Participants: David Down
Series Code: DUTP
Program Code: DUTP000004
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00:02 Today's program begins in my home country
00:05 London to be precise at Westminster Abbey, 00:08 where they buried England's great. 00:11 Well, not everyone quite made it into the Abbey, 00:14 so they were buried in 00:15 St. Margaret's Chapel nearby. 00:17 That's where David is now to begin our program 00:19 on the Winged Bulls of Assyria. 01:00 Layard's Effetto is really unique, aha, 01:03 I just love it, it's so resting. 01:06 I pray you remember Henry Austen Layard 01:10 the discoverer of Nineveh. 01:13 Well, he did discover Nineveh, 01:15 but actually that's not what his 01:17 ambition in life was. 01:19 You see, his father was a Member of Parliament 01:22 and a very prominent member of 01:25 the gentry here in England 01:27 and that was really Layard's ambition 01:29 to make his way life in parliament, in politics. 01:33 And, he did very well. Ultimately, he did become 01:37 the or infective fate of treated in kinda, 01:41 he would have become the prime minister of England, 01:43 I think he was too honest to be a 01:44 successful politician, but he did become 01:47 the one of the ministers of government here 01:51 undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, 01:53 he did become the British ambassador in Madrid, 01:57 and the very important post of 02:00 the British ambassador in Constantinople, 02:02 which was right at the heart of the empower 02:04 in those days, you know, a key to the empire. 02:06 And, so Layard was a very important person, 02:10 but how did he get into archeology, 02:12 it was really, really all by chance. 02:15 He received an invitation to go to Ceylon, 02:19 Colombo, as a barrister in his uncle's firm 02:23 because he was trying to be a barrister 02:26 and so he set off to, go to Ceylon, 02:30 but in those days you either went by walking 02:34 or you went by ship. Now, the normal thing to 02:38 do is go by ship, but it's so happened 02:40 that Layard had a friend called Edward Mitford, 02:43 the man ten years, who is his senior 02:45 and he also was under appointment of Ceylon. 02:47 And, so they decided to travel together, 02:50 now the only problem was Mitford was a 02:52 very bad sailor, he just got seasick as far 02:56 as publication, and so he just couldn't face 02:59 the journey by sea. There was no alternative, 03:02 I mean in those days there was no British 03:04 Airways or Qantas, and so the only 03:06 alternative was to go by land. 03:09 Well, they set out and they traveled over land 03:12 first of all by river boat, ferry steamer 03:15 and stagecoach, but by the time they reached 03:19 Yugoslavia, the shores 03:21 that was then called the public transport 03:24 system painted at, it sometimes does that, 03:26 you know, and so from then on 03:28 they had to go by horse back. 03:30 Now, Layard never ridden a horse in his life, 03:32 but when you got 13,000 kilometers to go, 03:35 you pretty soon learn, and so they started 03:37 up by horse back. Actually, these two man 03:39 were not compatible, the different natures, 03:43 they had different interests, 03:44 but so they had a few problems, but anyway 03:47 they reach Constantinople and that's where 03:50 Layard became very, very sick. 03:52 And, he went along to a doctor there, 03:54 who leeched him, do you know, 03:56 what leaching means, he marked on the area 03:58 on his stomach to put leeches on to suck 04:00 the bed blood out, and I think Layard 04:03 survived in spite of the treatment not because of it, 04:06 anyway he recovered. And, they went 04:08 down to the holy land. 04:22 At last, the two intrepid travelers reached Jerusalem. 04:26 And, this must have been a very satisfying 04:28 experience for Layard. Not that he was a 04:31 particularly pious young man, 04:33 but he was very knowledgeable in 04:35 Bible history. And, so he was so delighted 04:38 to come here, but this did not satisfy him, 04:41 he want to be going to Petra. 