The Gods of Babylon Pt 1

0:01 All right. Isaiah chapter forty. Isaiah chapter forty. Last week we covered nine through eleven. Wow, actually we covered kind of a transition from nine. We covered nine through eleven. We kind of covered the transition there between sections. I think we did a pretty good job with all of that. What we'll do, we'll start this hour. We're going to read Isaiah forty one through eleven. We need to start starting and start verse twelve and following. But we have something else we have to do before we can cover that section, which we talked about briefly last week. But here we go. Isaiah chapter forty, Verse one, Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry under her that her warfare is a comish, that her iniquity is pardon, for she hath received of the Lord's hand, double of all her sins.

1:07 The voice of Him that crist and the wilderness prepare ye. The way of the Lord makes straight, and the desert our way. For our God. Every valley should be exalted, every mountain shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough place is plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice said cry, And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass witheeth, the flower faith because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass.

1:48 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth. But the word of our God shall stand forever. Oh, Zion, that bring us good tidings. Get thee up into the high mountain Erusalem, that bring us good tidings. Lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up. Be not afraid, say, into the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arms shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm, carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Now I stressed specific things just because of all the sermons I have listened to on Isaiah forty through fifty five.

2:35 You can probably especially in the first couple of verses, you probably noticed it. If you go back to Isaiah chapter forty, Verse one, comfort yee, you see that comfort ye? And in next my people, saith your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry onto her who's the her Jerusalem? That who's the her Jerusalem is accomplished, That who's who's the her Jerusalem is pardon for who's the she Jerusalem hath received? That the Lord's hand double for all who's the her Jerusalem? Okay, I know why that should not be hard, that should not be difficult. But for some weird reason, after one hundred sermons on Isaiah forty all I get over and over and dover is us us us us us us us us us. I have no idea how we end up there, because that has nothing to do with us. And then when you get to verse nine, Oh Zion, that bring us good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain, Oh Jerusalem, that bring us good tidings. Lift up thy voice with strength lifted up, Be not afraid say into the cities of Judah. I know I have to care. In some ways, I feel like I shouldn't have to emphasize that at all. I feel like I should not even have to waste one

4:07 second doing that. But every week I listen to another sermon, and every week I realize, for some weird reason, it's impossible for pastors to stand behind pulpits and actually talk about what it's actually about. It's not about us, it's about them, and who is the them, specifically Judah. Where are they at Babylonian captivity? Right? Okay, that's where they are at. There is Judah and Babylonian captivity, and a message is to be brought to them. And that message is a message of comfort. Meaning Isaiah forty through fifty five is referred to as the Book of Comfort or the Book of Consolation, and they need comfort because what is about to happen. Well, the comfort is where they're in captivity, right, Remember that the comfort is written before they go into captivity. But they're about to be released from captivity. Their captivity is about to come to an end.

5:07 And how is their captivity going to be brought to an end by whom? Cyrus? Okay, we talked about this over and over. You've got to I don't know why you have to emphasize that so much, because anyone just reading this could figure out who it's about. But we have to emphasize this. So we've taken care of all of that. We've gone from verse one all the way to verse eleven. We've done it verse by verse. We've covered everything, and I'm just emphasizing the main point. We've seen all of this, but one of the big issues it's going to happen starting in verse twelve and following there's going to be specific words given to them because of the specific situation in which they find themselves. And we'll just start looking at some of this so that we can see, all right, just look at starting in verse twelve, Who hath measured the waters and the hollow of his hand, and meeted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth and a measure, and weighed the mountains and scales, and the hills and a balance. Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his Counselor hath taught him with whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding. Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles as a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beast thereof sufficient for a

