Today’s passage: Revelation 18
Helpful thoughts:
- Today, we read the proclamation of the fall of “Babylon”.
- As they have in all ages, the people of God are warned not to get integrated into (or yoked together) with the those who do not follow the Lord. We (God’s people) have always been a people who are to be in the world, but not of the world (John 17:14-15, 2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
- As the great Babylon lies in ruins, all who selfishly benefitted from her mourn the loss of their means of exploitation. They are not saddened for her, they are saddened at the end of their source of selfish pleasure. They were caught up in her lusts and they will go down with her in the end.
Questions to consider:
- How does “Babylon” (Her leaders, the heart of the city/power/populace as a whole) see herself in verse 7 even as she nears her judgment? What does the world think of itself? How does pride come before a fall?
- When those who wail over the fall of “Babylon” do their lamenting, do they even show remorse for their sin? What do they really care about? What would repentance look like as opposed to what we see in these laments?
- What are the things God’s people are called to do in this chapter? How would these commands and examples be true of any age? How could the first century church have applied these things and how can we still apply these things today?