Revelation 18:1-8

This chapter is a funeral song to Babylon.  In it you get a feel for man’s lamentation over seeing the world system fall.  This chapter is a description of mankind crying over the loss of his love.  He loves the world and its ways, but when it is destroyed, and God is revealed to not only be real but fully in charge, he is destroyed in his character.  Babylon made man rich and able to live a luxurious life, but when she dies all will be lost and it will all be lost in a sudden moment.

One could relate this to Solomon’s conclusions from Ecclesiastes.  All that is in the world’s pleasures and successes only make us worship ourselves, but the only reality is God Himself.  Another could relate this to life and death.  In the physical life there is the world and we can choose to live in the world and its pleasures that take us away from worshiping God or we can live apart in the Spirit and look to worship God in everything.  Either way, in the sudden moment of death, the world will fall and be removed from us.  Will we lament over all that we are losing?  Or will we rejoice over the eternity of God and the insignificance of the world and its systems?

¹ 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.”

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.

The world system is fallen.  A sinful system made by sinful man through the deception of the influence of Satan to lift man as god and remove God as real, this is fallen. 

Verse 2 tells us it is a home to demonic nature and spirits; verse 3 tells us that people who engage with her are living in idolatry; 4 and 5 indicate she is covered in sins; and 7 indicates that she is prideful.  The world “city” is judged and is to be repaid for all of this with twice that she gave.  Those who are God’s people are called to be removed from her so as not to be caught in God’s judgment.

Verse 7 is of particular interest.  How she glorified herself is recorded somewhat in Isaiah 47:7-8.  However, we would be remiss if we didn’t read the entire chapter of Isaiah 47 when reading this chapter 18 in Revelation.  Many Bibles label this chapter in Isaiah as “The Humiliation of Babylon”.

¹  “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans!  For you shall no more be called Tender and delicate.  ² Take the millstones and grind meal.  Remove your veil, Take off the skirt, Uncover the thigh, Pass through the rivers.  ³ Your nakedness shall be uncovered, Yes, your shame will be seen; I will take vengeance, And I will not arbitrate with a man.”

⁴ As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel.

⁵ “Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; For you shall no longer be called The Lady of Kingdoms.  ⁶ I was angry with My people; I have profaned My inheritance, And given them into your hand.  You showed them no mercy; On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.  ⁷ And you said, ‘I shall be a lady forever,’ So that you did not take these things to heart, Nor remember the latter end of them.

⁸ “Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, Who dwell securely, Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, Nor shall I know the loss of children’; ⁹ But these two things shall come to you In a moment, in one day: The loss of children, and widowhood.  They shall come upon you in their fullness Because of the multitude of your sorceries, For the great abundance of your enchantments.

¹⁰ “For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, ‘No one sees me’; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’  ¹¹ Therefore evil shall come upon you; You shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; You will not be able to put it off.  And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, Which you shall not know.

¹² “Stand now with your enchantments And the multitude of your sorceries, In which you have labored from your youth—Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you will prevail.  ¹³ You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, And the monthly prognosticators Stand up and save you From what shall come upon you.  ¹⁴ Behold, they shall be as stubble, The fire shall burn them; They shall not deliver themselves From the power of the flame; It shall not be a coal to be warmed by, Nor a fire to sit before!  ¹⁵ Thus shall they be to you With whom you have labored, Your merchants from your youth; They shall wander each one to his quarter.  No one shall save you.

We find many similarities in the descriptions of this chapter in Isaiah to what we read here in Revelation.  I am once again reminded of the singular message of God to worship Him and Him alone and to trust only in Him for our salvation.  The author Osborne in his book Revelation comments, “One does not have to read many magazines or watch many movies to realize the extent to which sinners today guzzle ‘the wine of passion for immorality.’  … Those who willingly participate in such immorality will also participate in the judgment to come.”