Come Out of Her, O My People, a devotional thought

In Revelation 18 we come across St. John's agonized account of the fall of the “City of Babylon” (18:1-3), which is depicted as a "great prostitute" riding a "seven-headed beast with a blasphemous name."  As best as I can tell, the "Adulterous Queen of Babylon" is a cipher for the City of Rome, the capital of the Empire in John’s day. And in the apocalyptic vision of Revelation, the Roman Empire is itself is symbolic of any and all “empire-building projects” that set themselves up in opposition to the Reign of God, the way the Roman Empire had done in John's day. 

This a deeper thought than you could unpack in a short devotional, maybe, but after reading through the long list of the “luxuries of Babylon” we find in Revelation 18—the gold, silver, precious stones, food, spices, horses, chariots and fine clothing—all of which are “in one hour laid waste!” (18:17)—it left me wondering. John seems convinced that there is a spiritual reality, lurking behind all that wealth and its accumulation—a reality that would leave you trembling if you could see it plainly—a reality best envisioned as a promiscuous queen riding a death-spewing chimera, intoxicating the nations with her corruption (18:7). 

That’s what was really on display when your average Roman strolled down to market and bought or sold on any given day in the Roman Empire. And, like I say, it leaves me wondering: what spiritual realities lurk behind the social structures that we take for granted in prosperous, brightly-lit modern day Canada— the political, economic, or technological "powers" that we have to do with—and as Christians, are we as in tune to them, as John was in his day?