04:43 Now, in those days, Petra was a very 04:45 dangerous place. Johann Burckhardt, 04:48 the Swiss explorer, had only just discovered 04:51 it in the year 1812 and even when I went 04:54 there for the first time, I went to an heir and I 04:57 am glad to look after as well while we are in Petra. 05:00 So, in those days, it was dangerous and Mitford 05:02 would have nothing to do with it. 05:04 And, so Layard had to go down there by 05:07 himself, leave Mitford in Jerusalem. 05:09 Well, he merely did lose his life, 05:11 he certainly loss some of his property, 05:13 but he visited Petra, got back here, 05:16 and in the meantime Mitford had taken off, 05:19 couldn't wait. And, so Layard had to 05:22 follow him to Damascus, when he was there, 05:24 Mitford did already left and so he followed him 05:28 onto a Lapo and there he caught up with him 05:30 and the two traveled on until 05:32 I reached Mosul on the Tigris River. 05:40 When Layard and his companion reached Mosul 05:43 in Northern Iraq. Layard saw for the 05:47 first time, there was a man is over the other 05:49 side of the Tigris River that would have play 05:51 such an important part in his later life. 05:55 He couldn't help speculating, 05:57 what are they? What is buried 05:59 underneath there? He also met Texier. 06:03 Remember Texier? He was the man 06:04 who first noticed the Hittite Capital 06:08 and they had a lot of talk together, you know, 06:11 about the mounts and these tales that 06:14 have buried cities underneath, 06:16 but he even went over to the tale and scratched 06:19 around on the surface, picked up some pieces 06:22 of pottery and other things, but of course 06:24 Layard had to go on his way, 06:26 so he and his companion got on a raft 06:29 and flighted down the River Tigris, 06:31 quite an adventure in those days because 06:33 there was always the stray Arab, 06:34 who would take a potshot at them with a 06:36 rifle, fortunately they were very good maximal, 06:39 at night times they had to camp on the side of 06:43 the river on the bank of the river, 06:44 had to light fires around them to keep the lions 06:47 away, there were lot of lions there in those days 06:50 and as they floated down Layard noticed 06:54 another mound. It was the old city of Nimrud 06:58 and there was an old Ziggurat there and again 07:02 Layard's mouth watered to know, what's 07:04 underneath those mounds. He was delighted 07:07 to found out. They got down to Baghdad 07:10 and there they spend the next three months 07:14 learning the Persian language because the 07:16 leg of their led to would take them through Persia. 07:20 When they are ready and Layard was brilliant 07:22 at languages, he soon picked that up 07:24 and the way they went. They got to Hamadan 07:28 and that's where the potting of the ways came. 07:31 Layard wanted to take the Southern route, 07:35 but that of course was the dangerous route. 07:38 His companion preferred the safety of the 07:41 Northern route, they couldn't agree, 07:42 so they parted company. 07:45 I don't know whether Layard's companion 07:48 ever reached Ceylon or not, I do know, 07:52 that Layard didn't. He traveled south 07:55 and got involved with Bakhtiari tribe, 07:57 and they revolt against the Persian government 07:59 and he was there for two years, 08:01 but he was on the losing side eventually 08:04 Bakhtiari capitulated and Layard had to 08:06 hotfoot it back to Baghdad but while he was there, 08:10 the British government asked him to take some 08:12 papers to Constantinople. It was rather an 08:15 interesting diplomatic situation and the 08:18 superpowers were struggling for the supremacy. 08:21 Layard agreed and so he took these papers 08:24 back to Constantinople. On the way, 08:27 he passed through Mosul and once again he look 08:30 longingly at those mounds and he met there, 08:34 the French Consul, Paul Emile Botta, 08:37 now remember Layard could speak French very fluently. 