“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.’ 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.’”

I’m not saying anything that I haven’t said before when I write that Revelation is a book of anxiety and fear for many people. The imagery can be too much, the description of a world that suffers the progressive removal of common grace and the accompanying chaos, only to then suffer further under the righteous judgment of God is something that the human mind simply cannot reconcile itself with. There is also a great amount of sensation around Revelation, a considerable amount of, as we’ve said all along, missing the forest for the trees. The prophecies, the symbolism, the plagues, and the catastrophes all become points of fascination for the sake of themselves. Between feelings of fear and uncertainty, as well as fixating on pieces rather than the whole, people can arrive at certain parts toward the end of the book and experience a sense of disorientation. This might come at the seven bowls, the fall of Babylon, and the battle of Armageddon, or really any point thereafter and you find yourself stopping and looking around, wondering how exactly you got here. And I can sympathize with a sense of fear, uncertainty, or obsession if you were to find yourself dropped in the midst of the grand events relayed in this book – but that’s not what has happened, it’s not how we got here. Revelation is no different from the rest of Scripture, in that Christ is our cornerstone, He is the guiding principle that gives order, purpose, and understanding to all the rest. Revelation 1:1, which has stood as our anchor and our touchstone throughout our verse by verse read through this book tells us,

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John…”

This book is not a horror story, or a conspiracy theory, it’s not an evangelical tool to usher people to the altar through fear and manipulation, and it’s not a prophetic puzzle to crack and obtain secret knowledge for yourself. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, the revealing of the Son of Man, who is One with the Ancient of Days. And part of what He shows us, with great kindness and patience is that there is nothing that happens in this book, nothing that unfolds in the final days, over the course of the tribulation, that does not happen without reason. We can see this precedent established early with the seven churches – each of them is counseled on their current condition, advised as to what will happen if they continue on this path, and then given the hope of what they will obtain if they either return to, or remain in obedience to Christ. No one is threatened with judgment arbitrarily, no one is promised blessings without purpose. Despite the fact that our understanding of Him is far from complete, part of what is revealed about God is that He does nothing without reason. The world (when it’s not in the self-deifying mindset of atheism and actually acknowledging that some kind of vague higher power exists) will pretend that God is some petty, vengeful monster, pouring out fire and wrath indiscriminately, painting the Almighty as though He were a tantrum throwing child. They lack the eyes to see – they don’t want the eyes to see that everything God does is more than warranted, and if there’s anything that doesn’t make sense it’s the grace He bestows on a world – though this too is not some idle thing. As Paul writes in Romans 2:4–5,

“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

God is glorified regardless – either through His righteousness taking root and transforming the lives of His children, or through His righteous judgment poured out on those who have chosen to rebel against Him. And this is the thing we have to have at the forefront of our minds as we move through Revelation, and especially as the judgement intensifies. The mortal mind sees the destruction of Babylon and feels terror, they mourn and wail, as we’ll see in more detail next week. But to the believer, to the one with their eye fixed on Christ, who holds an eternal perspective, the judgment of wickedness is a good thing. As John wrote early on in Revelation 1:7,

“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”

Everyone will see, like lightning streaking across the sky, there will be no hiding the coming of Christ from any person – but it is the tribes of the earth, those who have made their home among flesh that will wail and despair at His coming. But our response, our testimony is the same as John’s – Even so, let it be. As we read through the first part of Revelation 18 today and continue the same look at the condition of the kingdom of man that we were in last week, I hope that you’re able to see, in the midst of the sin, destruction, and judgment, that there is a profound sweetness to God’s justice against unrighteousness, an amazing goodness and glory to the hand of the Holy One, stretched out against the wickedness of the world.

The End of the Kingdom of Man

1. The Exposure of the Broken Kingdom

“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.’”

