The Revelation-Re.18:4 “My People”

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. “(v.4)

Here the angel strikes out a warning which was not for the occasion but declaring the will of the Father and it has never changed. Separating the light from darkness at the outset was part of it. When God commanded Moses to make a sanctuary He first showed him the pattern. (Ex.25:8-9) and said, “That I may dwell among them.” It is about relationship that he revealed there. God among men, Immanuel or ‘God among us’ is patterned after the Father Son relationship existing in heaven. It is the everlasting covenant which are among equals. So this angel announcing the will of God is addressing ‘my people”. When God had made a covenant with his Son it is everlasting and it shall run eternally indeed. Quoting Isaiah we have St Paul exhorting the church in Corinth, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”(2 Co.6:17).

The Holy Spirit while organizing the narrative of this relationship sets the interaction between heaven and the earth in terms of a reconstituted Time.So the ‘now’ is not the moment we address here in meeting our daily routine but the Day which by a decree is given to the Son. “I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee./ Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” The divine Will includes the heathen, the Jews and the Gentiles alike. If the Jews do not follow truth written in their inward parts what are they? A heathen is one who refuses to obey God and His word. Those who follow God and the Son the true Light, (‘they walk not by sight but by faith’) are the children of the light. It is for this reason St Paul asked “And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?”(2 Co.6:15). God separated light from darkness which is emblematic of ‘my people’. Does it not then entail a relationship between His people after the heavenly pattern that God showed Moses? “Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.”(Ro.15:7). Sustaining a culture war and division on account of color, race in the churches marks a heathen. He is a murderer. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”(1 John3:15)