GETTING THE MESSAGE/Sin and the pride of life
In Revelation chapter 17, Babylon is pictured as a glamourous woman who is a harlot holding a cup full of abominations. Babylon is God’s way of depicting the world at its peak regarding allurements to sinful mankind. In Revelation 18, we see the mask taken off Babylon and the depravity that lies underneath it exposed.
In verse 1, an angel with great authority and bright glory comes from heaven and calls out with a mighty voice that Babylon has fallen. We would find it difficult to ignore a personal visit from such a messenger from God, and that is the way we should receive the message. God is warning us that the doom of the present world is certain.
The angel declares that the world has “become a dwelling place for demons.” There is demonic power behind the deepening depravity of the world. We see the lust of the flesh, sexual immorality, in verse 3. The rampant sexual perversion, promiscuity, and pornography in our day point to the power of demonic activity.
The lust of the eyes, meaning greed and covetousness, is also a characteristic of the depravity of the world. In verse 3, the merchants of the world have gotten rich from the power of unbridled materialism. Like sexual immorality, the power of covetousness is demonically influenced.
Babylon also represents the pride of life. In verse 7, she says, “I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and, mourning I shall never see.” When things are going well for men, they think tomorrow will be the same, even better. But God’s Day of reckoning for sin draws nearer every day.
How is a Christian to respond to the allure of Babylon? “Come out of her my people, lest you take part in her sins” (verse 4). Christians don’t withdraw from society or economic life; we are to work, do good, and be salt and light in the places we live. To come out means to have a decisive spiritual separation from the world: a heart to love Christ, serve him in our jobs, how we live, and in doing good to others. If we prosper economically, we are to honor God, be generous, and be careful not to put our hope in wealth.
Babylon shows us the corruption of our natures, which are very prone to love the world and the things of the world. The world is sorcery (verse 23), in that it causes men to fix their confidence in a dying world rather than God. God requires that his people do not love the world, as it will cause them to neglect or diminish their love to Christ. The chief desires of the Christian are to love God and trust him. It is in God our souls find an abundance of life.
Verses 9-24 show us the natural enslavement to sin that is in men. When Babylon falls, the kings of the earth, the merchants of the earth, and all the shipmasters and seafaring men weep and wail, mourning the demise of Babylon. Their lament represents the power that sin has over the soul to mourn the loss of that which God has judged to be wicked.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the lists of goods we see in this section. Rather, it is “the fruit for which your soul longed” (verse14), that shows the sin of it. Creation is poisoned fruit when it is longed for over God. The soul is a vacuum seeking to be filled, but if it isn’t filled by God, it is necessarily empty. God alone can fill every corner of the soul of man.
This chapter teaches us what a hard master sin is. If sin commands men to do that which brings their ruin and destruction, they do it. If sin commands one to defy God, he does it. Sin is the bitter fruit that Babylon offers in bright colors.
It is important to remember God is at enmity with the world. It has a certain end. Richard Sibbes said, “Those who love the world, have no better things in their souls, and they must perish with the world.” Sin is not of God’s making, it is a plague and subject of sorrow and shame. Christ was given to deliver us from the guilt and power of sin and give us God in its place.
The Rev. Chris Shelton is pastor of Union’s First Presbyterian Church.