The vision of the flying roll—The vision of the woman in the Ephah.

The three remaining night visions are of a different character. The first visions the prophet had were visions of comfort for Jerusalem and the dispersed nation, the overthrow of Babylon and all their enemies, divine forgiveness and the theocracy restored. Now follow the last three visions, and these are visions of judgment. Judgment precedes Israel’s restoration, and is very prominently connected with it.

The sixth night vision is the one of the flying roll. The prophet’s eyes seem to have been closed after the fifth vision, for we read, “And I lifted up my eyes again.” The flying roll he sees is twenty cubits long and ten cubits broad. The interpreting angel tells the prophet that it is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole land; for every one that stealeth shall be cut off on this side according to it, and every one that sweareth shall be cut off on that side according to it. The Lord of hosts has brought it forth and it is to enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth by His Name to a falsehood, and it shall lodge in the midst of His house and consume it, both its wood and its stone.

That this vision means judgment is evident at the first glance. Ezekiel had a similar vision. “And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe” (Ezek. ii: 9, 10). Ezekiel was to eat that book. This reminds us at once of the books in Revelation (chapters v. and x.), which are likewise connected with God’s judgments in the earth. The flying roll is written on both sides, signifying the two tables of stone, the law of God. Stealing and swearing falsely are mentioned because the one is found on the one side of the two tables of stone, and the other on the other side. However, it is no longer “Thou shalt not,” but on the flying roll are written the curses, the awful curses against the transgressors of God’s law which are now about to be put into execution. The curse is found in its awful details, as it refers to an apostate people, in Deuteronomy xxvii. and xxviii. The roll is of immense size, and on it are the dreadful curses of an angry God. The vision must have been one of exceeding great terror. Imagine a roll, probably illumined at night with fire, moving over the heavens, and on it the curses of an eternal God—wherever it moves its awful message is seen; nothing is hid from its awe-inspiring presence. It reminds one of the fiery handwriting on the wall in the king’s palace. Surely such an awful judgment is coming by and by, when our God will keep silence no longer. One of the sublimest judgment Psalms, the fiftieth, mentions something similar to this flying roll. “When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speaketh against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes” (Psalm 1: 18-21). The flying roll stands undoubtedly in connection with wickedness, theft and false swearing, as it is found in so many forms in unbelieving Israel, but it finds also a large application in the judgment of wickedness throughout the earth in the glorious day of His appearing.

But the roll enters the house of the evil doer and remains there to punish not only the wicked persons but also to consume the timber and the stone. This may stand for the two facts: the secret places will be entered in that judgment, and it will be a thorough judgment which will consume all that is connected with wickedness. In Leviticus xiv. we read of the cleansing of the leper, that the leper’s house which was infected was completely destroyed. Elijah’s sacrifice was consumed by fire, and not alone the sacrifice but also the wood and the stones and the very water. God’s fire will again fall from heaven to consume the wood, hay, and stubble, nothing will be hid. Oh, what a burning day that day of the Lord will be when His well earned curses will be carried out, and none can escape.

Another application still of this vision of the flying roll may be made in connection with the established theocracy during the coming age. However, space forbids an enlargement.

The next vision is one of great interest and not a little difficulty. It claims our attention more than any of the other visions. In it we see again wickedness and judgment. The angel now calls the prophet’s attention to some startling vision. He sees an ephah going forth. And he said, this is their aim (literally aijn eye) in all the land. And, behold, a round piece of lead was lifted up, and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah. And he said, This is wickedness; and he cast her in the midst of the ephah, and cast the weight of lead in its mouth. And I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and, behold, two women came forth, and the wind was in their wings, and they had wings like stork wings, and they lifted up the ephah between earth and heaven. And I said to the angel that talked with me, Whither are these taking the ephah? And he said to me, To build for her a house in the land of Shinar; and it shall be established and settled there upon its own base.

That we have here a most striking and intensely interesting vision is at once evident. Alas! that so few students of the Word should pass it by without digging down to the depths and comparing scripture with scripture to find its true and final meaning! The vision is generally taken to mean wickedness in connection with Israel, and having its fulfilment in their captivity. Many other interpretations have been advanced which are, however, unsatisfactory. We have to look deeper and give this vision a very prayerful study. After much study and research we believe that the whole vision is identical with the final Babylon, the great harlot of Revelation, her fall and judgment, and all that is connected with it—wickedness put away, sealed up, the wicked one destroyed, and Satan chained.

