mysterybabylonpt2

Now also, when we look further at the descriptions of this mystery Babylon and this great city in Revelation, in chapter 11 and verse 8, the Bible says, And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Now, in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and the verses 32, Jerusalem, by Moses, speaking of their last days, which would come after many generations, therefore he was foretelling the future, he was foretelling the terminal generation, he says of them that their vine was as the vine of Sodom, and that their field was like unto Gomorrah. So, they are likened to Sodom and Gomorrah. He's talking about Israel in her last days, that would refer to Judah, the southern kingdom, and therefore to Jerusalem. He says, God was going to take vengeance on her. Vengeance was mine, the Lord said, and he would repay, and he would take vengeance against them. They were called the perverse and crook generation, which Paul alludes to in Philippians 2 and verse 15, and also Peter does on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 and verse 40, where he says, Save yourselves from this perverse generation. So, that's the same adulterous and sinful generation which Jesus talked about. Now, she is called, therefore, spiritual Sodom, here in Revelation 11 and 8, in Deuteronomy. Also in Ezekiel 16, she is compared with Samaria, and that is the ten northern tribes, and said that she was more wicked than Samaria, and even her sister to the south of her, which was Sodom, again, comparing Jerusalem with Sodom, so I encourage you to go back and read Ezekiel chapter 16. Now, in addition to that, we find that she is also called Egypt. He says, the city which spiritually is called Sodom, but also Egypt. Now, why is she likened to Egypt? It's because Egypt indicated or symbolized bondage and captivity. You may recall, at the time of the Exodus, that Israel had been in bondage and captivity in Egypt for quite some time, and they were about to be delivered under the hand of Moses. And there were a lot of plagues that God brought, ten plagues that God brought upon the nation of Egypt in order to destroy all of their idol gods. So it represented idolatry, it represented the persecution of God's people, it represented bondage and captivity, a type of death and sin. Now, here's what Christ said about the Jews in John chapter 8, verse 31, beginning. He says, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Well, the Jews looked at Christ, they responded to him in this manner, saying, We are Abraham's seed, we've never been in bondage to any man. How say you that we should be made free? So Jesus had to explain it to them, he had to break it down and tell them, he who commits sin is the servant of sin. Therefore, they were spiritually in bondage, they were spiritually like those in the captivity in Egypt. And thus, he says, they were of their father the devil, because he was a liar and a bold not in the truth, and therefore the first murderer. They were murderers like Satan, he's going to tell them later, and they were sinners, they were therefore in spiritual captivity, they were in bondage, and thus they were a type of Egypt. This is why you see many of the references to Egypt and the journey from the wilderness in the books like Corinthians and in Hebrews. Now, in the fourth chapter of Galatians, Paul writes to those who knew the law, saying, Tell me, you who desire to hear the law, he says, to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Where it is said that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond woman and the other by a free woman? He says, But he who was of a bond woman was born according to the flesh, but he who was of the free woman was born according to the promise. Which things are symbolic? For these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which genders or gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. Notice that Paul said that the woman who was born according to the flesh represented Hagar, these were symbolic, these were symbolic of the old covenant, and therefore they were in bondage. They were in bondage with their children, that represented the Jerusalem that now was, that's first century Jerusalem, not a rebuilt Jerusalem, that is 21st century Jerusalem, Paul said, which now is, and they were in bondage with their children. So he likens them, he tells you directly from the text that they are Egypt, that corresponds with Revelation chapter 11 and verse 8, the city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. Now, in addition, we find that there is another descriptive phrase that adds these two together, so number one, we have they're like Sodom, spiritually, number two, they're like Egypt, but number three, he says it is the city where also our Lord was crucified.