The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. – Revelation 17:18

Today's Scripture Reading (June 13, 2021): Revelation 17

Is there a city in our world that can rule the world? It is a difficult question to answer; if such a city exists, there are probably several possibilities for the identity of that city. Moscow and Beijing have to be given some consideration, although neither city is ready quite yet to take the mantle. Vatican City, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and ruling over the world's 1.3 billion Catholic believers, deserves mention. London, England is the financial capital, controlling much of the world's money. Washington, United States, represents the world's military might. The influence that Hollywood and the movie industry holds over the world makes that Southern California community a place of impact and importance. But is there any way to narrow the search down to just one? And I am not sure that there is just one city that rules the world. Instead, our world seems to be led by several prominent and influential cities, including some that I haven't mentioned.

But, in John's world, this wasn't even a discussion. The city that ruled the world was Rome. In much of the known world, no one did anything without the permission of the Caesar of the Roman Empire. There were a few outliers, but their influence was minimal, and these rulers just tried to stay out of the way of the Romans.

That is not to indicate that everyone liked it or wanted Rome to rule. Israel experienced what it meant to go against the power and authority of Rome, and they lost everything in the process; the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, and Israel and Judah ceased to be a political entity, becoming just the Palestinian province of the Empire. Rome held all the power in John's world, and kings and political entities understood that they needed to bow down to Rome if they wanted to rule.

But there was another city that cast its shadow even over Rome, and that city was Babylon. Babylon has come to signify the systems and understanding of this world. By the time of John's birth, almost a century before the writing down of these words, the real Babylon was an insignificant shell of what it once had been. The city had been repeatedly emptied until it died with a whimper. Yet, the city seems to have still been remembered and revered, capturing the people's imaginations, even of someone like John. Babylon remains the model for the city of this world, and Jerusalem, not the city here on earth but the one above, is the model for the city of the free and the mother of all believers (Galatians 4:26). And the question left for us to answer is with which city do we identify; the Babylon that rules over the earth, or the heavenly Jerusalem, the true home of the free?

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Revelation 18