‘Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure,
    lounging in your security
and saying to yourself,
    “I am, and there is none besides me.
I will never be a widow
    or suffer the loss of children.”
9 Both of these will overtake you
    in a moment, on a single day:
    loss of children and widowhood.
They will come upon you in full measure,
    in spite of your many sorceries
    and all your potent spells.
10 You have trusted in your wickedness
    and have said, “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you
    when you say to yourself,
    “I am, and there is none besides me.”
11 Disaster will come upon you,
    and you will not know how to conjure it away.
A calamity will fall upon you
    that you cannot ward off with a ransom;
a catastrophe you cannot foresee
    will suddenly come upon you.

It wasn’t just that the Babylonians thought they were great, they also thought they were God. Barry Webb points out that the twice uttered, ”I am, and there is none besides me” is a direct challenge to the Lord’s identical claim in 45:5. It was inevitable that they were riding for a fall.

Before Babylon rose to power, and long after she disappeared from view, there were many empires and rulers claiming to be divine. But we have to ask, ‘where are they now?’

Of course, in one sense, Babylon hasn’t gone. Barry Webb explains:

‘Like Jerusalem, with which it is contrasted, it is both a concrete historical reality and a symbol…Babylon represents humankind organised in defiance of God – the kingdom of mere mortals, in contrast to the kingdom of God. In this sense ‘Babylon’ is still with us, and still stands under judgment of God. The historical Babylon of the sixth century BC was merely one manifestation of it’ (Isaiah, p. 190).

It is helpful to read Revelation 17,18,19 in connection with Isaiah 46,47. ‘Babylon’ (i.e. this world’s system) is ultimately going to fall, and God will receive the glory, honour and praise due to His Name. May we guard our hearts now, so that we are not seduced by her.

”The defeat of God’s enemies does not come through human means such as military forces. Instead, this defeat has been achieved already by Christ, and we wait for its fullness to be made manifest. We must never put our ultimate hopes in politics, military strength, or human strategies. The defeat of the church’s enemies comes about only by the power of God” Ligioner Ministries.