Jeremiah 51:24-33. Jeremiah foretells the fall of Babylon. God sees what Babylon is doing and has done, she will not stand much longer. He will make of her a "burnt mountain," a "perpetual waste." So he says raise the standard and blow the trumpet, let all the armies of the earth prepare for war against Babylon. The land is trembling and writhing in pain, for the Lord intends to make the land of Babylon "a desolation, without inhabitant." Babylon's warriors have lost their nerve - they are still in their strongholds but their strength has failed. The messengers run about to tell the king that the city is taken, the soldiers are in a panic. For "the daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor... yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come. "

In the context of Jeremiah, a prophet to the Jews both before and during their exile in Babylon, this prophecy is wonderful in and of itself. God is promising his people not only deliverance, but the complete downfall of their captors. But there is so much more to this! Babylon in the Bible is a stand-in for the fallen world, the evil that grows and takes control of God's people at various times throughout history. In Revelation, the final destruction is of "Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth's abominations." (Revelation 17:5) so this is not only a prophecy about the destruction and punishment of Babylon in Jewish history in Jeremiah's time, but it is also a promise of what is later foretold in Revelation - the destruction of the mother of all of earth's abominations; the destruction of evil itself. And note that in Jeremiah's prophecy, the thing being destroyed is the city - God says it will not be inhabited. So God is not out to destroy the people, necessarily, but the corrupted place. God will give the people who have been corrupted by Babylon's influence a chance to escape to him, but the "place" itself - the evil influence - will be completely destroyed so that none may ever return to her.

Babylon in Revelation is the corruption of the world. God's "final act" here on earth will be to destroy this agent of corruption once and for all, but only after he has given everyone a chance to get out. In Revelation, each chance to repent and get out is preceded by a trumpet blast. Just as Jeremiah's prophecy requires the raising of the standard and the blowing of a trumpet, Revelation talks about the angels blowing trumpets before each woe. In the end times, when Babylon's final fall is coming, things will heat up precipitously. That is because the people living in that time will all need to be woken up to what is coming and get out while they still can! You can see it all through Revelation - with each trumpet blast and woe we read something like "The rest of mankind, who was not killed by these plagues, did not repent... " (Revelation 9:20). So there's another trumpet blast, and another woe. But eventually, the trumpets are silent, and the woes end. At that point, anyone who has not yet repented will be in Babylon when her flesh is devoured and she is burnt up with fire (Revelation 17:16). That will be what they have chosen.

It feels very much right now like the spiritual war with evil, with Babylon, has gone from cold to hot. Since we are all in Babylon, that is, we all are in this fallen world, we'd better see the signs of our times and hear the call to repent lest we be left in Babylon when she falls.