And I heard another voice out of the heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye have not fellowship in her sins, and that ye do not receive of her plagues
Heaven has just announced Babylon's fall, and now another voice calls God's own to get out before the blow lands. So who is Babylon, who are "my people" still inside her, and what does coming out mean?
Just before this, an angel comes down from heaven. The voice in verse 4 is a different thing:
An angel descending from heaven (v. 1), and a voice heard in heaven (v. 4), express different actions. The latter is the expression of the mind of God, in which all in heaven are in unison.
Believers have heard a "come out" call before. One writer sets the two calls side by side.
In the early days of Christianity, believers heard the call to "come out" from among the idolaters of the heathen world, and to be "separate" (2 Cor. 6:16-17). At the end of the Christian period — the time we live in — believers hear the call to "come out" of the corrupt Christian profession... We are not called to try to reform it, or overthrow it; but to come out of it, so that we do not share in its sins. Babylon means "confusion." No word could better express the terrible result when something that claims the name of Christ shows the marks of friendship with the world, and the world is at enmity with God.
The verse gives two reasons — sins and plagues — and they are not equal in weight.
Receiving her plagues is not the divine motive for separation. Men would be anxious enough about that. But the great thing God looks for from His people is this — that they should not share in her sins. I would put it to every Christian: how far is he in sympathy with God's mind about Babylon and its sins? How far does he feel the evil of it, and judge it?
The order of the sentence matters, and leaving late for the wrong reason is not obedience:
We come out of her because of her sins and so as not to share in them, not because her plagues have arrived.
Many assume that being present in an evil system is not the same as taking part in it. One writer answers that plainly.
Some may protest that an evil association does not defile you unless you are doing the same evil things. But this is not God's view. He commands us to come out of the association itself!
God still owns people inside the system He is about to destroy. One writer shows how truth can save souls in a false system without saving the system itself:
So even in Babylon, and even this late, there are people in her who belong to God. But God calls them to separation... Souls may be saved in it, but the truth it holds cannot save the false system in which it is found. Truth cannot save the error men would ally with it, nor can error destroy the truth.
Commentators differ on who the call reaches at that final hour. Another writer holds that the church is gone by then:
There can be no Christians in Babylon at this period, because the church is already in heaven. There will be Jewish saints on the earth, and, as Revelation 7 teaches, Gentile believers too. We do not know whether any of these, worn out by persecution, may seek shelter inside Babylon. If they do, the call reaches them too. But the main meaning of the cry is for all who may at any time have become mixed up with the principles that will finally concentrate and express themselves in Babylon.
Babylon is a set of principles before it is a finished system. So the call has force long before the vision comes true.
We believe the Spirit of God meant this call to weigh with the people of God at all times, not just when it all comes true. So wherever the saint's anointed eye sees any feature of Babylon, he must come out. Then he has no fellowship with her sins, and he is clear of her plagues. "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity" (2 Tim. 2:19).
The danger shows up in something ordinary:
Babylon's present danger to every soul is this: Christians slowly come to care for and allow what man values on the earth... Man rising, progressing, exalting himself — man showing what he can do and how he can improve. And people try to tie all this to the name and approval of Christ!
- Out, not reform. We are not called to reform Babylon or to overthrow it. The one command about it is to come out.
- Out because of sins. Escaping the plagues is the lesser motive; God looks for people who share His judgment of the evil itself.
- Out of the association. Not doing her sins is not enough — remaining in the connection makes you a partaker.
- Out, though owned. God still calls people inside Babylon "my people" — and He calls them out before the blow falls.
- Out now. Wherever the marks of Babylon show up — man exalting himself under Christ's name — the call is already in force.
for her sins have been heaped on one another up to the heaven, and God has remembered her unrighteousnesses.
Babylon, in Revelation, is the name for a corrupt religious system that God is about to judge. This verse gives the reason behind both the call to leave her in verse 4 and the judgment that follows: her guilt has stacked up to the sky, and God has kept the record.
One writer sets the verse beside the tower of Babel, the first attempt to build up to the sky.
But why such severe judgment? Why such terrible treatment from both man and God? "For her sins are heaped high as heaven." Of the first Babel alliance formed without God we read, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens" (Gen. 11:4). They meant to build a lasting monument of their folly, one made of stone. But here the sins heaped up reach heaven, the monument of her shame if she only knew it. What a striking picture this is: a Babel tower, not of stones but of sins. This is not simply sin on earth calling for judgment. These sins are so serious, so many, so bold and godless, that heaven itself is outraged.
Older translations render the phrase as "joined together," which points to something worse than a pile:
Of Great Babylon, that city of religious evil and moral decay, we read: "her sins have been heaped on one another" or "joined together" (Revelation 18:5). It suggests a cancerous growth that ends in complete corruption. God Almighty will pour out His wrath on that wicked system. In the meantime God urges His people, "Come out of her, My people."