08:40 They got on very well and they talked about 08:43 these mounds. Anyway, 08:45 Layard went on to Constantinople, 08:47 there he was introduced to the British ambassador, 08:51 Sir Stratford Canning and Canning took a liking 08:54 to the young man, offered him a job 08:56 on the Embassy Staff and Layard stayed 08:58 there for two years. It was while he was there 09:01 that he received a letter from Botta, 09:04 who would started excavating at course 09:06 about and in this letter he said, 09:09 come let us have some archeological fun 09:12 at course about. Oh! Layard would like to 09:15 have joined him, but he was not able to 09:17 leave his job, but he did work on the ambassador 09:21 and said look the French is stealing a much 09:23 on us here, we should be getting some of these 09:26 out of the ground and at last Canning said, 09:28 alright, alright I will give you some money, 09:31 but be careful, we don't want any diplomatic 09:34 incidence, you understand? So, away Layard 09:38 went to Mosul, he didn't announced that he was 09:41 gonna do any digging that would arouse suspicion. 09:44 What he did was purchased some shuffles and 09:46 some picks and some rifles and announced 09:49 that he was going to go pig hunting. 09:51 Well, any Arab could appreciate that idea. 09:54 And, away went down there to Nimrud. 10:02 So, Layard commenced his excavations at Nimrud 10:07 and he had some very exciting experiences 10:10 and made some wonderful discoveries too. 10:13 He honored some spectacular Winged Bulls 10:17 and Cuneiform Inscriptions 10:20 from the palace of what we now know to be 10:23 Ashurnasirpal II. Probably the most 10:26 spectacular discovery he made was a great big 10:29 large Black Obelisk. Now, at the time, 10:33 it was not known how to read the Cuneiform 10:37 Inscriptions, but just at the right time, 10:39 Henry Rawlinson started work on the 10:43 Behistun Rock, and at Behistun he made copies 10:47 of the wonderful inscription of derives 10:51 the great, it was a trilingual, in three 10:54 different languages. Well, by working on 10:57 the Persian with which Rawlinson was very familiar 11:01 he was able to work back to the others 11:03 and so he was able to decipher, 11:06 and he wanted to put it to the taste. 11:10 So, he got together with Layard 11:13 and they looked at this monument 11:17 and would you believe it, this monument turned out 11:22 to be Shalmaneser of the third and bowing down 11:27 in front of him was Jehu, a king of Israel. 11:31 Now, this was the first time an Israel king's 11:35 name had ever being found outside of 11:38 the Bible in the monument. And, so he was king 11:41 Jehu kneeling down across straight in front of 11:44 Shalmaneser of the third. Well, this created big 11:47 news back in London of course because the world 11:51 was more is more Bible orient type in those days. 11:55 So, this made the headlines and Layard 11:58 worked on there with good success. 12:01 After two years, he went to back to England 12:04 and he was a very popular speaker. 12:06 He lecturer over the place and after year 12:10 he returned to Mosul. This time, 12:12 he was able to excavated Nineveh and he worked 12:16 there for another two years. 12:18 So, the lot of Winged Bulls and a lot of 12:20 Inscriptions and Monuments back to 12:22 the British Museum and the public were very excited. 12:24 He had already written a book called Nineveh 12:27 And Its Remains, but he made mistake 12:30 you see, Nineveh was so effectively buried 12:33 and lost that nobody knew it was 12:36 and so he thought, he had found Nineveh, 12:39 when actually he had found the Biblical Kayla, 12:42 but also a course about thought he had 12:45 found Nineveh, but he hadn't. 12:48 And, so at the end of these two years, 12:51 Layard returned to England and 12:54 that was the end of his archeological career. 12:57 He then went into politics, 12:59 and he became very successful. 13:04 Well, the history of Assyria is one of tierney 13:08 and cruelty, that's the way they ruled. 13:11 And, from the time of Ashurnasirpal II 13:14 down to the time of Ashurnasirpal, 13:18 there was just a whole series of cruel campaigns. 13:23 It was in the year 1722 BC that 13:27 the Assyrians came here to the city of Samaria. 13:33 Actually they started the sage two years earlier 13:36 and by surrounding the city and beseized it 13:40 two years and at the end of that time 13:43 the Israelites were conquered. 