Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #10 of Revelation, chapter 18, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 18:5:

 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

We have been discussing the fall of Babylon and in the previous verse God commanded His people to come out of her that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues.  We saw how that relates to salvation.  All that God saved would not be partakers of Babylon’s sins and, therefore, would not be subject to the plagues or judgment of God for their sins.

Now, in verse 5, God is speaking of Babylon’s sin as if Babylon were an entity in its own right, but, of course, Babylon is made up of unsaved mankind and each unsaved individual bears his or her own sins, but God looks at it as if Babylon herself was guilty of sin and He says, “For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”

When we look more closely at the wording, we find that the Greek word for “reached,” which is Strong’s #190, is always translated as “follow” or “following.”  It is often used in connection with Christ, as when it says to take up the cross and follow Him.  It is that word that word and is always translated as “followed.”  It is only translated as “reached” in this verse.  In the other verses where it is translated as “followed” I was not able to find anything about “followed unto heaven.”  I could not find anything that related to the context of Babylon’s sins “reaching” or “following” unto heaven, but there is a similar verse in Jeremiah, chapter 51.  Jeremiah 51 also deals with the fall of Babylon and it says in Jeremiah 51:8-9:

Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

The Hebrew word translated as “reacheth” here is found many times in the Old Testament and it is a word that is often translated as “touch” or “toucheth” and it has the idea of reaching unto a certain point.  It is translated as “reached” in Genesis 28:12:

And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

Because Christ referred to this verse in the New Testament in John, chapter 1, when He was talking to Nathanael and He told him that the angels of God ascend and descend upon the Son of man, we know the ladder is a picture of Christ Himself.  It “reaches unto heaven” because it is through Christ that sinners are able to be exalted into the heavenlies and to enter into the heavens through the salvation.  In order to “reach” heaven, you need the Person of Jesus Christ.  He is the “ladder” and we also refer to Him as the “door” or the entry point into the kingdom of God or into heaven. 

This is why it is significant when God speaks of Babylon and He says, “For her sins have reached unto heaven.”  What does that mean?  Has not God always known about the sins of the people within the kingdom of Satan?  Have not their sins always been before the eyes of God?  All of men’s sins have been naked and open before His sight, so why does God suddenly say that Babylon’s sins have reached unto heaven and He has remembered her iniquity?  We are going to look at that word “remembered” shortly.

But right now, the idea God is presenting in regard to Babylon’s sins reaching unto heaven is that the door of heaven is now affected because of Babylon’s sins and because of the sins of the unsaved people of the world because it is now time for God to visit them for their sins.  It is the Day of Judgment.  It is after the Great Tribulation and we know that Judgment Day began on the world on May 21, 2011.  On that day, God shut the door of heaven.  Why did He shut the door to heaven?  It was because the sins of man “reached” unto heaven and, in response God shut the door and put out the light of the Gospel.  The light of the Gospel had emanated forth from heaven and it had shone down from above.  That is the “figure,” even though the spiritual light came out of the Word of God and, yet, that light comes from God in heaven.  So the light of the Gospel went out and the Gospel program of salvation concluded on that day of Babylon’s fall because her sins had “reached unto heaven.”  It was the appointed Day of Judgment and in response God ended His salvation program by taking action in heaven.  It was His action and His work of shutting the door.  I think that is what is in view when God gives us this Scripture that says that Babylon’s sins have reached unto heaven.

What about the next part of the verse?  It goes on to say in Revelation 18:5:

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

God says He has remembered her iniquities as if He could have forgotten them.  Is that possible that God could forget Babylon’s iniquities for a time and then, suddenly, one day her iniquities popped into His mind and He remembered them?  That is how it is with people – we always forget things and then we suddenly remember something that we had forgotten.  We might “kick ourselves,” as the expression goes, and say, “How could I have forgotten that!”  We are very finite creatures and we are not really all that brilliant.  Our minds are very limited and we have the ability to hold onto just a limited amount of information and we cannot continue to contain all the information we received over the course of time in our lives.  So we are constantly forgetting things, even important things at times, but that is not how it is with God. 

God has a brilliant and infinite mind.  It really is incredible to consider the infinite mind of God, that enormous mind that He possesses.  Within His mind, He knows all things.  That is a very big statement, but that is what the Bible teaches us.  As a matter of fact, the Bible teaches us that God knows all things, even from eternity past.  If you could look backward in time, He knows everything that has ever taken place over the 13,000+ years of earth’s history, but that is nothing for God.  He possesses all that information and knowledge about every creature He has created – every butterfly, every ant, every elephant and every thought they ever had.  But He knows every human being He has ever created, from their conception in the womb, their development and birth (if they got to that point) and everything that happened to them in their lifetime.  He knew every thought they had in their minds, whether consciously or subconsciously.  He knows everything about every individual.  On top of that, He governs everything in the entire universe and keeps it functioning and operating. 

It is just mind boggling to think of how He has in His possession the knowledge of everything that has ever taken place in the history of this creation, but, again, that is nothing in comparison to what God knows of eternity past and all the things He has been doing in eternity past.  More than that, He knows the end from the beginning, so He knows everything that will take place from the rest of the world’s period of existence in whatever time is past.  Beyond that, He knows what will happen into eternity future.  He dwells in eternity.  He inhabits eternity and He knows everything about it.  He will never be surprised and He will never have to remember something He had forgotten.  If ever there was someone who would have reason to “forget” something, it would be God.  He has such an enormous amount of knowledge in His possession and it would certainly be understandable if He would forget a sin a sinner commits or if He would forget Babylon’s sin. But He never forgets and He always retains the fullness of knowledge about all things.

