December 25
Bible Reading: Revelation 18
Revelation 18:19-20, “And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, ‘Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour, she has been laid waste. Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!”
Merry Christmas! It appears that we’ve found ourselves today in a seemingly most “un-Christmas-like” passage of Scripture. But I think we can turn things around, or better yet, consider how wonderfully God has worked to turn things around for those who have trusted in Jesus. More on that at the end of our little study here.
It was nearly a century ago when the US economy experienced its dreadful stock market crash. A Time Magazine article described the events of that day: “As the story goes, the opening bell was never heard on Black Tuesday because the shouts of ‘Sell! Sell! Sell!’ drowned it out. In the first thirty minutes, 3 million shares changed hands and with them, another $2 million disappeared into thin air. Phone lines clogged. The volume of Western Union telegrams traveling across the country tripled. The ticker tape ran so far behind the actual transactions that some traders simply let it run out. Trades happened so quickly that although people knew they were losing money, they didn’t know how much. Rumors of investors jumping out of buildings spread through Wall Street; although they weren’t true, they drove the prices down further…One trader fainted from exhaustion, was revived and put back to work. Others got into fistfights. The New York Stock Exchange’s board of governors considered closing the market, but decided against it, lest the move increase the panic…The market recovered for a few months and then slid again, gliding swiftly and steadily with the rest of the country into the Great Depression. Companies incurred huge layoffs, unemployment skyrocketed, wages plummeted and the economy went into a tailspin. While World War II helped pull the country out of a Depression by the early 1940s, the stock market wouldn’t recover to its pre-crash numbers until 1954.”
That was a bad day in the history of our country. And from time-to-time other kingdoms and countries have experienced similar kinds of financial disasters. Revelation chapter 18 speaks of a future political and financial collapse that will encompass the entire world. The antichrist will exercise reign over a one-world government and one-world economy, but at the end of the Tribulation, it will all come crashing down. J. Vernon McGee has commented on this:
“In chapters 17-18 two Babylons are brought before us. The Babylon of chapter 17 is ecclesiastical. The Babylon of chapter 18 is economic. The first is religious—the apostate church which entered into the Great Tribulation Period. The second is political and commercial…When Christ returns, political Babylon will be destroyed by the judgment of God.”
J. Vernon McGee
The judgment comes about suddenly: “In a single hour” (Revelation 19:10, 17). The destruction will be complete, laying waste to all human wealth (Revelation 18:17). There will be much weeping and mourning on that day. All kinds of people will lament the destruction of Babylon: the kings of the earth; the merchants of the earth; all shipmasters and seafaring men. Babylon will be “found no more” (Revelation 18:21). Musicians will be heard no more. Craftsmen will build no more. Industry will function no more. Light will shine in cities no more. Social and family life will be no more.
Men plan and scheme and dream big dreams of gaining power and accumulating wealth. But no matter how much wealth a person accumulates, none can “take anything out of this world” (1 Timothy 6:7). There is a wealth of another kind that is bound up in Jesus and in relationship with Him. In Him are “unsearchable riches” (Ephesians 3:8). The message of Christmas is about the gift of God availed to us in Him. As 2 Corinthians 8:9 reminds us: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” The riches availed to us in Christ are “reserved in heaven” for us! The Christ of Christmas has made it so! If you know Jesus you possess every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3), and nothing can work to steal them away! Thank you, Jesus!
You can’t take anything out of this world, but if you know Jesus, you don’t need to because you already possess unsearchable riches in Him!
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becomes poor.
Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love’s sake becamest man;
Stooping so low, but sinners raising
Heavenwards by thine eternal plan.
Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love’s sake becamest man.
LookingtoJesus 