Heaven's Rejoicing over Babylon's Fall, Revelation Chapter 18 Verse 20 (NASB)

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    "REJOICE over her, O HEAVEN, and you SAINTS and APOSTLES and PROPHETS,
At first glance, this verse appears to be out of context with the rest of the chapter. How can we have a command to REJOICE when all we have heard has been weeping and mourning (verses 9, 11, and 19). On the other hand, because this verse is here, it confirms that chapter 18, in particular, is directly talking about the inroads that Babylon (materialistic greed and such) has made into religious organizations. In fact, unless your church has entirely divorced itself from government charitable contribution monitoring or slick multimedia presentations or ..... you get the picture, then to some degree your organization has/is playing footsie with the harlot. Compare how your church or religious organization is doing with how Jesus instructed his disciples in Matthew 10:5-15. Check out in verse 15 how awful the 'day of judgment' (this verse) will be for cities that shy away from Godly practices.

Let's check out who is to REJOICE:
  1.  HEAVEN - this includes angels, four living creatures (Revelation 19:4), the 24 elders (Revelation 19:4), and myriad of redeemed and/or martyred (Revelation 6:10).
  2.  SAINTS   - these are the 'product' of the work of the apostles and prophets.
  3.  APOSTLES and PROPHETS - these are the foundation and equippers of the SAINTS (Ephesians 2:17-22 and Ephesians 4:10-13).
    because GOD has pronounced JUDGMENT for you against her."
This verse is very similar to the last verse of Moses' song in Deuteronomy 32:34-43. It can be assumed then that this is both an Old Testament and New Testament rejoicing. In fact, one could say that this is pronouncement is the completion of the curse placed upon Satan at the very beginning of civilization (Genesis 3:8-14-19).
 
The 'you' are the overcomers in chapters 2 and 3, "my people'" in verses 4 and 5, and the persistent in Luke 18:1-8. Jesus said at the end of the parable that his father, GOD, will quickly (in God's time-space) bring justice (the pronouncement of this verse). Then we get this curious question, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find FAITH on the earth?"   Again, FAITH is associated with believers and churches, thus confirming one more time that the end times when Jesus comes will be a time where many will be placing their FAITH in materialism and pleasure (the manufacturing and services sectors as we have studied in this chapter's exposition).
 "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 Used by permission."

References to the Revelation of Jesus Christ are in bold italics. All other references are in bold only