Last week we were given an in depth look at Babylon, the mysterious woman who is the picture of the world’s wickedness and corruption, as well as the beast who is Satan that both props her up, and hates her. We saw the ways in which she delights in the power of her own darkness, how she glorifies herself in her opposition to God – we saw the fate that she will meet, conquered by the Lamb and devoured by the forces she allied herself with, and we were given validation that she is exceptionally deserving of this. Now as we move into this week’s passage we’re given a picture of what her fall actually looks like. An angel descends from heaven, his role, to expose and to explain. We’ve addressed this before, but angels are far more than benign figures in renaissance paintings, or terrifying and mysterious beings described by Scripture. Before they are anything else, they are the messengers of God. Whatever power they hold, whatever authority they wield is not a testament to themselves, but to the One who’s message they carry. As this new angel approaches we see that the earth is made bright with his glory. While this thematically fits with the glory of the Light of God, it also ties into something practical that we see unfolding. Jesus teaches in Luke 8:16–17,

“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.”

Light exposes, it reveals – in the dark you can imagine the greatest horrors or the most seductive beauties, but in the Light there is Truth, the true condition of things is made known – and this is what we see happen with Babylon as the light of this glorious messenger comes down. This angel communicates a message much like the second angel who said in Revelation 14:8,

“… Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”

But in the midst of this same information, he includes other details, elements exposed by the Light, that we might see the true nature of this judged and broken husk of a world. Babylon the woman was described in Revelation 17 as being dressed lavishly, wearing finely dyed clothes, jewels, and precious metals – but the Light shows something else entirely. Babylon, this woman, this world, the image of a once shining city, has fallen to the lowest possible point. It’s not just that it’s a place of mortal wickedness, it’s corrupt on every level. It is corrupt in a specific spiritual sense, the dwelling place for demons – the word used for demon can apply to directly what you’d think of, the dark forces that are spiritually aligned with Satan. But we also get some information regarding this in what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:18–20,

“Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.”

There can certainly be a vagueness about demonic forces, but in this they’re given a face – and this is another connotation for the word “demon,” the empty and vile “gods” of this world. In Babylon these blasphemous abominations have a home, they have a shelter and a seat – they are in their element in this space. Next we read that Babylon is not only specifically corrupt, but in a broad, general sense of the spirit. Not only is she a home for demons, she is a roost for every unclean spirit. This might sound like the same thing, and there are many cases in Scripture where “unclean spirit” is used to describe a demon. But them being used back to back like this gives us an opportunity to discern a difference. The words used for “unclean spirit” are “akathartos,” which is to be unclean in both a ceremonial sense, and in a moral sense through thought or action, and “pneuma,” which is the word we see used for “spirit” almost every time in the New Testament, as well as for “wind,” and “breath,” though it doesn’t stop there. Pneuma is used to describe the principle by which the body is animated, the governing influence of the soul, and in a sense, consciousness itself – in other words, it carries all the implications that we might use for the word “spirit” in our modern language. So when we read that Babylon is a haunt for every unclean spirit, we have to appreciate how broad these implications are – this isn’t just the demons, this isn’t just Satan, though it’s everything that they represent. This is a place that is a home for spiritual darkness from bottom to top – from the greatest, blackest transgressions, to the mildest, most socially acceptable vices, all are given home in Babylon. However this isn’t limited to spiritual, or psychological matters, this perversion spills over to create an unclean physical space. It is specified that this is home for both unclean birds, and unclean beasts – this again could seem redundant at first read, like the demons and unclean spirits being back to back, but again there is a clear purpose. Leviticus 11:13–19 says,

“And these you shall detest among the birds; they shall not be eaten; they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the kite, the falcon of any kind, every raven of any kind, the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind, the little owl, the cormorant, the short-eared owl, the barn owl, the tawny owl, the carrion vulture, the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.”

Some of these likely sound familiar, some you might have never heard of, the thing to understand is that they all can and will consume flesh – some of them (like the vulture and raven) particularly seeking out dead flesh. If these are the creatures that fly in the sky, that roost in trees, and on buildings then we can see the imagery of a corrupted, tainted sky, which coincides with a corrupt and tainted land, prowled by unclean and detestable beasts. This also fits with what Isaiah wrote of the actual Babylon, but reveals the prophetic weight of God’s words, carrying past the ancient empire to the end of days, saying in Isaiah 13:19–22,

“And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there. But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; there ostriches will dwell, and there wild goats will dance. Hyenas will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; its time is close at hand and its days will not be prolonged.”

