For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Rev. 18
What would verse 4 have meant to John’s readers? What does it mean to you practically to “come out of Babylon?” (See also Jeremiah 51:45) Babylon seems to represent the lusts of the flesh and the ‘greatness’ of man. Remember it was at Babylon that man united in an attempt to build a tower to heaven. Here in Revelation we see Babylon depicted as a great city with all the power and wealth a person could desire. And we see Babylon depicted as the adulterous woman, dripping with enticing pleasures. So I think perhaps Babylon is the Great Lie. She is the lie that God is not enough; the deception that there is something better or greater. She is the illusion that anything good exists outside of God. Babylon is the fallacy of the greatness of man.
“’Come out of her, my people’, so that you will not share in her sins” (Rev. 18:4a) is then a call to die to the flesh; to circumcise your heart. It is a call to humbly acknowledge that God is God and there is no other. All of Babylon’s glory, power, wisdom, and wealth will disappear in an instant because none of it is what it seems to be. They are really sins, crimes, haughty boasts, and filth. The wise will endure whatever they must to find true riches with God in Christ.
Job 1-2
Characterize Job. His wife. What are their responses to their suffering? How do Job’s three friends respond to Job? One of those really hard to wrap your head around thoughts about God is that He has known who His children are since before time began, before they even were. God’s children are those who remain faithful to Him. I don’t know if Job was a real person or not, but he seems to personify God’s true children.
God saw Job as blameless and upright. Yet He allowed Satan, the accuser, to have his way with Job. Satan subjected Job to any and every kind of hardship, but he was not permitted to take Job’s life. Like Job, God sees us as blameless and upright. And like Job, Satan has a certain amount of authority, not over us, but over what happens to us while we exist in time on earth. That means that we sometimes face undeserved hardship.
It is important to note that Satan could not take Job’s life. Neither can Satan take our true life. As Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” (Matt. 10;28). It is also important to note that Job responded to hardship with praise. He maintained his integrity and accepted whatever God gave, whether good or bad. I believe this is what makes God’s children His children. We may not get it right every time, but overall, we are those who endure to the end, remaining faithful when others, even those closest to us, jump ship. And we acknowledge that God is God; there is no other. All because we understand the truth in the words of Job’s wife, “Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9b). It is indeed those who curse God who die.
Ps. 91
A famous and oft-quoted psalm! List the promises here and take a moment to pray them over your life and the lives of those you love. Having just started into the book of Job, I think it’s safe to say that this Psalm does not refer to our day to day lives. Clearly undeserved hardship, pestilence, disease, and disaster find their way into our lives far too frequently. The thing is, we don’t run to God to get good things in this life. Such a faith will never endure.
Rather, we run to God for the end result. We run to God to be the ones in Revelation who stand safely with the Lamb while the bowls of God’s wrath are poured out on the nations. It is then that “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked” (Ps. 91:8).