Joshua’s Battle Against Jerusalem – Jesus’ Battle Against Babylon

Then the LORD said, “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hand. Not one man of them shall stand before you.” So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal. And the LORD made them afraid before Israel, so they struck them with a great blow in Gibeon and they pursued them toward the way of the ascent of Beth Horon, and struck them from Azekah to Makkedah. Now while they fled before Israel as they went down the descent from Beth Horon, the LORD threw down great stones against them from heaven as far as Azekah, and they died. More of them died from the hail stones than were killed by the men of Israel. (Josh 10:8-11)

One of the interpretative keys to understanding the book of Revelation is the proper identification of Great Babylon. What is the city that comes under the judgment of Jesus, which falls like Jericho before the true Joshua? There are many indications that the target city behind the metaphor “Babylon” is Jerusalem, the city which is also identified by John as “spiritually Sodom and Egypt” (Rev 11:8). Jerusalem is thus the antitypical chaos city that represents all the great cities that oppose God.

Babylon is most noteworthy for the city and tower of Babel (Gk. Babylon) and for the city that Jeremiah foretold would destroy the temple of the Lord. It is certain that the Apostle Luke metaphorically connects Jerusalem with the city of Babel by his account of Pentecost. God comes down and reverses the confusion of tongues, associated with Babel, in Jerusalem. This juxtaposition implies that Jerusalem, before the coming of the Spirit at least, had come to resemble Babel of old. John agrees with this when he tells us that the “great city” Babylon was divided into three parts (Rev 16:9), a gesture toward his gospel description of Jerusalem, wherein Pilate’s inscription over the cross of Jesus was written in three languages (John 19:20). These three languages mark the “confusion” of the “great city.” But perhaps the most dramatic clue to the identification of Jerusalem as the target city masquerading under the name “Babylon” is the fact that like the Babylon of Jeremiah’s day, Jerusalem had the signal distinction of having destroyed the true Temple of the Lord when she crucified Jesus, whom John understood to be the Temple of the Lord (John 2:19-21).

In this account of Joshua’s battle against the confederation of kings led by the king of Jerusalem, who constitutes his most inveterate opposition and thus typically represents the fierce antipathy Jerusalem will one day show to the better Joshua to come, we find another clue to the identification of Great Babylon in Revelation. God promised Joshua victory over the opposition of Jerusalem and her king, along with all his allies. In the day when the king of Jerusalem fled from the field of battle, God Himself hurled great hailstones against the king of Jerusalem (Josh 10:11). It was as though God stoned the king and his army from Jerusalem. Corresponding to this in Revelation is the climactic seventh vial poured out against the “great city” that broke the city into the three parts. Then we are told God remembered His fierce wrath against Babylon and He hurled great hailstones against the great city (Rev 16:17-21). By such a striking juxtaposition, God, who threw down hailstones to crush the Jerusalemites in Joshua’s day is the same God who threw down hailstones to destroy Jerusalem (“Babylon”) in Jesus’ day! How awesome is the judgment of the Lord!