Verse 5 - God’s actions in history with Babylon teach us
this system cannot escape, judgment must come. The principle
is God does not ignore or forget sin. He permits the
committing of sin, but eventually judgment must come. The
first Babel conspiracy attempted to build a tower into the
heavens (Genesis 11:4); this last Babylon conspiracy piles
up her sins to heaven in defiance of God and God remembers.
Judgment is inevitable and so believers must flee.
Verse 6 - Because of the greatness of her sin and because of
the holy character of God, judgment is doubled. The thing
judged here is the system. The final judgment of unbelievers
does not come until the great white throne of Revelation 20.
Verses 7-8 - She has assumed the position of queen; she has
glorified herself and to the same degree that she has
rebelled against God, He retaliates in holy and righteous
indignation to dethrone her. Both she and her leaders think
nothing can upset this mighty system. “A queen” is one who
is very powerful, self-sufficient and in need of nothing.
“And I am not a widow and will never see mourning.” A widow
is one who mourns because of a loss. She has illicit love
affairs with all the kings so how can she become a widow.
They are all madly in love with her, but not really, because
she is only a harlot who sells herself. They love her not
for herself but for what they can get out of her. “For this
reason,” because of her arrogance, her spirit of
independence and false security, her judgment comes in one
day. This stresses the fallacy of all false security.
What can we learn from this; wealth and fame can never
provide eternal life or the abundant life, riches can be
destroyed in a moment, life can be snatched from us in a
moment and we have either eternal separation from God or
eternal happiness in the kingdom of God. Therefore, the
appeal of God’s word is for us to acquire happiness and
eternal life through faith in the truths of God as revealed
in the Word of God.
