Shinar



“The light that Daniel received direct from God was given especially for these last days. The visions he saw by the banks of the Ulai and the Hiddekel, the great rivers of Shinar, are now in process of fulfillment, and all the events foretold will soon have come to pass.”


 


(Letter 57, 1896) 4BC 1166


 


So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.


Genesis 11:8.


The dwellers on the plain of Shinar established their kingdom for self-exaltation, not for the glory of God. Had they succeeded, a mighty power would have borne sway, banishing righteousness and inaugurating a new religion. The world would have been demoralized.... But God never leaves the world without witnesses for Him. At this time there were men who humbled themselves before God and cried unto Him. “O God,” they pleaded, “interpose between Thy cause, and the plans and methods of men.”


When the tower had been partially completed, a portion of it was occupied as a dwelling place for the builders; other apartments, splendidly furnished and adorned, were devoted to their idols....


Suddenly the work that had been advancing so prosperously was checked. Angels were sent to bring to naught the purpose of the builders. The tower had reached a lofty height, and it was impossible for the workmen at the top to communicate directly with those at the base; therefore men were stationed at different points, each to receive and report to the one next below him the orders for needed material or other directions concerning the work. As messages were thus passing from one to another the language was confounded, so that material was called for which was not needed, and the directions delivered were often the reverse of those that had been given. Confusion and dismay followed. All work came to a standstill....


Up to this time all men had spoken the same language; now those that could understand one another’s speech united in companies; some went one way, and some another. “The Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth.” This dispersion was the means of peopling the earth, and thus the Lord’s purpose was accomplished through the very means that men had employed to prevent its fulfillment.


CC 43


In our day the Lord desires that His people shall be dispersed throughout the earth. They are not to colonize. Jesus said: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature”


( Mark 16:15).


 


 


 


“Ancient Infidelity.—The dwellers on the plain of Shinar disbelieved God’s covenant that he would not again bring a flood upon the earth. Many of them denied the existence of God, and attributed the flood to the operation of natural causes. Others believed in a supreme being, and that it was he who had destroyed the antediluvian world; and their hearts, like that of Cain, rose up in rebellion against him. One object before them in the erection of the tower of Babel was to secure their own safety in case of another deluge. By carrying the structure to a much greater height than was reached by the waters of the flood, they thought to place themselves beyond all possibility of danger. And as they would be able to ascend to the region of the clouds, they hoped to ascertain the cause of the flood. The whole undertaking was designed to exalt still further the pride of its projectors, and to turn the minds of future generations away from God, and lead them into idolatry.”


 


Patriarchs and Prophets, 119.


 


“But no sooner was the earth repeopled than men resumed their hostility to God and heaven. They transmitted their enmity to their posterity, as though the art and device of misleading men, and causing them to continue the unnatural warfare, was a sacred legacy (Letter 4, 1896).


3-7. Confederacy Born of Rebellion—This confederacy was born of rebellion against God. The dwellers on the plain of Shinar established their kingdom for self-exaltation, not for the glory of God. Had they succeeded, a mighty power would have borne sway, banishing righteousness, and inaugurating a new religion. The world would have been demoralized. The mixture of religious ideas with erroneous theories would have resulted in closing the door to peace, happiness, and security. These suppositions, erroneous theories, carried out and perfected, would have directed minds from allegiance to the divine statutes, and the law of Jehovah would have been ignored and forgotten. Determined men, inspired and urged on by the first great rebel, would have resisted any interference with their plans or their evil course. In the place of the divine precepts they would have substituted laws framed in accordance with the desires of their selfish hearts, in order that they might carry out their purposes” ( The Review and Herald, December 10, 1903).


1BC 1091-1092


 


“For a time, the descendants of Noah continued to dwell among the mountains where the ark had rested. As their numbers increased, apostasy led to division. Those who desired to forget their Creator and cast off the restraint of His law felt a constant annoyance from the teaching and example of their God-fearing associates. After a time they decided to separate. Accordingly they journeyed to Shinar on the banks of the Euphrates, attracted by the beauty of the situation and the fertility of the soil.


