Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #17 of Revelation, chapter 18, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 18:7:
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 went to Isaiah 47 and our verse is basically a commentary on it. We will go back there in a while, but first I want to comment on the word “queen,” where it says, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” The Greek word translated as “queen” is “basilissa,” and it is Strong’s #938. It is the feminine form of “basilisso,” Strong’s #936, and it is a word translated as “king,” but it is also translated as “reign.” And, of course, kings do reign. For instance, it says in 1Corinthians 4:8:
Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
In this verse the word “reigned” is the same Greek word as the word “kings” and it is how that particular word is used, whether it applies to ruling as a king or to the king himself. We read that Babylon sits as a queen and it is the feminine form of the word “king” or “reign.” She reigns, but in the feminine sense because God likens her to a woman, a harlot. It says in Isaiah 47:5:
Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.
We have discussed the word “lady” recently and it is a word that is also translated as “mistress” in a few places. For instance, in the case of Hagar and her slave relationship to Sarai, we read that Sarai is Hagar’s mistress. It says in Genesis 16:8:
And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of JEHOVAH said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.
Again, the word “mistress” is the same word as “lady,” and the word used to refer to Babylon as the “lady of kingdoms.” God is telling Hagar, “Go back to your mistress Sarai and submit to her because your mistress has the rule.” Likewise, Babylon had rule the kingdoms, but now it is Judgment Day and in Isaiah 47 God is speaking to Babylon and He says, “thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.” It means she will no longer rule over the kingdoms of the world because at the beginning of Judgment Day and throughout this prolonged period of judgment, it is the Lord Jesus Christ that took the kingdom and now rules with a rod of iron. Babylon and Satan no longer rule over the nations of the world, so in Isaiah 47 we do not read, in particular, that Babylon sits as a queen, but we do read that she is called “The lady of kingdoms,” and that would mean she rules over the nations.
Let us go back to the passage we were looking at in our last study in Isaiah 47:7-8
And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:
We spent some time looking carefully at those statements and we found that being a widow and losing children both point to a desolate condition. So Babylon is refusing the idea that she will be desolate, but God is going to respond to that statement in Isaiah 47:9:
But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.
God is saying, “You will be desolate. You will know widowhood. You will know the loss of children and you will experience the desolation that I will bring upon you.” That is exactly what God did, spiritually, when He ended His salvation program for the world; He turned the world (Babylon or the nations of the world) into a spiritual wasteland or desolation. In doing so, they have become like a widow that is desolate or someone that has lost her children and is desolate.
Let us look at the timing of the two things that will come upon Babylon. God says, “But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day.” Actually the terms “in a moment” and “in one day” are saying the same thing; they are synonymous. We have learned that God speaks of Judgment Day in numerous places as the day of the Lord or the day of wrath and we have learned that it is a prolonged period of time. Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011 and it will conclude, in all likelihood, on October 7, 2015, exactly 1,600 days later.
The fact that God speaks of a prolonged period of time as a single “day” has been part of the snare that has trapped some people because they cannot understand it. They say, “But you said it would be May 21, 2011.” So when May 22nd followed and the day passed, they think that time period passed because they are thinking naturally and literally. The minds of unsaved mankind do not operate in the spiritual realm or the spiritual arena. Yet, God speaks in Hebrews 3 of the “day of temptation” in the wilderness and then He goes on to say in the next breath that it lasted forty years, so God called a forty-year period a “day of temptation,” because this is the Bible and it is God’s prerogative to define His own terms; it is how He is able to hide truth from the eyes of man. This is what He has done in bringing pass a spiritual judgment starting on May 21, 2011 and extended to May 22nd and May 23rd and then to June, July and August and to all the years that have passed in “spiritual judgment.” People deny it and they say, “Do you not understand that Judgment Day is the last day? It is the day of resurrection and the day of rapture and there was no rapture or resurrection on May 21, 2011.” So they feel safe and secure in dismissing the entire idea because they have been ensnared in the trap and how God wrote about Judgment Day in the Bible. Yet, if they would allow the Bible to define its own terms and they would read Hebrews, chapter 3, where God does speak of a “day” as a forty-year period, then they would understand that if it is God’s good pleasure to do so, He can speak of a “day” that represents an extended period of time.
Just think of the “day” of salvation. That “day” lasted for centuries, so there is precedent in the Bible for God to bring to pass a Judgment Day that is longer than a 24-hour period and it is up to God whether to make it several days, several weeks, several months or several years. It just so happens that Judgment Day may be a total period of time of four years, four months and sixteen days. Sixteen days is also “4 x 4,” so the number “4” really shines through because the number “4” represents the furthest extent of whatever is in view or “universality.” It is a worldwide judgment upon mankind. God can trap people because they are looking for the rapture and resurrection to occur on Judgment Day and nothing like that happened on May 21, 2011, so they relax and breathe a sigh of relief and they get back to living life according to their own will and their own sinful tendencies. They go back to the “flow” of the world and they are back into sports or they go back to politics and all the things of this world. All that Bible study is gone and they turn away from it because it was only when there was a “threat” of the end of the world that they focused on the Scriptures. Maybe I am being a little cynical, but I think there is a lot of truth in that. They return to their normative condition and the real condition of their hearts is showing itself over the course of this time and a lot of it has to do with their failure to comprehend the idea of a prolonged Day of Judgment. The way that God designed Judgment Day was to begin judgment on the world on May 21, 2011 and every day thereafter is a part of that Judgment Day. If we are correct about October 7, 2015 being “the last day” of the Day of Judgment, it will also be the 10,000th overall Day of Judgment since judgment began at the house of God; it will be the 1,600th day since judgment began on the world on May 21, 2011; and it will be “the last day” of the Feast of Tabernacles. And on that day, “the last day,” God can bring to pass both the rapture and resurrection, as the Bible says, “And I will raise him up at the last day.” It will remain accurate and true to the Bible. Judgment Day was May 21, 2011 and Judgment Day is October 7, 2015 because it is all part of one elongated “day.” But people are looking “naturally” or carnally at the Word of God and they are thinking of Judgment Day in the literal sense of the word.
