against God.  She is what’s left when God’s people are taken from the equation, and she has been in opposition to God’s people from the beginning.  We might even go so far as to suggest that this queen of Babylon is in fact yet another reference to Satan.  But that may be trying just a bit too hard.  To be sure, her service, though she accounts herself answerable to none, is to that great enemy of God and God’s people.  But whether we could say they are in fact one and the same is more difficult to establish.

I should, perhaps, look just a bit further on into this confusing and often terrifying text.  For at the fall of Babylon, the multitude in heaven sing out.  “Hallelujah!  Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and righteous.  He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.”  Okay.  That could push me a bit further into the identify her as or with Satan camp.  The elders and the living creatures join in, “Amen!  Hallelujah!”  And then comes this.  “Let us rejoice and be glad, giving the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready” (Rev 19:1-7). 

So, there’s the marriage feast, when the last enemy has been subdued, and when the tempter and tormenter of the bride has been paid in full for her crimes.  It is a most fitting arrangement, for were the wedding prior, by what we see commanded in Israel, we might expect that the Lord, our Victorious Warrior, was to stay home for a season, rather than going forth to conquer.  But the job is done, the enemy defeated, and Justice – perfect Justice served.  Now!  Now is the time for celebration, and this, I dare say, is such a celebration as shall have no end.

So, what of the battle?  What of the tribulation?  Are we in its midst, or are we not?  Must we all, in the end, suffer martyrdom in some fashion?  Well, clearly not, for more have died peacefully in faith than have faced so terrible an end.  But there is likewise no cause to suppose that martyrdom will become a thing of the past.  That is evident from current events.  The world still hates God, and so, still hates God’s people.  Those who practice sin yet hate the light, and we cannot but bear that light in us wherever we may be, and frankly, however we may stumble in our own turn.

Let me just counter that misconception before I stop for the morning.  There is this idea that we must have polished our holiness to a fine sheen before we try to go out and minister amongst the fallen.  Oh!  The devil will know our failures and expose them.  His servants will be too strong for us.  But seriously?  It’s not our strength that matters, nor is it his.  God is strong enough, and the battle belongs to Him anyway.  Yes, we should take our sanctification most seriously, and yes, if we find ourselves cooling, losing faith or at the least depending too much on our own strength, we have cause for concern.  But that cause is not that we might suffer harm from God’s enemies should we yet seek to serve Him.  Do you really suppose Him to be so vindictive and petty as all that?  Yes, His holiness is perfect, and it is beyond us to properly comprehend the significance of this fact.  But He is also Abba, our Father.  He may discipline, but He will not destroy.  He may allow such sorrows as will bring us to our senses, and that may hurt a bit.  But even if the devil himself is involved in the process, ala Job, yet our Lord, our Beloved Bridegroom, remains fully in charge and fully in control of our situation.  And face it.  If we are about some task that He would see done?  His will shall be done.  Trust Him, and stop trying to substitute trust in yourself.  Don’t fall for the immorality of Babylon.  Serve your true Lord.  Serve Him as truly as you know how.  And trust Him to supply any deficiency.  He is able, and He is willing.

The Darkened Sun and the Day of the Lord (02/14/23-02/15/23)

This is the third matter of imagery that I feel should be recognized before we go more directly at matters of the Last Day.  This picture of the various lights of the heavens going out is something of a repeating motif amongst the prophets.  If we go by order of appearance, we would give Isaiah pride of place for first using the phrase, but properly that honor goes to Joel, with Amos also utilizing the concept before Isaiah comes into view.  Joel is also the one Peter refers to in his first sermon in Jerusalem.  So, let us start where it begins.  It’s a section of the book we will be coming back to, Lord willing, so I don’t want to address it at length here, but enough to get the setting for our phrase.

First, we observe that we are considering the day of the LORD, which is cause for the trumpets to blow the alarm (Joel 2:1).  Now, given what I have just been studying in 1Thessalonians, it would be tempting to think this trumpet call harks to the same event, to the trumpet of God sounding in the heavens.  But that is not the case at all.  For one, that heavenly blast is not an alarm, but a call to solemn assembly.  For another, that blast comes from heaven to call man, not from man to warn of impending danger.  Danger there may be for the sinner, and such danger as can by no means be avoided, but the trumpet announcing our Lord is great good news for the believer.  So, something quite different.  And yet, not altogether detached from what is before us, so far as I can tell.

