Author : Keith Sharp
Introduction
Recently a letter to the editor in the “Watertown Daily Times” asserted, “The Bible is just a human book.” The author of the statement brashly demonstrated to the public his profound ignorance of the book he claimed to describe.
The Bible, totally unique among all books ever written, displays within its pages those characteristics which mark it as divine. The prophets of old introduced their messages by boldly announcing, “Thus says the Lord,” a phrase occurring 35 times in the book of Isaiah alone (cf. Isaiah 66:1). Peter declared, “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21), and Paul asserted, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Predictive Prophecy
One of the unique characteristics of the Bible that marks it as divine in origin is predictive prophecy. Only the Scriptures contain undeniably accurate predictions of the future that cannot be human in origin. Show me an alleged divine prophecy of the future found in the productions of Muhammed, Nostradamus, or Joseph Smith, and I will demonstrate it is a hoax. No one can successfully do this for the prophecies of the Bible.
Isaiah makes this claim for the Lord God.
Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it (Isaiah 46:9-11).
The Lord challenged Judah to recognize that He alone could infallibly foretell the future, even to the point of naming the man who would carry out His will generations before that man was born.
Before a predictive prophecy can be used as evidence of inspiration, it should meet five criteria: (1) the events must be beyond the power of men to foresee, (2) it must be demonstrated that the prediction was written long before the event, (3) the prediction must be applicable to the event, (4) the language of the prediction must be unambiguous and unmistakable, and (5) every prophecy or part of prophecy must be fulfilled; no mistakes are allowed (cf. Deuteronomy 18:20-22).
The Burden Against Babylon
Isaiah 13:1 – 14:23 contains just such a prophecy, “The burden (“oracle,” NASB, ESV) against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw” (Isaiah 13:1). Isaiah prophesied “in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” (Isaiah 1:1). He began to prophesy “in the year that King Uzziah died”, i.e., 739 BC (6:1). His public, prophetic ministry apparently lasted 53 years (739 B.C. – 686 B.C.).
In the day of Isaiah, Babylon was one of the great cities of the world but was politically subservient to Assyria. The Jews were troubled and molested by Assyria, but though the Assyrians destroyed Samaria (Israel, the ten Northern tribes) and took them captive in 721 B.C. (2 Kings 18:9-12), King Hezekiah and Judah were miraculously delivered from the Assyrian invasion (2 Kings 19:35-37; Isaiah 37:36-38).
But Isaiah foretold a time when the Lord would deliver the Jews from captivity in Babylon (Isaiah 14:1-6). Judah was destroyed and taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in three different conquests, from 605 B.C. to 586 B.C. (2 Kings 24:1 – 25:21; 2 Chronicles 36:5-21). The Jews remained servants of the Chaldeans (Babylonians) until an army of Medes and Persians conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. (Daniel chapter 5).
During the reign of Nebuchadnezzar (604 B.C. – 561 B.C.), Babylon became the most splendid, well fortified city in the world, perhaps the greatest city the world had known to its time. The old city of Babylon lay on the east bank of the Euphrates River, and Nebuchadnezzar built the new city on the west. He joined the two by a bridge 60 feet wide. Around the whole were double walls 87 feet thick and 350 feet high, making a square 15 miles on each side. Each side had 25 gates of bronze flanked by towers and inset for further protection. From these walls streets 151 feet wide traversed the city, making it an enormous grid. Within the new city Nebuchadnezzar built his famous, multi-tiered “hanging gardens” to the same height as the walls. The city lay in a fertile plain that insured plentiful food, even as the river insured water. The trade between East Asia on the one side and West Asia , Africa, and Europe on the other flowed through Babylon, making it the “world trade center” and a city of magnificent wealth. In the day of Isaiah, the utter destruction of Babylon was much less likely from the viewpoint of human wisdom than the complete destruction and desolation of New York City would be to us today.
But the prophet boldly prophesied:
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, Who will not regard silver; And as for gold, they will not delight in it. Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces, And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb; Their eye will not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited, Nor will it be settled from generation to generation; Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there. But wild beasts of the desert will lie there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches will dwell there, And wild goats will caper there. The hyenas will howl in their citadels, And jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, And her days will not be prolonged (Isaiah 13:17-22).
