In today's passage we learn that there are people in the Antichrist's capital city who have accepted Christ as Savior. The Lord tells them to escape the city before He brings judgment on it.
"Then I heard another voice from heaven say: 'Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.'" (Revelation 18:4-5) John doesn't say whether this is the voice of God or of the Lord Jesus Christ or of the Holy Spirit, but I believe it must be the voice of one of the three persons of the Holy Trinity. Who else could refer to the redeemed as "My people"?
In the Old Testament, the Lord warned His people through the prophets that they would be taken into captivity. But He also promised them they would return to their land. In speaking of the day when ancient Babylon would be judged, the Lord told His people to leave before His judgment fell. "Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the Lord's house." (Isaiah 52:11) "Flee out of Babylon; leave the land of the Babylonians, and be like the goats that lead the flock." (Jeremiah 50:8) "Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins. It is time for the Lord's vengeance; He will repay her what she deserves." (Jeremiah 51:6)
The Lord is saying the same thing to the believers living in the capital city of the Antichrist---the "Babylon" of the end times. Anyone still in Babylon when her judgment comes is going to share in the misery of her fall. This is not the same situation as was present when the Lord sent the plagues on Egypt but spared the Egyptian territory of Goshen where the Hebrew people resided. In that case, the people of the Lord were separated from the people of Egypt. The Lord could send plagues down on Egypt's capital where Pharaoh sat on his throne without affecting the people who belonged to Him. But if the believers are mingled in among the unbelievers in the Antichrist's city, they run the risk of becoming collateral damage.
There is another reason why the Lord commands His people to come out of the city. He says it is so they will not "share in her sins". Hanging around in the bad part of town or hanging out with the wrong crowd can influence the Lord's people to compromise their beliefs. I'm not sure why those who have turned to Christ are still residing in the capital city of the most wicked man who has ever lived. It may be because they are afraid of him. It may be because leaving their jobs in the city will present them with financial hardship. Or it could be---and this is the worst theory---that even though they are believers they feel comfortable while completely surrounded by sin and idolatry. If this is the case, then they remind me of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. Lot felt comfortable enough in Sodom and Gomorrah to remain there. Even when warned of God's coming judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot was reluctant to leave, so reluctant that the angels sent to rescue him had to take him by the hand and pull him out of his house. (Genesis 19:16) Once the angels had him and his family outside the city gates, they instructed them, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!" (Genesis 19:17) The Lord is saying to all those still within the capital city of the Antichrist in the end times: "Don't hesitate like Lot did. Don't allow yourselves to be so comfortable in the presence of sin that you remain in the city until it falls. Flee the city and its sin! Flee before judgment rains down on it!"
The voice from heaven continues to speak of Babylon's coming fall. "Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Pour her a double portion from her own cup. Give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself." (Revelation 18:6-7a) The sins which Babylon has perpetrated against the people of the world are so great that God is going to pay her back double for her greed and deception and idolatry. She has led the people of the earth into sin and rebellion. I think that, in the eyes of God, there is probably no greater sin than leading a human being away from Him and away from salvation. This is such a heinous crime that paying it back according to the "eye for an eye" principle is not enough. The penalty is a double sentence because the crime is so severe.
In this next passage we see the prideful attitude of the sinful city. The city is so wealthy and so self-sufficient that those who have fallen for its lies feel no need for God. There is so much luxury and comfort present that they have lulled themselves into believing life will always go on in the same pleasant manner. "In her heart she boasts, 'I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow; I will never mourn.'" (Revelation 18:7b) In His messages to the prophet Isaiah regarding the fall of ancient Babylon, the Lord said that Babylon considered herself the "queen city". (Isaiah 47:1) The world looked upon the riches of Babylon and declared it the "queen of kingdoms". (Isaiah 47:5) Ancient Babylon boasted proudly, "I am forever---the eternal queen!" (Isaiah 47:7) She said of herself, "I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children." (Isaiah 47:8) Ancient Babylon was so wealthy and self-sufficient that she took for herself one of the titles of Almighty God, referring to herself as "I Am". She believed she would last forever, but where is ancient Babylon now? It lies in the dust. Where will the Babylon of the end times someday be? In the dust.
The Lord told His people that the boasting of ancient Babylon meant nothing. He was going to take her down in her prime. While she lived comfortably in pleasure and excess, her day of doom would rush in upon her. While ancient Babylon complacently declared, "I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children," those very things would happen to her. "Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day, loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells. You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, 'No one sees me.' Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me.' Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you." (Isaiah 47:9-11)
The Lord has the same message for the Babylon of the last days. "Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her; death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her." (Revelation 18:8)
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