There have been numerous sermons and books and movies on the Book of Revelation, all of which have been taken out of context and distorted to meet man's desires.  There are very few in-depth sermons preached from the original Greek text and placed within it's proper place and time (70 AD).  

Rev. John C. Martin III is a graduate from Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson, Miss.)  He is the pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Tyler, TX.  Email with comments or questions: john@johncmartin.com

• If you would like to read along with the podcasts, the sermons may be found on the church website at: http://www.cpctyler.com/revelationsermons.php

• Pastor Martin has spent eight years prior to the Revelation series preaching exegetically through the Book of Matthew.  Currently there are four books that have been published, with future plans to publish a six to seven volume complete series. 

Abomination of Desolation; The Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer;

 Jesus on Divorce; and The Sermon on the Mount

 

 

 

 

We are pleased to announce that Rev. Martin now has his first three of seven volumes published on the complete Sermonic Exposition of the book of Matthew!  Volume 4 is in the process of being published.

 

REVELATION 18:1-24

1) After those I saw another messenger, one having great authority, come down from the heaven; and the land was emblazoned by His glory.

2) And He did cry out in a mighty sound, saying "she has fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a haunt of every unclean spirit and a gathering of every unclean and detestable bird.

3) All the nations drank from the wine of the passion of her fornication; for the kings did fornicate with her, and the merchants of the earth became rich from the power of her wantonness."

4) Then I heard another sound from the heaven, saying "come out of her My people that you not participate in her sins and receive her plagues;

5) for her sins are heaped up unto the heaven and God remembered her iniquities.

6) Repay her just as she meted out; and double double according to her works! Mingle her double in the cup that she mingled!

7) As much as she appeared glorious but waxed wanton, give her that much torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I am the sitting queen, I am not a widow, and I will never see mourning'.

8) Because of this, in one day her plagues will come: death and mourning and famine, and she will be utterly burned in fire; for mighty is the Lord God Who judged her.

9) When they look upon the smoke of her burning, the kings of the earth who fornicated and reveled with her will weep and lament over her,

10) having stood at a distance in awe of her torment, saying ‘woe, woe the great city', Babylon the mighty city, for your judgment came in one hour.

11) And the merchants of the earth weep and sorrow over her because there is no longer anyone buying their cargo -

12) cargoes of gold and silver and precious stone and pearl and fine linen and purple and silk and crimson; and all kinds of scented wood, and every kind of ivory vessel, and every kind of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble articles;

13) cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense; wine, oil, fine flour, wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and chariots; and slaves...... human souls!

14) And the fruit of your soul's lusts has gone away from you; all - the dainty and the bright - have gone away from you; and you will never find them again;

15) These merchants who had been enriched from her shall stand at a distance weeping and mourning at the awesomeness of her torment,

16) saying ‘woe, woe the great city', arrayed with fine linen and purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stone and pearls, for in one hour so much wealth is made desolate.

17) And every shipmaster and all sailing to the place and mariners and all who trade by sea did stand at a distance

18) and cry out when seeing the smoke of her burning, saying ‘any likeness of the great city?'

19) Weeping and mourning they cast dust upon their heads, saying ‘woe, woe the great city' by which all that had ships in the sea did abound from her great worth, for in one hour she was made desolate.

20) Be gladdened over her heaven and holy ones and apostles and prophets! for from your lawsuit God did pass judgment on her."

21) Then the one mighty messenger raised a stone as a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying "so with violence Babylon the great city shall be cast and shall never again be found.

22) The sound of harpers and musicians and pipers and trumpeters shall never be heard in you again; and no craftsman of any craft shall ever be found in you again; and the sound of a millstone shall never be heard in you again;

23) and the light of a candle shall never shine in you again; and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall never be heard in you again; for your merchants were the princes of the earth, and by your enchantment all the nations of the earth were seduced.

24) And the blood of the prophets was found in her, and that of every one of the holy ones ever slain upon the land."

 

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At the Parousia of the Son of God/Son of Man (shortly to take place – as John looks on) the land is filled with the brightness of His glory; and the depravity and corruption of Jerusalem is made manifest.  And John is shown her holding the golden cup of YAHVEH in her own hand; and it’s full of abominable things.

She’s adorned with every beautiful and glorious thing imaginable, and proclaiming herself queen of the world; and there’s no one else – no one sees her, for she is “I AM”.

She “was”; and she “is”.  And, in her opinion, she “shall be”.  However, John has already heard that before, hadn’t he?  After all, this is the Revelation of Jesus Christ; and at His appearance to John (recorded at the beginning of this book) that’s what He said to John.  He “WAS”; He “IS”; and He “SHALL BE”.  The very name YAHVEH means “I AM”.

We’ve all heard Israel’s impertinence and brazen temerity addressed by YAHVEH through the prophets.  We’ve read from every one of them – from Moses to the apostle John – that she had the “gall” to consider herself the “eternal city”… that she would never be “widowed”; that she would never lose her children; that she was “I am” – the sitting queen of the world.  It is as if she had assumed equality with God.

Sound familiar?  We’ve heard that before… at the beginning of the Scripture.  But we’ll come back to that shortly.

But, from the beginning she had done everything YAHVEH had told her not to do.  As soon as her covenantal life had begun, she made a gold idol – by which she might worship God better!  And while in the desert, she lit strange fire in the encampment; and at the instigation of a false prophet, the sons of Jacob participated in fornication with pagan women.

And once inserted into the promised land, Israel shed the blood of sacrifices all over the land (in violation of explicit instructions.)  And she built idols of stone and wood and gold on all of the high places and made sacrifices to them… some of those sacrifices being her own children!  She consulted with false prophets, astrologers and fortune-tellers.  She intermingled with foreigners and took their false gods as her own, and enchanted the kings and merchants of the nations with her great beauty and wealth – spreading the wine of her abominations over the entire earth.

When YAHVEH sent personal emissaries (the prophets) to her to call her to repentance, she ignored them and mocked them and persecuted them and killed them.  The many times in which she was chastened and afflicted for her contempt for YAHVEH and His Law-word, she would become sorrowful and meek and submissive until the affliction was removed; and then go back to her harlotry with the nations and their idols.

Her priests and scribes and lawyers turned YAHVEH’s Law-word “upside down” in order to free themselves for their own benefits. (That’s God’s exact words, by the way, through the prophet Isaiah.)

When the prophet Elijah finally arrived in the person of John the baptizer to announce the coming of God’s Anointed One, they persecuted and killed him.

Her priests had made the entire sacrificial system a “religion” of their own, so that Israel didn’t even recognize the Lamb of God when He arrived; so they killed Him.  And then she pursued and persecuted the lost sheep of the house of Jacob who Jesus came to seek and to save!  And then her prophets and astrologers and fortune-tellers all aligned themselves with the fourth beast of history – proclaiming the beast as the savior!

And as we read (from about twelve of the prophets) last Lord’s Day, all through Israel’s history she had been warned of a day of reckoning in which YAHVEH would exact full three-fold and seven-fold restitution for all her abominations.  But the harlot believed that she was the eternal land of paradise; and she refused to believe His prophets.

This was the “land of plenty” that God Himself called the “garden of Eden”.  And the terms that God used in its description indicate that it was the one location in all of God’s creation that most resembled His tabernacle in the heaven.

The sights in this paradise on earth would correspond with the sights in the heavenly tabernacle that were seen by the prophets.  Even the sounds heard in God’s tabernacle would be replicated in the earthly paradise.  The colors and the beauty and the brightness and the glory and the numbers and the order and perfections… Israel was given it all!  It was given “heaven and earth” – a special place all its own; a replica of His tabernacle in all its beauty – even to the extent of The Glory inhabiting it over the firmament of His holy mountain in Jerusalem!

As we’ve mentioned numbers of times here, the land of Israel was likened to the original paradise; for at the beginning, when it was all brought to be, God had made His creation to reflect His glory in His heavenly tabernacle.  In all its perfections it shone with the glory of God – including two “images” of His glorious Person!

The brief descriptions of that paradise that Moses wrote for us, and the further references throughout God’s Revelation to man, give us indications of the wonders of that original creation.

God brought “light” to be; for there is nothing more reflective of the brightness and glory of God than light.  Then He made the bodies of the heavens to reflect that light – all to resemble the glory cloud of His heavenly tabernacle.  Then He made the sea to imitate that which Ezekiel describes as a “sea of glass” – the firmament over which God reigns.  And He made all the animals and birds and creatures as reflective of the great variety of creatures in the heaven… especially the variety found in the four cherubs.  (And, by the way, remember the number four?  That will be important a little later.)

