Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisrael and Mishpachah and welcome to Part LXIII (63) of our study of the Book of Revelation. Last week we looked at the 7 and 10 kings, the 7 hills or mountains, and some interpretations of these, including the EU as being the latter-day 10 (which we rejected) and concluded that the overall message was that Yahweh's people should not be afraid because the apparently impregnable Beast system would eventually destroy itself. We looked at number symbolism and especially that of 3½, representing the Beast system's disharmonious imperfection and presumption in trying to 'better' Elohim (God) by half.

So now we are to embark on the third and last of the three great divisions of the sixth vision 'on earth' consisting of chapters 16, 17 and 18, namely:

• 1. The first division or Great Judgment (chapter 16);
• 2. The second division or Great Harlot (chapter 17); and now
• 3. The third division or Great City (chapter 18).

The last verse of chapter 17 closed by it giving the interpretation of the woman as being 'that Great City' and though the woman is the first thing mentioned in that chapter, yet the interpretation as to who she is is left till the end, so that the mention of the city can lead to the account of its destruction, which is the subject of chapter 18 today and next week. In chapter 17 we read about the internal conflict between the Great City in which the 7 heads, 10 kings, and 'the kings of the earth', and the Beast (who is, I think we are forced to conclude, the 8th king), all take part. But now, starting in chapter 18, the City itself is to be judged as a city, and that means everyone who is voluntarily a part of that City. Those who love the system, and support it, must receive their just desserts.

You will remember that the fall of the city was announced in advance in preliminary and general terms in chapter 14:

"And another malak (angel) followed, saying, 'Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication'" (Rev.14:8, NKJV).

The prophetic language is in the present tense because its fall was a foregone conclusion long ago. It never had a chance of surviving, let alone prospering, indefinitely, such announcements being the calling of nev'im (prophets) in every age. Since that announcement in chapter 14, the 7th Bowl or Vial has been poured out, and as we also saw in chapter 16, the City has already been shaken to its foundation:

"The seventh malak (angel) poured out his bowl (vial) into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'It is done!' Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. Elohim (God) remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of His wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed Elohim (God) on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible" (Rev.16:17-21, NIV).

I'd like to now propose to you now an explanation as to what the "three parts" could well be, which will become clearer, I hope, by the time we have finished today. Being as this is, as I shall now attempt to show, an allegorical city, with certain resemblances to actual cities historically, the three divisions must correspond to the three categories of human being identified by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:41 at the time time of Final Judgment, namely:

• 1. The qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) who are pure inwardly and outwardly, who correspond to the Children of the First Resurrection and the Glory of the Sun, who remain on divine assignment to be witnesses calling souls to repentance, and are martyred and join the rest of their number under the Altar in the Great Throne Room; those not called to remain behind to witness will have responded to the instruction to "come out of her" and have obediently left long before to join the Remnant for the Final Gathering in the Last Exodus;

• 2. The disobedient believers who refused to fully repent of their lawlessness and leave, who correspond to the Children of the Second Resurrection and the Glory of the Moon, who are likewise killed; and

• 3. The vast majority who are unbelievers, who love the system, refused to believe and chose the Mark of the Beast, who correspond to the hell-bound and the Glory of the Stars, all of whom perish, who will also be raised in the Second Resurrection as the children of damnation.

But before we can confirm this assessment, let's see if we can establish what the Great City isn't. We have talked a lot about the Great City's traditional identification with Rome but as we work through chapter 18 I hope you will see the literal connection appears less and less likely. Why do I say that? Because, as is well known to historians, Rome itself as a city, as opposed to its Empire, was neither 'great' nor an important commercial centre. It had no port to speak of, with the small port of Ostia being developped in the first century. Moreover, the actual city of Babylon was never 'suddenly' destroyed in a 'single hour' as the 'Great City' will be. Indeed, I want you to note well the suddenness of its destruction, which is the subject not only of this prophecy but also the ones in Isaiah and Jeremiah. So consider these two prophecies too that make up a triple witness:

"Disaster will come upon you,
and you will not know how to conjure it away.
A calamity will fall upon you
that you cannot ward off with a ransom;
a catastrophe you cannot foresee
will suddenly come upon you" (Is.47:11, NIV).

"Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.
Wail over her!
Get balm for her pain;
perhaps she can be healed" (Jer.51:8, NIV).