What are the leading figures in the vision? An ephah—which is a Jewish measure standing here for commerce. The aim (eyes) of all the land (or earth) are upon it. Commercialism is very prominent in Revelation in connection with the full measure of wickedness, the climax of ungodliness. In Revelation xviii merchants are mentioned who have grown rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Then the merchants are seen weeping, for no man buys their merchandise any more. And then a long list follows, including all the articles of modern commerce. Compare this with the awful description of the last times in James v. Rich men are commanded to weep and howl, for miseries are come upon them. They heaped treasure together for the last days, and it was a heaping together by fraud, dishonesty in keeping back the hire of the laborers. They lived in pleasure (luxuriously) and been wanton. Indeed, here is that burning question of the day, capital and labor, and its final outcome, misery and judgment upon commercialism, riches heaped up, and all in wickedness. In Habakkuk ii: 12 the woe of judgment of that coming glory of the Lord is pronounced upon him that buildeth a town with blood and establisheth a city by iniquity! The people are seen laboring for the fire and wearying themselves for vanity. Luxuries, increase, riches, etc., are mentioned in the second and third chapters of Isaiah, chapters of judgment. Other passages could be quoted, but these are sufficient for our purpose. They show us that the climax of wickedness as it is in the earth when judgment will come, and Israel’s time commences once more, will be connected with commerce, riches and luxuries. The ephah points to this.

In the second place let us notice that in the midst of the ephah there is seen a woman. She is called wickedness. The Hebrew word wickedness is translated by the Septuagint with “ανομια” anomia. We find that the Holy Spirit uses the same word in 2 Thes. 2: 8, and then shall be revealed the wicked one (ανομος) whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the Spirit of His mouth. The woman in the ephah personifies wickedness. She has surrounded herself with the ephah and sits in the midst of it. Have we not here the great whore having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication? Undoubtedly. This woman is the type of evil and wickedness in its highest form. Let us glance at that wonderful description of that woman in Revelation. She is the great whore sitting upon many waters. She sits upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman is arrayed in purple and scarlet decked with gold, precious stones and pearls. Upon her forehead is seen her name, Mystery, BABYLON the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations in the earth. She is drunk with the blood of the saints. The woman in the ephah represents the same great whore, Babylon the great. This becomes at once clear when we take into consideration that the woman in the ephah is carried swiftly away and a house is built for her in the land of Shinar, and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base. Now the land of Shinar is Babylonia. There it is where the God-opposing power has its home and when it will end in final and total destruction.

But it is certainly worth the while to follow this up. The first city erected after the judgment of the first age was the city in the plain of Shinar. There they built a city and in it a tower, whose top was to reach into the heavens, to make themselves a name. Self, worship of the creature, had reached its climax, and confusion and judgment came swiftly. The Babylon of the Revelation is the very same attempt, only in its fullest development. It is Cain’s city—human strength, human wisdom, stored in it. A number of the wicked generation, after the confusion of tongues, remained in the land of Shinar as inhabitants of Babylon. In it wickedness, idolatry, luxuries, earthly glory and commerce prospered. Only a few of the inspired descriptions of ancient Babylon may be mentioned here: The Golden City, Isaiah xiv: 4. The lady of Kingdoms, Isaiah xvii: 5. Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitudes of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast labored from thy youth, Isaiah xlvii: 12. The praise of the whole earth, li: 41. Babylon! a golden cup in the Lord’s land, that made all the earth drunken, the nations have drunken of her wine, therefore the nations are mad, Jeremiah li: 7. It is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols, Jeremiah l: 38. O thou that dwellest in many waters, abundant in treasures, Jeremiah li: 13. Babylon was in splendor and outward glory for the kingdoms of the world, God opposing what Jerusalem was for the land. Jerusalem is the city of a great King and Babylon may be termed the city of the prince of this world. According to Herodotus, the walls of Babylon were 60 miles in circumference. They were 87 feet thick and 350 feet high. The city had 25 gates made of solid brass. The city contained 676 squares, beautifully and symetrically arranged. The river ran through the city, surrounded by high walls, and in it were brass gates and steps leading to the river banks. A wonderful bridge spanned the river. No such city ever stood in the earth again. Even the great cities of our days—Paris, London, New York and Berlin—do not reach the splendor, luxury and wealth of ancient Babylon. The king’s palace had a wall around it six miles long. The hanging gardens were considered the wonder of the world. The waterworks of Babylon, supplying the immense city and its hanging gardens from the river Euphrates, were more powerful and larger than any modern water supplies. A Roman historian gives a vivid description of the city.

Nothing could be more corrupt than its morals, nothing more fitted to excite and to allure to immoderate pleasures. The rites of hospitality were polluted by the grossest and most shameless lusts. Money dissolved every tie, whether of kindred, respect or esteem. Drunkeness and the grossest immoralities were practised in public.