6:39 burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity. What is the significance? What is God attempting to do? He's bringing comfort to them, But in verses twelve to eighteen or seventeen, what is he attempting to do here? Okay, well, that's I think that's what we even put in our outline, right, is showing his incomparable greatness. Now, why what is the practical significant reason he is trying to dim after trying to give these you know, all these other words that we've talked about, right, comfort, letting them know everything's coming to an end, Why is he trying to take the time to speak to them about his incomprehensible, incomparable greatness and doing so in these kind of like rhetorical kinds of questions? Right, what is he hoping to accomplish for the people in a practical way? Well, one who is trying to demonstrate I'm greater than whom Babylon right, I'm greater than the people who have you in captivity, so trust me and that and that is a word of comfort, right, It still goes with the overall idea of comfort. I'm greater than your circumstance, I'm greater than your problem, I'm greater than your captors. Right now, philosophically, that raises all

8:10 kinds of problems because you could say, well, if you're so great, why have we been here for well, yeah, so long because ultimately they're going to be there for seventy years. Okay, So you can understand where it can raise some questions, but it's still stating a fact, right, and that's all. And that's one of the most difficult things about faith in God is we have faith in a God that's greater than all of our problems, but our problems still here. We have a God who's greater than our sinful nature. Yet they say yeah, so yeah, I mean, that's that's the whole issue with faith right there. But so he's trying to show them, now there's a very practical reason in a sense to give them comfort that he is greater than the nation that has them in captivity, which would be very important because they may feel helpless, hopeless, and may feel like when you're hearing these words, that it's all coming to an end. It would be attempting to say, what, Look, I don't know who you are, and I don't know why you're bringing these words. We could you go somewhere else because we've been here almost seventy years? You're ridiculous, right, let it's a reminder. But what's the second reason? He wants them to understand that his greatness, his power, all of these things is incomparable, incomprehensible all the words you want to use.

9:22 What's the second very practical reason this is occurring. What's the second reason this is occurring. If you just remember your observational outline, you should know this. If you've just read the chapter, you should know this. If you just look ahead, you should know this. Okay, there we go. The second reason he is doing this is because the people live where Babylon. They've been there for possibly if this is getting close to the end of their captivity, they've been there for almost seventy years. Right, Some people have died during that time, but they've been there, and what have they witnessed in their seventy years? In Babylon sixty eight years fifty years, depending on exactly when, of course, the message was given before they even get there. But when this message is kind of retold to them, all right, spoken to them, they have been surrounded, they have been indoctrinated.

10:24 They have seen for their entire time the religious system of Babylon. They have been we'll use this word, they have been catechised in Babylonian religion. And when they come out, there is going to be a great temptation to bring with them what the religious belief of Babylon or to do what with it? What's it called when you take one religious system and another religious system and kind of merge them together syncretism? There we go. And do they have a history of doing this? They were in Egypt for four hundred years, right, four hundred plus, Right, when they come out of Egypt and Moses kind of goes away, what do they want a golden calf? Why do they want a golden calf? Well, if you know anything about Egyptian religion, the calf, the cattle was a very important part of their religious system, right, Okay, So they did they want to replace God? They wanted something almost a symbol of God or something that would represent God. So this merging of the concepts together. Look at Isaiah forty.

11:43 If you think I'm crazy, looking immediately at verse eighteen, After they spend all of this time showing the majesty and power of God, what is immediately they do and the writer does in verse eighteen, to whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare? Unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation, chooseth a tree that will not rut. He seeketh under him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved? What is immediately the discussion about idolatry. The idolatry discussion flows from what the entire discussion demonstrating the incomprehensible, incomparable God and how great God is? Does everybody understand that? So?

12:45 What are the two reasons we have that section on how powerful and great God is? What are the two reasons that section exists? God is greater in Babylon, God is greater than the idols. One is to comfort them, to give them some hope, and the second is to what try to protect them and help them from not bringing in bringing with them their Babylonian religious system that they have been taught. It's simple, it's Straightford. Remember it's about them, Okay, we want to make this about us. It's about them first and foremost. So then this what before we talk about the majesty and power of God, before we talk about the idols. Then it is absolute.

13:33 I cannot state this. It is absolutely essential. And not just me. I'm saying that. I asked Ai if it was true, and AI said, it is essential. Okay, I believe it's essential. AI believes it's essential. Anyone who reads should believe it's essential. It's essential to grasp the religious context of Babylon during the time lead being up and during the exile of Judah. If you do not understand the religious system of Babylon, you cannot understand Isaiah forty.