Isaiah in spirit places himself at least 150 years in the future with the Jews in the Babylonian captivity (Isaiah 14:1-6) and foretells that the Medes would conquer Babylon, that Babylon would be utterly destroyed and depopulated, and that the once breath-takingly magnificent city would be inhabited only by wild creatures. Later Isaiah even calls the man, Cyrus, by name who would lead the conquest of Babylon and deliver the Jews from bondage (Isaiah 44:23 – 45:2).
Fulfillment
“Media was a country east of Assyria…. At the time when this prophecy was uttered… Media was a dependent province of the kingdom of Assyria” (Barnes. 256).
Cyrus, of the Elamite province of Anshan, came to the throne about 559 B.C. and defeated the Median Army about 549 B.C., thus uniting the Medes and the Persians. In 539 B.C., Cyrus and his army took the city of Babylon, whose citizens received him as a liberator. The buildings of the city were left intact, but Babylon’s political and military power were brought to an end. (Hailey. 134)
Cyrus was able to take the city
by his clearing of the Pallacopas, a canal that was made for the purpose of emptying the superfluous waters of the Euphrates into the lakes and marshes formed by it in the south-west borders of the province towards Arabia. Into this canal he directed the waters of the Euphrates, and was thus enabled to enter the city in the channel of the river under the walls…. He took the city by surprise, and when the inhabitants, confident of security, had given themselves up to the riot of a grand public festival; and the king and the nobles were revelling at a public entertainment. From this cause, also, it happened that the waters, which were thus diverted from their usual channel, converted the whole country into a vast, unhealthy morass, that contributed greatly to the decline of Babylon (Barnes. 257-8).
… Cyrus left the city still standing with its double ring of walls. ‘Darius Hystaspis, who had to conquer Babylon a second time in 518 B.C., had the walls entirely destroyed, with the exception of fifty cubits. Xerxes gave the last thrust to the glory of the temple of Belus. Having been conquered by Seleucus Nicator (312), it declined just in proportion as Seleucia rose…. At the time of Strabo (born 60 B.C.) Babylon was a perfect desert’ (I. 304). Alexander of Macedonia had wanted to restore the city, but he died (323 B.C.) before getting the project under way. So although not immediately, the prophecy was totally fulfilled.(Hailey. 135, quoting H.C. Leupold) It might be supposed that, though it was destroyed, it would still furnish pasturage for flocks. But no, says the prophet, it shall be so utterly and entirely desolate, that it shall not even afford pasturage for them. The reasons of this are – (1) that the whole region round about Babylon was laid under water by the Euphrates after the city was taken, and became a stagnant pool, and of course an unfit place for flocks; and (2) that Babylon was reduced to an extended scene of ruins – those extended wastes of broken walls, of bricks and cement – no grass would grow. … It is said that the Arabs cannot be persuaded to remain there even for a night. They traverse these ruins by day without fear; but at night the superstitious dread of evil spirits deters them from remaining there. (Barnes. 259-60)
Conclusion
Here is one of the truly remarkable prophetic proofs of the inspiration of the Scriptures. This prophecy easily meets all five criteria for true, predictive prophecy. Who would think in Isaiah’s day that the Medes, a people under the control of Assyria, would utterly destroy the great city of Babylon, which, at the time of its destruction, would be the greatest city in the world, perhaps the greatest the world had known to that point. And Isaiah uttered this prophecy about 175 years before it began to be fulfilled by Cyrus and over six centuries before it was completely fulfilled by the time of Strabo. There can be no doubt that the prediction applies to the event, for both Babylon and the Medes are specifically identified. The language of the prophecy, though couched in figures is clear and unmistakable. Even the smallest, most unbelievable (in Isaiah’s day) details have been completely fulfilled. The desolate ruins of the once magnificent city of Babylon are unanswerable proof that “prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).
No, the Bible is not just a human book. It is the final and complete special revelation of the mind of God to man. Study it; believe it; obey it. Your eternal salvation is at stake.
Works Cited
Barnes, Albert, Notes on Isaiah.
Bible
…English Standard Version
…New American Standard Bible
Hailey, Homer, Isaiah.
Young, Edward, Isaiah.
Pictures:
The Bible Almanac, ed. Packer, Tenney, and White, Jr. 131
The Bible Almanac, ed. Packer, Tenney, and White, Jr. 136