And Moses even wrote of all the beautiful stones that were found everywhere in Paradise; and their names all reflected their colors.  This was a lush place of perfection; a paradise indeed – all resembling God’s tabernacle in the heaven.

And remember that God had likened the land of Israel to this original paradise.  He said that she was like the garden of Eden.  All of her wealth and beauty were given her; and the entire land shone with the brightness of His glory… much like that first paradise.  The words of God through the prophets indicate that, in the mind of God, Israel was considered her own “cosmos” – a separate and distinct creation for Himself… in many ways just like the original one!

Now, while we’re considering the infinite mind of God here; and just as an interlude, I don’t think for one minute that my status as a preacher is anywhere near that of a prophet.  In fact, it was made clear here in the Revelation that the apostle John was the one to prophesy one last time.  So there are no more of them.

But the prophets – including John – were to speak and write only what God told them and showed them.  They were not to be “creative”; they weren’t to use their imaginations; they weren’t to speak extemporaneously… they were only to say and do exactly what God revealed.  It was HIS Word, and not theirs, that they were to deliver.

And, although we’re not prophets, that’s a pattern for those of us who are called to preach the Gospel, isn’t it?  We’re to say what God has already said and what He caused to be written for us.

I’m not gifted at all at extemporaneous speaking anyway.  I’m always very fearful of saying something off the top of my head that’s incorrect, or of leaving out something that’s important, and that it would mislead you - the Lord’s people.  And I’ve always considered that fear to be a good thing!

And I’m not creative or imaginative either.  And that’s a good thing too!

And since I don’t have those skills, I just have to stick with the pattern.  And the pattern with the prophets and the apostles was to say and write what God said, and leave the “creative activity” to the Spirit of our Lord.

Creativity and imagination in preaching are problematic, to be sure… as is extemporaneous speech.  However, that’s not to say that the pattern for preaching that we’ve received from the prophets and apostles is free of its own complications!  It’s not!  There’s no felicity here.  The huge problem with it is (and we’ve talked about this a number of times before) that the mind of God has no boundaries!  His mind and will are limitless!  So, how do we ever do this!?

 And the struggle (one which I have to wrestle with every day of my life) is how to bring the Revelation of His infinite mind to you every Lord’s Day in some coherent way!

Hearing the Word read in context is good; repetition is good; making the connections is always good; explaining the Greek and Hebrew words is good….  When I look out and see light in your eyes, I know that I’ve done okay.  But when I see blank stares, I realize my own limitations.

The eleven verses before us this morning (nine through nineteen) give us pause to wonder just how in the world one is to comprehend Revelation that reaches as far back as the garden of Eden, and then extends all the way to the judgment of God’s paradise land of Israel.  It’s far-and-away more than our capacity… mine anyway.

But wonder as we might, by Word and Spirit we are to hear it and receive it and delight in it.  And then we are to rest in it contentedly and faithfully.  It is the mind of Almighty God.  It is as He sees it, as He observes it, as He created it, and as He brings it all to its fullness.

Now… as was said earlier, God likened His creation of the land of Israel to the creation of His original edenic paradise.  The language of cosmic creation that was (naturally) spoken at the beginning, is the very same language that is used in the creation of Israel; and that same language is used in the prophets – and here in the Revelation – in the destruction of His heaven-and-earth – Israel.

Therefore, knowing the mind of God in the fact that He knows the end from the beginning; and that His language is always the same; and knowing that, in His mind, all is covenantally connected, we must attempt to hear and understand the connections… as He sees them!

And the first thing that is observed here (one that we’ve already commented on) is that the two “paradises” – the original one and the land of Israel – are revealed by God as being “alike”… similar.

In that both of them reflect the bright glory of God’s Person and His heavenly tabernacle, they have many similarities.  And both of them are prophetic reflections of the paradise-Kingdom of Jesus Christ which, in our text, was “at hand”.  And when we come to the later chapters of the Revelation, His Kingdom-paradise is revealed in the prophetic language that we’ve heard all along!  And we’ll hear how God fits it all together from the beginning.

There are so many similarities between the original one and the paradise land of Israel… but one of the more striking ones has to do with the great beauty of each.

Moses’ description of the original one (which He received directly from YAHVEH at Mt Sinai) is brief (to be sure).  But it’s obvious when reading his account that it was endowed with incredible beauty; for it was called into being by the Word of God for His glory.  It reflected His glory.

However, there was a creature there who God had made in His Own image (and for His glory).  He had taken her from the man who He had made; and they were “one flesh”.  But she wanted to be “like” God in her own right, and to know what He knows.  She was “enticed” by the serpent to self-idolatry… to seek independent self-determination.

By every Biblical definition, she became the harlot of the serpent; and then this harlot enticed the man into the same self-idolatry.

And God cursed these two images of Himself that He had made; and He cursed the paradise creation that He had made.  But He also promised a “SEED” from this harlot Who would crush the head of the serpent.

And we find the very same language in all the text of Scripture with regard to the paradise land of Israel.  The creation of Israel and the great city of Jerusalem as being a paradise likened to the garden of Eden incorporates all the language of the creation of the cosmos at the beginning.  Israel and its great city was the center of all the creation, with the sun and moon and stars belonging to it!

It was called the land of plenty… a paradise; for God caused it to reflect His own glory.  It was filled with everything beautiful (as was the original paradise) and given great wealth.  And its herds and trees and vineyards and watercourses produced in great abundance.  And the riches of the world flowed into it.  And the great city itself sat beneath the man-made tabernacle of God with the golden brightness of YAHVEH’s glory.  She had been created like unto the garden of Eden.

But like the first woman, she was a harlot.  All through the Scripture she is “like” Eve.  And as did Eve, Israel ignored God’s Law-word and exerted her indulgent self-determination.

As did Eve in the garden, Israel determined that she would not die (as God said she would)… that she would always retain her status as queen of the world; and no matter what these prophets said, she was who she said she was and not what God said she was!  In God’s view, she wished to be “I am” (which is the English translation of YAHVEH).

All through God’s Word, idolatry and harlotry are equated.  Fornication is idolatrous, you see; and idolatry is fornication.  And it’s that way because Israel is like the first woman.  Eve abandoned her Creator and His Word in order to believe a creature which enticed her; and that’s harlotry.  It’s also idolatry; for she determined for herself what was best for her.

And Eve and Adam and the whole creation were cursed by God.  And the two images of God died.  The communion with God was cut off; and they were separated from their Creator in the depths of their depravity.  And death was their judgment.  And paradise became a wilderness of briars and thorns.

Like also Israel and the land.  She was an idolatrous harlot that caused all the nations to drink from the passions of the wine of her fornications – just like Eve.  And as all of YAHVEH’s prophets said to her, she would die the death in the Day of YAHVEH.  But to the very end she believed that she would not die – just like Eve.

And the land – the paradise of God – would be returned to briars and thorns… a wilderness.  As the prophet said, anyone traveling that way afterward wouldn’t recognize it as a habitable place.

And that brings us to these eleven verses – nine through nineteen; for what is about to be burned in the wrath of God and returned to uninhabitability is all the beauty and riches and wealth of God’s paradise on earth.  It has become a cursed and detestable place for all the reasons that we stated earlier.

Because of the beauty and wealth and productivity with which God had bestowed His heaven and earth edenic paradise, all the kings and merchants and ship captains and seamen had come to do business with the harlot; and they were all enchanted by her beauty and enticed by her favors and participated in her idolatrous harlotry.  They all drank of the cup of the wine of her fornications.

But they would all be astonished, and would mourn for her in the Day of YAHVEH, for she had been the beautiful paradise of the world and the source of all of their riches.

Here’s the passage that prophesies exactly what we see in our text.  It’s from Ezekiel chapter twenty-seven.  Listen to the language that we heard in verses nine through nineteen of our text:

12) "Tarshish was your trading partner because of [your] great wealth of every kind. They exchanged silver, iron, tin, and lead for your merchandise.

13) Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your merchants. They exchanged slaves and bronze utensils for your goods.

14) Those from Beth-togarmah exchanged horses, war horses and mules, for your merchandise.

15) Men of Dedan were also your merchants; many countries and islands were your regular markets. They brought ivory tusks and ebony as your payment.

16) Aram was your trading partner because of your numerous products. They exchanged turquoise, purple and embroidered cloth, fine linen, coral, and rubies for your merchandise….