14:14 Is that simple. Let's simple, and time and time again, that is true in scripture. I cannot stress. I spent just the uh the other day, I spent like an hour, an hour, hour and a half trying to once again, because I get so tired of listening to sermons on the Book of Hebrews and they never It just seems that churches are incapable. What do you have to understand to interpret the Book of Hebrews correctly? Seventy eight eighty seventy seventy eighty you have to you have to understand that, or everything in the Book of Hebrews falls apart. But what a pastor after pastor do with a pre the Book of Hebrews. They don't care about seventy eight because they make the Book of Hebrews about whom us? What is the book called Hebrews? Meaning it's written to Jews, and it's written depending on where we date it, we know somewhere between sixty if you want to go early to maybe all the way up to sixty eight. Well, what started in sixty six? Oh, come on sixty six AD?

15:33 What I started in sixty six AD? The siege of Jerusalem begins in sixty six AD. Okay, So if it's written somewhere between sixty six, sixty seven sixty eight, it's written to Jews. When what was occurring the siege? And what did Jesus say? And I think it's Luke. Maybe he said it in Matthew. When you see Jerusalem surrounded, flee, get out, listen, get out right the now. Pastors take that and make it about the Second Coming, which once again has nothing to do with the Second Coming. It's just maddening how many times in the Bible you have to start arguing with people and it's like, I don't even know why we're arguing. You seem incapable of understanding the historical context. It doesn't require that much to do a little bit of work to go. This was written to a specific people in a specific time. What do I need to do? Ignore me and figure out who the people were and what was the time. Same thing is true of Hebrews, same thing is true of Isaiah.

16:40 So what should we then do We have to spend the time understanding the Babylonian religious beliefs. We have to, so we're gonna We're already almost only a half an hour to go, so we're probably gonna have to do this the next hour as well. I would like to have done this in one hour. There's just no way to get through this because the introduction took so long. But that gets us all on the same page. Alright, So our job here is when you leave here, not to be a complete expert, because it would take us years, but to have such a good understanding of it that when you read the next part you're like, hey, I understand this perfectly. All right? Does that make sense? So here's what we will start with, kind of a simple overview.

17:28 Babylon was one of the most religiously complex and idle dominated societies in the entire ancient world. Babylon wastive was one of the most religiously complex and idle dominated societies in the ancient world. Now that kind of makes sense now, right, because you could be what could you if you're just reading Isaiah? Remember we did. I didn't even get through all the questions, but I talked about the importance of asking the text questions, right, remember that study, and I gave you how we have to become great at asking questions. Well, if you're reading Isaiah forty, what question should come to your mind? Well, the question that should come to I think my mind or anybody's mind is wait a minute, these people are in captivity. Why are you taking the time out to give them a lesson about idolatry? Don't they have bigger problems to deal with, like I don't know, getting out of captivity. But then it makes sense. These people have been here for almost seventy years and they've been living where and Babylon, which was what everyone repeated, one of the most religiously complex and idle dominated societies in the ancient world. It had a system of God's plural temples, plural rituals, plural divination practices plural and it

19:10 shaped every aspect of their life. Every aspect of Babylonian life was shaped by their religion. Well, who's been a part of their everyday life? Bible are Judah? Does that make sense? All right? So there's kind of an overview. So let's start with number one. The core of Babylonian religion. It's polytheism. Okay, that's if you want. The core of Babylonian religion is polytheistic. It's polytheism. Polytheism means what many gods, many gods, polytheism to have a pantheon of gods if you want to use that term. All right, I'm gonna go through. I'm gonna try to go through the major ones.

19:55 We're not gonna be able to go through all of them. Well, we'll see if we can how we can do on this, all right. Babylonian religion was polytheistic, all right. I think everybody understands that they had many gods. Each god had a specific role and attributes. Their gods were believed to control every aspect of life, from nature to human affairs. So they had multiple gods, and the gods were connected to what everything that happened in life and to nature itself?