There is not a facet of Babylon that is unaffected by wickedness, unstained by rebellion – this is a place that’s true nature is nothing but desolation, void of any true beauty, satisfaction, or peace, and all this is freely exposed under the light and declaration of the angel descending from heaven.

“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.”

In ancient times Babylon was a very real place – a city that commanded one of the most formidable empires ever seen. But we have to remember that what we read of here is a symbolic Babylon, and as we looked at last week, while this has ties to the corruption and fall of Jerusalem, it’s far more than that, as Babylon is a picture of the empire of the world. It is a seed of evil that has flourished in the flesh, reveled in glorifying man and sowing hatred of God. We can see that it’s true nature, its real condition, is not one of prosperity, but of brokenness and filth – and yes, this is what the world has bound itself to. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:16–18,

“Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”

This woman, this twisted harlot that is Babylon is what the world has grafted itself to, become one flesh with. All the nations, all the kings have been seduced, have entered into immorality through her intoxication – and, lest we think them helpless victims, through their own greed. While Babylon may have come initially shrouded in darkness, she also came before those who did not want to see, who desired the perverse satisfaction that came along with their blindness, and now her condition has become their condition, the two are one flesh. The judgment that has come, the fall that has occurred is not just for her, but for them as well – not just for the thing that stands as a symbol for the wicked and rebellious world, but for the world itself. And again, we have to revisit the fact that there is a sweetness to this. Oftentimes we struggle with the conditions of a fallen world, of the repercussions of the thorns that we caused to be sown in the earth by our sin, when horrific things happen to righteous people. But there is no mystery to this, what we’re seeing unfold, the true, broken condition of a world that has hated God with everything it is, it’s right. This is just, this is good – it’s good that evil be exposed and destroyed, it’s good that God be avenged of the transgression against His righteousness. And yet, even in the midst of this, the Lord’s mercy is not hidden, His provision for His people has not expired – the call to be a Christian still remains.

• The Temptation of the Broken Kingdom

“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.’”

Consider again Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 6:18,

“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”

We live in a world where sexual sin is rampant, and it’s not just the overt, pornographic material that exists in extreme excess – there is a sexual lure in what seems to be every advertisement, every video thumbnail, there are sexual themes buried in countless songs and movies – many of them aren’t buried at all but are explicitly stated or shown. The world wants you to indulge, to be carried along in the tide of debauchery, to be sedated into warm comfort, and find dumb delight in the corruption being peddled. In the absence of that, if it can’t get your complete, unconditional surrender to its sexualization of everything, what it wants you to do is stand and fight. You may be thinking, “Absolutely, that’s what I’m going to do against the temptation of lust, I’ll stand and fight!” You may think of Ephesians 6, of the whole armor of God, and how you’ve been equipped to stand against the enemy – and you’re right, you have been equipped to stand against all sorts of schemes and plots that Satan has for the children of God. But what does the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God which is our weapon counsel us to do in the face of sexual temptation? You run! Flee! You sprint away from it as fast as you can. Jesus teaches during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:27–30,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

The problem is that a significant percentage of lust’s attacks come through the eyes. If your tactic in dealing with something that overcomes you through your sight is to stand before it, elbow locked and keep it arm’s length, you’re going to fail. The world would like to prey on your pride, to give an opportunity for the temptation to be overcome to sit and eat away at you like acid, when what you need to do – what you have to do to truly combat this force is run. Remember that before we saw Babylon as a broken, filthy, decrepit abomination, she appeared as a lavishly dressed prostitute, as a wicked seductress, and this is how the world has bound itself to her. But we who are called children of God are specifically called out of the world, called away from Babylon’s seductive poison. Jesus prays during the High Priestly Prayer in John 17:13–19,

“But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

Physically, we are in the world, but spiritually we are given an awareness, a blessed sense of detachment that we are not home. Paul sums this up beautifully in Philippians 3:17–21 saying,

“Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

We are not drawn in by the wiles of the world like those who do not know Christ, because we have been given something greater – a better inheritance, an eternal promise. But if we are children of God, if we belong to Him, then it makes no sense for us to be found among the enemy, for us to take up residence in a habitat of corruption. James 1:22–25 tells us,

