NOTES for Rev 18:1-24

The victory of the forces of light over the forces of darkness is described in the Book of Revelation as triumph over Babylon and the liberation of God's people from its power (vv. 1-2). This liberation is described in the spirit and style of the prophets of the post-exilic era, as the people's exodus from Babylon (vv. 4-5). Yet in the Book of Revelation new accents of meaning appear that were absent from the prophets. This is not only about the idea of judgment on Babylon, which has become the symbol of the worst that fallen civilization has produced (vv. 6-10), for the prophets also perceived the defeat of Babylonia by the Persians as God's judgment on Babylon for everything its rulers had done to God's people. It is no accident that in the Babylon of the Book of Revelation there is much blood of the righteous and of God's witnesses (v. 24), which ultimately becomes the reason for its destruction (vv. 20-23). But here the people's exodus from Babylon turns out to be not simply liberation, but also a means of avoiding the punishment that falls on the city opposed to God (v. 4).

On the one hand, in the call to exodus one can see a reminder to the faithful that in certain situations even simply remaining inside a society sunk in evil and sin means participating in that sin, and therefore sharing with the society all the consequences of what is being done. But there is also another side to the problem: the very fate of fallen civilization is determined by its tolerance toward the Kingdom and toward God's witnesses.

Of course, no earthly society and no state in its history has ever welcomed them with open arms, but the intensity of opposition could vary, from benevolent neutrality to open persecution. At the end of time, however, as we can see, no place at all is found for the faithful in a society that completely rejects them. In that case, however, the very existence of this society loses all meaning, as does the existence of the world in its former condition. Its existence, like the existence of civilization throughout its history, is grounded in the covenant-union that God made with Noah after the flood, promising him that the catastrophe would not be repeated (Gen. 9:8-17). Noah became the collective image of all the righteous of all times and nations, and the covenant God made with them became the foundation of the relative well-being of fallen humanity, which it values so highly.

A situation in which there is no longer any place for the righteous in society means the actual rupture of this covenant. And given that this concerns the end of earthly history, the rupture must be considered final: humanity has no time left to correct the situation. Then God leads out and saves His witnesses, leaving the humanity that rejected them to its own fate. Of course, the overwhelming majority of those who have to witness the events being described do not understand what is happening. They see only the destruction of the order of things that allowed them to live the life to which they were accustomed, and they bitterly regret what is happening (vv. 11-19). But no regrets, of course, can change anything, for humanity is simply reaping the fruits of its own choice, from whose consequences it has nowhere to escape.