18) Damascus was also your trading partner because of your numerous products and your great wealth of every kind, [trading] in wine from Helbon and white wool.

19) Vedan and Javan from Uzal dealt in your merchandise; wrought iron, cassia, and aromatic cane were [exchanged] for your goods.

20) Dedan was your merchant in saddlecloths for riding.

21) Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your business partners, trading with you in lambs, rams, and goats.

22) The merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with you. They exchanged gold, the best of all spices, and all kinds of precious stones for your merchandise.

23) Haran, Canneh, Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad traded with you.

24) They were your merchants in choice garments, cloaks of blue and embroidered materials, and multicolored carpets, which were bound and secured with cords in your marketplace….

27) Your wealth, merchandise, and goods, your sailors and helmsmen, those who repair your leaks, those who barter for your goods, and all the warriors within you, with all the other people on board, sink into the heart of the sea on the day of your downfall.

28) The countryside shakes at the sound of your sailors' cries.

29) All those who handle an oar disembark from their ships. The sailors and all the helmsmen of the sea stand on the shore.

30) They raise their voices over you and cry out bitterly. They throw dust on their heads; they roll in ashes.

31) They shave their heads because of you and wrap themselves in sackcloth. They weep over you with deep anguish and bitter mourning.

32) In their wailing they lament for you, mourning over you who, like Tyre, was silenced in the middle of the sea.

33) When your merchandise was unloaded from the seas, you satisfied many peoples. You enriched the kings of the earth with your abundant wealth and goods.

34) Now you are shattered by the sea in the depths of the waters; your goods and the people within you have fallen.

35) All the inhabitants of the countries and islands are appalled at you. Their kings shudder with fear; [their] faces are contorted.

36) Those who trade among the peoples hiss at you; you have become an object of horror. and will never again exist."

The language is exactly the same as John hears and writes for us here in verses nine through nineteen, isn’t it?

The “great city”, the center of all of creation and the capital city of God’s paradise on earth, is fallen.  She is the greater Tyre, the greater Sodom, the greater Babylon.  Her great beauty and immense wealth (much like the original paradise) is about to be destroyed in the Day of YAHVEH, and become a wilderness of briars and thorns – uninhabitable.

And the kings and the merchants and the ship captains and mariners of the nations will mourn and lament the loss of the great city; for she was the source of their riches.

John hears the very words of Almighty God the Father as He pronounces the judgment – as it was before written in Ezekiel.  But here in these verses he hears the perfect threes.  The three categories of witnesses to Jerusalem’s destruction will pronounce the three woes as they mourn their loss.

And the complete loss of the incredible beauty and wealth of the city comes to John’s ears in “fours”.  Judgment upon Israel’s wealth is revealed in four categories… all attesting to the infinite mind and will of God and the perfections of His judgment on the harlot.

The “Paradise Lost” connection to the original Eden is unmistakable; and the “Seed of the woman” is preserved by God in both cases… as revealed by YAHVEH in Genesis chapter three.

Even though the harlot of the first paradise was cursed and died, God brought forth a seed from her through whom the Savior of the world would be born.  And the harlot of the second paradise was cursed and died in the full and perfect wrath of God.  From her was born the Seed promised in the first paradise – Jesus Christ and His elect from the tribes of Jacob.

The first woman – although she had everything of beauty and perfection, wanted to be “I am”… to be self-determinative.  And all that was lovely was removed from her.  But through the pangs and travail of childbirth, she brought forth a seed.

Israel – although she had everything of beauty and perfection, declared herself to be “I am”… to be self-determinative.  And all that was lovely was destroyed.  But she, too, through the pangs and travail of childbirth, brought forth a seed.

Adam – the father of man-kind - born into the first Eden/paradise, was enticed into disobedience of His Creator-God; and he was cursed.  And he died.

Jesus – the Savior of man-kind – born into the second edenic paradise, was enticed, but did not disobey The Father; and He was cursed and died to atone for the sins of the seed promised to Abraham.  As John the baptizer said when he saw the Christ of God: “Lo, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world”.

These are just some of the obvious connections between the first heaven-and-earth paradise and the second (the eleven verses of our text being one of those connections).  There are so many more; and we are, once again, set in wonder at the incomprehensible mind of our God.

We’ll continue with this next Lord’s Day, and maybe even finish the last five verses… we’ll see.

But before we stop, let me make just a few more comments about “paradise”.  John Milton’s Paradise Lost is an amazing read; and it should be on everyone’s reading list – especially our young people.  And David Chilton’s Paradise Restored is a good sequel.  I recommend them both to you.

However, Paradise wasn’t lost!  And, if not lost, it couldn’t be restored.  In the unfathomable mind and will of God there could be only one way for a true and permanent paradise to exist.  And that was through the work of God the Son.  And in all of the history of mankind, that is demonstrably true; for the first one wasn’t permanent, and neither was the second – Israel.  That was made obvious in our text today; for all of their incredible beauty was to be destroyed in favor of that Paradise which exists only in the resurrected body of Jesus Christ.  It is a Paradise wrought in Him, which will come to full fruition in the resurrection of all who are in Him.  This was the covenantal will of God from the beginning.  And the Bible is His covenant revealed!  The later chapters of The Revelation of Jesus Christ provide, in the prophetic language of God, that Paradise which exists in His risen and ascended body.

This is the very language that our Lord spoke to the thief on the cross.  In one day the heaven-and-earth paradise called Israel would be destroyed; and The Christ would raise up a new, and perfect, and permanent Paradise for all who are in Him.  He is the “SEED” promised by YAHVEH; and all of His faithful people are the “seed” promised to Abraham.

And, as revealed to the prophet Daniel, the Paradise Kingdom of Jesus Christ will never be destroyed

 

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Toward the end of the preaching last Lord's Day we read the fearsome words of YAHVEH through the prophet Isaiah in chapter forty-seven, and we'll read some of it again later this morning. But his words were directed at the vain and prideful nation of Israel and its capitol city - Jerusalem.

John hears those same words here in verse seven of our text.... YAHVEH would unsheath His sword of indignation, and He would sharpen and polish it to kill; for He would repay Israel double - and double again - for her works!

It wasn't that Israel had just mingled the golden cup in YAHVEH's hand with all her abominations... and all the nations having drunk the wine of her fornications from that cup. But, remember, she is shown to John as having the golden cup in her own hand - all filled up with abominable things; and she was holding it up high - flaunting it pridefully - while sitting atop the fourth beast of history!

And it wasn't only that Israel polluted the entire land with the blood of sacrifices to idols; and it wasn't only that she had persecuted and killed the prophets sent by God; and it wasn't only that she had resorted to astrologers and enchanters and fortune tellers... but in it all - and at the base of it all - she was haughty and presumptuous, vain, and full of pride.

"I am; and I am wealthy; I have need of nothing; I am the queen of the world. All of the kings and merchants of the nations come to me! I'll never be widowed; I'll never mourn the loss of children. I am secure; and I have everything I want. And nobody sees me!"

In all of her self-satisfied pretension and self-love, she even claims that God isn't watching! He turns away (she thinks) from all of her indulgences because she's his favorite! He just "winks" at it. And all of the nations know that. In all of her twisted understanding of the covenant relationship, she thinks the nations know that she's God's favorite. After all, they can see it!

Besides, God promised. And therefore she would always be the queen; she would never lose all her children; she would never mourn: she would never be widowed.... She WAS; and she IS! After all, there was the promise!

But YAHVEH is the One Who had said: "I AM" (Isaiah forty-three: "I, even I AM; [that's what YAHVEH means], and there is no savior beside Me"). And He does see her pride and hubris; and He sees her fornications; and He sees her idols and her astrologers and enchanters; and He sees His persecuted prophets!

And as He said in Jeremiah sixteen: "I will doubly repay her iniquity and her sin, because she has polluted My land". And again, in Jeremiah seventeen: "I will bring on her a day of disaster and crush her with twofold destruction."

In the "day of YAHVEH" there will be multiple restitution (as reads the Law of God in Exodus chapters twenty one through twenty three.) It would be the day of atonement in which the harlot will be repaid double - and double again, for her whoredoms and for her arrogant disdain for her own promise to obey, and her prideful disregard for YAHVEH and His Law-word, and her scorn for the coming Holy One of Israel - the promised Savior of the world.

Then... God would be satisfied. Atonement would be made, and restitution would be paid.

