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Begin wherever your curiosity leads. The studies will be here when you’re ready. When I shared my first Matthew study on Facebook today, I mentioned that I planned to post daily, though I might not share every post on Facebook. As I continue setting up this blog, I’ve realized that what matters most to me is making my past studies available for anyone who wants to explore them. For now, I’ll be adding posts to my heart’s content as I work through those studies. Some days that may mean one post; other days it may mean several. I’ll continue reading through and preparing each one before sharing it. There is no need to keep up with everything as it appears. This blog is becoming a place you can browse at your own pace—begin with a book, a question, or a study that interests you, and follow from there. The Bible Books page gathers studies by book, while Study Threads helps connect topics that travel through more than one book. The labels on individual posts also bring related material to...
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24. Babylon: The Stone and the Written Word

Babylon Study • Connected to God’s Image and the Ten Commandments

The call to leave Babylon directs people back to God. Jeremiah’s chapter then closes with a written message and an action that illustrates Babylon’s announced end.

Read the Words First

Jeremiah writes the judgment concerning Babylon in a scroll and instructs Seraiah to read it upon arriving there. After the reading, Seraiah is to bind a stone to the scroll and cast it into the Euphrates.

The action is accompanied by an explanation: Babylon will sink and not rise again because of the judgment God brings upon her. Read Jeremiah 51:59–64.

Notice the order: the message is written, read, and then illustrated. The explanation tells us what the sinking represents.

The scroll carries the announcement. Babylon is the subject of the judgment.

Revelation Returns to the Image

In Revelation, a strong angel throws a stone resembling a great millstone into the sea. The accompanying announcement identifies Babylon as the city that will be thrown down violently and no longer found. Read Revelation 18:21.

The details differ: Jeremiah describes a stone bound to a scroll and cast into a river; Revelation describes a millstone-like stone cast into the sea. Both actions are expressly connected with Babylon’s downfall.

We can follow that connection while retaining each account’s wording.

What Is No Longer Heard in Her?

Revelation continues by naming what will cease within Babylon: music, craftsmanship, the sound of a mill, lamplight, and the voice of bridegroom and bride. It also identifies deception and bloodshed. Read Revelation 18:22–24.

The repeated location matters: in her.

Earlier, God’s people were called to leave her. Later, the Spirit and the Bride speak an invitation to receive the water of life freely. Babylon’s loss must be examined alongside that continuing invitation. Read Revelation 18:4 and Revelation 22:17.

Let the Explanation Guide the Comparison

These scenes help us examine symbolic actions carefully. We need to ask who acts, what is moved, what the accompanying words identify, and where the stated outcome occurs.

That approach also preserves our earlier distinction between a bearer and a burden. An object carrying a message is not automatically the subject condemned by that message.

Questions to Examine

  • Do I read the explanation surrounding an image before deciding what it represents?

  • Have I confused a messenger or bearer with the wrongdoing being exposed?

  • Am I trusting something’s apparent permanence more than God’s instruction?

  • When a familiar source of guidance fails, do I seek God or simply another substitute?

  • Am I listening to the invitation toward life and responding to it?

Threads to Follow

  • Babylon’s fall and heaven’s response: Examine why the judgment is met with rejoicing.

  • The continuing invitation: Keep the Spirit and the Bride’s voice alongside what ceases within Babylon.

  • The marriage announcement: Follow Revelation’s movement from the harlot’s judgment to the Lamb’s marriage.

The books were opened…

🌿 By Maria Emilia

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