God's long silence was never approval. The judgment settles that:
The judgment of Babylon publicly proves that through the long ages God has not been indifferent — neither to the corruptions of this system nor to the persecution of His saints. The judgment will match the truth about every corruption and every persecution, exactly as God's all-searching eye has seen it. Because it matches the truth, it will be perfectly righteous. Heaven rejoices that it is so.
The judgment matches what she has done, and the record reaches back to the beginning:
God's judgment matches the iniquity of the people; He brings their own iniquity back on them. The Spirit of God applies this principle to Babylon in Revelation. All the blood shed on the earth is found in her. God's judgment holds her responsible for everything done from the beginning, and He calls the apostles and prophets to rejoice at the vengeance He takes on her.
Her piled-up sins are why verse 4 calls God's people out. But escape is not the main reason He gives them:
Escaping her plagues is not God's motive for separation. Men would be anxious enough about that. But the great thing that God looks for from His people is this — that they should not share in her sins. I would ask every Christian: how far do you agree with God's mind about Babylon and its sins? How far do you feel the evil of it, and judge it?
Two men saw the judgment on Sodom fall, and only one of them lost everything:
To man it often seems a small thing whether he is tied to evil or not, as long as he himself is safe. But such thoughts dishonour God! … How different Lot's end was from Abraham's. Lot was saved "as through fire," losing everything, while Abraham watched the judgment from the heights of Hebron. That is the difference between those who walk apart from evil and those who stay comfortably with it because they are sure of their own salvation. Like Sodom, the sins of this corrupt system have risen up to heaven, and God calls His people, like Lot, to save themselves by coming out of it.
This warning is not only for some future moment. Thyatira and Laodicea are two of the churches addressed earlier in Revelation:
Remember first that Babylon stands for a spiritual system, and that this system, in its main moral features, has existed ever since the days of John. Thyatira and Laodicea in fact held the root of all the evils later seen in full growth in Babylon. So the instruction is for every age. It calls God's people to come out, and to stay separate from whatever can be spiritually discerned as Babylon.
- Heaped — her sins are not scattered acts. They are joined together, a tower of sin reaching the sky.
- Seen — the long delay was never indifference. God's all-searching eye has watched every corruption and every persecution.
- Remembered — the account runs back to the beginning, and includes all the blood shed on the earth.
- Called — God calls His people out. He wants them to refuse her sins, not just escape her plagues.
- Separated — Lot got out with nothing; Abraham stood clear and watched. The call to come out stands in every age.
Recompense her even as she has recompensed; and double [to her] double, according to her works. In the cup which she has mixed, mix to her double.
A voice from heaven has been speaking to God's people about Babylon, and now it passes her sentence in her own currency, doubled. Two questions follow: what does "double" mean here, and who is told to pay her back?
Commentators read the verse as a statement of how God settles accounts with nations. The standard goes beyond the old rule of matching injury for injury.
Then, as now, the principle stands that God acts in retributive justice. This is the principle on which God acts towards nations, as Matthew 7:2 shows how it applies to people one by one. Jewish law demanded "an eye for an eye," but the vengeance demanded here goes far beyond that: the measure is doubled.
The word is not arithmetic. Elsewhere in Scripture it points to an amount too great to count, whether the thing measured is a blessing or a punishment.
You can see in Matthew 23, Revelation 18:6, and Isaiah 40:2 that "double" was used to mean great beyond measure, whether in good or in evil.
Commentators differ on the sense of it. Another writer reads the double as an exact equivalent, drawn from her own record, so that every part of the sentence answers to something she did.
Verses 6 and 7 show how fitting God's judgments are. They fit the case exactly. You can see the same thing in the laws of Moses. They brought on the offender the very penalty he had inflicted on another, and they gave relief to the injured party. Babylon is to get her exact "double," her equivalent. Her torment and sorrow will match her earlier self-glorification and luxury.
She already had a cup, and she filled it herself. Now that same cup comes back to her, and the punishment matches the crime.
She had exalted herself and lived for the world instead of Christ, and now sorrow and torment are her lot. She had filled her cup with the filthiness of her fornications. Now the cup of judgment will be filled for her, double. She had prided herself in her power and glory, instead of waiting for her absent Lord. Now desolation comes upon her.
God chose the timing. He bore with her a long time first, and that is part of what makes the verdict righteous.
God had borne with this corrupt woman until her cup of iniquity became full. Her sins cried out for heaven's judgment. God remembers her past and will judge in perfect righteousness (v. 5). She has handed out cruel, unrighteous judgment to others. Now she receives double measure in return.