20:37 You could can you not see how Isaiah forty is literally addressing that reality? All right, let's go through these, all right, let's go with who's there? If you if we don't know any, there's probably two. I think everyone should get two of these. Right, If you were to name the major gods of Babylon, what's the first one. If we're gonna name the major gods of Babylon, what would be the first one? Look, if you have the Bible dictionary, look up I think God or gods. I think it will say the gods of Babylon. I think there's an entry. If you have to look there, it maybe take you a minute to find it. I think if you look up God, I think that it will be gods of or something along those lines. I don't think you can just find it by looking up Babylon.

21:32 I think you have to look up God or maybe pagan gods. See if you can find it. I think there's an entry. Do you have just gods? Okay? Nothing, okay. I thought maybe they would have an entry yea Mark Duke. Okay, there we go. Okay, that's where our what page is at five oh seven. There's a chart. Okay, there we go.

22:15 The patreon city of Babylon is Mark Duke, Mark Duke, Mark Duke, Mark Duk. However, you say his name, all right, do you see it? That's the Patrion god all right here, or you can put it this way. Marduk is the supreme god of Babylon. Okay, watch the scripture reference Jeremiah chapter fifty verse two. Let's look at it. Jeremiah chapter fifty verse two. R oh yeah, okay, yeah yeah. Marduk fifty verse two. Declare oh yeah, okay, it says b. E. L. Bell.

23:00 That's also the name. That's the name of Marduk. See it all right? But Jeremiah fifty verse two declare ye among the nations and publish is set up a standard published and concil not say Babylon is taken. Bell is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces, Her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. All right. Now, in some sources, if you look, it'll have Marduk and then in parentheses that have B. E. L. Bell. All right, does that make sense? But it's the patriots saint, the supreme Saint or so saint supreme god of Babylon. Right, Some would say Marduk is the chief deity of Babylon. And here's the key thing. It's protector. It's protector. Now why is that important? Well, if you're in Babylonian captivity, how long have you been there? Okay, what did Babylon do to your temple of your god? Destroyed it? So that would look like which god is greater? Marduk would look be far greater than the god of the Israelites, right right, I mean, come on, that's one of the reasons. Look, it was very important, especially in ancient times. Why would you because in some ways you'd be like, well, why would you go in and destroy the temple? Right? If you're taking over, why would you go destroy the religious institution? Right? Well,

24:30 because if you destroy their temple, what are you ultimately telling the people? Our God is greater than your God? And because our God is greater than you, then that you should not then fight us, resist us because our God is greater than your God. Do you want to be in trouble with God? If you live in a very kind of a religious culture, you could understand how that would have great psychological impact. Right, This is their supreme God. So why then does God in Isaiah forty emphasizes his greatness? Because the people are going to be very have to struggle with the fact. If our God is greater, then how come our God allowed his temple to be wiped off the face of the earth. That's going to be a struggle, right? Does that make sense?

25:20 All right? A little bit about Marduk. He was believed to have defeated the chaos monster that is referred to as Tiamatt or Tama, depending on Some people say Tiamot, some people say Tama. It's spelled tiamat. I heard it. I looked it up. Some people would say tama, some would say Tamott. I think it's tmas the right way, all right, But Marduke defeated this what would be referred to as chaos monster, and he'd established order in the universe. This would be a part of the Babylonian creation myth. All right, So Marduk, the chaos monster, he established universe, and he becomes then what the supreme God? It becomes the supreme God. Right. He obviously had a temple they called the temple Essegillia or Essigilia, depending on how you listen to people pronounce it. He had a tower, all right, and some believe that the Tower of Babel would have been like the tower that would have been there for Marduk and Babylon, Right, the Tower of Babel, Tower of Babylon, Right, Okay, this was the center of Babylonian worship, this temple, this tower, this would have been the center for the Babylonians to worship Marduk, who is the supreme God? Does that make sense?

26:46 All right? So there's Marduk. Now what would be And I think I if you notice, I have a tendency to refer to sometimes the god in either a male pronoun or female pronoun. I think Marduk is typically referred to, at least in Jeremiah in a female pronoun. Right, but okay, well, so I know I was a little confused that the referenced her, because I think it's typically he's referenced as a he. Right, Yeah, so I was a little confused by that. Does it name the mistress? Oh? Okay, that's it. Okay, that's a different one. Okay. Well, there is a female goddess in Babylon who's a major one that one may not be is major. And Sarah just said the one.