Pride goes before the fall; and the Commander of the hosts of the heaven has proclaimed her "fallen" (verse two). All the demons of the wilderness have taken up residence, and the vultures are circling; for the Day of YAHVEH is near as the prophetic Word reaches its fullness at the end of the age, and the sword is sharpened and polished to kill!

The Words that the apostle John hears from the tabernacle in the heaven are the same as those spoken to Israel through the prophets of old. She said: "I AM. No matter what these so-called prophets say, I am the queen that sits on the throne. I'm not some betrothed, virgin maiden. They say I'm going to mourn in some future day of reckoning; but I'll never mourn. They say that one day I'll be widowed; but that's ridiculous. I'll never be a widow... I am queen of the world! I have a promise and a legacy; God has bound Himself to me! ... and because of this no matter what happens, there won't be a day of reckoning."

Without going into a sermon-length treatise on pride this morning, we do need to say something about it, because this is the essence of what John hears here in verse seven. In one of his earlier letters to the Churches, he writes to them about "the pride of one's life" (1 John 2:16).

That harkens back to the prophetic Word of YAHVEH to the prophet Jeremiah. Chapter thirteen of his prophecy includes one of those instances in which the prophet - rather than delivering the spoken Word, is required by YAHVEH to actually act out the prophecy! And the analogy that's contained in what he is to do is extremely interesting.

Here is some of it... from Jeremiah thirteen:

1)Thus says YAHVEH to me, "Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water."

2)So I bought a loincloth according to the word of YAHVEH, and put it around my waist.

3)And the word of YAHVEH came to me a second time,

4)"Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock."

5)So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as YAHVEH commanded me.

6)And after many days YAHVEH said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there."

7) Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was ruined; it was good for nothing.

8)Then the word of YAHVEH came to me:

9 "Thus says YAHVEH: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

10) This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.

11) For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not hear.

A little later in that chapter we hear some very familiar words as YAHVEH continues His speech to Jeremiah. Our Lord quoted from it - as recorded in Matthew twenty-three; and the apostle Paul quoted from it in his letter to the Churches in Rome in chapter nine. Listen to it from Jeremiah. YAHVEH says to him:

23) Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then you who are conformed to do evil; can you do good?

24) I will scatter you like chaff driven by the wind from the desert.

25) This is your alllotment, the portion I have measured out to you, declares YAHVEH, because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies.

26) I myself will lift up your skirts over your face, and your shame will be seen.

27) I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, your lewd whorings on the hills and in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are cleaned up?"

As we've heard now from six readings of this text, the "woes" are about to be placed in the mouths of the kings and merchants of the world as Jerusalem - the "greater Babylon" - is to be finally "cleaned up" as it burns into oblivion, and there is no more wealthy harlot with which they can do business. We'll hear all of that next Lord's Day.

But it needs to be said that however the "pride of one's life" is exhibited among men, it is always - first - with reference to God. Whether it's pride in one's heritage or place in life; or pride in one's looks; or pride in one's possessions; or pride in one's knowledge or abilities; or pride in one's connections... the pride is always, first, with reference to God. For it is God Who gives, and God Who takes away.

It is the very essence of pride in one's life to refuse to acknowledge Him and submit to Him as Creator, Law-giver, and Savior of the world. That's where it begins. And that pride then is manifest in many different ways in the lives of corrupt and sinful mankind.

As YAHVEH said through Jeremiah concerning Israel: "but they would not hear". That's where it begins, you see. "They would not hear." They refused to hear. That IS the exhibition of the pride of one's life! Refusing to hear the Creator and Savior of man is the "core" of pride. Cursed and depraved man says: "I am. And I will think and do and say whatever I most want to think and do and say".

Israel refused to hear; and the life of the nation was thereafter lived as an idolatrous whore of the world that caused the kings and merchants of the nations to drink from the cup of her fornications.

And like Israel, the pride of ones life always leads to dissipation. God is Who He says He is. And short of an acknowledgment of that, it's all vain; and it's empty and useless. And it all just disintegrates.

"Because of this", John hears (verse eight), "in one day her plagues will come: death and mourning and famine, and she will be utterly burned in fire; for mighty is the Lord God Who judged her."

"In one day..." It is "the day of YAHVEH" in which she will be utterly burned in fire.

I'm going to take you through the prophetic Scripture now - from the beginning to the end - concerning the "day" - the one day of YAHVEH. So, once again we'll see the continuity that exists in what God said through the prophets of old and what He says here to the last prophet - John.

From Isaiah chapter two:

6) You have forsaken Your people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners....

8) Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made....

11) Their lofty looks shall be brought low, and their haughtiness shall be bowed down, and YAHVEH alone shall be exalted in that day.

12) For there shall be a day of YAHVEH of Hosts upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low.

Isaiah chapter thirteen:

6) Wail; for the day of YAHVEH is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

7) Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt:

8) and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces shall be faces of flame.

9) Behold, the day of YAHVEH comes..... cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

From Jeremiah forty six:

10) For that day is a day of YAHVEH, YAHVEH OF HOSTS, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of His adversaries: and the sword shall devour and be satisfied, and shall drink its fill of their blood....

In Ezekiel thirteen God rails at Israel and her false prophets:

4) O Israel, YOUR prophets have been like foxes in the waste places.

5) You have not gone up into the gaps, neither built up the wall for the house of Israel, to the end that you can stand in the battle in the day of YAHVEH.

From Joel chapter one:

15) Alas for the day! for the day of YAHVEH is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

And from Joel chapter two:

1) Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of YAHVEH comes, and it is nigh at hand;

2) A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong there has not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

3) A fire devours before them; and behind them a flame burns; the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

4) The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

5) Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

6) Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.

7) They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

8) Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

9) They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

10) The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:

11) And YAHVEH shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great; for he is strong that executes his word: for the day of YAHVEH will be great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

From the prophecy of Obadiah:

12) But don't look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, or rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; nor speak proudly in the day of their distress.

13) Don't enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, don't look on their affliction in the day of their calamity, and don't lay hands on their substance in the day of their calamity.

14) And don't stand in the byway to cut off those of his that escape; and don't deliver (don't save) those of his that remain in the day of distress.

15) For the day of YAHVEH is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done unto you; your dealing shall return upon your own head.

From Zephaniah chapter one:

14) The great day of YAHVEH is near, it is near and hastens greatly - even the sound of the day of YAHVEH; the mighty man cries there bitterly.

15) That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

16) a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high battlements.

17) And I will bring distress upon men - that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against YAHVEH; and their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as dung.

18) Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of YAHVEH's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he will make an end - yea, a terrible end of all them that dwell in the land.

And from the fourteenth chapter of Zechariah:

1) Behold, the day of YAHVEH comes, and your spoil shall be divided in the midst of you.

2) For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken....

And from Malachi chapter four:

1) For, behold, the day comes, it will burn as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that comes shall burn them up, says YAHVEH OF HOSTS, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

2) But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and you shall go forth, and frolic as calves of the stall.

3) And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, says YAHVEH OF HOSTS.

4) Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.

5) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of YAHVEH comes.

The apostle Peter quotes directly from the prophecy of Joel, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles - chapter two:

19) And I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke:

20) The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes....

The apostle Paul warned the Church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 5) that they hadn't dealt with a fornicator in the Church... one who didn't belong. He was "old leaven" one of "souring" - one who came out of the harlot, but didn't belong. And Paul wrote:

7) Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For our passover has been sacrificed, even Christ Jesus.

5) ... deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit be saved in the day of Kurios - the Lord Jesus.

And Paul writes to the Church in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 5):

1) But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write to you.

2) For you yourselves well know that the day of the Lord (the day of Kurios) so comes as a thief in the night.

3) When they are saying, "peace and safety", then sudden destruction will come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape.

And the apostle Peter in the third chapter of his second letter to the Churches, writes:

9) the Lord is not slow in regard to the promise, as certain ones count slowness, but is long-suffering to us, not counseling any to be lost but all to pass on to reformation,

10) and it will come -- the day of Kurios -- as a thief in the night, in which the heavens with a rushing noise will pass away, and the elements with burning heat be dissolved, and the land and the works in it shall be burnt up.

11) All of this, then, being destroyed, what kind of persons does it behoove you to be in holy behaviours and pious acts?

12) waiting for and hasting to the parousia - the day of God, by which the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements melt with burning heat;

13) for we do wait for new heavens and a new earth according to His promise, in which righteousness dwells....

The apostle Peter, having been taught by The Christ, and under influence of Holy Spirit, writes to the Churches at some point before the Day of God; and he knows all of those prophetic passages that we just read.

