What is the meaning of Revelation 18:5? For her sins are piled up • The picture is of continual, unchecked rebellion stacking higher and higher—much like Ezra confessed, “our guilt has risen higher than our heads” (Ezra 9:6). • God’s patience allows time for repentance, yet there comes a tipping point when sin is “full” (Genesis 15:16). • Revelation 18 is speaking of Babylon’s stubborn, systemic wickedness; its transgressions are no longer isolated but cumulative, forming a towering monument of defiance similar to the Old Testament Babylon in Jeremiah 51:9: “Her judgment reaches to the skies.” • The lesson for any society or individual: repeated, unrepented sin never disappears; it accumulates, and God is fully aware of the total. to heaven • The expression stresses magnitude—sin has risen all the way to where God dwells, echoing “their wickedness has come up before Me” (Jonah 1:2) and the tower builders who boasted, “let us build ourselves a city… with its top in the heavens” (Genesis 11:4). • What humanity tries to elevate in pride becomes the very evidence that reaches God’s throne and calls for righteous intervention. • This upward trajectory contrasts sharply with Psalm 103:11, where the heavens illustrate the greatness of God’s steadfast love; here, they illustrate the greatness of man’s rebellion. and God has remembered her iniquities • Divine remembrance is not passive recall but active response. When God “remembered” Noah (Genesis 8:1) it led to deliverance; when He “remembers” sin, it leads to judgment (Jeremiah 14:10). • Revelation 16:19 already declared, “God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath,” showing Chapter 18 as the fulfillment of that promise. • This ensures justice: “The LORD is slow to anger but will by no means leave the guilty unpunished” (Nahum 1:3). • Believers take comfort that evil will not slip through the cracks; God’s memory is perfect, and His timing impeccable. summary Babylon’s sins have accumulated unchecked, ascending like a foul monument into God’s own dwelling place. Their sheer volume demands His notice, and He responds by “remembering”—moving decisively to judge. The verse is a sober reminder that sin left unconfessed is never forgotten; it stacks up, reaches heaven, and draws righteous recompense. |
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