27:45 What is it Ishtar? Right? Ishtar goddess of love, war and fertility. Yes, it's not in the chart. It's not in the chart, I s okay. I think it's also. I think she's also known as Inana I n A n n a or something along those lines. Okay, and Nana. I believe it's how you would say it, Ishtar. And she's the goddess of love, war, and fertility. She's associated with sexuality, political power, and war. She's she's often depicted as a fierce warrior. It was a central figure in Babylonian rituals. So Marduk may have had a mistress, but Ishtar is the is the female goddess, a major one?

28:42 Remember the head. Just to make sure we understand this right, right, and not a factor. That's why Isaiah forty is here right to help them, right. So yeah, they would greatly be impacted by this. But I just want to make sure this is a clarification, not only for you guys, but from people listening. A lie. I am not in any way asserting or claiming that we are doing an in depth study of Babylonian religion. I'm just trying to give you the basics here, because if we did, we could turn this into like a six month college course, all right, because they had a I mean, they have so many gods, you just need to have the basic understanding, right that chart. How many gods or goddesses do they name on that chart for Babylon? Six? Okay? At least six? Okay.

29:35 So just so you know that we could look and look and look and probably expand and expand and expand, all right. I just wanted to make sure that that was fair. Okay. So the first major is Marduk, the second is Ishtar. Third Nabu Nabo, god of wisdom, writing and prophecy. Now Nabu what the main thing to know about him? He was seen as Marduk's son and the patreon god of scribes. Okay, how's it spelled? Oh? Okay?

30:18 Neeboh okay? Right? See okay, all right once again, And that's another thing you're going to find, is you'll find the god maybe with multiple names, multiple spellings, right, depending on who you listen to, multiple ways of saying it. Okay, so you can like, I don't want to be too asserted or too dogmatic about any of this. I'm trying to do my best, but each one I would have to break down and say, well, it's known by this name or it's spelled this way, so everyone understand, I'm doing the best I can here in a limited amount of time. All right, So this is the god of wisdom writing the main things. Know's Marduk's son. But here's what I think is important, not or how how is it spelled? There? In that nebo naba? Okay. He's also believed to be the one that would dictate divine wisdom to kings and priest. He would be the one who had dictated, so the king or the priest would be receiving information from Marduk's son, right, and mardukas they basically the Patrion saint or the patriot God of Babylon. I keep wanting to say saint for some weird reason. All right, everybody got that, so you could see where. But the point is the king, the priest, their words, their ideas would be then seen as coming from whom God a god?

31:48 Right now, why is that important? Well, which king defeated Israel? Right, the king of Babylon. So then the king of Babylon, his God must be true because his God gave him the wisdom to defeat us. So our God was defeated by their God. I want you to see the religious nature of it. And obviously, in the ancient world, what two concepts were always merged together? Religion and the civil government. They've always merged together. So therefore the civil government could do something and do it in the name of God, even if it meant killing your enemies. Well, but did they ever believe it was coming? They never really believed it was coming, right, Yeah, yeah, even when Jeremiah tried to tell them, They're like, no, you're basically anyone who tried to tell them it was coming, We're seen as not being patriotic or you know, or not having two faith in God. Oh Cyrus, Yeah, Well, yeah, Cyrus names God is the one, Yeah, not Marduk, not Nobody, naboo, nebo.

