Isaiah 21:6-10

Verse 6 “For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.”

The prophets of old were the watchmen who warned their leaders of what was coming. They were ultimately more important watchmen than the watchmen on the walls, yet they were pretty much dismissed and ignored, or worse run out of town or killed. Today there are Bible teachers and preachers who are trying to warn people of what lies ahead. We are not quite like prophets of old in that God does not speak to us quite as directly, but we do forewarn of what is coming based on God's Word. For the most part we are dismissed as being crazy, ignored, mocked, or kicked out of churches as being some sort of heretic. So far nobody has tried to take my life, although I have been forced out of churches, but who knows how far people will go when these things start to come to pass. People always blame the messenger. It goes without saying that today's watchmen certainly are not listened to by politicians. America’s president has made it no secret that he is aligning himself with the Muslim world against Israel, in spite of the warnings from Christians who know the consequences of such an action. Concerning the American Church, the Church would rather listen to false prophecy teachers who preach peace and safety for them, than listen to the few of us who are saying that the Church will suffer and die at the hands of both the whore and the beast. That they can look around the world and see Christians being persecuted and killed, and still believe what these false prophets say about how they will never have to suffer, borders on a level of ignorance and blindness that staggers the imagination. They are sheep being led to the slaughter.

Verse 7-10 “And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed: And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.”

The watchman sees the troops coming and shouts the warning. He sees the demise of Babylon and announces that Babylon is falling to the enemy. Because of the size of Babylon and communications of the day, one end of Babylon would be under the control of the enemy before the other end knew what was happening. All of her graven images and icons are destroyed. One of the practices of the day was to destroy the gods of the nation being conquered, so as to make them accept the gods of the conquerors and assimilate them into the new nation. This is why Antiochus Epiphanes erected a statue of Zeus in the temple as well as slaughtered a pig on the altar when he conquered Jerusalem. There is some debate among scholars as to whether the threshing is speaking of Israel or Babylon. In this case, as Israel was in Babylon, it actually applies to both. As to the application of this verse to the future, it should be remembered that before God poured out His wrath on Babylon at the very end of the bowl judgments, it had been announced by an angel, before the rapture, that Babylon had fallen. At that time it was surmised that the fall would be one of economic and power status, but now we can see that it might encompass much more than that. It would appear that the Muslims are going to do as the Mahdi directs and rampage through America killing and plundering and committing terrorist acts. Naturally this will cause America to fall in every way, economic, power-wise, militarily, etc., while still leaving the country alive, to some extent, for God to pour out His wrath upon.