When God called Moses to the top of Mount Sinai, to give him the tables of stone which He had engraved with laws and commandments for His people, Moses was up there for a while. (Exodus 24:12, 18) The people got tired of waiting and told Aaron: “Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.” (Exodus 32:1) Aaron proceeded to fashion them a golden calf and make an altar before it for their sacrifices, proclaiming a feast to the idol. God was watching all this and sent Moses back down: “…[your people] have corrupted themselves…they have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshipped it, [saying] ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’ “ (32:2-8) God was so infuriated by this, Moses had to plead with Him not to destroy them then and there! (vss. 9-14)
        When Moses and Joshua came down from the mount, they heard a lot of noise in the camp, which Joshua thought was the sound of war; Moses discerned a different quality to the ruckus—the sound of merrymaking—a party! Sure enough, the people were dancing and singing, holding a great feast in honor of the idol they had set up to be their god. (Exodus 32:15-19) Similarly, there is a festival atmosphere of idolatry—drunken revelry and licentious greed—abroad in our nation today.
         Each season, new network television programming reflects increasing dissoluteness in the culture as profanity, obscenity, and crudity are embraced and proudly celebrated. I am reminded of the cry against Jehovah and His anointed in the second Psalm: “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” (Psalm 2:3) The bands and cords they are so anxious to rid themselves of are the very laws and commandments God gave to Moses on those tables of stone. Like so many naughty children out behind the barn, they think it’s fun to indulge shamelessly in the filthy behaviors that God has proscribed. The hilarity builds as their transgressions become ever more gross and flagrant, and there are no apparent repercussions—no judgment, no punishment, no lightning bolts, even! This is their celebration: ‘We can do whatever we want! There’s no one to stop us!’
         Unprecedented prosperity and ego-inflating technological advances have spawned this supreme arrogance in our midst. They give themselves credit for the gift bestowed, mocking the notion that it should be received with humble gratitude to the Giver; they scorn to acknowledge the generosity of Jehovah and His anointed, who give power to get wealth and wisdom to devise witty inventions. (Deuteronomy 8:18; Proverbs 8:12) Like Jeshurun, who grew fat and kicked, “they have cast away the law of Jehovah of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 5:24; see Deuteronomy 32:15)
         Yes, Babylon is throwing a street party that’s going global. No ethical, moral, or political considerations are to stand in the way of the consuming purpose: make more money. Money flows like liquor and intoxicates the rebels to sin more and more as they lift high the banner of mammon and throw down the banner of Jehovah and His anointed, trampling it under their feet. Mammon-worship discourages moral constraints—you can get so much richer so much quicker without them!
         Babylon of old was the city that epitomized wealth, power, and abominable idolatry. Isaiah, speaking by the Holy Spirit, called it “the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency.” (Isaiah 13:19) Jeremiah’s description is explicit: full of pride and covetousness; risen up in defiance against Jehovah; abounding in treasures; possessing great military might; filled with graven images and maddened in that idolatry; an oppressor of all nations, making them drunk; a destroying mountain that destroys all the earth. (Jeremiah 50 & 51)
         In the Revelation, the great whore that sits upon the many waters of the people of all nations and upon the beast representing the kings of the earth, is also called Babylon: “…the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” (Revelation 17:1-5) The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the inhabitants of the earth are made drunk with the wine of her fornication—the party is on! She is the one dishing up the pie that everyone wants their piece of—but the price is high. In Babylon, everything is merchandise, a commodity to be bought or sold—even the bodies and souls of men, male and female—even your soul. (Revelation 18:12-13)
        Sin is a wonderful thing in Babylon; it opens whole new markets, and those who engage in sin become its slaves. (Romans 6:16) Personal empires have been built providing products and services that cater to the depraved appetites of perversion. It’s like drug trafficking—the more the appetite is indulged, the more it grows, and the profits keep multiplying. Consequently, the open practice of filthy behaviors is encouraged; it breaks down aversion and resistance to those behaviors and wins new adherents as they learn by observation—an expanding market is all good.
         Ah, friend—don’t go! Can man declare God to be irrelevant, out-of-fashion, or nonexistent? “Surely [their] turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of Him that made it, ‘He didn’t make me’? or shall the thing framed say of Him that framed it, ‘He had no understanding’?” (Isaiah 29:16) It is not only impossible for man to affect God in any way by such statements, it is the height of impertinence to make them! “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.” (Galatians 6:7)
        This party reminds me of one that Jehu threw for the Baal worshippers in Israel a few thousand years ago. He called the Baal worshippers out of the woodwork; attendance was compulsory. When the faithful had all gathered, Jehu double-checked: all of Baal’s worshippers had to be there, and none of Jehovah’s. Once he’d made sure of that, Jehu gave the word, and his men destroyed them, every last one. (2 Kings 10:18-28) I think God has a similar purpose in our day. The street party atmosphere is drawing out into the open all the workers of iniquity who used to be careful to do their deeds in darkness, in secret: “When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed forever.” (Psalm 92:7; also, 37:35-36) “…the righteous Jehovah loves righteousness…but the wicked and he that loves violence His soul hates.” (Psalm 11:7, 5) He has not changed.