33:14 However you say his name, yeah, yeah, yeah, he still Yeah. He wasn't a believer, he was not a he was pagan. Yeah, he's a pagan king. Yeah, it's brilliant. That's why it makes the decree of Syrus so amazing. Yeah. So and fits in hip perfectly here, all right. So the number one is Marduk, Number two is Istar, number three is nah boo, nah boo. However you want to see his name. Number four Shamash s h a m a s h. Shamash was the god of the Sun and justice. He was the god responsible for illuminating truth and executing divine justice. Oh, that illuminating truth concept drives me nuts right now. From their category, from their perspective, then all right, just note if they have a God who eliminates truth, then whatever they believe would then be seen to be what true because God illuminated it. It's the same game we as Christians play when we say when pastors say God gave me this sermon, or when Christians say that they prayed and God gave him understanding of scripture, or that the Holy Spirit illuminates us to understand the Bible, or the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding us in truth. Just

34:45 know that there is nothing uniquely Christian about that. Every religion in the world thinks their God gives them understanding to believe, and that religion, therefore, that religion has to be true because their God gave them the way, the ability to understand it. It's all trash. It's trash for every religion, and it's trash for Christianity, all right. Because if Christianity was truly God illuminating us and guiding us into truth, then how many denominations should we have? How many interpretations of scripture should we have? How many beliefs should we have about baptism? I mean, I can go on and on and on. Do you know that within Church history there is not even agreement on something as simple as Matthew five to one. Matthew five to one, it's something, and I did it an hour and a half on this the stuff. This stuff just makes me want to scream. All right. Nobody can agree on how to we even interpret the Sermon on the Mountain throughout Church history. But Matthew five to one and seeing the multitude, He went up into a mountain, and when he was set his disciples came unto him. Do you know no body in church history can agree on who the actual audience was for the Sermon on the mount There's not even an agreement on that. Well, if the Holy Spirit's illuminating us and the Holy Spirit's giving us truth, then ladies and gentlemen, I think we should be able to figure out who the audience was for the Sermon on

36:16 the Mound. There's not agreement on faith, there's no agreement on repentance, there's not agreement on literally anything. It's maddening. It just drives me to the point of insanity. But yet we still claim God's illuminating us. Well, the Babylonians were the same way that a God for everything, a God giving them wisdom, a God giving them this, and a God illuminating and there we go and of course executing divine justice. You see how that works. If you believe God is on your side, then any action you take is what logically just right. It's every country does it when they go to war. When Americans go to war, who's on our side? God? The people we kill? God is not on their side, but they believe God is on their side. Everyone God, I hate to say it, the concept of God. There's no way to get around this, the concept of God. In many cases, it's hard not to accept. This is a human construct to give us justification for what we do. And we can condemn what we don't like, justify what we do like, and we can either carry out taking people's lands, killing people, and saying God is on our side. What was the major

37:47 thing that led America's expansion across this country taking land from people and killing people. Manifest destiny one of the most evil things in the history of our country, and our current administration is using the same terminology, which scares me to death. Manifest destiny is pure evil in my opinion. I know that puts me at odds with almost everyone, but I don't care. It's evil. Our country literally believed that we had manifest destiny to go and say I'm sorry that you're in a Native American tribe who've been here for one hundred years. You all die, and we take your land because God's on our side. That's messed up.

38:32 The conquistadors had the same kind of concept. That's all of that is just it's evil and well, but it's the one which makes you know. It's not unique to Christianity, it's unique to what every single religion when we get mad when Islam does something like that, right, every religion does it. That's a concerning thought. So I want you to see that all right now. So his symbol for Shamas was the solar disc, and he played a role in Babylonian law and prophecy see law. Babylonian law was connected to whom a god? You mixed religion in the civil government? Oh man, nothing good comes from that. Oh I cannot Oh yeah, don't even get me started on manifest destiny. That stuff makes me want to scream. All right, so we have time. There's I know people are showing up, and that's okay, they can wait. Number five s I N I'm just gonna cause sin because I don't house to say it, Okay, sin, if there's some other Babylonian way to say it sin. This is the moon god.

