Doug Goodin

Revelation 18 doesn't invent its imagery. It takes the prophets' Babylon template and applies it to Rome. Isaiah 21: "Babylon has fallen, fallen." Isaiah 47: the daughter of Babylon says, "I shall not sit as a widow." God answers that widowhood and loss of children will come on her suddenly. Jeremiah 51: "Flee from the midst of Babylon." Then Seraiah ties a stone to the scroll, throws it into the Euphrates, and says, "Thus shall Babylon sink and rise no more." Revelation 18 closes the same way. An angel takes up a stone like a great millstone and casts it into the sea: "Thus with violence will Babylon the great be cast, and may not be found anymore at all." The voice from heaven says, "Come forth out of her, my people." For the churches in Asia Minor that couldn't mean leaving the empire. It meant refusing her sins: refusing the mark, the imperial cult, calling Caesar Lord. The merchants' cargo list ends with "bodies and souls of men." That's Rome's slave economy, spelled out. While the earth mourns, heaven is told to rejoice, "you holy apostles and prophets." Paul was beheaded in Rome. Peter was crucified in Rome. The empire that spilled their blood had already been sentenced. That's what those churches needed to know before Nero and Domitian came for them. (From my Revelation series.)

Revelation 18 lists three groups who weep when Babylon falls: the kings, the merchants, and the sailors. The ship masters stand far off, see the smoke of her burning, and cry, "What city is like to the great city?" Jerusalem had no navy. It wasn't a port city. It didn't make the seafarers of the ancient world rich. Rome did. More at noon.

"The blessing from the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow to it." (Prov. 10:22) Not every verse about money is a warning. A lot of Christians assume God is most glorified by our going without, and that any enjoyment of material blessing needs a quick apology. That's not a biblical posture. A father loves to give his children good things and watch them enjoy them. So does ours. Even where Paul warns the rich not to hope in their wealth, he adds that God gives us all these things richly to enjoy. Don't trust wealth. Don't be greedy. But when he blesses you, receive it without guilt, enjoy it, and give generously.

Two things kill joy for Christians, and neither one is limited to a season. The first is ingratitude. Jesus healed ten lepers. Only one came back to say thank you. The second is sin in our close relationships. Here's what I've found: the more you give thanks for someone, the harder it is to be unkind to them. Take twenty minutes today. Write down the good things in your life and thank the Lord for each one. Then pick the two people you have the most strained relationship with, and find specific things about them to give thanks for. Your joy will increase.

"Like vinegar to the teeth and like smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him." (Prov. 10:26) If you've ever stood at a campfire when the wind shifts, you know the feeling. Everything stops. Your eyes water. That's what it's like to depend on a lazy person. So be careful who you trust with important work. But ask the harder question too: am I the sluggard? Your choices today shape the life you'll be living in five, ten, and twenty years. Do not play the victim. Own it. And then change it.