Now, it is perfectly true that the literal Babylon has come under judgment, but it has never yet experienced this sudden judgment that we have just read of in these three prophecies. Nothing is known to have ever happened in this way to the historical Babylon. It's been captured, yes, many times, but not suddenly destroyed. It basically just decayed over time. Remember, we are dealing with prophecy in the Book of Revelation that is highly symbolic as I tried to illustrate for you last time using the example of map-reading and its peculiar symbols that do not visually resemble what they portray. Has Rome at any time seen revival on the scale described here as a great commercial centre? As a political and religious (Roman Catholic) centre, yes, it most certainly has, but not as a great commercial centre like Amsterdam, London or New York. Rome has been invaded, yes, several times, but not utterly wiped out, not by the Huns, Napoleon, or by the Allies in World War 2 when it was declared an Open City by the Germans to spare its destruction.

The same with Babylon which, though it is long gone, gradually decayed over centuries, in spite of Saddam Hussein trying to recreate it if only for propaganda purposes in the late 20th century. It is not, as the King James Version (KJV) puts it, "the abode of dragons", better translated "monsters" (from the Hebrew tanniyn) and yet we are told it will be after its destruction (Is.13:9,12; Jer.50:3). Indeed, allow me to underline most emphatically that John's apocalyptical 'Babylon' does not fulfil any of the conditions of the literal Babylon described in numerous places in Jeremiah and Isaiah [1] where it is portrayed as a place of perpetual desolation, where no man lives, empty without inhabitants. I hate to burst the bubbles of the modern pop theologians, but there you have it stated as plain as a pikestaff.

With that said in the clearest possible terms, let's now take up the narrative again beginning in chapter 18 in the New King James Version (NKJV). There are no translation issues to speak of in this segment that we need concern ourselves with so we can get straight into the first 8 verses:

"1 After these things ('My vision continued, and in it' - Barclay) I saw ('perceived' - CLNT) another malak (angel, 'messenger' - ISRV, AENT, CLNT) (Rev.17:1) coming down ('who descended' - HRV; 'descending' - Amp.V) from heaven (Rev.10:1; 20:1), having ('armed with' - JBP; 'possessing' - Amp.V) great authority, and the earth ('olam' - RSTNE) was illuminated ('lighted' - ISRV; 'grew bright' - NLT; 'made bright' - NRSV, ESV; 'lit up' - JB, JNT, NEB, Moff., Barclay; 'shone' - HRV, JBP; 'flooded with the light of' - KNT) with his glory ('spelendo[u]r' - NLT, JNT, NEB, RSV, NRSV, Barclay, Amp.V, NIV; 'splendour of his presence' - JBP; 'radiance' - Moff., Amp.V; 'esteem' - ISRV) (Ezek.43:2). 2 And he cried ('called out' - NRSV) mightily with a loud ('strong' - JNT, AENT; 'great' - HRV, 'mighty' - JBP, ESV) voice ('gave a mighty shout' - NLT; 'shouted in a resounding voice' - Barclay), saying ('At the top of his voice he shouted' - JB; 'he proclaimed' - NEB),

