Day 274: Female Strutting

Revelation 18; Isaiah 2-4; Psalm 109:1-19

The destruction of Babylon in Revelation 18 demonstrates a significant dependence and reliance. The kings, merchants, and captains all got rich because of the reign of Babylon. It was this city and all that it contained that gave them power and wealth, which they hastily acquired. And "in a single hour her riches disappeared," "in a single hour the city was destroyed," never to rise again. The dependence and acquisition of wealth is futile. What's the purpose? When we die, or at the end of days, it isn't going to save our lives or our souls. These kings, merchants, and captains felt pity and were terrified because the city that supplied them with everything was, within a single hour, gone. Powerful imagery of how worldly things don't last because God, who lasts forever, has power over them.

In Isaiah, there is a pretty harsh description of the women at the time of God's judgment. It talks about how the women strut around, attracting attention shamelessly, focusing on their appearance and charm. God makes it clear that that is not what he wants women to be like. God has no problem with us trying to look nice, but here, it is all about focusing the attention on their physical appearance, on being pleasing and possibly seductive. This passage says that God will replace their perfume with stink, their fancy hairdos with bald heads, and their expensive clothes with sackcloth. All that stuff that we sometimes spend way to much money on with be stripped away. It's ok to want to look presentable and wear deodorant so we aren't smelly, but we are to not use our bodies and money to entice men or belittle other women. Someday, all the time we spent on our hair, makeup, and clothes won't matter because we will either be really wrinkly or dead. In heaven, God will clothe us with splendor and place a crown on our heads--who needs fancy clothes at that point?

This psalm reveals that life isn't fair and people are cruel. We can pray our hearts out for people and all they do is treat us terribly. That does not mean we give up, but we press on knowing that our reward comes from above, not from others.