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

If we say we stand with Christ, but then walk in the paths of those who are sons of rebellion then we’re nothing more than hypocrites. Look at God’s warning – to remain in Babylon, to be a friend of the world, as James 4:4 tells us, makes us enemies of God. We’ve seen before a comparison drawn between Sodom and Egypt, but this draws us very specifically back to Sodom. If you remember back to Exodus, as the Egyptians were tattered by the plagues, the land of Goshen where the Jewish people lived remained untouched. But this was not the case for Sodom. Genesis 19:15–17 says,

“As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.’ But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought them out, one said, ‘Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.’”

Lot alone in all of Sodom was found righteous, he alone was not completely corrupted by sin. But the city was not destroyed around him, he was told to flee. And while great provision was made for him, had he insisted upon staying, had he stopped during his flight to turn back, then he would have shared in the fate of Sodom. Again, we have to deal with how right God’s judgment is. This isn’t an uncontrolled fit of rage, it’s not some arbitrary judgment handed down by some distant, impersonal deity. This is holy, righteous, good, and proper judgment. From the earth to the unseen realm above, the sin of Babylon has risen, and God has forgotten nothing. Every time they’ve blasphemed His name, every time they spilled the blood of His saints, each time they’ve burned His children He has remembered – and if you are captured in the temptation of Babylon, if you stand with the darkness, and make your home in her haunts, then you will share in the fire of judgment that burns forever and ever.

• The Delusion of the Broken Kingdom

“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.’”

It’s possible that when you read, “Pay her back as she herself has paid back others,” something sticks out in your head – maybe this doesn’t sound entirely right at first glance. This may be because of what Jesus teaches, again during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:38–42,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.”

If then we are called to, love and pray for our enemies, if we’re told to turn the other cheek, why now do we read that Babylon is to be repaid in what sounds like a very “eye for an eye” kind of way? There are a few things to consider here, and one is the context in which Jesus is teaching during the Sermon on the Mount. Every time He says, “You have heard it said,” He’s addressing something that is in the Law that the religious leaders (or the people themselves) had taken and twisted to be abused. One of the easiest examples of this is what Jesus says in Matthew 5:31–32,

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

What Jesus is referencing is Deuteronomy 24:1–4, which says,

“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.”

There was a practice (and still is in certain Islamic nations), where a man would essentially prostitute his wife by “divorcing” her for the night and “marrying” her to another man, only for her to be “divorced” of her new husband and “remarried” to her old one the next day. This law, while helping to preserve the significance and sanctity of marriage, also served to protect wives from this abuse from their husbands. But what the Jews of Jesus’ time had done was taken this line, “if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her,” and stretched that to well beyond its limit. The influential and more conservative rabbinic school of Shammai taught that this meant some form of “unchastity,” which sounds like it would be faithful to Jesus’ teaching, except that some interpretations of “unchaste” behavior could include something as simple as a woman not properly wearing a head covering. The more liberal school of Hillel on the other hand set the bar even lower, counting a wife doing something as simple as burning dinner as a viable offense. Still a third school held an even more reduced standard, teaching that seeing another woman that you found more desirable could meet these qualifications for divorce. The Jews had taken something meant to protect, meant to honor God and His design, and they had manipulated it well out of context to suit their own ends. Now, this same principle applies to “an eye for an eye” as well, and it’s actually given twice in the Law concerning two different circumstances. Exodus 21:22–25 says,

“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”

And Leviticus 24:17–22,

“Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. Whoever takes an animal’s life shall make it good, life for life. If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the LORD your God.”

Neither of these are petty or prideful, “You hurt me so I’m going to hurt you back,” type rules. Both of them are built around a respect for life – particularly human life, from the womb on. So, returning to Babylon, it’s not that there’s no precedent for justice leveled based on the transgressions of the guilty – but this is something that belongs in the hands of God, not men. There are three passages I want you to consider – one is part of the Song of Moses, saying in Deuteronomy 32:35–36,

“‘Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’ For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free.”