'Babylon ('Bavel' - HRV, RSTNE; 'Babel' - ISRV) the great is fallen, is fallen (Is.21:9; Jer.51:8; Rev.14:8), and has become a dwelling place ('hideout' - NLT; 'haunt' - JB, NEB, RSV, NRSV, Moff., ESV; 'home' - JNT, Barclay, NIV; 'habitation' - HRV, KJV; 'cavern' - AENT; 'jail' - CLNT) of ('for' - NIV) demons ('devils' - JB, KJV; 'shadim' - HRV, RSTNE) (Is.34:11ff.), a prison ('lodging' - JB; ' resort' - Amp.V; 'haunt' - NIV, ESV) for every foul ('unclean' - NASB, JNT, NEB, ISRV) spirit (Rev.16:13), and a ['large' - JBP] cage ('haunt' - RSV, NRSV, Barclay, NIV; 'prison' - NASB, JNT, HRV; 'dungeon haunted' - Amp.V) for ('by' - Amp.V) every unclean ('foul' - JBP, Moff.) and hated ('hateful' - NASB, HRV, RSV, NRSV, JBP, CLNT; 'dirty, loathsome' - JB; 'vile and loathsome' - NEB; '[filthy and] detestable' - NIV, Amp.V; 'loathsome' - Barclay) bird ('filthy buzzards' - NLT) ('beast' - NRSV, ESV; 'beast of prey' - AENT; 'monster' - KNT) (Is.13:21-22; 34:11,13-15; Jer.50:39; 51:37; Zeph.2:14-15)! 3 For all the nations have drunk ['deep' - NEB] of ('been intoxicated by' - JB) the ['maddening' - NIV] wine of the wrath ['of God's fury' - JNT] ('passion' - NASB, NLT, Moff., ESV; 'fierce wine' - NEB) of her fornication ('immorality' - NASB, NLT; 'prostitution' - JB; 'whoring' - JNT, ISRV; 'vice' - Moff.; 'passionate unfaithfulness' - JBP; 'passionate unchastity' - Amp.V; 'adulteries' - NIV; 'sexual immorality' - ESV) (Rev.14:8), the kings ('rulers' - NLT, Amp.V; 'sovereigns' - ISRV) ['and leaders' - Amp.V] of the earth have committed fornication ('immorality' - ESV; 'acts of immorality' - NASB; 'adultery' - NLT, NIV; 'vice' - Moff.; 'went whoring' - JNT) [(idolatry) - Amp.V] with her (Rev.17:2), and the merchants ('businessmen' - JNT, Amp.V; 'traders' - Moff.; KNT) of the earth ('the world over' - NEB) have become ('grown' - NEB, NRSV; 'waxed' - KJV) rich (Rev.18:11,15,23; Ezek.27:9-25) through the abundance ('unrestrained love' - JNT; 'power' - HRV, NRSV, ESV; 'wantonness' - Moff., Amp.V; 'extravagance' - JBP) of her ['excessive' - Amp.V, NIV] luxury ('trade' - HRV; 'delicacies' - KJV; 'debauchery' - JB; 'bloated wealth' - NEB; 'dissipation' - JBP; 'by the wealth of her sensuality' - NASB; 'demands of her wanton luxury' - Barclay; 'riotous living' - ISRV; 'luxurious living' - ESV; 'power to indulge' - CLNT; 'power of her luxury' - KNT). (Jer.25:15,27)'



