Living in Babylon: Taking Refuge in the Lord

Last Sunday we looked at two important ways the Bible refers to Babylon. We started with the historical reality of the kingdom of Babylon that came and conquered the Kingdom of Judah. They took God’s people captive, including Daniel and his friends, carrying them off to the city of Babylon where they had to learn to live in a pagan culture. But we also looked at the Biblical metaphor that Babylon became for any culture down through history that stands opposed to God. There are some similarities to our culture today and what is happening around us, and what happened to Judah in Daniel’s day. 

There are many lessons we can learn from Daniel and his friends about how to live out our faith in a pagan culture. We will be focusing on those lessons throughout this series. But today we are going to take a step back and look at the scriptural context for why there is an ongoing battle between the spirit of Babylon and God’s people. This battle is first and foremost a spiritual battle. Our enemies are not the people who are caught up in the spirit of Babylon. They’re only doing what lost people do, following the spirit of this age. It is this satanic spirit behind Babylon that we stand against as believers.

According to the Bible, there is a cosmic battle taking place all around us. It is a battle that Jesus has already won, in the sense that we know the final outcome. But it is a spiritual battle that will continue to rage here on earth until Christ’ return. Through our study this morning, we’ll discover an important truth:  If you want to live with confidence in Babylon, you have to learn to see the ongoing cosmic battle from God’s perspective.

In His Service,

Pastor Steve