Another is Isaiah 55:8–9, which says,

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

And finally, James 1:19–21, which tells us,

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

What we’re seeing is not a command for you as a Christian to pay back Babylon for the crimes she has committed against the Lord and His saints – it is an appeal and a promise to what God is doing and about to do. This isn’t a double standard, it’s not hypocrisy, it is the holy work of the only One who can bring forth right and righteous divine judgment. Another thing we can see is that Babylon, along with her multitude of transgressions, sins heaped to the heights of heaven, has not only lied to everyone around her, she’s lied to herself. Despite her rotten core and the façade that is collapsing around her, she tells herself in her heart, in her innermost places, “I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.” This is the same condition that Jesus rebukes the church as Laodicea over in Revelation 3:17 when He tells them,

“For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,’ not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

Contributing to the theme of Babylon as the defiled and ruined seductress, it also draws parallels to Jezebel just before her death. 2 Kings 9:30–31,

“When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window. And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, ‘Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?’”

Jehu has been anointed as king over Israel and tasked with purging the evil that Ahab had spread about the land – a task he undertakes with great enthusiasm. He has come to Jezreel specifically to kill Jezebel, and she knows it. But what does she do? She doesn’t run and hide, she does beg for mercy, or attempt to fight – she… gets dressed up. She paints herself as the seductress, she dresses herself as queen, and then she taunts the man who has come to kill her. She uses the tools at her disposal, she flaunts the hollow power she imagines herself to have – and she’s thrown from the upper window by her own servants, trampled by horses, and her body devoured by dogs. Babylon cherishes her own station, the world intoxicates itself on its own power, influence, and appearance of strength – but this is an empty lie, and it will drink a double measure of the justice it has incurred from the very cup that it has mixed. Babylon has lived in hollow delusion, but she is being delivered the righteous and uncompromising Truth.

“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.”

Last week we looked at Isaiah 14:12–15,

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.”

This is one of those passages that has layers upon layers of application – it is part of the taunt that Israel is promised to be given against literal Babylon after they’re restored as a nation. It also has applications to the dragon, Satan, the spirit that carries and infests the abominable harlot that is the symbolic Babylon. We have to remember that it is the perverse desire, the dark ambition of Satan and all that imitates him to be God. “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High,” is not something that is spoken lightly. There is a connection that needs to be seen in that the world wanting to play at being God, means that their desire is to take the glory of Christ and place it upon themselves. In Gethsemane, hours before His crucifixion we see Jesus pray in Matthew 26:39, 42,

“… My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” … “… My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

There are a lot of problems with seeking to make yourself God – there’s the sacrilege, the blasphemy, the horrifying affront to His righteousness, the offense of treading upon and claiming ground that belongs to Him and Him alone. But there’s a practical problem as well, because you’re not God. Deuteronomy 6:4 says quite plainly,

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”

There is only One, and there are no others. You’re not God, you can’t be God, no one but God can hold the title, the power, the authority – no one but the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the flesh and blood incarnation of God the Father could drink the cup, could bear the weight, could take the wrath that the world had earned upon Himself and all at once, make atonement on Calvary, and say with authority, “it is finished.” Jesus, the Passover Lamb of God took on the wrath of God all at once and paid an ultimate, continually atoning sacrifice – and in seeking to steal the glory that is due to God and God alone, the harlot that is Babylon, that is the spirit of worldliness has invited unimaginable condemnation upon herself. In the depths of her foolish delusion, she that represents the entire world openly and proudly opposes God, and has desired to raise herself up to the highest place, to the throne of heaven. She is wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked, and yet she has declared herself worthy, above reproach, above what is holy – and so she is given the wrath of God, poured out upon her, calamity devouring her in a single day, that her presumed power, her twisted decadence that was so praised will be seen as nothing while it is reduced to ash. And again we have to see that this is a sweet thing – it is good and right that justice be served, it is holy and just that the blasphemous lies of an imposter of peace be eradicated – burned into ash and tossed to the wind. The kingdom of man is a horrifying and broken thing, exposed by the glory of God, by the Light of His Truth that we may see it for what it is, that we may take no part in her temptations, and that we may look upon the destruction of her lies and delusion and know that what God has done is a good and beautiful thing.

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYwMCx3Er2c