Satan and the City

Nimrod built nine cities: Babel, Erech, Accad, Calneh, Nineveh, Rehoboth, Ir, Calah, and Resen, in Shinar and Assyria (Genesis 10:10-12). As for Cain, the rebel against the Almighty, so with Nimrod, the adversary of the Creator: they both were noted for cities. Cities typified their character, the spirit of rebellion against the Most High. Rather than be spread over the land, the residents of Nimrod’s time were urbanites, and they were tied to the will of men, not of God. Moreover, the city is found to be a center for war, a desire for might, which is to revolt against God. As Ellul put it, “What world could better demonstrate the parallel between urban civilization and warring civilization than our own, a world where the city and war have become two of the poles around which the entire economic, social, and political life of our time move.”52 So the land of Shinar became a center for war, the opposite of peace. This cradle of civilization thus had cities that translated into eternity, wideness, and force, symbols of time, space, and energy, which defines all of life. Resen means “bridle” or “bit,” and when placed in a horse’s mouth its power for war can be directed by the rider or charioteer. Today we see the bit to be the drivers of planes, submarines, warships, tanks, and trucks, or the controllers of remote electronic devices to direct missiles, bombs, and even airplanes and other weaponry. Babel, the center of Nimrod’s kingdom, means “confusion,” coming from the Hebrew root babal, “to mix.” How appropriate is this definition of the premier city, for we see the 70 nations of Genesis 10 gathered together under Nimrod’s banner, who exalts himself as king, as it were, of all nations, building a great tower as an icon to unite all peoples and discourage their migration to the lands across the earth God had appointed. With one language, the people were on their way to “mixing” the genetics of the 70 nations through intermarriage … an outcome the Eternal would not have. So by confusing their languages “... the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:8). Then the various families of mankind set up residence, as God intended. They were directed to abandon the city, but despite that movement away from Babylon history shows that the people of all nations have followed the lure of urban development, to live separately from God and exclude Him from their lives. In a real sense Babylon the Great, the city, is the synthesis of all of civilization. She is the head of, and standard for, all other cities across the earth, the hub of civilization in its business, industry, shipping, entertainment, and education. Having traveled to over 65 countries around the world, and experienced a plethora of cities, I can attest to the fact that they are all so similar: Venice, New York, Bangkok, Dallas, Melbourne, Santiago, Johannesburg — the list goes on. They are all the same city, one Babel as it were, a city from the beginning mortally wounded, for “… they left off building the city” (Genesis 11:8). There is some specialization amongst cities, of course; they all have a personality. Nineveh was called the bloody city, “full of lies, full of violence, no end to her plunder” (Nahum 3:1). Whereas Babylon was the city that synthesized civilization, Nineveh synthesized war. In a sense, the city is a place of physical and spiritual war, and the men who live within the gates of the city are sacrificed to the spirit of that city. They work in industries that manufacture airplanes, tanks, missiles, bullets, and mortars, but in ancient cities spears, swords, knives, chainmail, and other body armor, chariots and harnesses, whips and bows and arrows. Yet, in the end the city of Nineveh, like all industrial cities tied to Babylon and the military-industrial complex, will be thrown down. “And He will stretch out His hand against the north, destroy Assyria, and make Nineveh a desolation as dry as the wilderness” (Zephaniah 2:13). Think of the charred and broken cities in World War II: Hamburg, Berlin, Dusseldorf, London, and Coventry. This horrible scenario will be repeated over much of the world in the coming years. “Alas, alas, the great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate” (Revelation 18:19). The cities of the world will fall, “… in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall” (Isaiah 30:25). Towers: tall buildings, radio and television transmission towers, cell phone towers, and on the list goes of the monuments of today’s civilization, crashing to earth under the assault of earthquakes all across the globe.