Here they decided to build a city and in it a tower of such height as should render it the wonder of the world. God had directed men to disperse throughout the earth, but these Babel builders determined to keep their community united and to found a monarchy that should embrace the whole earth. Thus their city would become the metropolis of a universal empire. Its glory would command the admiration and homage of the world. The magnificent tower, reaching to the heavens, was intended to stand as a monument of the power and wisdom of its builders.


The dwellers on the plain of Shinar disbelieved God’s covenant that He would not again bring a flood upon the earth. One object in the erection of the tower was to secure their safety in case of another deluge.


And as they would be able to ascend to the region of the clouds, they hoped to ascertain the cause of the Flood. The whole undertaking was to exalt the pride of its projectors and to turn future generations away from God.


When the tower had been partially completed, suddenly the work that had been advancing so prosperously was checked. Angels were sent to bring to naught the purpose of the builders. The tower had reached a lofty height, and men were stationed at different points, each to receive and report to the one next below him the orders for needed material. As messages were passing from one to another, the language was confounded so that the directions delivered were often the reverse of those that had been given. All work came to a standstill. The builders were wholly unable to account for the strange misunderstandings among them and in their rage and disappointment reproached one another. Lightnings from heaven as an evidence of God’s displeasure broke off the upper portion of the tower and cast it to the ground.”


 


EP70-71


 


Approaching Doom


“The first years of Jehoiakim’s reign were filled with warnings of approaching doom. The word of the Lord spoken by the prophets was about to be fulfilled. The Assyrian power to the northward, long supreme, was no longer to rule the nations. Egypt on the south, in whose power the king of Judah was vainly placing his trust, was soon to receive a decided check. All unexpectedly a new world power, the Babylonian Empire, was rising to the eastward and swiftly overshadowing all other nations.


Within a few short years the king of Babylon was to be used as the instrument of God’s wrath upon impenitent Judah. Again and again Jerusalem was to be invested and entered by the besieging armies of Nebuchadnezzar. Company after company—at first a few only, but later on thousands and tens of thousands—were to be taken captive to the land of Shinar, there to dwell in enforced exile. Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah—all these Jewish kings were in turn to become vassals of the Babylonian ruler, and all in turn were to rebel. Severer and yet more severe chastisements were to be inflicted upon the rebellious nation, until at last the entire land was to become a desolation, Jerusalem was to be laid waste and burned with fire, the temple that Solomon had built was to be destroyed, and the kingdom of Judah was to fall, never again to occupy its former position among the nations of earth.


PK 422.2


 


Those times of change, so fraught with peril to the Israelitish nation, were marked with many messages from Heaven through Jeremiah. Thus the Lord gave the children of Judah ample opportunity of freeing themselves from entangling alliances with Egypt, and of avoiding controversy with the rulers of Babylon. As the threatened danger came closer, he taught the people by means of a series of acted parables, hoping thus to arouse them to a sense of their obligation to God, and also to encourage them to maintain friendly relations with the Babylonian government.”


 


 


 Zechariah 5


 


 


Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.


And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is  twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.


Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.


I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.


Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.


And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.


And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.


And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.


Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.


Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?


And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.


Zechariah 5:1-11


(((This prophecy is fulfilled in the time of the captives taken to the land of Shinar (Babylon).)))


 


“Soon after the fall of Babylon and the beginning of the universal empire of Medo-Persia, in the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede, Daniel the prophet “understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.”


Daniel and his companions had been taken to Babylon “in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah.” They were members of the first company of captives whom Nebuchadnezzar brought from Jerusalem into the land of Shinar. Daniel was well acquainted with the prophecies of Jeremiah at the time they were given, and he had passed through the periods immediately succeeding the first and the second sieges of Jerusalem, when many false prophets had arisen with the claim that the captivity was to be of short duration.”


RH March 14, 1907,


 


 


“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god.”


RH February 10, 1910,