13:46 This city wall was broken into 13:48 and the Assyrians poured in and the Israelites 13:52 suffer the cruelty of the Concra. 13:56 The Assyrians matched them off into exile 14:00 and sent most of them to the Land of Assyria 14:03 and then they brought a whole lot of Assyrians 14:05 here to occupy the country. 14:08 And, so we have what is known is the 14:10 Samaritans, who are mixture of 14:12 Israelites and Assyrians. 14:17 In the year 1701 BC, the Assyrian King 14:21 Sennacherib invited Judah and Layard seized 14:25 to Lachish. Now you see that mound over there, 14:29 where the city of Lachish was built on top of 14:32 that mound, as we called it a tale. 14:38 It was here then that one of the great dramas 14:41 of history took place. Now, we have three 14:44 sources of information to tell us about the 14:46 drama that took place here. 14:48 The first is in the Biblical account in the 14:50 Second Book of Chronicles 14:52 and in Chapter 32, where we read here. 14:56 After this, Sennacherib King of Assyria sent his 14:59 servants to Jerusalem, but he himself 15:02 and all the forces with him Layard seize against 15:06 Lachish. Now, personally I can't stand here 15:09 and just look here and see stones on the hill, 15:11 I see the people, I see the Assyrian army 15:14 surrounding here, the offices conferring 15:16 with one another, how we gonna attack 15:18 the city, where is it's weakest point, 15:20 and so I can see the drama taking place. 15:24 Now, the second source of information is 15:26 from the archeological excavations 15:29 and they are able to tell us that this city had a 15:32 very powerful wall built right around the 15:35 parameter and over there was a 15:37 very strongly fortified gateway. 15:41 And, so we can know that this must have been 15:44 a very well fortified city. 15:46 The third source is from a relief known as 15:49 the Lachish relief, which is today 15:51 in the British Museum, it comes from Nineveh 15:54 and it shows the action and we can reconstruct 15:58 the whole thing from that. 16:00 We see the Assyrian forces building a ramp up 16:04 there and then we see them dragging their 16:06 battling ramps up there to hammered down 16:08 the walls and then we see them bringing up 16:11 the scaling ladders, main climbing up 16:13 the ladders and at last the dropping side of 16:15 the city and stone the inside of a gate, 16:18 open the gate and allow all the other soldiers 16:20 to swarm in there and very soon this whole city 16:24 is conquered the terrified inhabitance 16:26 have to yield to these invading forces 16:29 and then comes the terrible cruelty, 16:32 the Assyrians are very cruel people, 16:34 they ruled, and dominated by their 16:37 savage cruelties. For instance we see relieves 16:40 of them by heading the captives, 16:42 we see them right in this city, 16:44 throwing the bodies over the wall, 16:46 you see them falling down and they impelled 16:50 their victims, put a pull up it in the ground 16:53 with the sharp end and then sat a fellow on top, 16:56 just dragged him down onto it, 16:58 it's terrible or they trash the pole up 17:01 through under the ribs and push it up 17:04 onto the heart or lungs and then just 17:06 for variety, the fellow would hold a captive by 17:10 the hair and cut his skin and 17:12 scrips and peel it off 17:14 and then of course we have the final scene 17:17 of the captives being led away into Axa. 17:27 Up there in Jerusalem, King Hezekiah heard 17:30 of the seize of Lachish. He also received the 17:33 delegation, which boat him a defined ultimatum, 17:37 demanding his surrender and knowing of 17:39 the cruelty of the Assyrians, 17:41 he didn't want to be victim himself 17:43 and so he said, yes, yes, I will surrender. 