Day 361
Zechariah 10:1-11:17; Revelation 18:1-24; Psalm 146:1-10; Proverbs 30:33
Waiting in Joyful Hope
In today’s reading from Revelation, we find that in the midst of Babylon’s imminent destruction, God sends word via a second messenger to bid His people to remove themselves from the destruction of a place irreparably consumed by sin.
This urging (Revelation 18:4) parallels the warning given to the righteous Lot, where he and his family were allowed to leave Sodom (Genesis 10). Today’s reading also parallels the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11), where the sins of Babylon have been “heaped high as heaven” (Rev. 18:5).
Like our faithful descendants in the last days of Babylon, we are being called upon today to remain faithful to God and to take refuge in Him alone.
God sends a messenger in the hope of saving His beloved children both by physical extraction from a place about to experience His wrath, as their leaving becomes the only way for them to avoid an overwhelming temptation to sin, while also avoiding the punishing plagues which will be visited upon this now besieged city.
God uses the lessons of Babylon (both the exile and in the last days), the Tower of Babel, and Sodom, to show us that though we may be exiled and subject to the whims of this world, our refuge and our only hope for redemption lies with Him and in Him alone.
Father, let us with willing hearts focus on you alone, as we wait in joyful hope of our redemption. Amen.
The Rev. Din Bissoondial
St. Peter the Fisherman
New Smyrna Beach, FL