The worship of Babylon was idolatry, and it is a fact that all idolatry can be traced to Babylon. She is the mother of all abominations. Babylon was destroyed, but has a promise of restoration and return of her glory before her final and total destruction comes.

Roman Catholicism is generally taken to be the Babylon of the Revelation. It is more correct to say Rome is an offspring of Babylon. Ancient Babylon had a religious ceremonial like the Rome of to-day, Indeed, the ancient Babylonian worship is revived in modern Rome. Babylon is the mother and Rome is the living daughter; while Rome again has her daughters—the “isms” of Christendom. Babylon means concentration and confusion. A boasting, high minded Christendom—Roman and so-called “Protestant”—is rapidly nearing its awful apostacy and judgment. The cry, so popular in our times—the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men and of a social Christianity—is really the cry of old, Let us make us a name; it is concentration. Money, riches and commercialism play a very important part in the popular religious enterprises. All is getting ready for Laodicea—increase in riches and proud boastings. Influential men, money, etc., control the affairs of Christendom. Error and loose morals are spreading in every direction. Great schemes are planned; institutions of learning—in which infidelity, in the form of higher criticism, is taught—are erected and endowed by the “church” with millions of dollars, as if this earth were to be the home of the church for ever. The twentieth century is prophesied to become the most glorious, and one would not know where to stop if all the beautiful air castles and promises of would-be prophets were to be named. The supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race, its civilising influences and power for good, etc., are harped upon at present as being a mighty factor in the final conversion of the world. But in the midst of this boasting Christendom, heaping their bricks together for their proud tower, blindness has already become greater than the blindness of the Jews. In the midst of Christendom, the sorceries and idolatries of ancient Babylon are being strangely revived and leading many astray. The luxuries of Babylon, fostered by modern inventions and commercialism, are seen on all hands. One only needs to study statistics to see what this “Christian nation” expends a year for luxuries and what for the preaching of the gospel, the only power for salvation. The near future will undoubtedly bring the long looked-for union of churches, concentration for reformation, lifting up of humanity, etc., etc., and when man in his own thoughts and making himself a name seems almost to have succeeded, He who sitteth in the heavens and who laughs at their foolish efforts will no longer laugh but will speak once more in His wrath, and Babylon will fall. Whoever has eyes opened by the Word and the Spirit, must see how well the woman has succeeded in putting the leaven of error and wickedness into the fine flour, and the leaven is doing its perfect work in leavening the whole lump.

But we must return to the vision. The ephah is carried, and in it the woman, by two women with wings of storks into the land of Shinar, and there a house is built and it is established on her own base. Babylon as it is described in the Revelation xvii and xviii can hardly mean exclusively corrupted ecclesiastical systems, apostate Christendom as it is seen to-day. The Babylon of the Revelation is still future, and its fullest development falls in the time when the body of the Lord Jesus Christ is no longer in the earth.

It is remarkable that certain prophecies concerning Babylon in Isaiah and Jeremiah have not yet been fulfilled. If we hold to a literal interpretation of the Scriptures then of necessity Babylon is to be rebuilt. The desolations of Babylon prophesied by these two prophets have not yet taken place. The destruction is to be suddenly by fire, and that destruction has never been. Still more startling is the fact that the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah concerning Babylon and its final destruction are identical with Revelation xvii and xviii. The vision of the ephah and the woman in it being swiftly carried to Shinar and housed there upon her own base, as well as other prophecies concerning Babylon, point to an actual rebuilding of ancient Babylon as a great commercial center and world power as well as religious centralization. There are many indications in this direction in our times. Railroads are planned to India. Russia is advancing in the same direction. Maybe the restoration of the Jews in unbelief as it has commenced will hasten such a project as it has been already mentioned by statesmen, an international center for commerce and arbitration in central Asia. It concerns the true believer very little what the final Babylon will be. He does not belong to it, neither to the present Babylon as it exists in Christendom; nor will he see the future Babylon, for the Lord will then have gathered His saints. The removal of the church from the earth will bring about a great change, and all that is to be done will be done swiftly, indicated by the stork’s wings. What men in that gross darkness, when the light of God, His Spirit, and His praying church is removed, will do in their rebellion against God and His Anointed no human being can now estimate or imagine. Finally, the vision of the ephah and the woman, so to speak, sealed up in it, may denote also the overthrow and judgment of wickedness. Babylon fallen, cast down. Anti-Christ, the man of sin, slain by the brightness of His coming. Satan chained in the pit for a thousand years. The last vision of the prophet is likewise a vision of judgment, followed by the crowning of Joshua with the double crowns of silver and gold.