Commentators differ over who receives the command. Some read it as an order to the kings, who serve God's purpose against the false church without knowing it:
The kings allied against the Lamb are the instruments that strip the false church of her glory and riches and leave her desolate. But in this they are carrying out God's purposes without knowing it, as Nebuchadnezzar did long ago.
Others say the words name no executioner at all. They simply announce the sentence and the rule behind it.
It looks like a continuation of the address to God's people that began in verse 4. But that is hardly possible, for two reasons. First, the saints do not carry out the judgment on Babylon. Second, we know that the beast and the kings, the ten horns, are the appointed instruments for this. That has led some to think the words are spoken to those kings. But that hardly fits what we find in this book. So we treat these verses as an announcement of the judgment, and of the principle God will follow in it, rather than a summons to those chosen to be the vessels of God's vengeance.
Behind the doubled cup lies blood. The reckoning reaches back to the beginning, and those she wronged are called to rejoice when God settles it.
God judges people according to their iniquity; He brings their own iniquity back on them… In her is found all the blood ever shed on the earth. God's judgment makes her answerable for everything done from the beginning, and the apostles and prophets are called to rejoice at the vengeance God takes on her.
- Her measure — God repays nations by what they have done. What she measured out sets the measure she gets back.
- Her double — "double" means an amount beyond counting, so the repayment overwhelms her.
- Her cup — she mixed and filled the cup herself, and the same cup is filled for her; the crime comes back as the punishment.
- Her executioners — commentators differ on who is told to repay her. Some say the kings who serve God's purpose without knowing it; others say the words name no one and only announce the sentence.
- Her debt — all the blood shed on earth is found in her, and the doubled cup settles that debt.
So much as she has glorified herself and lived luxuriously, so much torment and grief give to her. Because she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and I am not a widow; and I shall in no wise see grief
The voice from heaven turns from what Babylon has done to what she says to herself. She makes three claims in one breath — a throne, a husband, and a future without grief — and each one comes back on her in the plagues that follow.
She never makes this claim in public. By now the kings of the Roman world have stripped her, so she can only keep her royal language alive inside herself.
The first part of verse 7 shows the principle of judgment that pays back what is owed. It is not about what Babylon has done (v. 6), but about what she is in herself. The kings of the Roman world have pulled her down from her public place, yet she still holds on to her pride. Her spirit is unbroken. She keeps up her arrogance even though she sits in the dust of her former splendour, and her end is close. Her boasting is within; she says in her heart, "I sit as a queen."
Commentators trace the wording back to Isaiah's warning against the old Babylon. One phrase, though, is new here.
Verses 7 and 8 point back to Isaiah 47:8 and 9. The words that foretold the fall of the literal Babylon by the Euphrates are repeated in the judgment of the symbolic Babylon, with one addition. It is the symbolic Babylon who says, "I sit as a queen." … The true church is the bride of Christ, and she is to share His place in the day of the glory of the kingdom. The church that has turned away from Him is "no widow," though her Lord was killed on the earth. She claims to be "queen," though He is absent and the day of His power has not yet come.
Others paid for her comfort, and her repayment is measured to fit it. Refusing the widow's place also means refusing to feel the absence of Christ.
She has exalted herself and lived in luxury at the expense of the poor. Now her torment and sorrow are to match the measure of her self-indulgence (v. 7). She has boasted of being "a queen," in fact "the queen of heaven," reigning as the claimed bride of Christ before Christ Himself has taken His throne. So she has no heart for the rejected Lord. The true Church mourns His absence and wants no part in being welcomed and supported by a world that despises her Lord.
Writers draw the picture of a widow who denies her loss and uses her lonely years for pleasure.
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Such a woman is false to what she is. She denies that she is a widow. She uses her lonely state as a chance to satisfy her own wishes and worldly desires, instead of hearing the voice of Him who speaks to her through her sorrows.
Her sin is not one scandal but a settled outlook. The same boast appears earlier in the book, in the message to the church at Laodicea.
She had "glorified herself and lived in luxury." What a revelation of her complete turning away from God! Self-exaltation, the exact opposite of the life of our blessed Lord, had been her one aim. Her whole life was spent on pleasing herself. In moral terms she was in the desert, yet she fooled herself into believing it was a paradise… Even more striking is this: Laodicea's boast, "I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing," is the moral root of all the evil described here in Babylon.
Her certainty that she will never see sorrow may sound like faith. Read against Scripture, it is the opposite.
She loves the thought that other churches tremble for their safety while she is above all such fears. It sounds convincing. But test it by the teaching of the Word, and it only shows more terribly what she is, and how ripe she is for God's judgment. This boast is defiance. It is not faith in God, but a real disowning of His claims. It is her denial that she is subject to Him.