And just like the seven messages that our Lord sent to the Churches, as recorded in the first three chapters of John's Revelation, Peter is quick to remind them of the coming Day of God... that they shouldn't doubt the prophets - that they shouldn't doubt the promise of God. He promised, and He's not being "slow" in fulfilling that promise!

In one day it will come. In that day in which all of the lost sheep of the house of Jacob have been delivered, it will come. And the very words of Almighty God to John here in verses six, seven and eight are directly from Isaiah forty-seven.

As we conclude this morning, listen to the prophet once more - seven hundred years before the birth of the Christ:

8) Now therefore hear this, you that are given to pleasures, that sits securely, that says in your heart, ‘I am, and there is none else besides me; I will not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children';

9) but these two things shall come upon you in a moment - in one day: the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come upon you, in the multitude of thy sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.

10) For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, ‘no one sees me' Your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you, and you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is none else besides me'.

11) Therefore shall evil come upon you; you shall not know the dawning thereof. And mischief shall fall upon you; you shall not be able to put it away; and desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you know not.

12) Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, wherein you have labored from your youth; maybe you will be able to profit, maybe you will prevail.

13) You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. So, now let the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly fortune tellers, stand up and save you from the things that shall come upon you.

14) Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire will burn them; they won't even be able to deliver themselves from the power of the flame...!

We've done all we're going to do with verses six, seven and eight now. Next Lord's Day we'll take up the next eleven verses, the three "woes" to come - from the kings and the merchants and the mariners; for they will bemoan the loss of the "great city" by which they had all become rich.

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REVELATION 18:1-24 Part 5

So many times YAHVEH had turned away His anger and removed the chastening and affliction.  But this people would always return to its whorish ways... all while being betrothed to YAHVEH - covenanted to YAHVEH.

One of God's beautiful analogies has to do with the "cup".  Israel was conceived a glorious golden cup in His hand.  But this people spent its entire existence mingling the wine of its fornication in that cup.  And all the nations drank from that wine.

Another analogy in the mind of God (one that is associated with the cup filled with abominations) is that of "betrothal".  From the birth of the nation of Israel all the way to the end of The Revelation of Jesus Christ, this people was under "covenant", which is "like" a betrothal.  And Israel had "agreed" to YAHVEH's covenant.  However, she never was faithful... having "prostituted" herself with all the nations and their idols.  She was like a bride-to-be, fornicating with anyone and everyone during the entire period of betrothal!

But you see, even in all of that, there was a promised seed!  God had promised.  The seed was one man born from this harlot - one from among all cursed and depraved mankind.  And from those kept by God from among the descendants of Jacob (twelve thousand from each tribe of Jacob's sons), there was a promised remnant whose sins and iniquities would be forgiven.

Therefore, because of His faithfulness to His promise, God's elect of Jacob would be sought out and found and sent into the nations to bless the peoples and tongues and tribes of the Gentiles... as He had promised to Abraham!

So the temporal and spiritual reach of the covenant establishes and secures the unity and continuity of the one church of God composed of the people of God living both before and after the cross of The Christ.  The seed of the woman is Jesus Christ and all Who are In Him from the beginning; all saved by grace through faith, which is a gift of God to those of the promise.

The signs of the covenant (both of which we participated in last Lord's Day) confirm God's faithfulness to His covenant promise.  And they confirm the unity of Christ and His people.  And they seal to us the fact that the covenant is true - from the beginning....

Even among the greater Babylon and the greater Sodom and the greater Egypt, there was a promised seed.  In the midst of the whore of the world there was a promised seed - kept by YAHVEH as His Own.

And there's the glory of God revealed in the Scripture!  In the worst of the worst, all through His history God kept His Own!  Even when all the nations were gathered against Him and His Anointed, He kept His Own for Himself.  Even during the four great tyrant nations of history that were raised up in satanic fury against the seed, YAHVEH kept them.  And all through the repeated sanctions against Israel for her continual prostitution with the nations, YAHVEH "remembered" His promise and birthed the seed from the belly of the whore... and called her the "Daughter of Zion".  That's what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote to the Churches in Rome: "nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus".

It's the story of God's history - written from the earliest chapters in Genesis.  Even in the worst of conditions - a satanic enemy and the complete depravity of man and a chosen nation that won't obey - God preserves and manifests His Own.  That gives Him GLORY, you see?  There isn't anything that can separate us from Him.  That "Seed" is the Christ and those "IN HIM" for whom His blood was shed.

Once again let's look at YAHVEH's promise - a promise that Israel always purposefully disregarded and interpreted for its own benefit.  The prophetic Word says that God remembered His promise - and Israel's eyes were closed to it; and her ears were stopped up (Isaiah six), (and it's the reason that Jesus spoke to them in parables, you remember).

John wrote these words of God here in verse five of our text - that God remembered her iniquity.  But God also remembered His promise to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and his twelve sons - the seed of the woman Who would crush the head of the dragon and establish His Kingdom and preserve every last one of His Own and defeat death and overcome sin and the curse and raise up a people to Himself - all for the glory of The Father.

God did remember; and the clarity of the prophetic Word concerning these things is irrefutable.

As you may remember, here's what God said through the prophet Isaiah at chapter sixty-five:

11) But you who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,

12) I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in."

13) Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;

14) behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wail for breaking of spirit.

15) You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord GOD will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name.

16) So that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles will be forgotten and will be hidden from my eyes.

17) "For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth, and then the former things shall no longer be remembered or come into mind.

One more time... judaists must purposefully re-interpret the prophets in order to maintain their status, and to hope for an end to their affliction, and to anticipate Israel's return to world-wide prominence!  Their eyes are blind, and the disregard of the text must be purposeful; for God was very specific in speaking to them through Isaiah, that He had a chosen people from among them who would be called by another name; and all the rest of them would meet a terminal end!  And then His justice would be satisfied and all that came before would no longer be remembered.

In that lengthy passage from Ezekiel sixteen that we heard before, there is that wondrous description of the harlot of the world and her last-days-judgment by Almighty God.  But at the end of the passage Ezekiel writes YAHVEH's words concerning His promise to Jacob and his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. Listen to it:

58) You yourself must bear the consequences of your indecency and abominations" -  (This is) YAHVEH's declaration.

59) "For this is what YAHVEH says: I will deal with you according to what you have done, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

60) But I... I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will confirm an everlasting covenant with you.

61) Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when I receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your oath!

62) I will raise up My covenant with you, and you will know that I am YAHVEH,

63) so that when I make atonement for all you have done (when I Am satisfied), you will remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth again because of your disgrace." [This is] the declaration (affirmation) of YAHVEH .

As verse six of our text says, God will double - and double again - payment for the works that she meted out with the kings and merchants of the world.

But in that time of God's atonement, which includes the destruction of the harlot and the flood of wrath upon the Son Of God/Son of Man, He will remember His covenant promise to the house of Jacob.  And the Daughter of Zion - the elect Israel - will be blessed with many daughters from her "sister" nations - those of Samaria and Sodom and Gomorrah and the Canaanites and from Syria - all of which the harlot disdained in pride, but all of which she surpassed in iniquity!

The harlot's sin against God was SO heaped up into the heaven that, in comparison to it, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was absolved!  And the shame of it all will be remembered by the house of Jacob when God freely atones for her sin and even adds those sister nations to her in the new heavens and the new earth!

God remembered His covenant; and He made atonement to Himself for His people!  And it would include - not only His elect from the tribes of Jacob, but many from all the nations and tribes and tongues of the earth.

Listen to it again from Isaiah sixty-six:

22) For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says YAHVEH, so shall your seed and your name remain.

23) And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says YAHVEH.

As the older Scripture is read through from Jacob onward, it becomes evident that each one of the tribes, from the beginning, exhibited its own corruption and rebellion.  But, in the end, which one of them was the worst of the worst?

From which of Abraham's great-grandsons arose King David, with Whom YAHVEH chose to covenant?  From which of Abraham's great grandsons was born the Seed of the woman?

Of course it was the tribe of Judah.  And the area of the promised land that Judah's tribe occupied encompassed the city of Jerusalem and the temple on the mount - the one location in all the created cosmos that was to resemble the tabernacle of God in the heaven!

As is evidenced here in Revelation eighteen, the Seed of the Woman was born amidst the worst of the worst - in Judah; and He was crucified in the city of God.  He was born in Judah, of the tribe of Judah - the seed of Solomon - the seed of David (through Bathsheba) - the seed of Jesse - the seed of Boas (through Rahab) - the seed of Jacob - the seed of Isaac - the seed of Abraham - the seed of Japheth - the seed of Shem - the seed of Noah - the seed of Seth - the seed of Adam!

