GONE!

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a huge millstone.  He threw it into the ocean and shouted, “Just like this, the great city Babylon will be thrown down with violence and will never be found again.  The sound of harps, singers, flutes, and trumpets will never be heard in you again.  No craftsmen and no trades will ever be found in you again.  The sound of the mill will never be heard in you again.  The light of a lamp will never shine in you again.  The happy voices of brides and grooms will never be heard in you again.  For your merchants were the greatest in the world, and you deceived the nations with your sorceries.  In your streets flowed the blood of the prophets and of God’s holy people and the blood of people slaughtered all over the world.”  Revelation 18:21-24

“Babylon” is more than a once-great city, dynasty, or nation.  Rather its’ legacy is that of what happens to any self-aggrandizing person or group that opposes God.  Ancient Babylon (located near Baghdad in modern Iraq) as a cultural center four thousand years ago, lasted about 30 centuries.  In Daniel and Second Kings we find Nebuchadnezzar, a ruthless, wicked man, who conquered Jerusalem more than once, and who destroyed Solomon’s temple.  He presented himself as the true divine, above every human or their gods.  Daniel, a humble Jew, taken from his homeland to serve Nebuchadnezzar as a slave, interpreted dreams for the king.  Daniel told him the one, true God of all would humble the king, and it happened immediately.  Nebuchadnezzar wandered the hills and surrounding areas of Babylon for 7 years as a wild beast, eating grass.  When he finally came to his senses (because God restored him), he gave honor and glory to Daniel’s God.[1] 

Today’s passage is one of many in Revelation that is used to describe the End Times, when God’s judgment will be poured-out on earth.  Babylon is an accurate symbol (of sorts) for all who opposed God in this life.  In a single name the aged Apostle John records the undoing of humankind’s evil of all time, and the recreating of God’s paradise.  When the judgment comes, portrayed as a huge boulder thrown-down from Heaven, Babylon, the mighty conqueror of all men, is simply….dismissed, no more…GONE!

While there is a great deal of mystery and wonder around Biblical prophecy, there is also a much greater value in the warning which it offers.  Jesus, in detailing for his disciples some of the circumstances which mark the time when God’s judgment would be imminent, tells us it is fruitless to spend our time trying to create a timeline, or set a date for when this will happen.  Jesus said it WILL HAPPEN, and our best response to that is to be ready WHENEVER IT HAPPENS! 

Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.  “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself.  Only the Father knows.  And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard!  Stay alert!  Mark 13:31-33

For You Today 

It would be simple to look around, particularly at the events happening in Jerusalem and Gaza these weary, war-torn days.  There’s more than enough evidence of what Jesus warned would precede His next advent.  But Scripture doesn’t change…we don’t know it’s now…but we don’t know it isn’t.

So…today, whatever happens, don’t wander-around like Nebuchadnezzar eating grass.  Start your day feasting on God’s Word, and give Him all the glory.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] For a lengthy article on this background see Wikipedia on Babylon