39:51 And guess what this god controlled time. So he was worshiped for agricul cultural cycles and celestial signs. Look to the heavens for a sign. And of course then agriculture is connected to a god, right, and that's the same thing, is true. That's just please note it's no different than what we do, right, Christians do the same thing. Do we believe our God controls everything? Yes, so it's the same kind of The only difference is we would say one god controls everything, and they would say multiple gods control different things. But it's the same concept. Religion in general has some similar concepts. There's no way to get around that right now. The next one is number six is n e r ga l norgal nor gaul. Right, this is the god of the underworld and the god of plague, feared as a destructive force. But we also prayed to in times of war of course, right, Negad is the god of the underworld and plague. He was seen as that god is destructive. But in a time of war, who did you play pray to? Nergall to do what? Destroy the enemy? Destroy the enemy because God is always on your side. It's like I always hate

41:22 in Super Bowl time or any any sport when when people are even high school football, when people pray and they pray somehow for God to help them in the game, I'm like, well, wait a minute, what if there's Christians on the other team. This God helping you or God helping that, Like it's the stupidest thing in the history of mankind to pray. And then afterwards God gave us the victory, so God wanted you to win, but not the people on the other team. Like that's just so that's it. In a minuscule way, It's just a football game, so nobody cares. But from a philological perspective, I want to scream at everyone involved because that's the same mindset that then goes to, well, we're God's on America side, so we can go over there and kill everyone and God we're doing the right thing because God's on our side.

42:04 That's what that leads to. That way of thinking is messed up, right. That's why I think we have to see God is trade other than Israel. I think we have to see God is transcendent to all nations and is not taking us like God may work but other Whenever you claim that God is on your side, that always becomes as a nation, it almost always is problematic. Even in Israel's history, we would believe God was on their side. But what didn't that lead to go in in and taking land and slaughtering everybody. Right. So, no matter no matter what religion, all religions connect their deity to their nation, believing their deity is on their side, and almost inevitably, it gives them the right to do what almost in this is a historical fact, to go take land and kill people. It's just a reality of religion.

43:02 This is why atheist and agnostics typically hate religion. You can't get around it. Everybody believes God is always on their side. And it goes all the way down to a football game and church. It goes down to what if Sarah disagrees with me and I disagree with Sarah, gives who both is gonna claim God is on She's gonna claim God is on her side and she's right, And I'm gonna claim God is on my side and I'm right. And it amazing that God's on everyone's side. That's because God, the concept of God. Look God, I'm not I'm gonna hear people gonna on the internet misunderstand me. I'm not saying God doesn't exist. I'm not saying that.

43:43 I'm saying that we cannot disagree with the fact that whether God exists or doesn't exist, it becomes a human construct so that we can justify basically anything. That's why everyone wants to claim God is on their side politically, because if God is on your side politically, then your political view one is what from God? They are? The Crusades? Uh, the Conquistadors manifest destiny. I mean it shows up throughout history in a million different ways. And then and if you think about the Crusades, the Muslims believe God was on their side, and then the Catholic countries established an army believing God was on their side. Well, everybody wanted to control over Jerusalem, right, because then we oh so many issues? All right? Then number seven, So what was the first god our duke? Second Ishtar? Number three Nabu naboo, right, number four Shamash, number five, Sin, number six Nirgal Norgal, and number seven Tiamat And this one the r Tama.

44:51 This is the one I feel more comfortable saying because I checked this one multiple times. Tamat Tiama. This was the primordial chaos goddess or goddess she she would be a she goddess and Babylonian mythology, she represents the chaos before creation and Barduke defeated her and symbolizing order overcoming disorder. So Tilmut was a female, all right, Marduk defeated her, brought chaos. She's like the primordial chaos goddess. Basically, women cause the chaos. The men have to fix it. That's kind of what the story is, right, And I'm joking a little bit there. Okay, Yeah, those are seven Those are just seven gods, and that's not listing all of them.

45:44 But what do you see in all of those seven gods? What do you see in those seven gods? What's the big takeaway here? Before we can end this hour? Okay? They are connected to every aspect of society, including government, justice, agriculture, every area of life would be touched by what a god? So guess what? Who cannot escape that? Those from Judah, they would not be able to escape it, right, And what could be playing in their mind from a just a logical perspective, Well, their king, their god defeated our God because our temple was destroyed. We were brought here and their God has been able to keep our God at bay for all of these years. God gives Isaiah a message to be delivered to the people about one hundred years after he is long gone. But what does it wants to try to demonstrate to them how incomparable and powerful God is. They're going to need to understand it.