So, we have a vast army coming upon Jerusalem, determined on a complete destruction of all they encounter, and these, it would appear come right into the city, breaking through the defenses and overrunning the populace.  “They rush on the city, they run on the walls, they climb into houses, entering like thieves, and before them the earth quakes, the heavens tremble.”  And here we are.  “The sun and the moon grow dark.  The stars lose their brightness.”  Now, behold!  “The LORD utters His voice before His army.  His camp is great, for strong is he who carries out His word.” (Joel 2:9-11a).  Now, at this point, one might be ready to question whether the army of the LORD is that which has come rushing and destroying, or some other army gathered in defense of Jerusalem.  The call to repentance which follows only adds to the question, but then we reach this point:  “Return to the LORD your God” (Joel 2:13).  This would seem to focus the action on those who are already His people, upon those who would claim to be of His kingdom.  And here is another trumpet required.  “Blow a trumpet in Zion.  Consecrate a fast.  Proclaim a solemn assembly.  Gather all the people, young and old, and let them weep between porch and altar, calling upon the LORD with earnest repentance and earnest concern for His glory” (Joel 2:15-17).  And He will remove that northern army, never again to make a reproach of His people among the nations (Joel 2:19-20).

Okay, so overall, what we have is a time of urgent discipline for Jerusalem, for God’s people.  The army that comes with such terrible purpose comes at His command for His purpose.  But, harking back to the imagery of Babylon, it must likewise be recognized that God’s purposes are not on the mind of that army.  Their intentions and God’s purposes are two very different things.  For the present, at least, at this early stage of my efforts here, I would maintain that the devastation brought about by that army, and the devastation to be brought upon them when they are once more removed from the land of God’s own, are two very, very different matters.  The one is discipline unto life.  The other is the beginning of that eternal punishment which is the substance of perishing.  And so, in spite of all the dark foreboding of this picture, we hear this said.  “Do not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad!  For the LORD has done great things” (Joel 2:21).  “Rejoice, O sons of Zion, and be glad in the LORD your God, for He has given you the early rain for vindication… You shall have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you.  Then My people will never be put to shame” (Joel 2:23-26).

And that brings us to the place that Peter picks up on in his sermon.  This, he says, in reference to the events of that first Pentecost outpouring of the Holy Spirit, is what Joel prophesied about!  “It shall be in the last days that I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your young men shall see visions.  Your old men will dream dreams.  Even upon My bondslaves, male and female alike, I will pour forth of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy.  I will grant wonders in the sky, signs on the earth:  Blood, fire, and vapor of smoke.  The sun shall be darkened, and the moon bloodied, before the great and glorious day of the LORD shall come.  And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Ac 2:16-21).  This is pretty much a direct quote of the remainder of Joel 2.  And it would certainly seem to set before us that the shocking events of which he prophesies precede the end, precede the day of the LORD.

Okay, so let me be a bit careful here, for even in English ‘before’ has distinctions of meaning.  It can be a question of temporal order:  This must happen before that can occur.  But it can also have the idea of being in the presence of, facing, as when one is summoned to appear before the judge.  This is not a matter of temporal sequence, but rather, locative.  And it is this latter sense that is implied by the term Joel uses.  “Facing, in full view of, at the disposal of.”  That said, Peter, in relaying this message, (or at least, Luke, in reporting his message,) uses prin to translate the term, and that does appear to take on a temporal sense of ordering events.  That said, it may be used as a conjunction, making it a matter of more or less simultaneous events.  But I don’t know as even that would shake the temporal aspect out of it completely.  Probably not.  One could set it down to the challenge of translation.  After all, Luke is looking to translate from Peter’s speech, which was probably in Aramaic, given the setting, into Greek.  Peter, for his part, may very well have been working from the Septuagint, which itself was a translation from Aramaic.  So, it needn’t be taken as an enforcing of temporal order.  Joel’s original should, I think, take precedence as to intended meaning.  But I could be wrong.