(I left out a lot of them); but Matthew lists forty-two generations from the promise to Abraham to the day the Seed was born of Mary.  And it's no wonder that Mary was thankful to God for remembering His promise to Abraham for a Seed!

For twenty-four hundred years God had kept a Seed for Himself from among cursed humanity.  And He was born from the worst tribe of the twelve born of Jacob... for there was the city of God - the very heart of the harlot!

But God remembered His promise in the garden; and He remembered His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and He remembered His promise to David.  He kept a remnant of all twelve tribes for Himself - marking and sealing them; and here in verse five of our text He commands them to come out of the harlot before the day of YAHVEH.

And please understand that God did not keep them for Himself because they were good!  All of our Lord's forebears (ancestors) were depraved and corrupt!  All of humanity was cursed and corrupt, and Israel was the worst of them all.  And Judah was the worst of the twelve, for that's where the glory of God was revealed the most!

God kept His promise and elected to save some from among the worst!  So, you see, it was by grace that any were preserved throughout God's history; and it was by grace that any were sought out by our Lord; it was by grace that any of them were found and marked and sealed in the risen body of Christ.  And it was by grace that any from the tribes of Israel were scattered into the nations to bless the Gentiles (as promised to Abraham).

And of course it is by grace that the nations and peoples and tongues of the earth received the Spirit of the ascended Christ - all to the glory of God; for all mankind had broken the covenant made before the foundation of the creation - as had Adam.  All were cursed and condemned, and deserving of the wrath of a just and righteous God.

But Almighty God desires His entire creation to reflect His glory; and it will; all because One Man - the seed of the woman - received the full wrath of God in our place.  And therefore the descendants of Abraham will be as the stars in the heaven and the sands of the seashore.

However... as God is absolutely just in His gracious provision (according to His covenant), He is just and righteous in His retribution (as verses six and seven reveal); for Israel and its capitol city of the world has played the harlot with the kings and merchants of the world.

It was to be the one place in the midst of the peoples of the world where the glory of God shone in all its brightness.  But in all of its perversions it was worse than Babylon - worse than Sodom - worse than Egypt - worse than Nineveh.  She was the worst of all corrupt and cursed mankind!  And YAHVEH remembered her iniquities (verse five).

And John then hears the thunderous sound of the Lord of Hosts as He proclaims in judgment: "Repay her just as she meted out; and double double according to her works!  Mingle her double in the cup that she mingled" (verse six).

Ezekiel, at chapter twenty-one writes:

1)    And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2)    Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and let your speech flow towards the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel;

3)    And say to the land of Israel: Thus says YAHVEH God: Behold I come against you, and I will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off in you the just from the wicked.

4)    And forasmuch as I will cut off in you the just from the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south even to the north.

5)    That all flesh may know that I YAHVEH have drawn my sword out of its sheath not to be turned back.

6)    And you, son of man, mourn with the striking of your loins, and with bitterness sigh before them.

7)    And when they shall say to you: Why do you mourn?  You shall say: For that which I hear.  Because it comes, and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be made feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and water shall run down every leg.  Behold it comes, and it shall be done, says YAHVEH.

8)    And the word of YAHVEH came to me, saying:

9)    Son of man, prophesy, and say: Thus says YAHVEH God: Say: The sword, the sword is sharpened, and polished!

10) It is sharpened to kill victims: it is polished that it may glitter. You remove the sceptre of my son, you have cut down every tree (i.e. to make idols).

11) And I have given it to be polished, that it may be handled.  This sword is sharpened, and it is polished, that it may be in the hand of the slayer.

12) Cry, and howl, 0 son of man, for this sword is upon my people, it is upon all the princes of Israel, that are fled: they are delivered up to the sword with my people, strike therefore upon your thigh,

13) because it is proven: and that when it overthrows the scepter, then it shall not be, says YAHVEH God.

14) You therefore, O son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together, and let the sword be doubled, and let the sword of the slain be doubled again.  This is the sword of a great slaughter, that makes them stand amazed,

15) and languish in heart, and that multiplies ruins. In all their gates I have set the dread of the sharp sword, the sword that is furbished to glitter, that is made ready for slaughter.

16) Be sharpened; go to the right hand, or to the left, whichever way you have a mind to set your face.

17) And I will clap my hands together, and will satisfy my indignation: I YAHVEH have spoken.

For all her works that she has "meted out"; for all her works that she has dealt out; for all her favors that she has "dished out" to her lovers; for all her harlotry she has bestowed on the pagans and foreigners of the world; for all the blood she has shed on the land to idols, YAHVEH will repay her double double!

God had made her a golden cup in His hand - filled with all the blessings of His covenant.  But she has "mingled" that cup with all her abominations.

Listen to it again from the beginning of chapter seventeen:

"And it bore me away in spirit into isolation.  Then I saw a woman sitting upon a crimson beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns; and the woman was purple and crimson clothed, adorned in gold and precious stone and pearls, and having in her hand a gold cup full of abominable things and the unclean things of her fornications...."

And as John hears the words of God from the tabernacle, He says (verse seven) "mingle her double in the cup that she mingled".

Israel and its shining city on the mount was about to drink that cup down to the dregs in repayment for her abominations.

But, you see, this is the "cup" our Lord referred to when He asked His disciples if they were able to drink the cup that He was about to drink; for He was about to be abandoned and struck in the awesome wrath of the Father for His elect people of the house of Jacob.  He was pierced with the sharpened and polished sword of God; and out came the blood of atonement and the water for cleansing of iniquity.

For the ones promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the "Seed" was to drink that cup of repayment for all their cursed depravity.  The One born of the worst-of-the-worst became the "cursed One" for them.  And then He marked out the promised ones, and sealed them, and removed them in order that they not receive "double double" for all Israel's abominations.

Then, in verse seven, John hears these words: "As much as she appeared glorious but waxed wanton, give her that much torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I am the sitting queen, I am not a widow, and I will never see mourning'."

What the Lord of Hosts is referring to there is directly from the prophecy to Israel through Isaiah, chapter forty seven.  Listen to it:

1)    "Go down and sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter of Babylon.  Sit on the ground without a throne, Daughter of Chaldea!  For you will no longer be called pampered and spoiled.

2)    Take millstones and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off [your] skirt, bare your thigh, wade through the streams.

3)    Your nakedness will be uncovered, and your shame will be exposed.  I will take vengeance; I will spare no one....

7)    You said: "I will be queen forever".  You did not take these things to heart or think about their outcome.

8)    "So now hear this, lover of luxury, who sits securely, who says to herself:  "I am, and no one else; I will never be a widow or mourn the loss of children."

9)    These two things will happen to you suddenly, in one day: loss of children and widowhood.  They will happen to you in their entirety, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.

10) You were secure in your wickedness; you said: "No one sees me".  Your wisdom and knowledge have deluded you, for you said to yourself:  "I am, and no one else."

11) But disaster will happen to you; you will not know how to charm it away.  And it will fall on you, and you will be unable to atone for it.  Devastation that you don't know will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.

12) So... take your stand with your spells and your many sorceries, which you have wearied yourself with from your youth.  Perhaps you will be able to succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

13) You are worn out with your many consultations.  So let them stand and save you - the astrologers, who observe the stars, who predict monthly what will happen to you.

14) Look, they are like stubble; fire burns them up.  They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame.  This is not a coal for warming themselves, or a fire to sit beside!

15) This is what they are to you - those who have wearied you and have traded with you from your youth -  each wanders on his own way; no one can save you.

I am wealthy; I have need of nothing; I'm the queen of the world.  All of the kings and merchants of the nations come to me!  I am!  I'll never be widowed; and I'll never mourn the loss of children.  I am secure, and I have everything I want.  And nobody sees me!

However, YAHVEH is I AM (Isaiah forty-three: "I, even I AM YAHVEH, and there is no savior beside Me").  And He does see her pride and hubris; and He sees her fornications; and He sees her idols and her astrologers and enchanters.

And as He said in Jeremiah sixteen: "and I will first doubly repay her iniquity and her sin, because she has polluted My land".  And again, in Jeremiah seventeen: "I will bring on her a day of disaster and crush her with twofold destruction."

In the "day of YAHVEH" there will be multiple restitution (as reads the Law of God in Exodus chapters twenty one through twenty three.)  It is the day of atonement in which the harlot will be repaid double - and double again, for her whoredoms.  And as Josephus later wrote about the holocaust in 70AD: "there was left nothing to make those who came there believe it had ever been inhabited".

