[Revelation 18]
Where do you stand on the promises of God? Do you hold fast, running the race with endurance and faith to press into your miracle? Do not give up. As certain as we are that the seasons will change and day and night will come – a rhythm that has never been interrupted according to the promise of Genesis 8:22.
“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.”
How sure are you about day and night and summer and winter? Exactly that certainty underscores God’s promises. How can we raise our expectations? By faith. There is only one way we can boost our faith.
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)
We are living in a world where evil surrounds us exactly as we have seen in the previous chapter (17) of Revelation. Immorality, lies, cruelty, oppression, poverty and famine, war and suffering are everywhere. Many people are thrilled with leaders while the others cry in despair about seemingly irreconcilable differences in political opinions. I cry out to God to grant wisdom to our world leaders to make the decisions for real progress and upliftment of those who need it most.
When we look at the world around us, we see despair and destruction. When will it end and will it ever end are the questions flung towards the heavens. For any human being the scale of earth’s tragedy is just too big and overwhelming. We need God! We need a good God, an almighty God and a loving God to take care of this mess.
This is the God Who we know. Our loving Father is “abounding in goodness and truth”, the almighty One, the God of miracles, the Prince of Peace, the wonderful Counselor, the everlasting Father.
Chapter 18 of Revelation is a doom song, in other translations called a song of sorrow, a lament, which is common in prophetic literature. We read in Isaiah 13:19-22 a doom song about ancient Babylon and in Isaiah 34:11-15 about Edom. Jeremiah 50:39 and 51:37 is part of the doom songs about Babylon. God judges evil, but it is always with the sorrow of what could have been if they had chosen salvation.
Zephaniah 2:13-15 contains a doom song about Nineveh, here quoted as an example.
And He will stretch out His hand against the north, Destroy Assyria,
And make Nineveh a desolation, As dry as the wilderness.
Chapter 18 is a fulfillment of the promised judgment of the harlot in 17:1. (Verbal repetition of 17:2 and 18:3) Everything in 18 is fulfilling the promise of 14:8.
After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. 2 And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! 3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.”
After these things – the next vision, not the next event.
In Revelation 18 the angel comes with the light of God upon him. John might have been thinking about Ezekiel’s description.
He brought me to the gate, the gate facing east; and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the east; and the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with his glory.” (Ezekiel 43:1-2)
H.B. Swete writes of this angel: “So recently he has come from the Presence that in passing he brings a broad belt of light across the dark earth.”
The Angel comes from the Presence of God bearing the light of great authority and confirms the validity of the message. The Angel is Christ himself as He is ascribed glory and always when that happens in Revelation the reference is to Christ.
Before the destruction, God is calling His people out (18:4), as always throughout history. We need to come out from among them just as:
- Abraham – Genesis 12:1
- Lot – Genesis 19:12-14
- Moses – Numbers 16:23-26 – from the tents of wicked men of rebellion.
- Isaiah – Isaiah 48:20
- Jeremiah – Jeremiah 50:8, 51:6,45.
- Paul asks believers in 2 Corinthians 6:14-15:
Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial?
Do not participate in another man’s sins; keep yourself pure. (1 Timothy 5:22)
How does one live this practically? One cannot leave this world altogether. In the words of one commentator:
[The words] imply a certain “aloofness of spirit maintained in the very heart of the world’s traffic.” They describe the essential apartness of the Christian from the world. The commonest word for the Christian in the New Testament is the Greek hagios whose basic meaning is different. The Christian is not conformed to the world but transformed from the world (Romans 12:2). It is not a question of retiring from the world; it is a question of living differently within the world.
The loud voice of the angel confirms authority and is meant to get the attention of anyone living in danger of falling under the spell of Babylon.
The vengeance of God on the pride of Babylon (18: 6-8) speaks of punishment.
The instruction is to an angel, not to the people. Vengeance always belongs to God. It will come according to His command and always just; more just than humanity could ever hope to be.
Man reaps that which he sows. Jesus said:
The measure you give will be the measure you get. (Matthew 7:2)
The description of desolation is similar to the description of Babylon’s and Edom’s fall in Isaiah 13:21 and 34:11,14, which were the anticipation of universal Babylon’s fall. All the outward beauty is stripped away and all that linger are the skeletal remains of foul spirits and demise.
