Apocalypse Revealed # 760
760. 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my peoples, lest you participate in her sins, and lest you become recipients of her plagues." This symbolizes an exhortation from the Lord to all people, both to those caught up in the Roman Catholic religion and to those not caught up in it, to beware of embracing it in acknowledgement and affection, lest they embrace its abominations with their souls and perish.
"Another voice from heaven saying" symbolizes an exhortation from the Lord to all people, both to those caught up in the Roman Catholic religion and to those not caught up in it, because the exhortation follows, "Come out of her, my peoples," which is to say, come out all who turn to the Lord. The exhortation comes from the Lord because the voice was a voice from heaven. "Lest you participate in her sins" means, symbolically, to beware of embracing its abominations with their souls; and because the embrace takes place through acknowledgment and affection, therefore this, too, is symbolically meant. Their sins are abominations, because that is what they are called in the preceding chapter, verse 4. "Lest you become recipients of her plagues" means, symbolically, lest they perish; for plagues symbolize evils and falsities, and at the same time destruction in consequence of them. This is the symbolic meaning of plagues in nos. 657, 673, 676 above, and elsewhere.
Similar things are said in connection with Babylon in the Word in the following places:
Come out of the midst of her, My people! Deliver everyone his soul because of the fierce anger of Jehovah, lest your heart weaken and you become fearful on account of the report... (Jeremiah 51:45-46)
Flee from the midst of Babylon, and deliver everyone his soul, lest you be cut off on account of her iniquity... (Jeremiah 51:6)
Forsake (Babylon), and let us go everyone to his own country; for her judgment has reached to heaven and has risen up to the clouds. (Jeremiah 51:9)
Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans with the sound of singing! Proclaim this and cause it to be heard, utter it to the end of the earth: say, "Jehovah has redeemed...." (Isaiah 48:20-21; cf. Jeremiah 50:8)
Isaiah 48
1
"Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness
2
(for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name):
3
I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they happened.
4
Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass;
5
therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.'
6
You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? "I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known.
7
They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn't hear them; lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.'
8
Yes, you didn't hear; yes, you didn't know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you did deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.
9
For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off.
10
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11
For my own sake, for my own sake, will I do it; for how should [my name] be profaned? and my glory I will not give to another.
12
"Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
13
Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.
14
"Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm [shall be on] the Chaldeans.
15
I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
16
"Come near to me and hear this: "From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I." Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with his Spirit.
17
Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.
18
Oh that you had listened to my commandments! then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea:
19
your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.
20
Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say, Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob.
21
They didn't thirst when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
