Cain was expelled from the family environs and we are told he went to the land of Nod on the east of Eden (verse 16). Some biblical scholars say he built on the ancient site of Jericho. Regardless of the accuracy of those speculations, excavations at this site, one of the oldest inhabited sites on earth, reveal a fortress city with walls 12 feet high and 6 1/2 feet thick. The remains of a large tower, 30 feet across at the base and 30 feet high, tell a story of people living in a fortress city, protecting what they had, probably food, from those who would take it by force. Clearly, this was a site of conflict long before Joshua and the Israelites encircled its walls.
In Genesis 10, God provides a narrative of the sons of Noah and the cities that grew from their dynasties. One descendant, Nimrod, and the city he built, Babel, are inserted into the story. Nimrod was a "mighty hunter before the Lord." The wording indicates an adversarial relationship with God's purpose and plan. This is made clearer in the story of the Tower of Babel in chapter 11. The cities associated with Nimrod war back and forth for centuries. Babylon becomes a city, then an empire and eventually a symbol of a system that opposes God, His people and His plan throughout the Bible story.
It is that city, described in Revelation 17:5 as a "mystery...the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth," which in the time of the end provides the cultural and religious inspiration to a political-religious empire called "the beast." The roots of this end-time system reach back to the system started by Nimrod at Babel, thus bridging the intervening centuries. It will form the backdrop for the final conflict of the age brought on by the red horse of war.
No war has brought peace. Wars waged in the name of religion have not achieved religious harmony. No war waged for national interest has brought lasting security for any city, state or empire. The peace sought by man is all too often a peace that suits his nationalistic interests.
Current Iraqi Conflict
As a result of the breakup of the Soviet empire in the early 1990s, its nuclear stockpiles and those of the United States have been dramatically reduced. However, the nuclear genie has not been put back into its bottle. Through various means the nuclear technology has migrated to other nations. Today India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons, and twice in recent years have rattled their sabers to threaten a holocaust on the Asian subcontinent.
President Bush has identified three nations, Iran, Iraq and North Korea, as an "axis of evil." North Korea, openly admitting its capability, recently threatened to resume production of nuclear material. Satellite photographs have been taken which show facilities capable of making nuclear bombs under construction in Iran. The same types of facilities have been destroyed in Iraq by both the Israelis and the United States. It is the suspicion of more capability to produce weapons of mass destruction that is driving the Bush administration to lead an impending attack on Iraq.
Those who study war understand the persistent danger. In a comprehensive look at the subject, author Gwynne Dyer made this chilling, sober and almost hopeless observation:
"To begin quite close to the end: we may inhabit the Indian summer of human history, with nothing to look forward to but the 'nuclear winter' that closes the account. The war for which the great powers hold themselves in readiness every day may come, as hundreds of others have in the past. The megatons will fall, the dust will rise, the sun's light will fail, and the race may perish. Nothing is inevitable until it has actually happened, but the final war is undeniably a possibility, and there is one statistical certainty. Any event that has a definite probability, however small, that does not decrease with time will eventually occur-next year, next decade, next century, but it will come. Including nuclear war" (War, 1985, p. xi).
War at the end of the age will bring the nations to the point where one system will be created with the desire to bring peace to the earth. Revelation 13 describes a system rising up out of the sea, a large diverse system that is called "the beast." By a series of miracles, a world in crisis is persuaded to worship this system. Nations surrender their sovereignty and the world worships "the beast," asking "who is able to make war with [the beast]?" (verse 4). To enforce this type of "peace," he makes war on the people of God and he has authority over all "tribes and nations"-a worldwide power (verse 7).
Revelation 17 describes this "beast" receiving power from 10 kings. Again, the "peace" that is brought leads to war against God. The beast and his system will make war with the Lamb [Jesus Christ], but in the end will be overcome by Him.
Throughout the ages man has sought to organize a universal state. What began at Babylon as an attempt to reach to the heavens and defy God will be resurrected in an age-ending attempt to unify the nations into a political and economic system. The intended goal of this system will be to bring order and peace among the warring factions of humanity. But once "peace" is attained, the attractive mask will be removed to reveal a hideous beast of a system that will tear and destroy any opposition to its rule and authority. The desire of the ages-peace-will prove elusive one more time, when left in the hands of man.
The stage will be set for the climactic battle at the end.