The concept of double punishment or double reward, or double payment for loss was often found in Jewish laws. (Exodus 22:4,7,9)
The nations have drunk – the acceptance of Babylon’s religious and idolatrous demands in return for economic security. (Isaiah 23:17 – Tyre’s judgment.)
4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. 5 For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. 6 Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. 7 In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ 8 Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.
Another voice – God calling his people with urgency away from compromise.
(Jeremiah 51:45; 50:8; 51:6; Isaiah 48:20; 52:11) Jeremiah (51:37) says that Babylon will be an object of horror and hissing. Also in Isaiah 52:11 the prophet urges: Depart. Depart, go out from there. Coming out is to escape the judgment.
Lot and his family had to come out of the security of Sodom to escape its destruction.
Christians are not being called to withdraw from economic life in this world, but they may be ostracized because of the refusal to compromise. For us a deep sense of God’s provision is the only economic security.
Psalms 137 calls for the judgment of Babylon with whatever evil and demise Babylon has caused. It means to give back the equivalent in Hebrew idiomatic expression. (Isaiah 40:2; Jeremiah 16:18; Matthew 23:15; 1 Timothy 5:17)
Babylon will be punished with the same degree of self-glorification and sensuality with torment and mourning.
Pride will be humiliated. Rome’s sin is pride. Often sin can be “argued” back to the root of pride. (Isaiah 3:16 -17) Pride is a delusion and rooted in self-sufficiency. There is a blindness for the betrayal that will come from her own subjects. The judgment against Laodicea – I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing. (3:17)
Tyre is condemned because she has said: “I am perfect in beauty”. (Ezekiel 27:3)
In Greek hubris means arrogance, which literally means: has no need of God. In the Strong’s definition it is explained further:
Pride is an inwardly directed emotion that carries two antithetical meanings. With a negative connotation pride refers to a foolishly and irrationally corrupt sense of one’s personal value, status or accomplishments…
In one day the plagues will come, pestilence, mourning and famine… the suddenness of demise. (Isaiah 47:9;14) Disaster and fire are predicted – destroyed by former allies in evil.
The World Mourns Babylon’s Fall
9 “The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, 10 standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’
11 “And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore: 12 merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men. 14 The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all. 15 The merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, 16 and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls! 17 For in one hour such great riches came to nothing.’ Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance 18 and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What is like this great city?’
19 “They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.’
The whole rest of the chapter is a dirge [a lament for the dead, especially one forming part of a funeral rite] for Rome as a symbol of evil society in the same measure as Babylon and all aspects of her social order including the kings (18:9-10) merchants (18:11-16), shipmasters, and sailors (18:17-19). We hear about the greatness, wealth and luxury of evil society. Ezekiel mentions the same three groups. (27:29-30,35-36) Tyre enriched the kings of the earth.
Smoke and burning – reminds of Sodom in Genesis 19:24,28.
This part of the vision is almost an echo of Roman literature and the writings of historians on Roman society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, Satires of Juvenal, Lives of the Caesars and the works of Tacitus.
In comparison with these books nothing John wrote about Rome could be an exaggeration.
Even the Talmud (Jewish Bible) said ten measures of wealth went to Rome and the rest received only one. Scholars think we are babes in the matter of enjoyment and luxury compared to that of the ancient world. There existed almost a desperate competition in ostentation. Everything was done for show.
To desire the impossible was deemed impressive. The first century world poured its riches into the Roman Empire from east to west. The money possessed and spent was colossal. Caligula and Nero were among the biggest spenders. It is said that they squandered the income from three provinces in one day.
One Roman historian writes of Caligula: “In reckless extravagance he outdid the prodigals of all times in ingenuity, inventing new sorts of baths and unnatural varieties of food and feasts; for he would bathe in hot or cold perfumed oils, drink pearls of great price dissolved in vinegar, and set before his guests loaves and meats of gold.” He even built galleys whose sterns were studded with pearls. Of Nero Suetonius tells us that he compelled people to set before him banquets costing more than $30,000. “He never wore the same garment twice. He played at dice for $3,000 per point. He fished with a golden net drawn by cords woven of purple and scarlet threads. It is said that he never made a journey with less than a thousand carriages, with his mules shod with silver.”