        The first Babylon was destroyed by the Medes and Persians in the middle of a big party. Belshazzar wanted to impress his lords and concubines with his wealth and power; while they were all feasting and making merry, his pride induced him to call for the vessels of gold and silver that had been stolen from Jehovah’s temple in Jerusalem. He and his guests drank from them and praised their idols—that’s when they saw the hand, writing on the wall and spelling out Belshazzar’s doom. (Daniel 5) Almighty Jah is not to be toyed with.
        Jesus gave us a parable, describing how he had planted good seed—wheat—in the field: “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” (Matthew 13:24-25) When the wheat came up, so did the tares, and the servants wondered if they should pull the tares: “But he said, ‘No; lest, while you gather up the tares, you root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest…’ “ (Matthew 13:26-30) Later, the disciples, still puzzled by this parable, asked Jesus to explain it to them: “He answered and said to them, ‘He that sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
        As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear.’ “ (Matthew 13:36-43) If you have ever seen a wheat field ready to harvest, you know the wheat is gold, but the weeds are still green—it is very obvious at that point which is which. It seems to me this street party in Babylon is having the same effect—it is becoming very obvious who is who as the pretenses of righteousness are being dropped everywhere. Be warned: “You, therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before [concerning the judgment of God], beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.” (2 Peter 3:17)
        What exactly is “the error of the wicked”? The fundamental error that breeds all other errors is to say: “There is no God.” (Psalm 53:1) The first requirement of faith (without which it is impossible to please God) is to believe that God is—His very name declares “I AM”—and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6; see also, Exodus 3:14) This mighty God-Who-Is is not only the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him; He also rewards those who hold Him in contempt: “…those that honor Me, I will honor, and those that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.” (1 Samuel 2:30) The language is a little stronger in the second Psalm, toward those who imagine they can break His bands and cast off His cords: “He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” (Psalm 2:3) And stronger yet in Isaiah 59:18…”According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies…” God’s fury is something to be feared…and avoided, if at all possible.
        The error of the wicked proceeds from denying God to flippancy about the judgment He has promised. Drunk with the wine of Babylon’s fornication, the revelers mock the fact that Jehovah, Almighty Maker of heaven and earth, rewards every man according to his own works: “…to those who are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness: indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon the soul of every man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honor, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons [partiality, or favoritism—HS] with God.” (Romans 2:8-11)
        In 2 Peter, chapter 3, Peter urges us to remember that God destroyed the earth and everything that breathed (except those in the ark with Noah) with a flood once, when He saw “that the wickedness of man was great in the earth…The earth also was corrupt before [Him], and the earth was filled with violence.” (Genesis 6:5-13) We are to remember this, because the same God has promised a judgment by fire next time. In view of this, Peter asks: “…what kind of people ought you to be in all holy conduct and godliness…?” (2 Peter 3:11)
        There are many dimensions to being led away with the error of the wicked: denying God’s existence and forgetting Him, paying no attention to His Word, mocking and persecuting His messengers, failing to govern oneself according to His law, forgetting His day of judgment and the eternal consequences of that—becoming drunk on the wine of Babylon’s fornication and partying along with all the rest, throwing off the fear of God and indulging the will of the flesh indiscriminately. But we, the people of God, are not to fall into that snare; we are to uphold His laws in our own conduct and speech by our obedience, being “diligent that we may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” (2 Peter 3:14)
        As the unholy din of the street party in Babylon increases all around us, so will the pressures upon us to join in—so will our alienation from those who have. God’s command is: “Come out of her, My people, so you don’t partake of her sins, and so you don’t receive of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4) The crowds go rushing down the broad and easy way to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14)—let us be among the few who find the narrow, difficult way that leads to life everlasting. Love the truth (His Word), and let it be a lamp to your feet to light your way. (Zechariah 8:19; 2 Thessalonians 2:10; Psalm 119:105; 2 Peter 1:19)

“Seek Jehovah, all you meek of the earth,
which have done His judgment;
seek righteousness,
seek meekness:
it may be you shall be hidden
in the day of Jehovah’s anger.”
Zephaniah 2:3