The Day Of The Lord

Prophecies About Babylon, the Rich and the Poor

Many prophecies of the Old Testament forecast how the present civil, social and religious systems will pass away. Prophecies concerning Egypt, Babylon and Israel had literal fulfillments— but they also have a later, and larger, End Time fulfillment. For instance, the prophecies about Babylon in Isaiah and Jeremiah are referred to in Revelation, long after literal Babylon was destroyed. (Compare Isaiah 47:7-9 with Revelation 18:7-9, and Jeremiah 51:63-64 with Revelation 18:21.)

In Revelation “Babylon” clearly represents the nominal Church, called Christendom. (Revelation 17:5, 9,18). Egypt in the bigger picture represents the world which God calls His people to leave. Israel of old often represents mankind in the Kingdom benefiting from atonement by its Royal Priesthood. Thus, God promises blessings to Israel, plagues to “Egypt,” and complete destruction to nominal Christendom “...as a great millstone cast into the sea (Revelation 16:8; 18:21).

The Apostle James describes this day of trouble as the result of conflict between capital and labor, rich and poor:“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure….” (James 5:1-5 nas)

Though many reforms have been tried to help the common person—charitable organizations, unions, minimum wage laws, etc.—they will not help in a global financial crises. Because the whole world is so inter-connected, what happens in one country affects the others. Because business is conducted largely on credit, society will eventually collapse on itself. As many are thrown out of employment, people will become more desperate. Failure in true reform will result in the revolt of the masses. The time is fast arriving, “Upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity … men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” (Luke 21:25-26). “Perplexity” means “no way out.”

As the Prophet Ezekiel (7:10-19 NAS) prophesied, “The time has come, the day has arrived ... for My wrath is against all their multitude....The sword is outside, and the plague and the famine are within …They shall fling their silver into the streets, and their gold shall become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD.”

Although Jehovah will use the wrath of the poor as willing instruments in breaking down present systems, they also will be punished for their unjust behavior. "And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children.... In the same day also will I punish all those...which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit" (Zephaniah 1:8-9). The coming trouble will involve all classes of mankind.