17:44 I will read it to you from the Second Book 17:46 of Kings, Chapter, in Chapter 18 17:50 and in Verse 13, where it says, 17:52 "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, 17:55 Sennacherib king of Assyria came up 17:57 against all the fortified cities of Judah, 17:59 and took them then Hezekiah king of Judah 18:02 sent to the king of Assyria were Lachish saying 18:04 I have done wrong turn away from me. 18:07 Whatever you impose on the, I will pay. 18:09 And the king of Assyria resist Hezekiah king of 18:12 Judah three hundred talents of silver 18:15 and thirty talents of gold. 18:17 At that time, Hezekiah stripped 18:19 the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord 18:21 and from the pillars, which Hezekiah 18:23 king of Judah had overlaid and gave it 18:25 to the king of Assyria". Well, here is the 18:28 Biblical record. Now, a very interesting 18:30 confirmation of this comes from Assyria itself. 18:35 I have in my hand here an exact replica 18:38 of the Cuneiform record that Sennacherib left 18:42 of his invasion of Judah 18:44 and his seized of Jerusalem. 18:47 The scribe who wrote this was a real master, 18:50 the Cuneiform writing is so clear 18:53 and it's beautiful done and just show that 18:56 everyone would know about this. 18:59 Sennacherib had three copies made, 19:01 one is in the Hebrew museum, one is the 19:03 British museum and one is in the Chicago Museum. 19:11 Now, this record that Sennacherib left, 19:14 wonderfully confirms the Biblical record. 19:17 Let me read a translation of it to you. 19:21 Part of it anyway, it says, 19:23 as to Hezekiah the Jew, 19:26 he did not submit to my yoke. 19:28 I laid seize to 46 of his strong cities, 19:32 now that of course would include Lachish 19:35 and conquered them, himself I made a prisoner 19:38 in Jerusalem his royal residence like a bird 19:41 in the cage, now that's significant, 19:43 he doesn't claim that he conquered Jerusalem, 19:45 he simply says, he shut up Hezekiah 19:47 like a bird in the cage admitting in other words 19:50 that his seize did not result in the 19:52 conquest of the city. Hezekiah himself 19:56 whom the terror inspiring splendor of my lordship 19:58 had overwhelmed did send me later to Nineveh 20:02 my Lordly city together with thirty talents of gold 20:06 eight hundred talents of silver, 20:08 precious stones, all kinds of valuable 20:11 treasures his own daughters concubines 20:14 male and female musicians and so on, 20:16 he mentions all that was sent. 20:18 Well, that just confirms what the Biblical 20:20 record says, remind you there is a slight 20:23 difference you will notice in Seconds Kings 20:25 Chapter 18 and in Verse 14, 20:30 that says, and the King of Assyria assist Hezekiah 20:34 King of Judah, three hundred talents of silver 20:37 and thirty talents of gold. 20:39 Now, there is a slight discrepancy, 20:41 but I would simply say that Sennacherib was 20:44 inflating his figures a little 20:46 to make them look better. 20:48 Soon after this humiliating surrender 20:50 by Hezekiah tragedy struck, 20:53 he became very sick. 20:55 And, the prophet Isaiah came to him with the 20:58 comforting message such you has in order 21:02 you're going to die. Well, Hezekiah didn't 21:04 particularly like the idea of dying 21:06 and so he did some hard praying and would you 21:09 believe it before Isaiah got to the other side 21:11 of the temple court, he was given another 21:14 message, came back and said, God says, 21:16 I have added 15 years to your life 21:19 and Hezekiah got better, it was a real miracle. 21:22 Well, his faith was strengthened by this 21:25 miracle, he knew Sennacherib would 21:27 come back and so he decided to 21:29 make some preparations. 21:31 We read about it in the Second Book of 21:33 Chronicles Chapter 32 and in Verse 5 21:37 "And he strengthened himself, 21:38 built up all the wall that was broken, 21:41 raised it up to the towers, 21:42 built another wall outside and made 21:44 weapons and shields in abundance." 21:46 You see, he just didn't sit back and say Oh! 21:48 Well, God works miracles he look after us, 21:51 yeah he believed God would look after him, 21:53 but he did what he could to cooperate. 