Page 17 - Advanced Bible Geography ebook

Chapter 3: Babylon

Connect…

Do you like studying HISTORY? When I was in school, I did not like studying history. It was probably
because the teachers always made it so dry. It just was not interesting and I saw no need in studying all
those dates and names of people I don’t know and who are dead and gone. Can you relate? However, I
have learned a lot about history since those days. What happened back then is our roots. And what
they did influences us today. God has been totally involved in the history of mankind. History is really
HIS STORY. It has a beginning and it will have a conclusion. So we had better find out what God has
been doing throughout the ages, so we can better understand His plans for us today. Today, we are
going to study the first recorded (written) history of man.

Objectives…

1. The student should be able to describe the rise of the Babylonian civilization, learning the important
people and events that made this empire so influential.

2. The student should be able to explain how from the life and death of Sennacherib, that God is a God
who cannot be challenged or demeaned.

3. The student should be able to describe the call of Abraham in the land of Babylon to move to a
special land, and his response.

The Lesson …

The Land of Babylon

Much of the ruins of ancient Babylon are buried underneath the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq,
but archaeologists have uncovered some of the more recent ruins, dating to the time of the kings of
Judah and Israel. Their findings tell us much about the 4,000-year history
of this storied city that passed through many hands and empires during its long existence.
From what historians can piece together, Babylon began as a small, administrative center during the
reign of Sargon the Great. Babylon’s history truly begins with Hammurabi, an Amorite prince, who began
his reign over the city in 1792 B.C. Through war and diplomacy, Hammurabi subdued all of Mesopotamia
under Babylonian rule by 1755 B.C. His empire stretched from Syria to the Persian Gulf. Hammurabi
called his empire Babylonia.

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