On the other hand (as contrasted with that day), there will have already been made atonement for the sin and iniquity of The Father's elect from the tribes of Jacob; for the wrath of God had been poured out upon the One Savior of the world.  He received the full punishment (seven times restitution) for His Father's elect people.

And we - the Gentiles - are the beneficiaries of that restitution; for those of us who have received faith as a gift are recipients of His promise - the promise made to Adam and to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  And we are to be faithful to Him - to hold the testimony of Jesus and keep His Commandments.

 

 

 

 

 

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REVELATION 18:1-24 Part 4

John observes as the Commander of all the hosts of the tabernacle in the heaven appears.  And what he is shown is the Parousia - His active Presence; for His magnificent glory emblazons the land (just as the rising sun from the East).  And the light of His blazing glory illuminates the whole land in all of its foul and repulsive ugliness.  Jerusalem's iniquity is "heaped up unto the tabernacle in the heaven".  In other words, it is "filled up".  And the light of His Presence makes it all evident.  The squalid is made manifest by His glory.  And it's time for the pronouncement of judgment in YAHVEH's law-suit against the harlot of the world!  And Michael testifies:

Jerusalem - worse than all the surrounding nations - is now the "dwelling place", the home, the preferred habitat, for the demons and unclean spirits that had been cast down from the tabernacle in the heaven.

Israel and the city of Jerusalem and the temple on the mount were to have been the one place in all the creation where the glory of God was to be seen.  It was to be a "resemblance" of His tabernacle in the heaven from which the demons were cast!  It was to shine with the glory of God for all the world to see and to be in "wonder" at God's people!  Outside of this paradise on earth was described in Scripture as a wilderness in which roamed these demons and unclean spirits... everywhere else except this paradise!

But now, Michael proclaims her "ready" for judgment, for the demons and unclean spirits of the wilderness places of the earth have found a home... a "dwelling place" in Israel.  Jerusalem has become so evil and depraved and unclean that it's more compatible with the nature of these unclean spirits!  It's so much better for them than the wilderness nations; so they've all occupied it!

Remember Jesus' teaching regarding the demons, as recorded in Matthew's Gospel; one went out and brought back seven (a complete number)... all much worse than the first.

And we are also reminded that Jesus, in His Own words, came to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Jacob.  And when he found them, He "reversed" the demon possession that had taken place among them.  And note also that Jesus didn't send the demons out of Israel; He just expelled them from His Father's elect people... all of that in prophetic preparation for what we're reading here in Revelation eighteen!

Later on in John's Revelation, we'll find out how the Commander of all the hosts deals with all of these creatures that were cast down from the heaven, for their ideal "dwelling place" - Jerusalem and Israel - was about to be destroyed.  Soon they would no longer enjoy the perfect "habitat"; for it would be reduced to "wilderness"!

Then, continuing His testimony, Michael proclaims that the vultures of the desert places are gathered; and they are ready to feast on the rotting bodies.  And here in the second verse they are gathered for the feast; for Jerusalem, Michael says, is "fallen".  She is "ready".  "Where the fall, there the eagles are gathered".

Thirdly, Michael says the golden cup of the wine of her fornications with all the nations is full (verse three).  That's a direct quote from the prophet Jeremiah concerning the greater Babylon to come; for over the entire period of her existence she has filled the cup with her iniquities, having committed fornication with all the kings and merchants of the world while being covenanted to YAHVEH... while being betrothed to YAHVEH!

From God's view of His history, it could be said that she actually joined - and even led - the nations in the attempt to cut off the "Seed" and overthrow the Kingdom of God's Messiah/King!

Rather than being thankful to God for her birth and her care and her immense beauty and wealth - freely given to her, she chose instead to rebel against her Creator/Benefactor/Savior (breaking His covenant), and prostitute herself with all the nations.

And then, lastly (at the end of verse three), Michael proclaims that "all of the merchants of the world have become rich from the power of her wantonness".

What we read (from Ezekiel) last week is one of the greatest analogies of Scripture in which a Sovereign God covenantally betrothed a people unto Himself and endowed her with every beautiful and glorious thing imaginable, only to have that fabulous dowry used to build high and eminent places to the strange gods of the foreigners in every location, and to prostitute herself with them.  Her great beauty and immense wealth, given to her by YAHVEH, is what is meant here in verse three of our text by the "power of her wantonness".

All of the producers and merchants of the earth became rich because of that power, for she used her beauty and great wealth to acquire the finest things made on earth in order to bedeck all of those places of idolatry that she built on every high place and under the beautiful oaks and at the head of every road in Israel.  She shed the blood of the sacrifices all over the land - polluting God's edenic paradise; and she even sacrificed many of her own children before these idols!

She became worse than Babylon - the first beast of world history, that made all the nations drink from the cup of the wine of its fornication; she became worse than Nineveh - the wicked city that repented at the preaching of Jonah; she became worse than Sodom and Gomorrah - the places known for sexual perversity; she became worse than Egypt - the nation that had enslaved her; she became worse than Tyre and Sidon - the ports through which the kings and merchants shipped the dainties that she so desired and that she acquired by her harlotry.

And she is called by their names!  She is called "Egypt"; she is called "Sodom" and "Gomorrah"; she is called "Tyre"; and she is called "Babylon", for she exceeded them all - for she was betrothed of YAHVEH and given a magnificent dowry.  And He gave her His Law-word and placed a replica of His glory right in her midst!  And He promised her a Messiah King.

God called her by these names in His prophetic Word!  She is the greater Babylon; she is the greater Tyre and Sidon; she is the greater Egypt; and she is the greater Sodom and Gomorrah!  She disdained them all in her pride; but she exceeded them all in iniquity! And the cup of the wine of her fornication is filled to the brim.  It's now "heaped up" all the way to YAHVEH's tabernacle in the heaven. And the kings and merchants of the earth have become rich from the power of her wantonness.

We are hearing, as John has written, the Parousia of the King of Kings as He brings testimony of the end-of-the-age status of this harlot nation.  He says, "she has fallen".

And now, having heard all of the witnesses (i.e. the blood of all the righteous in history and the persecution of many of the lost sheep of the house of Jacob; and having heard the prophets, and having heard the testimony of the Christ Himself as He illumined the nation's illicit history) and pronounced her "fallen", John now hears the final judgment of The Father in this covenantal law-suit. 

And never again will he afflict her and call her to repentance; for as John has previously written, it is the "last day" - the Day of Yahveh; and the time is near.

John writes to the Churches of the mighty, thunderous voice of God the Father from above the firmament over His tabernacle (verse four), as He shouts for all of His elect remaining in the land to come out of her!

You see, in the house of the harlot is the "daughter of Zion" - the elect remnant of the house of Jacob - those of the promise. They are marked and sealed.

The ones marked with the mark of the beast are to remain and suffer the final end; but those marked with the mark of the Christ are not to participate in the sins of the harlot nor suffer the plagues of the last day.  Their sins have already been paid for on the cross of the Christ; so they are not to receive the punishment due the harlot.  They are to "come out of her" and be scattered into the nations to bring the light of the dawn of a new day in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Any of the lost sheep of the house of Jacob (the remnant) remaining in the land are to "come out"; for it is the last hour!  Israel's sins are "heaped up into the heaven; and God has remembered her iniquities" (verse five).  He has remembered her iniquities.

Considering the way we do Biblical Theology - that is: "covenantal continuity" - it is for us to take note of the magnificent place that "remembrance" occupies in the text of Scripture.  And we must remember that God remembers His Word and promises.  In the older Scripture, that's in contrast to Israel's consistent absence of remembering God's mighty deeds on her behalf.

What Israel was consistent in doing was proliferating harlotry!  And Scripture is replete with instances in which YAHVEH would afflict her for her iniquity.  Then, in the midst of that affliction, she would cry out for Him to save her... and remind Him of His promises!  Only in its sore afflictions would Israel prostrate itself and petition Almighty God to "remember"!

And then, when God heard the petitions and removed the affliction, she would go right back to her whoredoms with the kings and merchants of the nations... right back to the idolatry with the nations' false gods.

After the last sermon during which we read the stunning passage from Ezekiel sixteen in which is prophesied the final judgment of the harlot, my wife asked me how in the world Jewish people could possibly disregard that passage!