4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying,

'Come out of ('away from' - NLT, JB) her, my people[-'Ami' - RSTNE] (Is.48:20; Jer.50:8; 51:6,9,45; 2 Cor.6:17), lest you ('if you do not wish to' - Barclay) share ('become accomplices' - JBP; 'that you may not participate/take part' - NASB/NLT; 'take part' - ESV; 'become embroiled' - KNT) in her sins ('crimes' - JB), and lest you receive of ('must share in' - JBP; 'be infected by' - JNT; 'take part in' - NEB; 'partake in' - HRV; 'participate in' - Amp.V; 'that ye be not partakers of' - KJV; 'share in' - ESV) her plagues ('punishment' - JBP) (Jer.50:8,13; Is.48:20; Gen.19:15). 5 For her sins ('crimes and transgressions' - Amp.V) have reached ('mounted' - JBP; 'are piled' - NIV) up ('piled up as high as' - NASB, NEB, Amp.V; 'her sins are heaped high' - NRSV, Barclay, ESV; 'her sins are a sticky mass piled up' - JNT) to heaven ('the sky' - JBP, KNT) (Jer.51:9; 2 Chr.28:9; Ezr.9:6), and Elohim (God) has remembered ('not forgotten' - NEB) ['the tale of' - JBP] (Rev.16:19) her iniquities ('wickedness', Amp.V; 'crimes' - JB, JNT, NEB, Barclay, Amp.V, NIV; 'sins' - NLT; 'misdeeds' - Moff.; 'injuries' - CLNT). 6 Render to her ('Pay her back' - NASB, ESV; 'Do to her' - NLT) just as she rendered to you ('has paid' - NASB; 'She is to be paid in her own coin' - JB, NEB, JBP) (Jer.50:15), and repay her ('give her back' - NASB) ['a' - NLT] (Ps.137:8; Jer.50:15-29) double ['penalty' - NLT] ('pay her back double' - JNT; 'repay her twice over' - NEB, Barclay; 'double the doubles' - CLNT; 'mix a double draught' - NRSV, KNT; 'draught double' - Moff; 'a drink of double strength' - JBP; 'double portion' - NIV) (Is.40:2) according to ('for' - NRSV) her works ('deeds' - NASB, NRSV, ESV; 'she exacted' - JB); in the cup which she has mixed ('brewed' - JNT), mix double ('portion' - ESV; 'twice as much' - NASB; 'double strong cup of her own mixture' - JB) for her ('brew her a double-sized drink!' - JNT) (Rev.14:10; 16:19; 17:4). 7 In the measure ('To the degree' - NASB) that she glorified ('flaunted' - JBP; 'esteemed' - ISRV, RSTNE; 'glorified' - ESV) herself ('her nefesh' - HRV) and lived luxuriously ('riotously - ISRB; 'deliciously' - Amp.V; 'sensuously' - NASB; 'voluptuous pomp' - NEB; 'was arrogant' - HRV; 'reveled in her wantonness' - Amp.V) (Ezek.28:2-8), in the same measure ('to the same degree' - NASB; 'match' - NEB) give her ('mete out' - NEB) ['a like measure of' - NRSV] torment ('torture' - JBP, Moff., ISRV, NIV) and sorrow ('mourning' - NASB, ESV; 'grief' - NEB, HRV, Barclay, ISRV, NIV; 'tears' - Moff.; 'misery' - JBP) ('Every one of her shows and orgies is to be matched by a torture or grief' - JB); for she says ('vaunts' - Moff.; 'boasts' - NIV) in her heart, 'I sit as ['a' - NASB, HRV, ESV] queen ['on my throne' - NLT, JB, NEB] (Jer.7:18; 44:17-19,23), and am no ['helpless' - NLT] widow ('no widow's weeds' - NEB; 'no widow forlorn' - Barclay) ('woman who lacks a man' - JBP), and will not ('never' - NASB) see ('experience' - NLT; 'know' - JBP) sorrow ('mourning' - NASB, JB, NEB, ESV; 'grief' - HRV, NRSV; 'tears' - Moff.; 'suffering' - Amp.V; 'never mourn' - NIV) (Ps.10:6; Is.47:7-8; Zeph.2:15).' 8 Therefore her plagues [('afflictions, calamities' - Amp.V)] will come ['thick upon her' - Amp.V] ('strike her' - NEB, JBP; 'assail her' - Barclay) in one ('a single' - NLT, JNT, NEB, NRSV, Moff., JBP, Barclay, Amp.V, ESV) day (Rev.18:10; Is.9:14; 47:9; Jer.50:31-32) -- death ('pestilence' - NASB, Moff.) and mourning ('bereavement' - NEB; 'death' - HRV; 'tears' - Moff.; 'anguish and sorrow' - Amp.V) and famine ('scarcity of food' - ISRV). And she will be utterly burned ['to ashes' - Barclay] ('consumed' - NLT, Amp.V; 'burnt [right] up' - JB, Amp.V) with fire (Rev.17:16), for strong ('mighty' - NLT, NEB, ESV; 'great power' - JB) is Yahweh-Elohim ('YHWH almighty' - HRV; 'Master YHWH[, Elohim]' - RSTNE, AENT) who judges ('judged' - HRV; 'has condemned' - JB; 'has pronounced her doom' - NEB) her" (Rev.18:1-8, NKJV).

¤BIBLE VERSIONS KEY: AENT = Aramaic English New Testament (NT, Gabriel Roth), Amp.V. = Amplified Version (1958 ed.), Aram.Pesh. = Aramaic Peshitta (NT), Barclay = William Barclay New Testament, B.Wilson = Benjamin Wilson's Emphatic Diaglot, Vatican MS 1209 (NT), CLNT = Concordant Literal New Testament, CJB = Complete Jewish Bible (David Stern), HCSB = Holman's Christian Standard Bible, HRV = Hebraic Roots Version (James Trimm), ISRV = Institute for Scripture Research Version ('The Scriptures', 2009 edn.), JB = Jerusalem Bible (1st edn.), JBP = J.B.Philips New Testament, JNT = Jewish New Testament (David Stern), KNT = Kingdom New Testament (N.T.Wright), MRC = Messianic Renewed Covenant (NT), NASB = New American Standard Bible, NEB = New English Bible (1974 edn.), NIV = New International Version (1984 edn.), NKJV = New King James Version, NRSV = New Revised Standard Version (1995 edn.), KJV = King James Version, Moff. = Moffat Translation, NLT = New Living Translation, RNAB = Revised New American Bible, RSTNE = Restoration Scriptures True Name Edition (2005 edn., Moshe Koniuchowsky), RSV = Revised Standard Version (1952 edn.), Tischendorf = Tauchnitz Edition, Vol.1000, 1869 (NT), S&G = Smith & Godspeed

