Scripture:
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!…For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality; the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her; the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.” Then I heard another voice from heaven saying: “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, (share) in her plagues…As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning since in her heart she says, “I sit as a queen…” Rev 18:2b through 7a with edits.
Observation:
Chapter 18 is about the attitude of the Queen of Babylon and her followers-people sentenced for destruction. Sexual immorality is a major and predominate theme in this chapter-but I think that sex isn’t the main issue but the attitude of corruption behind it. How does our American (and world) culture fall in line/compare with the Queen of Babylon?
Application:
How do I write about this Chapter? Reading this chapter puts me into a condemning mindfulness. Yet I must remember even this chapter is about the Gospel of God. I admit: it is difficult to read about the Justice of God and remember His Grace.
I observe the world from my admittedly restricted point of view: I live in Manatee County after all. But-television, movies, billboards, magazines…all sorts of media either blasts us with sexually explicit things or, worse yet, worms their way into our daily life by sounding and presenting themselves innocently as the “reasonable” alternative to the explicit.
Being male, I have done many things that I am ashamed of concerning sexual immorality, to the point of affecting me even to this day. This is a topic that is easy, then, to address to the guy looking in the mirror and to other guys-because it is a powerful sin to trip males up.
But why the Queen? What part of the picture of the Queen and sexual immorality is the Word of God bringing to my (our) attention? I would offer that the Scripture here describes Power: haughty, self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing, selfish, self-exalting exercise of Power. Could this be the same temptation that the devil suggested to Eve way back in the Garden: “…For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God-knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, (she) ate of it…” Gen 3:4-6
The above is not a point about women, but is a point about Men: The sin that rages in us is the sin of wanting a leg up on God-of Power and self-determination. Note the comparison with God: God identifies Himself as “I am”; our identification to God is “I will.” From childhood we exhibit this attitude: “Me do it!” This is the SIN that we need Atonement for and Redemption of-every other sin that we can identify cascades from this evil and traitorous core. Confess, repent, and be saved from the Wrath of God to come.
Ladies that may read this, just a comment: Pretty and Attractive are not synonymous words. Those that have ears to hear, let them hear.
Prayer:
Gosh darn it all, Father-why does sex have to be so hard to deal with? I know the answer: Anything good from You can be, will, and is corrupted from the Garden on…I just wish it wasn’t. Even at my age I am still subject to the lure of sexual sin and fight hard (in the Power of the Spirit) to combat it. My desire is and will be for my wife alone but the eyes sometime have a life of their own. Help me to embrace Your Word in Song of Solomon; to cherish in every way the Gift to me of my wife; to walk worthy of the Gospel in this most intimate of relationships and to actively avoid with extreme prejudice this corruption of my heart and mind concerning sexual sin. “Take all I am, Lord, and all that I cling to. You are my Savior I owe everything to.” I surrender to You, O Lord. AMEN.