Come out of her my People! Part 2
Today's mini-sermon is the 2nd of a 9-part series that is appearing in the Saturday, Sunday and Thursday editions of the Answers2Prayer newsletters.
As we look ahead at VERY uncertain times, the Holy Spirit continually brings certain scriptural passages to my attention--passages that I KNOW are for such times as these, and that I KNOW I am to share with each of you. One such passage is found in Rev.:
“Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of her, my people” (Rev. 18:4).
On Sunday we learned two biblical truths about this text. We learned that it is "Babylon" that we are warned to come out of, and we saw several reasons why we are warned to come out of her. First of all, Babylon has done atrocities great enough to stir up the FIERCE anger of the Lord (Jer. 51:45), and secondly, we are told to "come out of her" so that we do not share in her sin, and so that we will receive any of her plagues (Rev. 18:4).
But how can any of this be relevant to us today?? After all, history records the destruction of ancient Babylon hundreds of years ago, and we all know that Babylon was never rebuilt. Therefore this must just be an ancient warning for a past event. It’s over. It’s done. It’s not our worry!
Or is it?
It is true that Babylon was destroyed years ago. It is also true that the Jeremiah passage was prophesying the upcoming destruction of literal Babylon, and therefore, some might argue that its relevance today is questionable. But John wrote the book of Revelation years after Babylon fell! Years after Babylon fell, God continues to warn us, through John the Revelator, to “come out of her”! Obviously, like so many other prophecies, this one has more than one application!
So if this is relevant to me, that just what is "prophetic Babylon", anyway?
I believe in letting the Bible interpret itself, so let's return to the book of Revelation for "clues" as to the identity of "Babylon".
Rev. 17 tells a story about a great beast, bearing a woman dressed in scarlet: “’With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.’ Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” (Rev 17:2-5: ) If you jump down a little farther in the chapter you are told: “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth." (Rev. 17:18).
So what is the bottom line? “Babylon” is the woman in scarlet who has intoxicated the nations with the wine of her adulteries!
And what does a “woman” represent in the Bible? This term is often used symbolically to represent a group of God's people:
Could Babylon represent a church? If so, which church? Surely NOT my own!
(Continued in next Saturday's edition of the Answers2prayer newsletter)
Love in Christ,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Moderator, The Nugget, Scriptural Nuggets (
www.sermonillustrator.org/minisermons/ ), Answers2Prayer Ministries,
www.Answers2Prayer.org ,