There's something, I think, that's very interesting about this 'Great City' or 'Babylon the Great' and I'm wondering if anyone has spotted it? In looking at our own modern cities in small countries like mine (the United Kingdom), the Netherlands, and so forth, it is that there's a constant challenge to find living space. There just isn't room for all the teeming masses, especially in this time of mass immigration. That's very different from my adopted country of Sweden which overall has a low population density and lots of empty spaces. And in spite of government regulations that are supposed to protect 'green-belt' areas of the countryside from development in the UK, excuses are often made to break the law and insist that the 'current emergency' requires this green-belt land be seized and developped. Pretty soon the green landscape has been replaced with concrete. And usually it's not the much needed housing that goes up but car parks, supermarkets, city bypasses, land for new railway lines, etc. - in other words, projects from which a profit can be readily made by 'special interests' groups. In countries like Britain, at any rate, the concern of the country folks and environmentalists is, quite rightly, that the city will encroach upon the wild, open spaces.

For John and his contemporaries 2,000 years ago, the danger was the reverse. The open spaces were often deserted and wild but not in a positive sense. Nobody back then would go outside the city gates and say to themselves, 'Oh, I say, there's some nice countryside out there for us to visit and enjoy with some hiking, a picnic, or whatever!' For the ancients, the wilderness was a place of danger, much as the jungle is to the Brazillians or the Congolese. In the Middle East, at any rate, which is the setting of the Book of Revelation (and Anatolia specifically), the wilderness was the haunt of wild and dangerous animals like lions and poisonous snakes, the desert offered criminals and bandits a place to hide and plot, so that the open spaces between towns and cities were lawless, dangerous places which travellers would be eager to escape by scurrying into the next built-up area as soon as possible. That's why Yah'shua (Jesus) told his talmidim (disciples), when on missionary trips between cities, to take a sword or two with them for self-defence against bandits and wild animals (Lk.22:38).

Back then, and for a considerable number of centuries afterwards, cities were often seen as the result of humans extending their civilising reach into previously uncharted territory and John would have understood this from a biblical perspective - the Garden of Eden was the start of a project in which humans were commanded to bring Yahweh's fruitful rule to bear on the whole world. Creation was designed to be a giant garden city, a place where the delights of human community and the delights of glorious countryside were somehow combined into one. And that is a balance that, at least since the Industrial Revolution, has proved harder and harder to maintain. The 'garden' part of modern cities is no longer, in most cases, a priority, though small concessions are sometimes made. My own little nearby town of Arvika here in Sweden does have a lovely, beautifully maintained, park but private, individual gardens tend to be small and city dwellers seem less and less interested in them. It breaks my heart seeing their gardens and pavements (sidewalks) littered with apples in the autumn which no one seems bothered to harvest. The 'country instict' seems to be largely absent in modern cities now.

Now right at the end of the Book of Revelation we are going to find a beautiful picture painted for us of what the ideal, godly city looks like. But for the moment, here in chapter 18, we are shown the opposite: the city which tried, like Babel (or Bavel) of old, to make itself the 'Place' to be much desired, the summit of human achievement, but by its own efforts and to its own glory. Instead, it ends up shrinking to a shell, with the wild desert creeping back into its palaces, its temples, its fine streets and shops and courtyards become overrun by nature. Creation, we're told, will reclaim what arrogant humans had thought to construct. Babylon will become a haunt for demons, unclean spirits, for birds and creatures of all the wrong kinds.

Please note that the distinction in this the last book of the Bible is still made between 'clean' and 'unclean' creatures, a reminder both that Yahweh's Torah has not been done away with in the Messianic Era, and specifically not the Kashrut food laws either. They are still in force. Little wonder that Protestant Dispensationalists want to insist that the Book of Revelation is of no interest for Christians, a reason Darby, Moody, Scofield and their modern era lawless disciples have 'raptured' them away from the scene, supposedly leaving the earth for the Jews and demons instead. Not true. This Book is every bit for Christians - Torah-submitted Christians - where we are to be put to the test as every generation has for the last two thousand years. There has only ever been one People of Elohim (God), never two simultaneously, as Dispensationalists claim, making for considerable confusion. There are no 'teacher's pets' regarded by Heaven to be too fragile to be 'left behind' to suffer persecution the way Yah'shua (Jesus) said we would be. So this is another reminder to the lawless crowd to wake up and repent before it's too late and they get marked for destruction.