And the answer, of course, is that they have always purposefully misread the promise of God to the house of Jacob.  And through that "misreading", they continually "remind" God of His promise... even though they've always been an idolatrous nation, even though they've always turned God's law-word upside down, and even though they have always militated against God's Anointed King!  Over and over again they have broken covenant with God - continually disregarding it; but they require God to keep HIS promise and put an end to their affliction!  And they're still doing that!  It's a historical fact; it's a Biblical fact!

And of course they "wrap themselves in the cloak of affliction", (they are the persecuted people of God, you see), believing that God will restore them to His favor!  He will "remember" His promise to Israel (they say), and will set them on high once again over all the nations of the earth.

Having joined with the nations to cut off the seed of the woman, and having prostituted herself with the kings and merchants of the world, Israel has always rejected the terminal end of the nation in the Day of YAHVEH (as prophesied through all the prophets of old).  And it has always rejected the eminently prophesied fullness of God's promise to save His elect people in The Christ - the Strong Right Arm of YAHVEH!

The "seeking" and "finding" and "saving" of the remnant of Jacob was the fullness of His promise.  It was all "filled up" in the prophesied Anointed One of God.  He has heard the cry of the afflicted; and He has saved all Israel!  His promise to Jacob and his twelve sons was kept in full!  They are the "seed" which He kept for Himself.

Even today, Jews see themselves as "victims" of the nations.  They revel in the affliction; for that's their history, you see.  God will one day put an end to all of the affliction and raise them up once again.  That's their "hope"... which purposefully disregards the Scripture from Genesis to The Revelation.

You remember Jesus' answer to His disciples when they asked Him why He spoke in parables.  And He answered them by quoting directly from Isaiah chapter six and verse ten:

"Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and be healed."

God's Anointed One had arrived at the end of the age; and He came to seek and to find the lost sheep of the house of Jacob; and He came preaching the Kingdom "at hand".  And that's exactly what God was telling Isaiah to prophesy to Israel... the end of the age!

I speak in parables, Jesus said, in order to shut their ears and blind their eyes; for the Day of YAHVEH is at hand.  He will not hear them this time!  They are not to seek His favor this time!  He will not hear their pleas to save them this time!  They have been afflicted many times, and they have turned and asked Me to save them over and over and over; but yet they continued in their harlotry when I ended their affliction... but not this time!

His people are the remnant of the twelve tribes who He came to save!

"Come out from among them My people that you not participate in her sins and receive her plagues; for her sins are heaped up unto the heaven, and God remembered her iniquities."

God "remembered"....

Listen to the words of YAHVEH through the prophet Jeremiah at chapter fourteen.  Israel will cry out to YAHVEH, as it always has in its deep affliction, reminding God of His promise to remember them and to save them... .and actually accusing Him of being "impotent" to save!  And then listen to God's response to their pleas:

Here it is:

7)    "Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O YAHVEH, for your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.

8)    O You hope of Israel, its Savior in time of trouble, why should You be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who turns aside to stay for a night?

9)    Why should You be like a man confounded, like a mighty warrior who cannot save?  Yet you, O YAHVEH, are in the midst of us, and we are called by Your name; do not leave us."

10) Thus says YAHVEH concerning this people: "They have loved to wander like this; they have not restrained their feet; therefore YAHVEH will not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins."

11) YAHVEH said to me: "Do not pray for the welfare of this people.

12) Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence" (the three plagues of the end of the age).

Here in our text (verse five) John writes, "and God remembered her iniquities"... a direct quote from the prophecy of Jeremiah fourteen.

Never in all of Scripture is the covenantal harlotry of Israel more specifically illustrated by God than in the prophecy of Hosea.  He was the prophet who was required by God to suffer a harlot for a wife all during his life.  And suffer he did.  Over and over again she was unfaithful to him, selling herself to all her lovers.  Hosea's life was a prophecy to Israel concerning her whoredoms!

But his life married to a harlot wasn't the sum total of His prophecy to Israel!  YAHVEH had words to say to them through this man.  Listen to them at chapter eight, verse thirteen:

"They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of My offerings, and eat it; and YAHVEH will not accept them; now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins....

As John writes here in verse five: "her sins are heaped up unto the heaven and God remembered her iniquities".

Once again... in Hosea chapter nine:

9) They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah; therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

So many times YAHVEH had turned away His anger and removed the chastening and affliction.  But this people would always return to its whorish ways... all while being betrothed - covenanted.

But, you see, there was a promised seed!  Even among the greater Babylon and the greater Sodom and the greater Egypt, there was a promised seed.  In the midst of the whore of the world there was a promised seed - kept by YAHVEH as His Own.

And there's the glory of God revealed in the Scripture!  In the worst of the worst God kept His Own!  Even when all the nations were gathered against Him and His Anointed, He kept His Own for Himself.  Even during the four great tyrant nations of history that were raised up in satanic fury against the seed, YAHVEH kept them.  And all through the repeated sanctions against Israel for her continual prostitution with the nations, YAHVEH "remembered" His promise and birthed the seed from the belly of the whore... and called her the "Daughter of Zion".  That's what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote to the Churches in Rome: "nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus".

It's the story of God's history - written from the earliest chapters in Genesis.  Even in the worst of conditions - a satanic enemy and the complete depravity of man and a chosen nation that won't obey - God preserves and manifests His Own.  That gives Him GLORY, you see?  There isn't anything that can separate us from Him.  That "Seed" is the Christ and those "IN HIM" for whom His blood was shed.

For our last few minutes, let's look at YAHVEH's promise - a promise that Israel always purposefully misread and disregarded.  The prophetic Word says that God remembered His promise - and Israel's eyes were closed to it; and her ears were stopped up (Isaiah six), (and it's the reason that Jesus spoke to them in parables, you remember).

John wrote these words of God here in verse five - that God remembered her iniquity.  But God also remembered His promise to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob - the seed of the woman Who would crush the head of the dragon and establish His Kingdom and preserve every last one of His Own and defeat death and overcome sin and depravity and raise up a people to Himself - all for the glory of The Father.

God did remember; and the clarity of the prophetic Word concerning these things is irrefutable and undeniable.

Let's listen to some of it.  Here's what God said through the prophet Isaiah at chapter sixty-five:

11) But you who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,

12) I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in."

13) Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;

14) behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wail for breaking of spirit.

15) You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord GOD will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name.

16) So that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles will be forgotten and will be hidden from my eyes.

17) "For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth, and then the former things shall no longer be remembered or come into mind.

Once again, judaists must purposefully misread the prophets in order to maintain their victim status, and to hope for an end to their affliction, and anticipate Israel's return to world-wide prominence!  Their eyes are blind, and the disregard of the text must be purposeful; for God was very specific in speaking to them through Isaiah, that He had a chosen people from among them who would be called by another name; and all the rest of them would meet a terminal end!  And then His justice would be satisfied and all that came before would no longer be remembered.

In that lengthy passage from Ezekiel sixteen that we read last Lord's Day, we heard a wondrous description of the harlot of the world and her last-days-judgment by Almighty God.  But at the end of the passage Ezekiel writes YAHVEH's words concerning His promise to Jacob and his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. Listen to it:

58) You yourself must bear the consequences of your indecency and abominations" -  (This is) YAHVEH's declaration.

59) "For this is what YAHVEH says: I will deal with you according to what you have done, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

60) But I... I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

61) Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when I receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your oath!

62) I will raise up My covenant with you, and you will know that I am YAHVEH,

63) so that when I make atonement for all you have done (when I Am satisfied), you will remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth again because of your disgrace." [This is] the declaration (affirmation) of YAHVEH .

In that time of God's atonement, which includes the destruction of the harlot and the flood of wrath upon the Son Of God/Son of Man, He will remember His covenant promise to the house of Jacob.  And the Daughter of Zion - the elect Israel - will be blessed with many daughters from her "sister" nations - those of Samaria and Sodom and Gomorrah and the Canaanites and from Syria - all of which the harlot disdained in pride, but all of which she surpassed in iniquity!

The harlot's sin against God was SO heaped up into the heaven that, in comparison, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was absolved!  And the shame of it all will be remembered by the house of Jacob when God freely atones for her sin and even adds those sister nations to her in the new heavens and the new earth!

God remembered His covenant; and He made atonement to Himself for His people!  And it would include - not only His elect from the tribes of Jacob, but many from all the nations and tribes and tongues of the earth.

Listen to it from Isaiah sixty-six:

22) For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says YAHVEH, so shall your seed and your name remain.

23) And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says YAHVEH.

 

 

 

 

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