Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #11 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. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

I will stop reading there.  We saw in our last study that God had a set time to bring Babylon’s sins into remembrance.  Of course, He knew all about the sins of Babylon (the unsaved people in the world), as God knows everything about everything, but there was an “appointed day” for judging them.  God began judgment on the house of God, the corporate church, starting in 1988 and it was carried out during the course of 23 years.  At that time judgment had begun at the house of God, so the final judgment of mankind was soon to be under way, but God was not dealing with the unsaved inhabitants of the earth at that time.  He was dealing with those that professed to be Christians or those that were within the churches and congregations of the world.

While He was pouring out His wrath on the corporate churches, for a time it was as though the sins of the world were forgotten and they had not yet come into mind.  Of course, it was just a matter of the process of time.  It was a matter of the proper season being reached and the “appointed day” arriving and that “appointed day” for remembering the sins of the Babylon of this world and to become the focus of the wrath of God was May 21, 2011.  On that day judgment began on the entire world and it would be the final outpouring of the wrath of God and it has continued over the course of these years since then.  As we have learned from the Bible, Judgment Day is a prolonged period of time which may very likely consist of 1,600 days.  Throughout this period of time, God has remembered Babylon’s sins.

I want to go back to Isaiah 23 for a little bit.  You know, I cannot tell you how long I have looked at this passage and have not been able to understand what God was saying.  It says in Isaiah 23:15:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king…

Both the seventy years and the “day of one king” identify with the Great Tribulation period.  When we look at what God has to say about Tyre being forgotten for seventy years, the idea came to mind that to be “forgotten” was the actual judgment upon Tyre.  There is some language like that in the Bible that indicates that if God forgets you, it is not a good thing in some cases. But, here, it just has to do with the times and seasons of God’s program.  Tyre is a picture of the world and during the seventy years is when Babylon destroyed Judah and represents the time when Satan destroyed the churches.  At the end of the seventy years it was the end of Satan’s final reign and God then brings judgment upon the world, as typified by Tyre, and they are no longer forgotten.  That is what it goes on to say here in Isaiah 23:15-16:

… 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. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.

Now God is turning His attention to the world.  He had given the cup of wrath to the city called by His name, and as He says to the nations, in Jeremiah 25: “For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished.”  So God is not forgetting, even though He has forgotten in a sense.  But now He remembers and He takes the cup of His wrath and turns to the nations, as it is their time to drink.  Then it goes on to say in Isaiah 23:17:

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.

What does it mean that Tyre will “turn to her hire”?  Well, there is an interesting passage in Micah 1:6-7:

Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof. And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.

Here, God is speaking of Samaria, which is Israel, and it would be a picture of the corporate churches.  When He says He will cast down her stones and discover her foundations, it is language of judgment upon the churches when there would not be one stone upon another.  God is indicating she will turn to her hire because she has behaved herself as a harlot and it relates to being burned with fire and the idols being laid desolate.  She gathered those things as the “hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.”  That means they will not enter into the house of JEHOVAH and that is actually a Law God laid down in Deuteronomy 23:18:

Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of JEHOVAH thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto JEHOVAH thy God.

So you cannot bring the “hire of a harlot” into the house of JEHOVAH, so when they “turn to her hire,” it means there is destruction, a burning with fire and desolation.  I think this is what we can understand through the language of Micah 1, verses 6 and 7.  When God says He will visit Tyre, it is language of judgment, as God uses the word “visit” and “remember” in the same verse in Jeremiah 14:10:

Thus saith JEHOVAH unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

Of course, this is language of judgment on both counts – to have your iniquity “remembered” and for God to “visit” you for your sins.  That is what is being said of Tyre: “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.”  She will be burned and made desolate in the judgment and the rewards of her harlotry is that she will be destroyed and she will not come into the house of JEHOVAH; there is no salvation and no one is entering into the house of God any longer once Judgment Day begins.

Then it says in verse in Isaiah 23:18:

And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to JEHOVAH…

Notice the words “Tyre” and “merchandise,” as we have seen that she is considered a “merchant city,” as well as Babylon. 

It goes on to say in Isaiah 23:18:

… it shall not be treasured nor laid up…

This ties in with what we just read in Deuteronomy 23:18.  You cannot bring the merchandise of her hire into the house of JEHOVAH, so the merchandise is not treasured or laid up.  Then it goes on to say in Isaiah 23:18:

…for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before JEHOVAH, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

It is a very unusual statement that God makes here.  The only thing I can see right now is that when God says, “For her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before JEHOVAH,” it would be the true believers that dwell before JEHOVAH.   In Revelation, chapter 7, the great multitude comes before JEHOVAH.  So the merchandise of Tyre is for them that dwell before JEHOVAH “to eat sufficiently.”  This word “sufficiently” is tied to the idea of the supper of our God in the Day of Judgment in Ezekiel, chapter 39.  Let me just turn there, in Ezekiel 39:19-22:

And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord JEHOVAH. And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am JEHOVAH their God from that day and forward.

