Revelation 18:5 Commentary and Bible Study

Her sins – her actual deeds that are offensive to God and sinful – and her iniquities – which means her twistedness, her perversions – have reached unto heaven. It might seem that heap of guilt has reached heaven, or that the stench or noise of sin has reached heaven, but most likely it means that the sins have challenged heaven; they have sought to dethrone God and he will now act against them. So evolution as a godless theory seeks to remove God entirely. Men are not swept away unaware of why they are being judged, but they knowingly challenge God.God has now ‘remembered her iniquities’. Similar phrases are used in the Old Testament (Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 14:10; Ezekiel 21:24; Hosea 8:13). The act of remembering on God’s part implies that he does not punish sin straight away but often delays his judgments. Not that he is unaware of what men do; it is simply that he gives time to repent. But when there is no repentance, then those iniquities must, in the language of Scripture, be remembered. That act of remembering on God’s part brings wrath with it. God’s attitude to sin is unyielding. The world’s sins have by this stage reached to heaven. Of course all sin is known to heaven immediately, but this phrase expresses God’s focus on human sin.