21:55 He also says, this same Hezekiah also 21:59 stopped the water outlet of Upper Gihon 22:01 and brought the water by tunnel to the west side 22:04 of the City of David. Now, this is the spring 22:07 Gihon here. And, so what he did was to dig 22:11 a tunnel from here through to the other 22:13 side of the city, so that the Assyrians 22:15 would not be able to find water 22:17 and so that he would have an abundant 22:19 supply of water in the city. 22:21 And, so this is a remarkable tunnel. 22:23 We are gonna go through it. 22:39 So far, we have been coming through the 22:40 tunnel that has been made by the Jebusites. 22:43 Now, that was before King David conquered 22:45 this place and they have this tunnel going 22:47 through here and at the end there, 22:50 there was a shaft going upwards, 22:51 so that the woman could let their water 22:53 pots down and collect the water, 22:55 but from here on is Hezekiah's tunnel 22:58 and this goes for 500 meters 23:00 through the solid rock. 23:09 The workman who dug this tunnel 23:12 began from both ends. Now, the one who started 23:14 from this end will using their picks this way, 23:17 can you see the pick marks and the ones 23:19 from the other end of course, 23:20 we are going that way, I will point that out later 23:23 but here are the ones where the workman 23:25 were working along this way, you see? 23:36 The inscription was left up at the end of 23:38 the tunnel tells how they started from both ends 23:41 and in the middle they heard themselves 23:44 calling to each other. And, so they changed 23:47 directions that were close to each other 23:49 and they joined out. Now, here is where 23:50 the people coming from and we have come 23:52 turn the corner to meet up with the others. 24:18 Now, this is way the workman were coming 24:20 from the other end and they reached this point, 24:22 they went a little further, this tunnel goes 24:25 a little further here you see, 24:26 and it was then that they heard the hammering 24:29 in that direction and that's when they change 24:31 direction and went over there and joined up 24:33 with the workman from the first time we came from. 24:53 Now, you can see the pick marks where the men 24:55 coming from this end were using their picks 24:57 down this way you see the pick mark slopping 24:59 that way. And, so here where the workman 25:02 coming from this end moving in that direction. 25:10 Now, we are near the exit of this tunnel 25:13 at the Perusalem and just here there was 25:16 an inscription in the Hebrew, 25:17 Ancient Hebrew writing. 25:19 Well, nobody knew of this until some boys 25:22 were playing in the tunnel 25:23 and they noticed the inscription and 25:25 reported that and so a Greek merchant thinking 25:27 he might make a little bit of fast money 25:29 came down here and chiseled it out, 25:31 he had no clues just to how to do it 25:34 and he broke it in the many different pieces, 25:35 but anyway got it out that the authority 25:37 code up with him and they sent the inscription 25:40 of to the Istanbul Museum 25:41 or Constantinople of the same code. 25:44 I would like to read you a 25:45 translation of this inscription. 25:47 This was the manner of the piecing through, 25:51 while yet the biggest where lifting up 25:52 the pick each towards his fellow 25:55 and while yet there were three cubits to be 25:58 cut through, each heard the voice of one calling 26:01 to his fellow for there was a crack in 26:03 the rock on the south. And, on the day of 26:06 the piecing through, the biggest struck 26:08 pick against pick, one over against the other 26:11 and they flood the water from the source 26:13 of the pool, 1200 cubits. 26:20 So, Hezekiah had made his preparations 26:23 and when the Assyrian army turned up 26:25 and surrounded the city with all their 26:28 cruel intensions, his faith didn't way that 26:30 and God honored his faith. 26:33 It says here in Second Kings Chapter 19 26:36 and Verse 35, it came to pass on a 26:39 certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, 26:41 and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 26:43 185,000. So, Sennacherib King of Assyria departed. 26:49 Right here, I am in part of the old city 26:51 of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem of David, 26:55 Solomon and Hezekiah. 