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8 Another, a second angel, followed, saying, "Babylon the great has fallen, which has made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality."
made all nations to drink
He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. He performs great signs, even making fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the sight of people. He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived. It was given to him to give breath to it, to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn't worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads; and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:12-17)
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and those who dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her sexual immorality." (Revelation 17:1-2)
He cried with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury." (Revelation 18:2-3)
For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. They shall drink, and reel back and forth, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at Yahweh's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom Yahweh had sent me: (Jeremiah 25:15-17)
Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, pouring your inflaming wine until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their naked bodies! You are filled with shame, and not glory. You will also drink, and be exposed! The cup of Yahweh's right hand will come around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. (Habakkuk 2:15-16)
wine of the wrath
The winepress was trodden outside of the city, and blood came out from the winepress, even to the bridles of the horses, as far as one thousand six hundred stadia. (Revelation 14:20)
The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth. (Revelation 17:4)
I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement. (Revelation 17:6)
For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury. (Revelation 18:3)
Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink; who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent! (Isaiah 5:22-23)
Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding. My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God. (Hosea 4:11-12)
For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of Yahweh of Armies; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; don't be cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of Yahweh's vengeance; he will render to her a recompense. Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh's hand, who made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. Yahweh has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our God. (Jeremiah 51:5-10)
Note carefully what part each one plays in this scenario. Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of Yahweh, yet the contents of that cup are not in harmony with Yahweh's ways. It is Babylon's wine that makes the nations mad, not Yahweh's. The time of captivity in Babylon could have become an opportunity for Babylon to be healed, yet it could not happen without their cooperation. Once it was clear that Babylon refused the healing remedy offered, it was and is again, time to completely distance from it and return to our own country to clearly reflect the righteousness of Yahweh.
This is a good place to start unpacking this word wrath as it is very easy to misunderstand given how much this word has been exploited to misrepresent the disposition of God towards His wayward children. Part of the confusion is the mix and match way English translations use this and other words related to wrath or passion, along with the poor choice of the word itself. This has led untold millions to imagine God's disposition is little different from the great whore of Babylon detailed in chapter 17.
I find it helpful to examine how Greek words are used throughout Scripture so as to distill a more accurate appreciation of what a passage like this might be seeking to convey. The word used here translated wrath comes from the Greek word thumos that literally means passion, and most of the time it is associated with negative emotions when displayed by anyone other than God.
Thumos – shows up 18 times in the New Testament. Here is where it is used:
wrath, as in fierce anger (Luke 4:28; Acts 19:28; 2 Corinthians 12:20; Galatians 5:20; Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8; Hebrews 11:27)
...the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time." (Revelation 12:12)
indignation (Romans 2:8)
These are clearly negative, dark emotions very familiar to us and what Scripture calls on us to put away from our lives.
The other references refer to God's wrath which requires more careful discernment to appreciate how God's wrath is different from man's version of wrath.
he also will drink of the wine of the wrath (thumos) of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger [indignation](Gr. orge). He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. (Revelation 14:10) (see also wrath in Revelation 14:19; 15:1,7; 16:1)
Fierceness (thumos) of wrath (orge) (Revelation 16:19; 19:15)
As you can see here and in other places, the English word wrath is derived from several different Greek words, while several English words are used to translate the same Greek word from the original. But one thing needs to become clear in our thinking, and that is that the wrath of God cannot be defined by our assumptions about the word and how we act and feel when angry.
So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20 NKJV)
While strong negative emotion is the typical definition of this word as used in reference to humans under Satan's influence, wrath as demonstrated by God must never be assessed by human standards by solely through revelation of His heart and disposition in His Son Jesus Christ, known most notably in this book as the Lamb violently slaughtered from the foundation of the world. Only as we give preference to the Lamb's definition of how God feels and acts towards us can be begin to unmask the horrible distortions and deceptions the enemy has cast over God's reputation.
This will be covered in more detail when we study verse 10 coming up soon.
her sexual immorality
Here it is important to keep in mind this is a metaphor, not to be viewed as literal sexual perversion but rather involving a much more serious condition infecting people's spirit.
But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. (Revelation 2:14)
But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. (Revelation 2:20-21)
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and those who dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her sexual immorality."
He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored animal, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth. And on her forehead a name was written, "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement. (Revelation 17:1-6)
After these things, I saw another angel coming down out of the sky, having great authority. The earth was illuminated with his glory. He cried with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury." (Revelation 18:1-3)
The kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived wantonly with her, will weep and wail over her, when they look at the smoke of her burning, (Revelation 18:9)
for true and righteous are his judgments. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." (Revelation 19:2)
We see how this issue shows up repeatedly in this symbolic book. We do well to allow the Spirit to give us better understanding so we can discern how we also may be deceived by this seductive spirit in ways we never imagined. Yet in doing so we can come to live in freedom from the power of sin.