For John and all true believers, then as now, the Book of Revelation is good news, just as we're seeing that the destruction of Babel, and the confusion of tongues in Genesis 11 was good news back then. The malak, angel or supernatural messenger who shouts out that Babylon has fallen (echoing Isaiah 21:9 and Jeremiah 51:8 as we've already seen) is bringing the news that human arrogance and oppression, and the wanton luxury and vice to which they lead, will not have the last word. The satanic, deep state élites cannot - and do not - win. Guaranteed. Yahweh-Elohim, the Creator, will have the last word, not the Scarlet Beast, not the Antichrist, not the Dragon, not Satan. They lose and, with their human followers, are carried off to hell for severe punishment for a very, very long time. Not only will Elohim (God) have the last word, creation itself will hear this word as a word of freedom and a sigh of relief - a flood of glorious light (v.1) will be let in upon a darkened dungeon. It is the 'left-behinders' who will be celebrating, not the spiritually and physically unprepared rapturists who have rejected the Book of Revelation as applying to them, vainly waiting to be whisked away out of testing and personal responsibility, and believing that the travelers' inn or heaven is the final destination and not the glorified earth itself. Do you now see why correct doctrine is so important?

Let's now take a closer look at the last three verses:

"Pay her (Babylon) back as she has paid others; give her double again for all her deeds. Mix her a double dose in her own cup - the cup in which she mixed her poisons. She made herself glorious and lived in luxury; balance that by giving her torture and sorrow! She said in her heart, 'I'm the queen! I'm on the throne! I'm not a widow! I'm never going to be a mourner!' Therefore her plagues will come in a single day, death, mourning and famine, and she will be burned with fire, because Yahweh-Elohim who judges her is strong" (Rev.18:6-8, KNT).

Not only are we informed that there is no escape from judgment for Babylon - the devilish system and all those who run it and love it - but the judgments are carefully structured by Yahweh to emphasise that what happens to the wicked city is what she has brought upon herself. The fact that you may have casually embraced the evil system does not mean your punishment will be equally casual or non-consequential - oh no, you're going to get exactly double back what you inflicted on the innocent - on the children of Elohim (God). Moreover, these are not arbitrary measurements but follow a strict Torah system of weights and measures. You can know exactly what to expect for your unrepented sins. Notice also that Yahweh's people will not be the instruments of punishment or vengeance themselves because vengeance, as we're often warned in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament), is too dangerous a weapon to be handled by the followers of the Lamb, as Paul reminds us, quoting the Torah from Deuteronomy 32:35 directly:

"Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for Elohim's (God's) wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says Yahweh (Dt.32:35). On the contrary:

'If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.'

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom.12:19-21, NIV).

Our doing good, moreoever, does not mean that our enemies will escape their torture, only that we won't be the torturers. The Enemy's punishment is Elohim's (God's) own work, turning wickedness back on itself, allowing arrogance to reach a giddy height from which is can only crash helplessly to earth. This will be in direct fulfilment of the words of the navi (prophet) Isaiah:

"Now then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.' Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells" (Is.47:8-9, NIV).

Babylon is to be given the only medicine she knows, the medicine she mixed for others; she has been using her cup to brew a portion for those she wanted to poison, and she will now have to drink it herself (v.6).

Now we need not suppose that Yahweh's revenge is devoid of love. It's not as though we have been given the task to love and He to hate. Don't make the mistake of believing that false dichotomy. How is "Elohim (God) is love" (1 Jn.4:8,16) to be seen in these judgments? It isn't as though we've been given the hard and painful task to 'love' and He the easier task of hating and taking revenge. Yahweh does not hate people, only their sinning, only the evil that they do. Do not forget that Yahweh's love, which is so much greater than our own by many thousands of orders of magnitude, is such that in the end He both seeks and ensures universal reconciliation with all men and women at the Cosmic Jubilee.

He has suffered far more than we ever did on a scale we cannot begin to even imagine, and for far longer..for millennia. The work of the cross represents the height of that suffering on behalf of wicked, sinful mankind. And it's not as though in certain respects man does not have his part to play in the execution of justice, just that he cannot allow his passions free range. That is why Yahweh has appointed the civil authority, run by men who are not themselves the victims of criminal actions, to carry out punishment in a dispassionate and honourable way according to Law. For just as Moses did not judge all cases but gave authority to others to judge too, so Messiah will assign responsibilities and authority to human judges during the Millennium.