Why, then, does it say, “God hath remembered her iniquities”?  Let us look at a couple of verses.  One of them is in Hosea 8:13:

They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but JEHOVAH accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins…

Here, God is speaking of Israel and He is talking about judging Israel, which would point to judgment upon the churches.  He uses similar language.  God also says of Babylon, in Revelation 16:19:

And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

This is telling us the same thing.  Again, it emphasizes the fact that God considers Judgment Day as a time to remember the sins of Babylon or of the world.  It is just as when there was judgment upon the churches, it was time to remember the sins of the churches.  Remember, God had given “space to repent” to the churches, but they repented not and He cast them into a bed of great tribulation.  It was at that point He “remembered” their sin.

Let us look at Jeremiah 25:11:

And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

We know that God used the king of Babylon and Babylon to bring judgment upon Judah and other nations.  God used the king of Babylon as His servant.  Spiritually, we also know the Lord did the same thing when He loosed Satan to come against the churches and congregations.  He used Satan as a servant to carry out the task of destroying the corporate churches.  God used the king of Babylon for seventy years, which typified the Great Tribulation, and God used Satan for the actual 23 years of the Great Tribulation.  Then it goes on to say in Jeremiah 25:12:

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith JEHOVAH, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

It is at the end of the seventy years that God then turns His attention to the Babylonians and it is as if He is “remembering” their sins.  For seventy years, it did not come into His mind (as it were), but only because it was not His focus.  His focus was the churches as His judgment began at the house of God.  Of course, God knew the Babylonians were sinning, but there was a “set time” for them to be judged and when that time came, it was at the end of the seventy years.  Then God (as it were) remembered their sin and turned His attention to the kingdom of Babylon.

Now in Isaiah, chapter 23, God speaks of “Tyre” and we have discussed “Tyrus” in an earlier study and it should be noted that Tyre and Tyrus are the same Hebrew word, Strong’s # 6865.  Therefore, they represent the same entity, which would be mankind.  In Isaiah 23, Tyre is also said to be a “merchant,” just as we read of Tyrus in Ezekiel, chapter 28, where God spoke of Tyrus being in the Garden of Eden and being created, and so forth.  It says in Isaiah 23:8-11:

Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? JEHOVAH of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: JEHOVAH hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.

So we can see that Tyre, who is called a “merchant city,” has a similar identification with Babylon, as we read of it in Revelation 18, and with the “merchants of the earth,” and God goes in great detail about their merchandise.  That is because Babylon represents the kingdoms of this world (mankind) and so does Tyre.  In Isaiah, chapter 23, we find something very interesting beginning in Isaiah 23:14-15:

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste. And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot

You know, I have looked at this passage and others have looked at it and it never seemed to make any sense because God said, “Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years,” but then after seventy years, “shall Tyre sing as an harlot.”  Then God will discuss her activity after the seventy years.  Again, the seventy year period typifies the Great Tribulation, but it says that Tyre was “forgotten seventy years” and only seems to become active after seventy years.  It is interesting how God speaks of this.  He also adds says, “Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king.”  Remember what we read in Revelation 17 concerning the seven heads of the beast?  It said in Revelation 17:10:

And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

So “Tyre is forgotten seventy years according to the days of one king,” and that would the seventh and final rule of Satan, as He had been loosed during the Great Tribulation when His rule was expanded; he had been lifted up to rule over the churches and the world, like never before.  That was his rule during the Great Tribulation, which the seventy years typify.  So Tyre was forgotten during that seventy year period when “one king” is ruling, the seventh and final reign of Satan during the little season of the Great Tribulation.  But then it says, “after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.” Then it says in Isaiah 23:16:

Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten…

Now we have something else that is similar to Babylon.  Remember, Babylon was called a harlot and THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS.  Here, Tyre is said to be a “harlot that hast been forgotten.”  Now she is told, in Isaiah 23:16-17:

… make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that JEHOVAH will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

We used to wonder what God was talking about, but now we understand.  “Tyre” and “Babylon” are synonyms for the kingdom of Satan, unsaved mankind, and during the seventy year period, God is judging the churches and “Tyre” has been forgotten.  Her sins are not being called to mind; her sins are not the object of God’s wrath.  God is not targeting the world during the 23-year Great Tribulation period, from May 21, 1988 through May 21, 2011.  It is as though the world has been “forgotten,” but once the Great Tribulation comes to an end and the 23 years is over (which relates to the end of the seventy years), then it is said that the harlot that has been forgotten and then remembered: “make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.”  She is now remembered.

In Genesis, chapter 40, Joseph interpreted the dreams of the butler and baker.  The butler was restored to Pharaoh, while the baker was hanged.  The butler had told Joseph he would remember him, but he forgot.  It says in Genesis 40:21-23:

And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand: But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.

This tells us that to be “remembered” is to not be “forgotten.”  Likewise, to be “forgotten” means not to be “remembered.”  So when God “remembers” Babylon, it is the time of Judgment Day when He is now looking at the sins of mankind.