Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #13 of Revelation, chapter 18, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 18:6-7:

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. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

We are continuing in our study of Revelation, chapter 18, as God is getting into the discussion of the fall of Babylon, which is a picture of the fall of the kingdom of Satan, the nations of the world and all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  In the spiritual realm, they worship Satan and when Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011, that is when Babylon fell, Satan was deposed and the language of Revelation 18 took effect.

We saw in the first part of the verse where it said, “Reward her even as she rewarded you,” that the word “reward” had to do with rendering payment for sin and rendering unto God that which is owed Him, as mankind has sinned against His Law and, therefore, the Law demands payment.  The Law of God demands satisfaction, which is ultimately death and when God shut the door of heaven He brought unsaved mankind into the condition of “death” and “hell.”  Hell and death are synonymous.  It guaranteed their destruction and it is only a matter of time for the period of Judgment Day to expire and then will come the end of the world and the final death of every unsaved individual.  It will be the complete destruction of mankind when the Lord annihilates unsaved man.

So the Lord says, “Reward her even as she rewarded you,” because she (Babylon) had been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord as He meted out judgment upon the churches, but now it is Babylon’s turn to receive her reward.  God says in 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.

The picture is that Babylon was instrumental in bringing judgment upon the churches, the outward representation of the kingdom of heaven.  The king of Babylon (Satan) and his subjects relished bringing destruction upon the corporate church.  They brought much destruction to a certain degree and it is now as if God had measured that destruction and He is saying, “The level of destruction that Babylon brought upon the churches will be brought double against her.”  It is twice as much.  The word “double” is Strong’s #1362 and Strong’s #1363.  It is translated in one place as “twice as much,” and that is exactly what it means here.  It means to give to her twice as much of the cup of the wrath of God.  Measure it out to her.  She had been that cup in JEHOVAH’S hand and now the cup will be given to Babylon to the degree of “double” or twice as much.  Of course, we cannot really measure the degree of God’s wrath that He poured out upon the churches over the 23-year period.  How much wrath is that?  And how could we ever “double” that, literally?  We have no way of knowing exactly how to bring “double” punishment to Babylon, the unsaved inhabitants of the earth. 

There is another problem, as we think about this, because God is speaking here of Babylon (the nations of the world or the unsaved people of the world) and He is saying, “Double Babylon’s wrath.  The wrath I gave to the church was a certain amount and now the wrath to the unsaved people of the world will be double.”  That is a problem.  Why is that a problem?  It is because elsewhere in the Scriptures it says that the ones that knew His will shall receive more stripes than the ones that did not know His will, as it says in Luke 12:47-48:

And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

So this presents a problem when we are thinking of Babylon as the Gentiles or nations of this world that are in the kingdom of darkness.  God used Satan and his kingdom to bring judgment upon the corporate church.  The corporate church (the professed Christians) knew the Lord’s will more than did the Gentiles or the peoples of the nations within the kingdom of Babylon.  We really have a problem because it appears that in Revelation 18:6, if Babylon represents the world, God is saying to give them more wrath than the churches.  That would contradict what we just read in Luke, chapter 12.

But there is a solution and there is a way of understanding exactly what God is saying, which solves any problem and leaves no contradiction, once we realize that the judgment on the churches is likened to the judgment of the “third part.”  We see this, especially in Revelation 8:9-12:

And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

Then God goes on in the next verse to transition from judgment on the “third part” to the entire inhabiters of the earth, as He says, “Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth.”

The judgment on the “third part” is the judgment on the corporate church, the churches and congregations of the world, which number about two billion people.  God judged them for 23 years during the Great Tribulation, but He typified them as the “third part” because of what it says in Zechariah, chapter 13.  There, God speaks of the true believers, His elect, as being the “third part” and the elect were found in the churches throughout the almost 2,000 years of the church age.  That is where you would have found God’s elect or the “third part.”  They were located within the local congregations.  Since the “third part” were in the churches for the 1,955 years of the church age, the corporate churches became identified with that “third part.”  It says in Zechariah 13:8-9:

And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith JEHOVAH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, JEHOVAH is my God.