This is not, moreoever, total punishment - the civil authority is given licence only to carry out physical punishment, to fine, beat or execute. The punishment of the soul - of the inner man - is Yahweh's affair that can only be conducted supernaturally by the power of the Ruach haQodesh Holy Spirit). So be careful how you define categories of justice and love, and resist the temptation to accuse Yahweh of being unfair, for He is not. He does His part - the greater part that only Deity can ever possibly do righteously - and we have our part within certain limits. What we do is, in the end, for our own character development and maturation. We are not Elohim (God). His love is always more loving than our own. His justice is always more just than our own. Moreoever, He has worked out the proportions exactly here. Babylon shall receive double punishment for her sins.

The command is therefore given that Yahweh's people should, in respect to Babylon, "come out of her", and that clearly echoes the summons of Isaiah 48:20 and 52:11-12, and particularly Jeremiah 51:45:

"Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, 'Yahweh has redeemed His servant Jacob'" (Is.48:20, NIV).

"Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of Yahweh. But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for Yahweh will go before you, the Elohim (God) of Israel will be your rear guard" (Is.52:11-12, NIV).

"Come out of her, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of Yahweh" (Jer.51:45, NIV).

Question: how did John's original audience apply today's scripture segment to themselves? It wasn't given to them simply to titillate their ears, any more than it is given to us for the same reason. Well, we learn in chapters 2 and 3 particularly, but also here in chapter 18, that the faithful among the believers have not compromised with Babylon. The unfaithful or compromised, as in the seven letters, have already received stern warnings about the persecution that is to come, and the urgent need to 'overcome' or 'conquer' the temptations of the flesh. So, yes, this message is most certainly for the seven congregations (churches) of Asia Minor in chapters 2 and 3 but it is without any doubt directed to us too - we are to hear this voice from heaven recorded for us in Scripture.

This revelation is most certainly for us too. It's simultaneously a warning not to get comfortable in Babylon, let alone settle in it and call it 'home', but to get out it in an orderly and determined way - inwardly and outwardly. Why the urgency? Because one day - and none of us knows exactly when - that metaphorical city's gates will be locked by the wicked powers-that-be in every city and town in the world, whether it be through 15 minute restricted travel zones or by some other method that we don't know anything about yet, it doesn't really matter, because nobody will be able to get out at that point. It becomes an impregnable prison. This is the same principle concerning the ripening in iniquity. There is a final or ultimate line, which, if you cross it, you cannot cross back over again. Be warned and take this warning seriously.

There will be believers, alas, who at the very last moment will still be captive inwardly (in their souls) and outwardly (physically) in Babylon, who might just, even at this last hour, recognise the hollowness of it all, the way in which the entire system is riddled with deceit, based on lies, and heading for disaster. Are such people 'Yahweh's people'? Well, John seems to believe, does he not, in the Elohim (God) who delights in calling 'my people' those who were 'not my people'. Quoting Hosea (1:9-10; 2:23) Paul said to the Romans and to us:

"I will call them 'My people' who are not My people;
and I will call her 'My loved one' who is not My loved one,

and,

'It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
'You are not my people,'
they will be called 'sons of the living Elohim (God)'" (Rom.9:25-26, NIV).

Whether you were wise and left early unrushed and in peace to join the Remnant in its work, or whether you procrastinated and left it to the last minute and had to hastily flee in terror, He will rescue you if you want Him to, even if it is by the proverbial 'skin of your teeth' with great personal loss along the way, so there is still hope provided you don't quit. Paul, in the same passage, and this time quoting Isaiah (10:22-23), also says:

"'Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
For Yahweh will carry out
His sentence on earth with speed and finality'" (Rom.9:27-28, NIV).

I think it important to mention at this stage that, though Rome went through all kinds of internal troubles during the first century, of which I have mentioned and discussed one in particular (the 'year of the four emperors' in AD 69), and though I have mentioned also the great fire of Rome in AD 64, for which Nero blamed the Christians, John's picture of the fall of Babylon clearly has a wider reference than this and the Preterist view. Nor is today's segment simply a long-range prophecy of the eventual sack of Rome, centuries later, by invading hordes from the north - in 410 by the Visigoths, in 455 by the Vandals, and in 546 by the Ostrogoths. Rome has, after all, as we can see with our own two eyes, been rebuilt, and some, however misguidedly, still refer to it as the 'eternal city'.

