Read with Me
Revelation 19:1-5 (HCSB)
After this I heard something like the loud voice of a vast multitude in heaven, saying:
Hallelujah!
Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God,
because His judgments are true and righteous,
because He has judged the notorious prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality;
and He has avenged the blood of His slaves
that was on her hands.
A second time they said:
Hallelujah!
Her smoke ascends forever and ever!
Then the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who is seated on the throne, saying:
Amen! Hallelujah!
A voice came from the throne, saying:
Praise our God,
all His slaves, who fear Him,
both small and great!
Listen with Me
The response from all the heavenly hosts to the divinely initiated collapse and fall of Babylon the Great, the Roman Empire and its institutions based on idolatry and persecution, was praise and giving glory to God. This praise sprang spontaneously from the crowd of saints gathered before God’s throne, many of whom had been victims of the regime, from the myriads of angels, and from the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders who were gathered around God’s throne. They all burst into spontaneous song.
The theme of their song is God, His glory, and His righteousness in judging and bringing down such a formidable foe of His people. The initial song also reiterates the crimes for which the great prostitute had been judged and condemned. First was the moral corruption by which the empire had not only stained its own hands, but through which it had corrupted the nations over which it had gained control.
The second crime is, of course, the shedding of the blood of God’s servants. Even though many might believe this to be the greater crime, it is actually a subsidiary crime. It was the moral corruption of Rome and its rulers caused by their rejection of God as their sovereign that lay behind the persecution of God’s people, making it seem in their eyes like a moral good.
Just as the prayers of the Saints had been depicted as a cloud of incense rising before God’s throne (Revelation 5:7-8), now the smoke from the destruction of the empire is shown rising before God’s throne. This was not smoke composed of holy prayers. Instead, it was analogous to the sin offering, where the animal that bore the sin had to be completely burned up, and its ashes taken outside the camp to an unclean place in order to remove sin from the midst of the people.
God’s response to this praise was to bless all those gathered around His throne, both small and great, and to encourage them to continue to faithfully worship Him.
Pray with Me
Father, when nations fall, we easily focus on the tragedy of it all, and on the cost in human lives or international trade. In this, we are far more like those who mourned the fall of Rome from afar because of their complicity in its evil (Revelation 18:11-20). But those in heaven see that in removing those nations and empires who were corrupt and persecuting Your people, in this case Rome, You have actually removed a source of evil and corruption from the earth, and have demonstrated both Your wisdom and Your sovereignty. Lord, help me to see everything through Your eyes as I look at the world, at the constantly shifting political map around the globe, and at how You Yourself are moving things toward the end game You have designed for us. Amen.