So the corporate church, where the people of God were located, took upon itself identification with the “third part.”  When judgment began at the house of God it was judgment upon the “third part” of the waters, the “third part” of the ships and the “third part” of the sun, moon and stars, to indicate judgment upon the churches, but not yet upon the world.  That does not happen until we get to the concluding verse of Revelation, chapter 8, where God does transition to the judgment upon the world when He says, “Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth.”  Then the next three woes in Revelation, chapter 9 and following are focused on the final judgment of the nations of the world.  Babylon was instrumental in meting out judgment upon the churches, as God referred to Nebuchadnezzar as His servant as he brought destruction on Judea, a type and figure of the churches.  So Babylon, in a figure, destroyed the “third part.”  They are the ones that conquered Judah and destroyed the temple, and so forth.  They destroyed the outward representation of the kingdom of God or the representation of the “third part.” 

So, again, God has that judgment in mind in our verse in 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.

The “third part” is one third and it would appear as .333 if you write it as a decimal.  If the “third part” identifies with the people of God that were in the congregations, then what does that leave for identification with the rest of the world?  It would leave “two thirds.”  We also read in Zechariah 13:8:

And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith JEHOVAH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

Two parts are the “two thirds” and that is the spiritual figure God gives to the unsaved inhabitants of the earth or everyone outside of the churches and congregations.  They are typified by “two thirds” or as “.666,” if you write it as a decimal.  That is the number God picks up on in Revelation, chapter 13, when He speaks of the number of man in Revelation 13:18:

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

The King James Version says it is the number of “a man,” but it should just say, “it is the number of man.”  It is mankind in general.  It is the number of man.  It is “two thirds” that represent the unsaved.  Let us look at what God is saying in Revelation 18:6 when He says, “and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.”  Again, the cup that Babylon filled had to do with the “one third,” the judgment upon the churches and in the cup she has filled, “fill to her double.”  And what is double of “one third”?  It is “two thirds.”  “Two thirds” is twice as much as “one third” and now we understand what God is saying.  He is not talking about the degree of wrath that the unsaved of the nations outside the churches are to experience.  They are not to experience a greater punishment because Luke, chapter 12 makes it clear that those that knew the Lord’s will shall receive more stripes than those that did not know the Lord’s will.  So those that remained in the congregations received greater punishment than the unsaved of the world.  We have discussed that before.  Yet, in the sense of the “type and figure,” it is double the wrath or double the cup of wrath that is being meted out because God gave a cup of wrath first to the “third part,” the city called by His name.  But the nations are not getting away unpunished.  God will requite and He is currently pouring out His wrath and taking vengeance upon them.  He has now filled the cup twice as much to cover the “two thirds” that represent all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  Of course, the numbers are not exactly “one third” and “two thirds,” but that is the spiritual figure God has assigned to the corporate church and to the unsaved in the nations, respectively. 

Let us just look at one other thing here in Revelation 18:6:

… and double unto her double according to her works…

We went over this last time, but when God looks at people, He sees either their individual works or the works of Christ.  If it is the individual’s works He sees whatever attempt they have made to obey God and keep His commandments and to live a moral, decent life.  But that will always fall short.  If you go that route and try to get right with God through the keeping of the Law, you must do it perfectly.  Therefore, when God views the works of any person trying to get right with Him by their own works, He sees them as “evil works” and that person is under the wrath of God.  This is the case with every unsaved individual in the world.

On the other hand, God looks at His elect and He does not see their individual works.  You know, there are some people that are confused about this because the Bible says that we are ordained to walk in good works that God has prepared for us to perform.  That is true.  But, again, when God looks at us, He is not looking at our works.  If He did, we also would fall short.  He is looking at the works of Christ – the finished, perfect and complete work of the Lord on our behalf.  It is the work of faith that Jesus performed at the point of the world’s foundation in dying for His people that is the “acceptable work” and the acceptable offering.  That is why it is said that Abel’s offering was acceptable.  Abel’s works were said to be righteous because it was the work of Christ he was trusting in and the work of Christ on his behalf.  That is always the case when God looks at one of His elect people; He sees the works of Christ.  The righteousness of Christ is what makes them righteous in His sight.

Then it says in Revelation 18:6:

… in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

The Greek word translated as “filled” is found twice in this verse and it is only found one other place in the New Testament and that is in Revelation 14, where it is also found in the context of Babylon’s fall and in the context of the wrath of God.  It says in Revelation 14:9-10:

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation…

The word “poured out” is the same word as “filled” in Revelation 18, verse 6.  So we see the tie-in through the use of this word along with the cup of God’s wrath being given to the unsaved inhabitants of the earth in the Day of Judgment.  This further strengthens the Bible’s teaching that the “cup” Babylon is to drink is, indeed, the cup of the wrath of God at the end of the world in the Day of Judgment.