John's vision is of that which Rome in his day was the obvious and classic example: the city which sits in luxury at the heart of empire, dispensing favours upon fawning (and fee-paying) visitors giving royal treatment to those who can be useful to it (the 'useful idiots' as Lenin called them), or upon those who have substantial bank balances, and tossing aside as so much trash those who can't and haven't. Empires come and empires go and so it is cold comfort to be told that this or that great system will eventually fall by its own weight, to be replaced by another which may still be worse. So don't rejoice prematurely when the EU collapses, or if the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) collapses - they will be replaced by something far worse. What matters is that Yahweh's purposes of judgment and mercy will be worked out, not necessarily as we might like but as Yahweh sees best. Hence the stress here on malakim (angels) with great authority, and voices coming from heaven itself.

So you see, it isn't enough merely to topple tyrants. The difficulty is that Yahweh doesn't want anarchy either. Human rulers, for all their faults, are there because that is how Yahweh wants to run the world until His Son returns - structures of authority, however currently corrupt, are part of the good creation, contrary to what Christian anarchists might claim. As we read in Colossians:

"He (Christ) is the image of the invisible Elohim (God), the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him" (Col.1:15-16, NIV).

We need to remember that lest we take the law into our own hands as revolutionaries do. The problems come when those structures arrogate (claim unduly) to themselves powers beyond those of being humble servants of Elohim's (God's) good purposes for His world and His image-bearing creatures (us). The part or responsibility of Yahweh's faithful people has always been to discern the point at which one passes into the other, and to have no hesitation, when that happens, in leaving, either physically or spiritually or both. Like Lot, pleading to be allowed to stay in the vicinity of Sodom (Gen.18:16,18,20), it is all too easy even for the followers of the Lamb to become embroiled in the imperial sins, and to run the risk of sharing the plagues (v.4), so the message to them remains: GET OUT NOW!

With that we will end today. Next week, we will conclude chapter 18 which details the end of Babylon the Great. So until then, Yahweh bless you, and may you soberly consider all I have taught you today. This may not be the end yet, but it is pretty close, and you are wanted by Yahweh in the Remnant, to gather it and to it, build it and prepare it against the Day of Tribulation. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Jeremiah 50:1-4,28,40-41, 46; 25:12; 61:3,6,26-27,29,43; Isaiah 13:20

Acknowledgements

[1] Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone - The New Testament for Everyone Commentary Series, Vol.19 (SPCK, London: 2011)
[2] E.W.Bullinger*, Commentary on Revelation (Kregel Classics, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 1984)
[3] David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary (JNT Publications, Clarksville, Maryland: 1992)
[4] ESV Study Bible (Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois: 2011)
[5] The NIV Study Bible (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 1995)
[6] Ed. J.R.Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (MacMillan, London: 1909)
[7] David Pawson, Unlocking the Bible: A Unique Overview of the Whole Bible (Collins, London: 2007)

*E.W.Bullinger was a brilliant Anglican clergyman and scholar whose works merit careful study by serious students of the Bible. He was, however, seriously in error in at least three main areas, namely, (1) he believed the 'Church' has been raptured before the Book of Revelation opens, (2) he believed that the 7 churches in Revelation 2-3 are 7, literal Jewish churches or assemblies yet to come, and (3) he believed in a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial rapture.

• 1. White horse - military aggression
• 2. Red horse - bloodshed
• 3. Black horse - famine
• 4. Pale Green/Blanched/Pallid/Sickly-looking horse - disease, epidemics

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• 5. Persecution & prayer
• 6. Tremour & terror

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  INTERLUDE I (Ch.7)
  (The 144,000 Redeemed)

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• 7. Silence in heaven, listening to prayers which are then answered in a final catastrophe: a severe earthquake I

• 1. Scorched earth
• 2. Polluted sea
• 3. Contaminated water
• 4. Reduced sunlight

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• 5. Insects and plague (for five months) (1st Woe)
• 6. Oriental invasion (200 million army) (2nd Woe)

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  INTERLUDE II (Ch.10-11)
  (The Malak with the Little Scroll)
  (The Two Witnesses)

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• 7. The Kingdom comes, the world is taken over by Yahweh & Yah'shua (Jesus) after a severe earthquake II (3rd Woe)

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  INTERLUDE III (Ch.13-14)
  (The First & Second Beasts)
  (The Lamb & the 144,000)
  (The Messages of the Three Malakim)

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• 1. Boils on the skin
• 2. Blood in the sea
• 3. Blood from the springs
• 4. Burning by the sun

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• 5. Darkness
• 6. Armageddon

  ---

• 7. Hailstorm (OB 368:11-12) and severe earthquake III, leading to international collapse

  ---

  POSTSCRIPT (Ch.17-18)
  (Babylon the Great & the Bride)

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