The plagues of verse 8 are not a general disaster. Each one answers a word she spoke in her heart.
When God judges, He shows Himself to be the Searcher of the heart. He knows what lies behind many a burning word, and He is able to judge rightly. In Babylon there was luxury and extravagance, so He brings "famine." Her heart boasted, "mourning I shall never see," so He brings "death." She said in self-exaltation, "I sit as a queen, I am no widow," so He makes her feel the bitterness of "mourning."
- Heart — she boasts inwardly, after her public downfall; God judges what she says in her heart, not only what she does.
- Throne — "I sit as a queen" claims the reign before the King has taken His throne; the true bride waits for His day.
- Widowhood — refusing the widow's place means refusing to feel Christ's absence. It means living for pleasure instead of hearing God's voice in sorrow.
- Root — self-glory and self-indulgence are the whole charge, and the same boast in seed form is Laodicea's "I need nothing."
- Measure — famine answers her luxury, death answers "mourning I shall never see," mourning answers "I am no widow": God cuts the sentence to fit the words she spoke.
for this reason in one day shall her plagues come, death and grief and famine, and she shall be burnt with fire; for strong [is the] Lord God who has judged her.
This verse answers Babylon's boast in verse 7, "I sit as a queen," with a sentence that lands in a single day and leaves nothing standing. The reason is not the strength of her enemies but the strength of her Judge.
The reason for her sentence lies in what she is. Her pride outlives her power:
Judgment that pays back is the principle here. The first part of verse 7 shows it. God judges Babylon not for what she has done (v. 6), but for what she is in herself. The kings of the Roman world have pulled her down from her public place, yet she keeps her pride. Her spirit is unbroken. She still holds her head high, though she sits in the dust of her former greatness and her final end is near. The kings of the earth may mourn over her, but they cannot help her. Her boasting is within; she says in her heart, "I sit a queen."
The timing is part of the message. Her collapse comes with no warning and no chance to negotiate:
But judgment falls on her "in a single day." A stroke of terrible severity and swiftness falls on her: plagues, death, mourning, famine. Nothing softens the stroke; there is no time for talks to turn it aside.
One older scene shows what a single hour can do to a confident kingdom:
It is so sudden that we are told "her plagues will come in a single day." "In a single hour your judgment has come"; "in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste"; "in a single hour she has been laid waste." It is like the other judgments. When men are saying, "Peace and safety," then sudden destruction comes. Or think of Belshazzar's arrogant feast. The thousand lords and princes were merry with wine, praising the gods of gold and silver, and full of the excitement of the royal celebration. In that same hour the fingers of a man's hand came out and wrote on the wall.
Revelation 17 says the ten horns and the beast burn her; this verse says God judges her. Commentators hold both together rather than choosing between them:
And when the judgment of chapter 18 is spoken of in connection with this burning with fire, it is added, "for strong is the Lord God who judges her." This judgment with fire is attributed to the ten horns and the beast in chapter 17.
The kings who tear her down are not acting for God, yet they serve His purpose without knowing it:
The kings allied against the Lamb are the instruments by which the false church is stripped of its glory and riches, and left desolate; but in doing this they are unknowingly carrying out God's purposes, as Nebuchadnezzar did long ago.
Those who mourn her later call Babylon "the strong city." The verse quietly reassigns that word:
This strong worldwide system has been building itself up as if to reach the heavens. It thinks itself so secure that it has given Rome the proud false name "the eternal city." Man will not bring her down. It is God who is stronger than she is, and the swiftness of her judgment will amaze all who watch this complete desolation. The destroying fire will be literal for the city of Rome itself, and a picture of the total destruction of the whole false church. The patient grace of God has borne long with her, but when judgment falls it will be all the more dreadful.
Not everything called church can fall like this:
The Church which Christ builds cannot be destroyed; the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. What man builds is different. Of that it is said, "her plagues will come in a single day... and she will be burned up with fire."
God is the strong one here, not His people. That settles how believers should respond:
It is not for believers to try to wage a crusade against the wickedness of Rome. God, who is "strong," will in His own time and way repay her double for all the misery she has caused to the true people of God. Our responsibility as believers is to obey the Lord's words, "Come out of her, my people."
- Pride — Her sentence answers what she is, not just what she did. Stripped of power, she still says in her heart, "I sit as a queen."
- Suddenness — "In a single day" means no warning and no talks. The hand wrote on the wall while Belshazzar's feast was still going.
- Instruments — The kings who strip her are only tools. Like Nebuchadnezzar, they carry out God's purpose without knowing it.
- Strength — Babylon looks strong, but God is stronger. Man does not bring her down; God does, after bearing with her long.
- Response — What Christ builds cannot fall, so believers are not called to crusade against her but to come out of her.