Monday, December 21 –
We begin the final week of
readings to finish the New Testament in a year.
There are seven readings left (in honor of the number “seven” of
Revelation) 😊. We won’t have readings on Christmas Eve or
Christmas Day (Thursday and Friday) but will continue the readings on the
weekend and we’ll finish it all on New Year’s Eve. Again, thank you for coming along. Today’s reading picks up where we left off in
Revelation, reading 18:1 – 24. Please
read it first, and then come back and we’ll look at it again.
Apocalyptic literature, which is what the book of Revelation is, is a literary
genre that most of us are unfamiliar with, and at times it can be quite
confusing as to what the author – in this case, John – is trying to convey. It is based on the idea that what we see in
the natural realm is explainable, but what is revealed in the heavenly realm is
not easy to describe. Revelation 18 is
describing a world of people, governments, economies, events, institutions,
systems, all collapsing, and lost forever.
We have pictures that form from science fiction movies that show those
kinds of apocalyptic events. None of us
want everything to collapse like this, but God is going to renew the earth at
the end of time and in Jesus’ return, and the re-creation of the heavens and earth,
destruction of evil must first take place.
“After this I saw another angel
coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright
with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is
Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for
every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean
and detestable beast. For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion
of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality
with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her
luxurious living” (18:1-3).
We knew from chapters 13 and 17
that Babylon is a city “which reigns over the kings of the earth”. When you think of cities that have that kind
of influence, we realize that they are centers of power, finance, luxurious
living, and let’s not forget immorality too.
“Fallen, Fallen is Babylon” was first announced in 14:8. It is God’s judgment on a world that has
idolized its wealth, power, and privileges without any desire to honor
God. It is a world that is driven by
the evil powers of Satan and his demons.
“Then I heard another voice
from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her
sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has
paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for
her in the cup she mixed. As she glorified herself and lived in luxury,
so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she
says, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.’
For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning
and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who
has judged her” (18:4-8).
In this vision, John sees an
angel making the announcement of Babylon’s fall, and that is followed by a
voice that appeals to those who will listen to come out of it before it is all
destroyed. God’s justice against the
evil Satan has inflicted upon the earth is soon to come. Yet, there is an arrogance to the evil that does
not believe that either justice will be served, or judgment will come. The writer of Proverbs had warned – “Pride
goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). When the judgment of God falls on this city,
it will be “in a single day….burned up with fire”. There is an ominous warning that we have seen
before in scripture, as when God sent the waters upon the earth in the flood in
Noah’s day (Genesis 7), and when God, in Daniel’s day, pronounced to the
Babylon that existed then – “… God has numbered the days of your kingdom and
brought it to an end” (Daniel 5:26). It took one night for God to overthrow
Babylon.
What follows in John’s vision
is a series of people who idolized Babylon and now mourn the destruction. First, it is rulers of nations that followed
in the evil of the immorality and the wealth of her luxury (18:9). They stand and watch the destruction with
their own fears exposed (18:10). Then it
is the merchants who mourn the loss of their wealth from trade (18:11-17). Finally, it is the merchants of shipping who
made their wealth in a global economy (18:17 – 20). It reads of sadness and tragic
destruction. My mind thinks back to the
pictures of Germany at the end of World War II when all was destroyed and judgment
against Hitler prevailed.
“They will stand far off, in
fear of her torment, and say, “Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city,
Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come” (18:10).
“The fruit for which your soul
longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost
to you, never to be found again!” (18:14).
“… in a single hour all this
wealth has been laid waste.” (18:17).
While the world watches the
empire of the Beast, the strongholds of Satan’s Babylon, the Antichrist’s
empire collapse, the Kingdom of God will prevail. Justice is being served, and judgment is
swift and permanent –
“Rejoice over her, O heaven,
and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you
against her!” (18:20).
In the final verses of 18:21 –
24, the most frequent phrase is “will be no more”. Who or what will be no more? Babylon (18:21), the music of Babylon
(18:22), the economy (18:22), everyday life (18:23) – nothing is not going to
be exempt from God’s judgments. John has
called Babylon a city at various points of time, not everyone sees it as a
city. Since John was living under the
persecution of Domitian’s rule of Rome, one could easily assume he saw all of
this in the “now” is Rome. Rome did not
dissolve in a day, and in fact, Rome lived on persecuting the Church for
three hundred more years. Yet, the Roman
Empire fell, it was destroyed by invading eastern tribes by 471 a.d. It was the Bishop of the church in Carthage,
North Africa, Aurelius Augustine, who saw the ruin of Rome coming. Many Roman citizens fled to Carthage to escape
the oncoming hordes of Goths and Gauls who sacked Rome. Augustine wrote a massive work entitled “City
of God” in which outlined history as a succession of fallen nations – Egypt,
Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and now Rome.
Why did they fall? Because they
were all human endeavors that sought power, wealth, and conquest, and built it
off of false gods, false religions. The
only “city” that would ever last is the “city of God” – the one we will soon
see emerge from the revelations John received.
We may keep asking why does this
all have to happen? Fallen humanity is
alienated from God in its sin. Only
Christ can redeem fallen people from their Sin.
Without God, humanity has to stand before the Justice of God. While God loves, is full of grace, is merciful,
kind, forgiving, he is also a God of justice, of wrath, an enemy of all things
evil that characterizes Satan’s rule over evil kingdoms. John sums it up –
“…all nations were deceived by
your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints,
and of all who have been slain on earth” (18:23-24).
“No more” is what will come one
day, as God pronounces the end of evil, and judgment falls on all who have
bowed – whether they knew they were bowing or not – to the beast, to
Satan. It’s fairly easy to read the
words and not let them sink in. John was
on an island for the testimony he had in the word of God. He had a perspective that gave him hope that
the evil of the world he was living in would one day end. “No more” …for both those who live without
Christ, and with joy for those who live in Christ.
Peace
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