Don't drink the wine

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

DON’T DRINK THE WINE

Rev 18:1-3

18:1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. 2 With a mighty voice he shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. 3 For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries."

NIV

We are approaching the conclusion of all that is going to happen. But what we are going to see is a more detailed explanation of what John has already told us he has seen. What is important here is this word after, which in the Greek truly means in the midst of or amid. It has been used as after by most translations, but it occurs to us that it might well serve us to see that John is saying amid all the other things I have been seeing I see this other angel coming down from heaven. This Babylon the Great is the same as the great prostitute as we see all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. In addition we saw an angel proclaiming her fall back in chapter 14 because she made the nations drink the wine of her adulteries. We just saw back in chapter 17 the same thing. One of the seven angels told John to come and he would show him the punishment of the great prostitute and with her the kings of the earth that committed adultery with her and the inhabitants of the earth that were intoxicated with the wine of her adultery. So here we are seeing the same event but in more detail rather than another event altogether. Why is this important? We find some truth within scripture which are repeated. Many believe this is for a reason, that these truths are so important, God repeats them so we will get a full grasp of his truth. It may well be the same situation here and that we need to see this truth, making sure we are not enticed by the wine of her adulteries. One again this prostitute, this Babylon is not a person or a city, but an ideology. It could be a political or religious ideology, but with all the references in other places and especially here about the merchants of the earth who grew rich from her excessive luxuries, it is no doubt in our mind this is an economic ideology. This is the corruption of the love of money. This is the wine of her adultery, as we have said before, because God has said it before, we cannot love both God and money. If we are overcome with wealth, if we are consumed with the accumulation of wealth, if we are always concerned about how much we have for our retirement, we are in grave danger of the love of money and thus committed adultery with her against God. It may sound like we are beating a dead horse here, but it is not us, it is God who is making sure we get the message. As we are going to see a close to this whole world, and a new heaven and new earth created, we are going to witness the destruction of all mankind who refuses to acknowledge God. One of the methods in their destruction will be the total collapse of the world economy. There will be great gnashing of teeth, men will be so distraught some might throw themselves to their death, as men did back in what we call the great depression. But this will be even worse than that. People from all over the earth will have lost everything they have endeavored to secure for their future. God is once again demonstrating he is the only source for a future. Now, are we sinless? Not a chance. We surely have committed sin against God for all sin is against God. We cannot ever claim perfection in this life. But this love of money is not just a sin committed, even a willful act against a known law of God, or an involuntary response or thoughts that pass through our minds. This love of money is committed adultery with the world. This is a long term sin, a way of life, when we are so engaged with securing our future by either storing up or investing our money for our retirement years. This becomes our driving force for why we do what we do. It is not an occasional mistake, a given in to a temptation once in a while, this securing our future with money is a lifelong pursuit. This is why God will demolish the ideology of world economics, of the accumulation of wealth. Those who have put their trust in gold, in money, in wealth will be utterly destroyed, brought down in a moment, when the collapse occurs. They will be left with nothing and the only one they can turn to will be God. He will do anything to get them to see the truth. It is a wonderful thing to be able to trust God and not trust in money. This does not mean we have to be poor, far from it, but just as the rich young man went away dismayed because of his love for his money over Jesus, we can have wealth but we cannot put importance in that wealth, instead we must be willing to give it all away if that is what Jesus requires. Our trust must be solely in Jesus. If he wants us to be poor then we will be poor. If he wants us to be rich, then we will be rich. If he wants us to live within a certain economic level, whatever that is, we will live like that, if we are trusting in him. But if we are living our own lives, and simply making Jesus a part of our lives, once again we are in grave danger, pun intended. We cannot afford to drink her wine. God has put up a big sign, “Don’t drink the wine”