47:05 But how are they gonna have to understand it by faith not by sight? Because even when they're released, it's not done in a supernatural, powerful way. It's the most boring way possible. The Babylonians basically kind of do what, as Sarah pointed out, just kind of say, hey, come on in, Sorrus. There's no it's not something dramatic. And then Sorrus does what, Hey, your god speaking basically Israel's God wants me to build a temple, and you're gonna go back and do it. And it's kind in some ways that's crazy. But there's nothing like, there's no powerful like an earthquake swallows up half of the Babylonians right, a planue comes in, there's fire from heaven. There there's nothing, there's no parting of the Red Sea. It's to ordinary.

48:03 And because it's so ordinary, it would be very easy for the people then to do what well, I mean, if the Babyloni has let Cyrus in, maybe Cyrus is on side of the Babylonian gods. Maybe this isn't our God but Cyrus. To give credit to the other god, it would still be philologically confounding and confusing for them to try to figure especially in that culture, right, especially in that culture and the way they would have understood things. So those are the seven major gods of Babylon and I want you to see all that, and you can see how throughout history, and what I want you to take from it from a practical perspective is that religion and the belief in God has impacted so much throughout the history of humanity in many ways, in a very bad way and a very bad way. Horrible things have happened.

49:03 When you take religion and you mix it with other things. Everyone wants to think it brings about good. I think it brings about bad so many horrible ways. Because it's hard to argue with someone when they say, basically, God's on my side. And that's a common argument within a lot when it comes to our current American politics. Talk to people who are Trump supporters, he's basically God's anointed and you're like, okay, well I can't argue with you, then, right, that ends the argument, right, if God's on his side, if I argue against him, then who am I arguing against God? And you know who is you know the person he put in charge of all of his faith.

49:55 You know plans paula White, absolute ridicu us lunatic. She's insane, completely nuts, charismatic. And some of the people around him are part of the New Apostolic Reformation, but absolutely one of the most dangerous charismatic movements. We got the Seven Mountain Mandate, all of I mean so much Christian nationalism all over it. But any Christian who warns against the Christian nationalism and the New Apostolic Reformation and all of this stuff and how Christianity is being merged with this MAGA movement, if you criticize it, then guess what, oh what's wrong with you? You don't believe in God, you don't have fati, you are liberal, you're woke, or I don't know. I think Christian nationalism is from the pit of hell. It's an issue about Christian nationalism that my issue is with it. But you see, and then if just the executive order he signed the other day, but you know now basically wanted to re establish Christianity, make America.

50:58 A Christian nation that scares meet. I want to pack up and run for my life. I don't want to be in a Christian nation because it's all great as long as I'm a part of their Christianity. Would I get along with the Christianity of the people he has around him? I would not, because it's charismatic nonsense. And what happens in history whenever religion takes over. I don't care which religion people die. That's a historical fact. So when you look at Babylon, you see how it was integrated. And that's true in all of those ancient societies, is it not. And every ancient society believed their deity was on their side and it gave them the right to do whatever they wanted to do. And that's the problem.

51:45 But for the bab for the people in Judah, they had to live in this and what was the concern they were going to walk out bringing what with them religious idea? And God's trying to fix that. And it's not the first time they've done it, because they have a history of doing wherever they went. What did they do? They assimulated and took on the idolatry of the land. And that what happened when even when they got into the Promised Land, what did they do? They didn't get rid of everyone, and they started intermarrying and assimulating and taking on the idolatry of the culture. They do it because well, we can talk about why why is it? Yeah, that's a whole different subject. But we'll stop there, all right.

52:33 Hopefully mixed. I tried to mix that academic aspect of it with practicality. Hopefully I mixed that too pretty well together. All right, next hour, we'll try to see if we can finish this. All right, Lord God, we come before you. Lord. We have used you for our own selfish purposes. We have fallen short, and how we've mixed and messed up our own motives the idea of your existence. Forgive us for that. Lord, they had idolatry all around them. We have our own idolatry that we create in our heart. Forgive us for what we have done, and help us just understand this so that we can understand Isaiah better.

53:17 And we asked this in Jesus name, and God's people said