Just as God speaks of a “day” of judgment in the Bible, He uses the phrase “in a moment” in the same way. We cannot think “naturally” about those words either because a day is normally 24 hours long, but a “moment” is normally just a “snap of the fingers” and it is past. This is normally how we think of this time reference. We might say, “I will be ready to go in a moment.” Sometime, if you are waiting for your wife to get ready to go, that “moment” may be a prolonged period of time. (Laughter) But, normally, “in a moment” is just a second or a few seconds. If you go into a store and the employee is busy on the phone, he or she might say to you, “I will be with you in a moment,” and they mean a short period of time and they will attend to you. That is how we use the term “in a moment” in our everyday life, but we have to be careful not to take a worldly definition and apply it to the Bible. We cannot do that and we are never permitted to do that. That is a lazy way to study the Bible if we say, “It says ‘in a moment,’ so it must mean a split second.”
We have to look at the words and how they are used in other places and we have to look at the context. Since God is saying, “In a moment in one day,” right away we think that this phrase “in a moment” is equal to “one day,” so that we would say that May 21, 2011 began the moment of judgment and that moment of judgment continues for 1,600 days and, in all likelihood, it ends on October 7, 2015. At that time the “moment” concludes and everything between May 21, 2011 and October 7, 2015 is within that moment or “in a moment.”
It is very similar to how God sometimes uses the word “one day.” Let us look at how God uses this word “moment.” It is Strong’s #7281 and I tell you that number to help you look it up. If I did not want you to check it out, then I would not give you the Strong’s number. Some people do find fault with me because I do not constantly say, “Do not trust me. Check it out,” as Mr. Camping used to say. I do want everyone that is listening to check out everything I say and that is one of the main reasons why I give you the Strong’s number.
The word translated as “moment” is Strong’s #7281 and by my count, it appears to be used about 22 times in the Old Testament. It is used in Exodus 33:5:
For JEHOVAH had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.
What we can gather from that is that God is speaking of judgment occurring “in a moment.”
There is similar language concerning Israel in Numbers 16:21:
Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.
We also have a few verses in the Book of Job, starting with Job 21:13:
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.
It says in Job 34:20:
In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand.
Then it says in Job 20:5:
That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
This is an interesting verse because we know that on May 21, 2011 the wicked of the world were celebrating in triumph when they thought nothing happened. The wicked in the churches and the wicked outside of the churches celebrated. The people in the churches said, “We were right. No man knows the day or hour.” And the people of the world were also rejoicing because nothing happened and they could resume their lives. But God says, “The triumphing of the wicked is short.” How short? God says that “the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment.” Many of these references have to do with God’s wrath, so man celebrated initially on May 21, 2011 and he may celebrate throughout this time, but it is only for “a moment,” or the duration of Judgment Day.
It says in Psalm 6:8:
Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity…
Remember, that is what the Lord Jesus said when those “professed Christians” were coming to the door of heaven and they were knocking and saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.” He replies, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” So this statement identifies with the time when the door is shut. Then it goes on to say in Psalm 6:8-10:
… for JEHOVAH hath heard the voice of my weeping. JEHOVAH hath heard my supplication; JEHOVAH will receive my prayer. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.
The phrase “ashamed suddenly” is a translation of the same Greek word translated as “in a moment.” And, again, that language fits the period of God’s wrath on Judgment Day.
Then it says in Psalm 30:4-5:
Sing unto JEHOVAH, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
The Lord’s anger endures for “but a moment,” and this makes perfect sense when we understand that the wrath of God has been kindled in His anger and is being poured out during this time period, which identifies with “a moment.”
In Psalm 73, where a true child of God was envious of the wicked, it says in Psalm 73:17-19:
Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
This fits with what we have been reading in Isaiah, chapter 47, where God has made them “desolate,” as it says in Isaiah 47:9:
But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood…
These two things point to “desolation,” and, so, Psalm 73 speaks of understanding the “end” of the wicked and the fact that they will be brought into “desolation” as “in a moment.”
There are a few more verses I want to look at and then we will pick this up next time. I want to go to Isaiah 26:21:
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
The indignation being “overpast” refers to God’s anger, as it said in the Psalm that His anger “endureth but for a moment.” So, here, God is speaking to the elect and He is saying, “Come, enter into the chambers and hide yourself.” Colossians describes what God means by “hide.” It is to have your life “hid” in Christ through salvation and protected within the safe chambers of God’s kingdom from the “moment” of His wrath or the “day” of His wrath.
Then it goes on to say in Isaiah 26:22:
For, behold, JEHOVAH cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
This is a very definite description of Judgment Day in the language of these two verses, but what ought to make anyone stop and think: “Why would the people of God have to be hid in the safe chamber with the door shut until the indignation be overpast if they are no longer here?” If they had been raptured or resurrected and taken out of the world so that God could punish the remaining people for their sins, then what need would there be for God to hide His people in that place of safety? What need would there be? It is only a need if they are still alive and living on the earth in the “moment” of His wrath.