May 12, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Revelation? Here’s today’s reading:
Revelation 18 (NIV)
Lament Over Fallen Babylon
1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. 2 With a mighty voice he shouted:
“ ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’
She has become a dwelling for demons
and a haunt for every impure spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
Next: Revelation 19
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Back: Revelation 17
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Revelation 18
Chapter 18, there seems little doubt, Babylon is a city, expressed, animated as an evil woman, queen.
18:4 speaks to me, come out of her my people!
Genesis 19:14, Lot tried to compel his son in laws to flee Sodom, but they would not. Lot loved them.
I am thinking back on that mark if the beast. I would say not doubt, though the angel mercifully warned Babylon, those marked by the beast would rather stay. Those marked by the name of God, probably would try to warn the lost too. Would the inhabitants of Babylon in that future setting, not also have in front of them, this very Scripture to read?
Good sermon material on these passages!
I believe they will, Gordon. I even say that the book of Revelation is more for those going through it than for us. But John does encourage us to hear and be diligent to know and adhere to what is found here. In the same way the first coming of Jesus clarified what the OT said about Him, so His second coming and the events leading up to it will clarify Revelations as well as other prophecies in Scripture that point to the end.
BTW: Can’t preach on it. Best sermon ever wrote on the subject, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
See you on the Lord’s day! gy
God is declaring that He is very much aware of the sins and evil that Babylon has committed. He will bring judgement upon her in His own time. He is also calling His people [ believers ] to come out of her so they wouldn`t partake of the sins. As she has done damage to the believers she will be judged with a double punishment. God will avenge his saints. Thank God that we are no longer children of the world but we are a new creation in Christ. Come quickly Lord Jesus.
Revelation 18
Revelation 18
How deceptive wealth, power and sin are. How easy it is for the world to think they have it all and it is going fine until evil starts to consume them or God’s judgment comes upon them. The picture of a city given here of trade, fine goods, entertainment and sin we can imagine. And how shocked and mournful the world is when it comes crumbling down. And yet how important it is for us as believers to not get swept up in the system that promotes all this pleasure and independence from God as well. And how appropriate for God to judge this world system and the people that promote it and have benefitted from it (and probably used people along the way) and bring them to task for the believers they have persecuted because those believers represent the God that the world wealth and sin system is against. Although the world thinks they are winning, it is comforting to know as believers that God will vindicate His truth and judge the world by implication.
I was thinking very similarly, Pastor. Especially as Americans we see commerce and wealth and prosperity as good and a fruit of our freedom. Some of that is true, plenty of food, housing, and shelter – not a bad thing. But as wealth accumulates, it leads to self-sufficiency (from God). Of course, Satan uses that to his advantage too. “We must have equity. We will gather all of the wealth and divide it evenly.” Of course, the wealth goes to Babylon, not to the people. Satan can build his global government more quickly if he convinces the people that his plan is good.
Verse 13 made me shudder: “And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.” AND SLAVES AND SOULS OF MEN… this isn’t just about material commerce, this is commerce in people. This is HAPPENING NOW on our southern border, in Ukraine, sex trafficking. In plain sight, but everyone sits in a state of cognitive dissonance because the media rarely reports on it.
We are so impacted when we see someone we think had it all fall especially when we are thinking with the wrong standards and priorities. When a Martha Stewart ends up in jail or a Jim Baker gets caught in promiscuity. The world’s eye will be opened and all will see how wrong thinking and wrong priorities lead to destruction in these days! no matter how deceived they were and how distracted they were with the things of this world it will become known that those who did not obey Gods commands can not hide from His wrath