Drinking pearls dissolved in vinegar was a common ostentation. Cleopatra is said to have dissolved and drunk a pearl worth $100,000. Valerius Maximus at a feast set a pearl to drink before every guest, and he himself, Horace tells, swallowed a very special pearl from an earring dissolved in wine that he might be able to say that he had swallowed a million sestertii in a gulp.
In the time when John was writing a kind of insanity of wanton extravagance, to which it is very difficult to find any parallel in history, had invaded Rome.
When Rome fell, the merchants lamented all over the world, as they supplied her extravagance and were enriched in the process (18:11-16). It reminds of the lament of the kings and merchants over Tyre in Ezekiel 26:1-21, 27: 1-36.
The lament of the merchants is purely selfish. The markets and wealth of the merchants and kings stand afar off to watch Rome’s demise. There is, of course, no helping hand, no love since the only bond was luxury and trade.
Rome had a passion for silver. For many years they had as much as 40 000 slaves in silver mines. Pliny tells us that women would bathe only in silver baths, soldiers had swords with silver hilts and scabbards with silver chains. Even poor women had silver anklets and slaves had silver mirrors.
Precious stones were brought to the West by Alexander the Great.
Of this Plinius said: the fascination of a gem was that the majestic might of nature presented itself in a limited space.
One of the strangest of ancient beliefs was that precious stones had medicinal qualities. Today in New Age tradition all sorts of crystals are sold with the promise of well-being and healing.
Of all stones the Romans loved pearls more than any other. Linen came from Egypt. Purple came from Phoenicia. It is derived from phoinos, which means blood red. Ancient purple was redder than today. It was made from a shellfish vein and had to be extracted as the little creature dies. It dried up quickly and only one drop came from each fish. Silk came from China. It was far away and sold for a pound of gold. Scarlet was used for banqueting couches to supplement very ostentatious furnishings. (Scarlet was a very expensive dye used in the clothing of the elite and high-ranking officers, made from the bodies of insects living in oak trees – a labour intensive process. God says even if our sins are like scarlet – serious sins because of its deep lasting colour – He will make it white as snow. Isaiah 1:18)
Woods, used for the many furnishings in the palaces of the noble, came from North Africa, called thyine in Latin. It was a citrus wood, sweet smelling and beautifully grained. The tree was not very large and that made tabletops rare. Tables were made with marble legs. Nero had 300 of these tables in his palace.
Ivory, from the elephants of Africa, was used decoratively in sculptures, statues and swords.
Bronze came from Corinth, iron from Spain. Rome had a special office to import the finest marble from wherever it was mined. Cinnamon was brought in from India and Zanzibar. All sorts of spices were used in the oils for dressing hair and preparing for funerals.
Incense was made of stacte, onycha, galbanum and frankincense, which are all perfumed gums or balsams (Exodus 30:34-38). Frankincense was the gum resin produced by a tree of the genus Boswellia. It was used for perfume for the body, for the sweetening and flavouring of wine, for oil for lamps and for sacrificial incense.
Myrrh was the gum resin of a shrub which grew mainly in Yemen and in North Africa. It was medically used as an astringent, a stimulant, and an antiseptic. It was also used as a perfume and for the embalming of bodies.
In the ancient world wine was universally drunk, but drunkenness was regarded as a grave disgrace. Wine was usually diluted, in the proportion of two parts of wine to five parts of water. Soldiers and slaves had abundant wine as part of their daily ration.
The chariots here mentioned was called rede. They were not racing or the military. They were four-wheeled private chariots, and the aristocrats of Rome often had them silver-plated.
Slaves and the souls of men mentioned here can be explained by the language of the ancient world. The word used for slave is soma, which literally means a body. The slave market was called the somatemporos, literally the place where bodies are sold. A slave is sold body and soul into the possession of his master.
Roman civilization was built on slavery and fully relied on it for its existence. Any given time there were around 600 000 slaves throughout the Empire. It was not unusual for one household to own 400 slaves. They used slaves like the limbs of the body – each for a task. Slaves were also for thinking.
The nomenclatores (nobility of Rome) used slaves for comprehensive assistance to everything they did – eating, going to bed, even greeting friends on the owner’s behalf. Slaves learnt poetry, and were required to stand behind the master to provide suitable quotes. Beautiful slaves were used for decoration.
