Revelation 18 begins with a mighty angel shouting that Babylon the Great is fallen and telling us to come out of her lest we share in her sins. The commentary says Babylon represents evil world power – the enemy of God; Revelation 14 also spoke of the fallen Babylon which made all the nations drunk on the wine of her adulteries. In one hour she will fall and people will mourn her falling.

Why would we mourn? By your magic spell all the nations were led astray. v. 23. I’m no scholar but I can ponder in my own heart. What needs to be shaken will be shaken. What needs to be sifted in me will be sifted and I welcome it. We live in a world where what we take for granted suddenly seems less stable. We’re experiencing record heat here and in other parts of the world and we depend on the electric grid to keep us cool until it can’t meet demand; yet there are many without that relief. We rely on water yet large lakes are diminishing in the West; we can’t live without water. We rely on ourselves increasingly and decide what we will believe and that becomes our gospel. So what do we do when those things fail us?

We have no idea when the events of Revelation will happen. We have promises all through Scripture of God’s sure intervention. Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with a vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” Isaiah 35:3-4.

I think God speaks to every generation because every generation experiences trials and events that make no sense – that shake our comfortable worlds. It doesn’t take much to realize how little control we really have when power fails. I see the world through the eyes of someone living in a broken world, a world that doesn’t live as God would have us live. How can I truly see what is real and eternal? How can I not be drunk on the polluting wine that deludes? Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.” Revelation 18:4-5.

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21. God never leaves us without His help. He speaks to us in quiet whispers if we have the heart to listen. Not only that but He shows us every day His glory: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. Psalm 19:1-2. That whole Psalm is beautiful and so worth reading. When the world becomes confusing and things we rely on fail us, listen for His quiet voice within…look up and around and see all that He created. Be thankful. Everything we count on in this world will be shaken and removed. We can’t truly count on anything in this world as we are steadily experiencing. We can count on God. He is the One who will save us.