People on earth, God’s saints included, are inclined to look up to the heavyweights of society and kowtow to them. This passage points up that kings and merchants, though perhaps rich and influential, are ultimately finite people who are as able to cry and lament as the little people of daily life are. It is of no advantage to be a respecter of persons (Psalm 49:5; Psalm 146:3).
The Holy Spirit had earlier mentioned that Christ Jesus had made saints a kingdom…to our God and they shall reign on the earth
(Revelation 18:5; see further Revelation 18:2; Ephesians 2:6). As kings
the saints are to execute righteous judgment on Babylon
(Revelation 18:16). How the Lord uses his people in the office of kings
contrasts with how Babylon used the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:10, Revelation 17:12) to accomplish her purposes. While the kings of the earth end up weeping and wailing, the saints (and apostles and prophets) may rejoice.
God’s people live in this world where temptations abound to seek happiness in created things instead of in the Creator. The Lord’s instruction to his people of all times and places is to come out of her,
that is, to distance oneself from this earth-centred mindset. Obedience to this instruction does not mean that God’s people should retreat from society or form a ghetto; it means instead that we make a conscious decision (and remake it daily as well as act on it repeatedly) to seek and find our sense of well being and contentment in the Lord God alone. So Paul could be content in the solitude and poverty of prison (Philippians 4:11–12, Philippians 4:19.
There can be no surprise that those who do not know the gospel of Jesus Christ would seek their treasure in the (passing) things of this life and do it on the backs of fellow people. Yet the effort is doomed to fail. Over the course of centuries, so many of the rich have fallen, kings have tottered, and merchants ended up broke. In fact, civilization after civilization that promised an earthly paradise ended up imploding, be it from internal decay or from external invasion. So the Lord’s people do well to distance themselves from the values of any Babylon
on this earth and focus their hearts and minds on King Jesus and his eternal kingdom.
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;