The word “full” is the word translated as “sufficiently.”  There seems to be some relationship in the language here.  Remember, the merchandise of Tyre, the hire of an harlot, cannot be treasured up in the house of God.  It is as if this merchandise of Tyre is destroyed in the Day of Judgment and it relates to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

We are not going to understand everything here.  I am happy we understand a little bit more about Isaiah, chapter 23.  Actually, we can understand this chapter pretty well, with the exception of the last verse and some of the statements there.  But, for the most part, we can understand why Tyre was forgotten seventy years and then brought to mind.  It also increases our understanding of those seventy years typifying the Great Tribulation and how God would deal with the world immediately after the Tribulation, just as it says in Matthew 24, verse 29.  So Babylon’s fall occurred after seventy years, as God speaks of punishing the king of Babylon and that nation, in Jeremiah 25, once the seventy years has expired.  Again, that would relate and tie in with Tyre.  Tyre and Babylon have several things in common; they are both pictures of the world.

Let us go back to Revelation 18:6:

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

God is speaking to His people and He is telling them to “Reward her.”  We can know He is speaking to the people of God because it goes on to say, “even as she rewarded you,” and this relates to the assault of Babylon upon the temple of God.  Remember how God put this in Jeremiah 50:28:

The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of JEHOVAH our God, the vengeance of his temple.

It was the king of Babylon and the Babylonians that came against Judah and Jerusalem and ultimately destroyed the temple of God in Jerusalem and carried away the Jewish people into captivity.  Of course, God permitted this to occur, historically, and He also permitted it to occur spiritually, because God is the one that loosed Satan.  Satan was the one that destroyed the corporate churches in a terrible way and, yet, God still holds him accountable, just as He held the king of Babylon accountable at the soonest possible time at the end of seventy years.  When we think about that, it is very significant.  It was not seventy five years later or seventy one years later, but it was exactly seventy years, from 609 BC until 539 BC.  We can be sure that it was the soonest possible day when God raised up the Medes and the Persians to come against Babylon and took the kingdom in one night.  As soon as it was possible it was done at the end of the seventy years and the destruction of Babylon was not a long, drawn out affair.  It happened very quickly in a night when God brought judgment upon the king of Babylon and the Babylonians and God brought judgment on Satan and the unsaved of the world as soon as possible.  He brought judgment upon the churches and that had to be fulfilled to an exact 23 years or an exact 8,400 days.  The focus had been on the unfaithfulness of the churches: “Come out of her, my people” and “flee to the mountains,” as the Bible opened up information, again, and again, regarding the sins of the churches and the fact that judgment was upon them.

But now the focus had shifted and attention was turned from the churches to the world and the Bible was declaring and revealing the vengeance of God against the inhabitants of all the earth, not just the churches.  This is what some people are failing to see because they are looking at verses like Revelation 22, verses 11 and 12, where God says to let the righteous be righteous still and to let the filthy be filthy still, or they are looking at other passages and all they have on their mind is the churches and God’s judgment on the churches and they say, “Oh, that is another passage about God judging the churches.” 

But, tell me, when will God get to judgment on the churches?  At what point will He turn His attention to the nations, as He said in Jeremiah, chapter 25?  He said He would first give the cup of His wrath to the churches or to those called by His name, but at what point will it take place that God will turn the nations and says, “I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished.”  But it seems these people turn every passage and Scripture into God judging the churches because it is so much more comfortable and easy for them to deal with God judging the churches.  They have come out of the churches and removed themselves and their families, so now it is just a matter of judging those people.  But the focus has shifted and the time has come.  Judgment on the churches ended on May 21, 2011.  It was completed and then God transitioned to judgment on the world.  After He shut the door exclusively upon the churches, He then shut the door on all the earth and all the unsaved people of the earth.  Judgment came to each household and to every unsaved person in the entire world and it has come to “us,” where we are outside of the congregations and you cannot make it go away.  You cannot dismiss it.  You cannot turn the Scriptures away from you by turning it back on the churches.  The Bible is not focused on the churches any longer.  You are “behind the times” if you want to see every verse as judgment upon the churches.  The churches are only under judgment in the sense that they are part of the Babylon of this world, the entire kingdom of Satan.  The churches are under judgment in that sense, but the central focus of the Bible at this time is the final judgment upon all mankind.  God is speaking to His people and He tells them to reward Babylon: “Reward her even as she rewarded you.”  He is saying, “Look what she did to the glorious institution of the churches.  They were the churches called by my name and they represented the kingdom of God.”  Yet, God allowed Babylon to be a “golden cup” in His hand and to make all the nations to drink from it, especially those in the churches; they drank deeply of her fornication and the churches were completely devastated and completed destroyed because of their rebellion against God.  Now God says, “The cup is in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ and my people will administer the cup to the nations.  Take the cup that was first given to the house called by my name and give it to the nations.  It is time for them to drink.  They are not going to drink the same amount, but they are going to drink double.”