Well, let me move forward a bit.  Once more Joel brings this image to bear.  “The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness.  And the LORD roars from Zion, utters His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth tremble.  But the LORD is a refuge for His people, a stronghold to the sons of Israel” (Joel 3:15-16).  This sets God’s people in a special place as we face the Day of the Lord.  He is with us, or rather, we are with Him, behind His lines.  He is our defender, our Defense.  He is our stronghold and refuge.  And what, pray tell, could be more secure?  At His voice, heavens and earth tremble.  But we are secure!  This is glorious good news.  And it would seem to have certain implications for how we are to perceive that prior message.  That darkening of the heavens begins to feel more like the darkness that fell upon Egypt.  You may recall that amongst the dwellings of the Jews they had light (Ex 10:21-23).  The terrors are great, but they are not for His own.  Does this still hold for the end of days, for the tribulation and judgment that must come?  No answers yet, but you would forgive me for seeing hints of an answer here.

Before I continue with the prophets, there’s one more point of darkness I would have us consider, and that takes us all the way back to Abraham.  It takes us to the scene of God establishing His covenant with Abram, as he was yet known at the time (Ge 15).  The sun was going down, we are told, and Abram went into a deep sleep.  There’s nothing too surprising about that, I suppose, except that Abram had knowingly been preparing the necessary sacrifices to seal this covenant, and keeping alert to drive the carrion birds from the sacrifice while he awaited the Lord.  “And behold,” as he slept, “terror and great darkness fell upon him” (Ge 15:12).  It’s kind of odd, isn’t it, for the message the LORD brings is not so terrible as all that, although it does have its foreshadowings of the Egyptian bondage, yet even that comes with the promise that in the fourth generation, his descendants would return to this land of promise, and also declares the reason for delay. “For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete” (Ge 15:16).  And then, the LORD cut covenant.  Mind you, Abram is, so far as we know, still hard asleep.  And yet, when the sun had set, it was very dark – a starless, moonless night perhaps, and there appeared a smoking oven, a flaming torch passing between the pieces he had cut.  The LORD made covenant.  And of course, we know and find great significance in the fact that Abram, for all that he understood how covenants worked and the penalties any such covenant would impose on him should he fail of its terms, was not called to participate, only to observe.  “To your descendants I have given this land, from the Nile to the Euphrates” (Ge 15:18).

The nature of these covenants was that the participants, walking between the cleaved bodies of the sacrifice, were saying, “So you may do to me should I fail of this covenant.”  God took that walk.  Tellingly, Abram did not.  Abram, after all, was no more capable than you or I of maintaining its terms.  God, on the other hand, is perfectly able.  And still, His promise stands unaltered.  Should this scene of covenant come into our perceptions of the scene Amos is setting before us, the scene Peter points us to?  I think perhaps it should.  There is something here that is more than the standard nightfall.  The darkness, it would seem, is darker than such natural occurrences would bring to pass – even the most overcast, moonless night.  But it is not a darkness of doom and destruction, rather a darkness revealing the marvelous light of God.  There, it was in the torch passing down the line of sacrifices, as God established His terms with our forebear.  Here, in the Last Day, we are seeing that promise borne out, the culmination of every covenant blessing.  And once more, though the day is terrible indeed to behold, the terror is not for God’s own, but for those whose iniquities have now been found complete.

Amos makes use of the imagery of darkened day as well, to speak of a time of judgment coming upon the people of God, or those God had right to call His own, but who were not so in practice.  Amos speaks particularly into a time when the rich in Israel had lost all concern for holiness, a time of which God Himself had warned His   people from the outset before ever they entered into the promised land.  They were dishonest.  They took advantage of the poor and needy, and of them, God says, “Indeed, I will never forget their deeds” (Am 8:5-14).  And it is on this account that judgment is declared, a day in which the God says, “I will make the sun go down at noon.  I will make the earth dark in broad daylight.”  Pleasures will turn to sorrows, plenty to famine.  And their famine will be not for bread and water, ‘but rather for hearing the words of the LORD.’  They will seek, but not find.  They will fall and not rise again.

Now this feels somewhat distinct from what we hear from Joel.  And given the particulars, especially the famine of God’s word, we might well construe this as having had at least partial fulfillment in that period just prior to the birth of Jesus, when for several hundred years, no word had come from the Lord, and the people hungered for it.  The judgment, particularly given that closing thought of the chapter, sound far more final.  And perhaps we should accept that for those being called out here, it was in fact more final.  Things had progressed too far.  Like the Amorites, they had completed the sum of their iniquities and all that remained was to judge and punish.  Indeed, if we read further in that book, we come to this.  “Nevertheless, I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob” (Am 9:8-12).  Yet, “All the sinners of My people will die by the sword, though they say, ‘The calamity will not overtake us.’  In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, rebuild it as of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by My name.”  Thus declares the LORD who does this. The judgment is indeed final upon those who are judged, but there remains a remnant.  There remains a seed stock of righteousness, and not only for the nation of Israel, but for all the nations called by God.

