Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth (Genesis 11:1-9).

• Shinar (verse 1) was in the ancient Mesopitamian land that archeologists call fertile crescent. It rested between the Tigris and Euprates rivers in what is today, present day Iraq.  
• There’ they built a tower that whose top would “reach the heavens.” This was not in the physical sense. Overwhelmingly, archeologists believe they were building what was called a ziggurat. These structures were significant in ancient Mesopitamian culture. The one from Genesis is said to be a temple to reverence Marduk.

Marduk: Originally, he seems to have been a god of thunderstorms. A poem, known as Enuma elish and dating from the reign of Nebuchadrezzar I (1119–1098 BCE), relates Marduk’s rise to such preeminence that he was the god of 50 names, each one that of a deity or of a divine attribute. After conquering the monster of primeval chaos, Tiamat, he became Lord of the Gods of Heaven and Earth. All nature, including humanity, owed its existence to him; the destiny of kingdoms and subjects was in his hands.

Marduk’s star was Jupiter, and his sacred animals were horses, dogs, and especially the so-called dragon with forked tongue, representations of which adorn his city’s walls. On the oldest monuments Marduk is represented holding a triangular spade or hoe, interpreted as an emblem of fertility and vegetation. He is also pictured walking or in his war chariot. Typically, his tunic is adorned with stars; in his hand is a sceptre, and he carries a bow, spear, net, or thunderbolt. Kings of Assyria and Persia also honoured Marduk and Zarpanitu in inscriptions and rebuilt many of their temples.

Marduk was later known as Bel, a name derived from the Semitic word baal, or “lord.” Bel had all the attributes of Marduk, and his status and cult were much the same. Bel, however, gradually came to be thought of as the god of order and destiny. In Greek writings references to Bel indicate this Babylonian deity and not the Syrian god of Palmyra of the same name. (Brittanica).

The ziggurat (including undoubtedly, the one in Genesis 11) was a portal which served as a connecting link between heaven and earth. They are considered the earliest known pyramids (which also served as portals to interdimensional realms in the Americas as well as in Egypt and Sudan). The idea that the tower of Babel was a tower that would reach the heavens was much like the language that was used for other towers that were built in that area: Stairway to Pure Heaven (Sippar), House Binding Heaven and Earth (Nippur), Temple Linking Heaven and Earth (Larsa), Temple of the Foundation Platform of Heaven and Earth (Babylon). The purpose of such structures was to provide a shrine for the gods. 

The tower’s “top in the heavens” used spiritual matters to manipulate the people.  This expression uses spiritual wording.  The top of the tower spiritually reached into the heavens, home of the gods.  The earliest built tower with similar purpose, the Tepe Sialk Ziggurat, featured a shrine for god at its top.  This Ziggurat, at Kashan, Iran, is almost due east of Baghdad and nearby Babylon.  The migrating people, later building Babel, brought the ideas behind Sialk’s design with them to Mesopotamia.  This part of their belief system regionally continued after Babel.  They believed the tower’s top was a gateway to the gods.  Humanity’s religion is always trying to reach into heaven (Romans 10:6).  Christianity is different because God came to us (John 3:13). (MacDonald, Brent 2016). 

The tower was built to rise up, into the very throne of God.  In this case, they were not building a shrine unto God, but to “make for themselves a name,” so as to establish unity and strength, without God. It is said that YHWH, whose name was known this time was not being reverenced, but invaded (in a sense), as they were building a tower to reach God (in a spiritual sense), without the aid of God. If this “invasion” claim is true, it is similar to (but is not) the invasion of Lucifer in Isaiah 14:13). 

And the Lord came down…(v5).

• In both a spiritual sense, and a geographical sense, Babel was the underpinning of what would become, Babylon.  Bablon means “confusion.”
• Eventualy, God would “come down” and confuse their languages and scatter them across the earth (Genesis 11:9).
• Some say that this scattering and confusion is where principalities and territorial spirits get their origin, as the scattering did not end the worhip of other gods, but siloed them. This is based on a translation (which we will not get into now) of Deuteronomy 32:8. 

From this time forward, God’s people have had to deal with Babylon who will not fall until the fulfillment of its falling in Revelation 18. If Babylon was here from the beginning, and destroyed at the end, then we are clearly contending with it now. 

Interdimensional portals are not symbolic. They are real. As they did this in ancient Babylon, it is being done today through occult magick. 

• A few decades ago, Led Zepplin wrote a song called Stairway to Heaven. Played in reverse, the lyrics are satanic. Played normally, the lyrics speak of a spiritual experience outside of God. Here’s the rest of the story: Written by band member Jimmy Page, the music was given to another band member, Robert Plant to later write the lyrics. THe song used encoded words and double meanings (think, Pizzagate). The song was written while Page lived in the former home of a man named Aleister Crowley. This was a farmhouse on the shores of Loch Ness. This house met certain witchcraft requirements including a door that opened to the notrh toward a seclude d structure that served as an oratory. The house was demonized, and many who went there could attest that shadowy shapes  produced horrible effects on visitors. tHis house was built on the site of a church that had been formerly burned to the ground, with the congregation still inside. There, Stairway to Heaven was written. 
• Here’s where it gets interesting: the former owner of the house, Aleister Crowley was an occultist, and the person who may be responsible for the modern UFO phenomenon. [Ok…stay with me. I promise we’re not getting weird]. In 1918, Crowley and his intimate partner (a married woman by the name of Roddie Minor), through the use of sexual rituals and the heavy influence of occult ceremonies, sucessfully opened a demonic portal, and were introduced to a spirit named Lam. 
• So, this opening of deminc portals is something that actually happens, and continues to happen, even in modern times. Again, it is not symbolic. One could only imagine the surpise when the Babylonians built the tower of Babel, and were confronted with…God! 

After all of this activity in ancient Mesopotamia, God not only scattered the people and languages, he answered in another very particular way. God answered this demonic assault with…Abram. One day, the seed of Abraham would rise up, and contend with Babylon!!! 

Questions:

• Where do you think we are going with all of this? 
• How do you think ancient Babylon influences secular practices of today? 
• Using Revelation 18, in what way does Babylon relate to today?