26:57 And, in fact you can see behind these 27:00 some gaping holes, which could very easily 27:02 be the Tombs of David and Solomon. 27:05 Well what reminds them, actually there has been 27:07 some coring going on here and so lot of 27:09 the stone has been taken away, 27:11 but here in this old city of David, Solomon 27:15 and Hezekiah, the prophets of Israel lived 27:18 and subsequent to Hezekiah's time 27:20 they began to predict the down fallen 27:22 and doom of Assyria and Nineveh. 27:25 We are aware that there are two entire books 27:28 in the Bible devoted to Nineveh. 27:30 Well, just in case should done, 27:32 I will tell you what they are, where? 27:34 There was the book for instance of Nahem, 27:37 it starts of this way, the burden against 27:39 Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahem, 27:42 you see this whole book is about Nineveh 27:44 and it says in verse 14 "The Lord has given 27:47 a command concerning you, your name shall be 27:50 perpetuated no longer, I will dig your grave, 27:54 for you a vile." So, this verse said that 27:57 God was going into bury Nineveh 28:00 and that's exactly what happened. 28:02 In the year of 1612, Nebuchadnezzar's father 28:05 Nabopolassar cooperating with Cyaxares, 28:09 the king of the Medes made a frontal 28:11 attack on Nineveh and conquered it, 28:13 by put it to the flames and destroyed it. 28:16 Now, usually when a city in ancient times 28:18 was destroyed, they simply built on top of it, 28:21 not Nineveh, it was never rebuilt. 28:24 Do you know that 200 years later 28:26 nobody knew where Nineveh was. 28:29 And, when Layard started looking for it 28:32 and he started digging up Kayla or Nimrud, 28:35 he thought he found Nineveh that's 28:36 how completely Nineveh was lost. 28:39 And, so exactly as the prophecy said, 28:42 Nineveh was destroyed and buried. 28:45 Now, there is another very significant prophecy 28:48 and this one is in the Book of Zephaniah, 28:52 in Chapter 2 and in Verse 13, it says, 28:55 "God will stretch out his hand against the North, 28:58 destroy Assyria, and make Nineveh a desolation 29:03 and the herds or flock shall lie down 29:05 in her midst. Now, concerning Babylon, 29:09 it was to be said that no shepherd would make 29:11 their sheep lie down in the ruins of Babylon, 29:13 but here it specifically said Nineveh's ruins 29:17 would be a place where the shepherds 29:18 would leave their sheep. 29:20 And, when I first went to Nineveh, 29:22 I felt to myself now I would like to be 29:25 able to find a flock of sheep there, 29:28 you know, relative to this prophecy. 29:30 I'm making that worried. 29:31 Do you know, all over the mounds of Nineveh 29:34 shepherds leave their sheep, 29:35 you can see them today, lots of flocks of sheep 29:39 and the shepherds just exactly 29:41 as the Biblical prophet said. 29:43 Now, the message I get from these fulfill 29:46 prophecies is this, that if these particular 29:50 prophecies are so specifically 29:52 and accurately fulfilled, we can trust the 29:54 rest of the Biblical prophecies too. 29:56 In fact Zephaniah has a message for us today. 30:00 He draws a lesson from this 30:02 very experience of Nineveh. 30:04 Want me to read to you? Listen it says here 30:07 in Verse Chapter two or Verse 14 of Chapter 1 30:11 first, "The great day of the Lord is near, 30:14 it is near, and hastens quickly, 30:16 just as surely as Nineveh made it to do. 30:19 So, Zephaniah said, this whole world is 30:22 one day gonna meet it's doom 30:24 and what is his message for us, 30:26 "Seek the Lord all you meek of the earth, 30:29 who have upheld his justice, 30:31 seek righteousness, seek humility, 30:34 it may be that you will be hidden 30:36 in the day of the lord's anger. 30:38 It's a good peaceful feeling to know that 30:40 no matter what the future holds, 30:42 God will take care of it for us, if we let him. 30:45 Now, I want you know about Babylon, 30:47 the golden city, that's what we discuss 30:50 in our next program. 30:51 The dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had, 30:54 which reveals traumatic events 30:55 soon to happen in our world. |
Revised 2014-12-17