Our Day | Page 9

pitch tent there." The
words might be construed to mean that the famous site would never
become the place of a Bedouin village. But it is literally true, say
travelers, that the Arabs avoid the place even for the temporary pitching
of their tents. They consider the spot under a curse. They call the ruins
Mudjelibe, "the Overturned." (See "Encyclopedia of Islam," art.
"Babil.")
As late as 1913, Missionary W.C. Ising visited the site where Professor
Koldeway was excavating the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace. He
wrote:
"Involuntarily one is reminded of the prophecy in the thirteenth of
Isaiah and many other places, which, in course of time, have been
fulfilled to the letter. No one is living on the site of ancient Babylon,
and whatever Arabs are employed by the excavators have built their
mud huts in the bed of the ancient river, which at the present time is
shifted half a mile farther west."--European Division Quarterly, Fourth
Quarter, 1913.
Egypt and Edom
The massive ruins by the Nile bear witness to prophecy fulfilled. When
Egypt rivaled Babylon, the word was spoken: "It shall be the basest of
the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations."
Eze. 29:15. It was not utterly to pass, as Babylon, but to continue in
inferior state. Thus it came to pass. Once populous Edom, famed for
wisdom and counsel, now lies desolate, according to the word: "Edom
shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished." Jer.
49:17.
The Testimony of History

[Illustration: RUINS OF EDOM
"Edom shall be a desolate wilderness." Joel 3:19.]
Thus the centuries bear testimony to the fulfilment of the prophetic
word. The panorama of all human history moves before us in these
writings of the prophets. Flinging their "colossal shadows" across the
pages of Holy Writ, as Farrar says, we see--
"The giant forms of empires on their way To ruin."
It is no human book that thus from primitive times forecasts the march
of history through the ages.
The Lord not only spoke the word in warning and entreaty for those to
whom it first came, but it is written in the Scriptures of truth as a
testimony to all time, that the Bible is the word of God, and that all His
purposes revealed therein and all the promises of the blessed Book are
certain and sure. The prophets who bore messages from God to
Nineveh, and Babylon, and Tyre, spoke messages also for our day.
Fulfilled prophecy is the testimony of the centuries to the living God.
The evidence of prophecy and its fulfilment is God's challenge and
appeal to men to acknowledge Him as the true God and the Holy
Scriptures as His word from heaven.
"I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went
forth out of My mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and
they came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck
is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning
declared it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee.... Thou hast
heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it?" Isa. 48:3-6.
Surely no one can look at the evidence in history of the fulfilment of
prophecy without seeing that of a truth the One who spoke these words
knew the end from the beginning; and finding the living God in the
sure word of prophecy, one must be prepared to listen to His voice in
all the Scriptures, when it speaks of sin and the way of salvation

through Jesus Christ.
Further, the prophetic word also has much to say of events yet future,
of the course of history in modern times. It behooves us to give heed to
what that word speaks concerning our own times and the events that are
to take place upon the earth before the end. The apostle Peter exhorts us
to the study in these words:
"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well
that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the
day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." 2 Peter 1:19.
[Illustration: THE GREAT IMAGE
"He that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to
pass." Dan. 2:29.]
[Illustration: DANIEL INTERPRETING NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S
DREAM
"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great Image." Dan. 2:31.]
FOOTNOTES:
[A] "In the book of Jonah," says Records of the Past, "Nineveh is stated
to have been an exceeding great city of three days' journey; and that
being the case, the explanation that Calah on the south and Khorsabad
on the north were included seems very probable. The distance between
these two extreme points