Lesson 38: Destruction, part 1

Revelation 18:1-10
1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory.
2 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.
3 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.”
4 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;
5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
6 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.
7 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.’
8 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.”
9 And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.
10 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.”


This second part of the “prostitute” we saw in chapter 17 is a one-world economical system. Here she is called the city of Babylon. A contrast we need to see to understand this is from Genesis 4:12; God’s curse on Cain for murdering Abel was that he was to be a “wanderer on the earth.” But Cain and his descendants defied God and (verse 17) built cities. Cities have always been man’s search for self-security which is why God calls this economic system by the name of the first great city ever built – Babylon (Genesis 11). God’s destruction of the second Babylon is far greater than His judgment on the first.

Verse 4, however, is again a reminder that God calls those who are His own out of this city before He sends destruction. Again, we see this in history as God called Lot and his family out of Sodom before that city was destroyed (Genesis 19). Even believers, however, suffer from His judgment on evil if they are not obedient (Genesis 19:26).

*What similarity do you see between verse 5 above and Genesis 11:4?