Isaiah takes up the image, introducing a judgment upon the whole world.  “The day of the LORD is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, to make the land desolate.  And He will exterminate its sinners from it.  Stars and constellations will not flash their light.  The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will shed no light.  Thus I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity.  I will put an end to arrogant pride, and abase the pride of the ruthless.   Heavens and earth will shake at the fury of the LORD of hosts in the day of His burning anger” (Isa 13:9-13).  Here, too, is Babylon overthrown (Isa 13:19).  And there is also a distinction made as concerns Israel, who will once more be settled in their lands, and such that strangers will seek to be made part of them (Isa 14:1-2).  So we have a sense of these shaking events coming upon all, but to different result.  This might suggest to us that the Tribulation is a period we must indeed pass through, who belong to our Lord.  If this be so, then let us remain mindful that we pass through it with the assurance that He to whom we belong will indeed see us through, and see us restored.

Ezekiel comes to the same image, in his case proclaiming against Egypt.  Their destruction is proclaimed in rather decisive terms.  “And when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, darken the stars, cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light.  All will be darkness in the heavens, and on your land” (Eze 32:1-8).  And here is Babylon yet again, coming as the destroyer, and that, clearly, by the LORD’s command (Eze 32:11).  If nothing else, we have a clear connection of this darkening of the natural lights with a time of holy judgment, a final judgment.

Micah, when he comes to this imagery, turns to the people of God.  “It will be night for you, without vision.  It will be darkness, with no divination.  The sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will become dark over them.  They will be ashamed to speak, for they call and there is no answer from God.  On the other hand I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, with justice and courage to make known to Jacob his rebellious acts, to Israel his sin” (Mic 3:6-12).  And so, judgment will fall on Zion because its rulers abhor justice, and twist things.  “They lean on the LORD saying, ‘Is not the LORD in our midst?  Calamity will not come upon us.’”  And due to this false confidence, Zion will be plowed under, and the temple become like the high places of the forest.

Here is warning for us in our own day.  It is well to have confidence in our Lord, for He has given us ample reason to be confident in Him.  But to allow that confidence to become cover for sin?  May it never be!  To take His presence as license?  Far be it from us!  To proclaim peace when God is proclaiming, “Repent!”?  This would be an absolute dereliction of duty.  And we find it all too easy to fall into just such a false hopefulness for those who are perishing.

Coming into the New Testament, as we have seen, Peter takes up Joel’s imagery directly, as explanation for what is happening as the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the disciples in the upper room.  Jesus also makes use of these visuals as He teaches His disciples on the matter of the last days (Mt 24), but I’m going to hold that one for later, as well as the notice given in the Revelation, as to issues with sun and moon.  For now, I think we have enough of a sense of just how fully this view of darkened sun and moon are ingrained in the forthtelling of God’s judgment.

It might raise some slight questions with us, to consider that God, Who is Light, so often associates darkness with His presence.  We saw that looking back upon Abram as he received the covenant of faith by faith.  We see it as well, when God meets with Moses on the mountaintop.  The place is swathed in thick clouds and gloom.  It seems to me that same scene plays out again at the Transfiguration of Christ.  But perhaps we can understand it best in recognizing that the Light is most gloriously seen as it pierces the darkness.  And perhaps, just perhaps, we should recognize that this darkening of the lights in the heavens is not necessarily some cataclysmic destruction of the universe, but rather the interjection of this cloud of God’s presence between their heights and our earthbound point of observation.  He is coming, after all, on the clouds of heaven.   And in Ezekiel, at least, we see the involvement of clouds in this darkening of the sun, although we might readily surmise that they are rather thicker than those we experience on an overcast day, or even on the most overcast of days.  I dare say it will be such that no doubt is left as to the supernatural aspect of the matter, particularly as it would seem to me to be a worldwide event.  But that is probably getting very far ahead of myself, so let’s leave it here for today, and tomorrow. We can start digging into matters more directly.