Don't make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; (Exodus 34:15)
Israel abode in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab: for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods. Israel joined himself to Baal Peor: and the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel. (Numbers 25:1-3)
The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots, the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on their bodies, because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft. "Behold, I am against you," says Yahweh of Armies, "and I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame. I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle. (Nahum 3:2-6)
Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, (Romans 1:24-29)
But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. (1 Corinthians 7:2)
Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for which things' sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. (Colossians 3:5-6)
For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
(1 Thessalonians 4:3-4)
Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord, looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it; lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. (Hebrews 12:14-16)
Angels who didn't keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 1:6-7)
This next passage is a bit lengthy but I find it helpful for unpacking the underlying meaning of this symbol that can be so elusive because we are so prone to deny being affected by it.
1 Again the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations; 3 and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Jerusalem: Your birth and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite. 4 As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to cleanse you; you weren't salted at all, nor swaddled at all. 5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, for that your person was abhorred, in the day that you were born.
6 When I passed by you, and saw you weltering in your blood, I said to you, Though you are in your blood, live; yes, I said to you, Though you are in your blood, live. 7 I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent ornament; your breasts were fashioned, and your hair was grown; yet you were naked and bare.
8 Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Yahweh, and you became mine.
9 Then washed I you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you also with embroidered work, and shod you with sealskin, and I girded you about with fine linen, and covered you with silk. 11 I decked you with ornaments, and I put bracelets on your hands, and a chain on your neck. 12 I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 Thus you were decked with gold and silver; and your clothing was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered work; you ate fine flour, and honey, and oil; and you were exceeding beautiful, and you prospered to royal estate. 14 Your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you, says the Lord Yahweh. [Contemplate everything up to this point in the passage carefully before reading the next part, pondering deeply the amazing kindness and graciousness of God towards us with no hint of shaming or disgust.]
15 But you did trust in your beauty, and played the prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on everyone who passed by; his it was. 16 You took of your garments, and made for yourselves high places decked with various colors, and played the prostitute on them: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. 17 You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and played the prostitute with them; 18 and you took your embroidered garments, and covered them, and did set my oil and my incense before them. 19 My bread also which I gave you, fine flour, and oil, and honey, with which I fed you, you did even set it before them for a sweet savor; and thus it was, says the Lord Yahweh.
20 Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and these have you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your prostitution a small matter, 21 that you have slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through the fire to them?
22 In all your abominations and your prostitution you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and was weltering in your blood. 23 It is happen after all your wickedness, (woe, woe to you! says the Lord Yahweh), 24 that you have built to you a vaulted place, and have made you a lofty place in every street. 25 You have built your lofty place at the head of every way, and have made your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your prostitution. 26 You have also committed sexual immorality with the Egyptians, your neighbors, great of flesh; and have multiplied your prostitution, to provoke me to anger.
27 See therefore, I have stretched out my hand over you, and have diminished your ordinary food, and delivered you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way. 28 You have played the prostitute also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yes, you have played the prostitute with them, and yet you weren't satisfied. 29 You have moreover multiplied your prostitution to the land of merchants, to Chaldea; and yet you weren't satisfied with this.
30 How weak is your heart, says the Lord Yahweh, seeing you do all these things, the work of an impudent prostitute; 31 in that you build your vaulted place at the head of every way, and make your lofty place in every street, and have not been as a prostitute, in that you scorn pay. 32 A wife who commits adultery! who takes strangers instead of her husband! 33 They give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution. 34 You are different from other women in your prostitution, in that none follows you to play the prostitute; and whereas you give hire, and no hire is given to you, therefore you are different. (Ezekiel 16:1-34)
While these graphic descriptions of sexual immorality can feel disconcerting, remember that God is talking to a nation of people about their disposition in relation to Himself, not about physical activities described here. So we need to think deeper to appreciate the symbolism used by God so we may become aware of how we might be caught up in sexual immorality and seduced in ways we never imagined before. This describes a condition of the heart much more than a compromising of our bodies. That is merely an external symptom of a spiritually empty condition of the soul.
Yes, the dogs are greedy, they can never have enough; and these are shepherds who can't understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter. Come you, say they, I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, a day great beyond measure. (Isaiah 56:11-12)
In the New Testament outside Revelation, references to sexual immorality apply to the literal, physical problem. Yet as with all symbols in Revelation, we must come to discern the underlying elements involved so as to appreciate what is being conveyed in the context of our study.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father's wife. (1 Corinthians 5:1)
Don't you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or don't you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, "The two," says he, "will become one flesh." But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Flee sexual immorality! "Every sin that a man does is outside the body," but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
(1 Corinthians 6:15-20)
Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance. But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate; but rather giving of thanks. Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God. (Ephesians 5:2-5)
But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)
