Babylon Study • Connected to God’s Image and the Ten Commandments
Babylon’s fall produces different responses. Those who profited through her mourn, while heaven is called to rejoice. The reasons given help us understand what each response concerns.
What Are the Merchants Mourning?
Revelation identifies the merchants’ loss: no one buys their cargo anymore. They stand at a distance, grieving the destruction of the wealth through which they prospered. Read Revelation 18:11, 15–19.
Their response directs our attention to what Babylon provided for them. The loss of profit occupies the foreground.
Then the passage addresses heaven, the saints, apostles, and prophets. They are called to rejoice because God has judged Babylon concerning what she did to them. Read Revelation 18:20.
The Reason for Rejoicing Is Stated
Revelation 19 identifies God’s judgments as true and righteous. It describes the harlot’s corruption of the earth and God’s avenging the blood of His servants shed by her hand. Read Revelation 19:1–2.
The rejoicing responds to God’s judgment of corruption and the wrong done to His servants.
This continues the distinction we have been examining: those harmed, those responsible, and the One who judges.
God Pleads Their Cause
Jeremiah provides an earlier expression of this relationship. Zion and Jerusalem describe the violence and bloodshed inflicted upon them. God answers:
“Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee”
— Jeremiah 51:36, ASV, excerpt
Later, heaven and earth are described as rejoicing over Babylon as judgment comes upon her. Read Jeremiah 51:48–49.
God’s response gives the injured a place in the account. Their suffering has not been forgotten.
Where Does This Leave Our Judgment?
These passages name conduct and identify the grounds for judgment. They call us to examine corruption, exploitation, and harm carefully.
They also keep God’s role before us. We do not possess His complete knowledge of another person. We can recognize wrongdoing, refuse participation, and care for those harmed without assuming that every accusation or outward appearance tells the whole story.
Our study has repeatedly returned to that responsibility: discern what is practiced while remaining careful about whom we condemn.
Questions to Examine
When wrongdoing is exposed, am I more troubled by the harm or by the loss of a trusted institution’s reputation?
Have I benefited from something that injured others?
Do I listen carefully to those harmed, or dismiss them because their account is inconvenient?
Am I seeking truth and correction, or simply the defeat of people I dislike?
Can I entrust judgment to God while taking responsibility for my own conduct?
Threads to Follow
The marriage announcement: Follow the movement from Babylon’s judgment to the Lamb’s marriage.
What belongs to another: Preserve Babylon’s exploitation and taking for our return to Commandment 8.
Two cities: Compare the purposes, provision, and outcomes associated with Babylon and New Jerusalem.
The books were opened…
🌿 By Maria Emilia
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