Talented slaves had to perform for entertainment and sometimes even present obscene repartee. As entertainment pornographic plays were performed by slaves. Guests wiped their soiled hands on slaves’ hair. Freaky bodily disfigurement, like dwarfs, giants and others was used for entertainment. The angel paints the grim picture of a society that could only lead to doom and punishment. For this the merchants mourned.
Shipmasters were the businessmen of the ports important to transport the goods. They were wealthy because of the obscene extravagance of the Caesars. They lament, not for Rome, only for themselves. There is a complete lack of friendship and love. They repeat the woes as the scale of the calamity dawn upon them.
“Your riches, wares, and merchandise, Your mariners and pilots,
Your caulkers and merchandisers, All your men of war who are in you,
And the entire company which is in your midst, Will fall into the midst of the seas on the day of your ruin.“ (Ezekiel 27:27)
The luxury and beauty also allude to the garment of the High Priest – everything in Babylon is a parody of the true beauty. (Exodus 28:5-9,15-20)
Friendship is a gift from God – don’t take it for granted. Just to have somebody who feels sorry for what you are going through and pray with you, is more valuable than any wealth or fame.
There is joy in the middle of everything (18:20). Joy in God’s vengeance and judgment, brings rest and peace. We do not have to judge or punish. Leave it all to God. (Deuteronomy 32:43 and Jeremiah 51:48)
All the glitter of Babylon will be replaced by the real splendour of true wealth – the divine glory and brightness reflected in God’s end-time people. Also very real is the merger of apostate religion with the ungodly world. God’s division is clear – no grey areas of uncertainty. God knows the hearts of men and only He can judge.
20 “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her!”
Finality of Babylon’s Fall
21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore. 22 The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore. 23 The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. 24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.”
The final desolation is described in 18:21-24.
The worship song is a response to the vengeance of God and the vindication of the saints crying from under the altar for God to intervene. (Isaiah 51:48,49; Jeremiah 51:48,49)
The angel speaks of heaven and the saints, apostles and prophets rejoicing – a further confirmation that the Church is a continuation of true Israel.
Rome/ Babylon will be obliterated, illustrated by the symbolic action of throwing a millstone into the sea. (Jeremiah 51:63 – a scroll is thrown into the Euphrates to symbolize the judgment of Babylon.)
…then you shall say, ‘O Lord, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’” (Jeremiah 51:62-64)
The heavy rock will be impossible to haul out again. There will be no way that the final judgment of God could ever be reversed. The punishment will fit the crime. The goal is to obliterate the Church.
Eye for an eye – judgment was the beginning of mercy. The punishment fits the crime and is not out of all proportion to escalate the violence and cruelty. (Deuteronomy 19:18-19)
The focus is not delight on Babylon’s demise but rather God’s successful execution of justice, which proves the genuineness of the Christian faith and God’s true character. (Ezekiel 26-28 is the background for Chapter 18.)
Jesus used the millstone warning to warn against offence – (Matthew 18:6) It is a dual woe – throwing down and casting into the sea. Jesus warned against the arrogant who deceive. The guilty ones are in the Church. (2:14,20)
God said Tyre shall never be rebuilt (Ezekiel 26:13).
Babylon’s systems punished the Christians by ostracizing them from the trade guilds as those all had to worship a deity and sacrifice to it – the matter of meat sacrificed to idols. (2:9; Acts 15:29; 1 Corinthians 8:4-13, 25-30)
Babylon will be no more. The sounds of joy will not be heard – Jeremiah 33:6-11. The overwhelming pride of the merchants will be cut off and laid low.
Self-glorification necessitates judgment and a forced humbling occurs. The focus on humanity and to “forget” God is the greatest sin – it is idol worship.
Sorcery, idolatry and immorality – closely related. (Galatians 5:19-21) Sorcery is linked to seeking guidance from astrologers rather than the Lord. (Isaiah 45:11)
Nineveh was judged as city of blood. (Nahum 3:1-4)
Judgment comes at a cost. We do not rejoice in the loss of souls but because God is vindicated and truth reigns.
Let us rest in God’s judgment. He is just and faithful and wants everybody to be saved. He is a good God, always. This is His word. Heaven and earth will pass away, but His word will never pass away. God provides in all circumstances.
Jehoiachin Released from Prison
31 Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that [g]Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted[h] up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. 32 And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 So [i]Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, and he ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. 34 And as for his provisions, there was a regular ration given him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life. (Jeremiah 52:31-34)
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Pebbles of Perpetuity 