AM Bible Study Group; September 14, 2016 from Revelation 18:21-24
Theme: This passage describes the finality with which the great ‘harlot’ city Babylon will be thrown down in judgment.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
This closing section of Revelation 18 finishes off the theme taken up in chapters 17-18—that of the judgment from God of the ‘harlot’ system of religion, philosophy, political power and commerce of the Antichrist that is embodied in a future city which the Scriptures call ‘Babylon’.
Rebellion against God is often associated in Scripture with a “city”. Cain, for example—the son of Adam and history’s first man-slayer—after being cast out of the presence of the Lord, went out and founded the first city ‘Enoch’ (Genesis 4:17; “after the name of his son Enoch”). Nimrod—who was the grandson of Noah’s son Ham (who’s son Canaan fell under Noah’s curse because of Ham’s sin)—also founded many cities; and we’re told that “the beginning of his kingdom was Babel …” (Genesis 10:10). The tower of Babel was built on a spirit of rebellion against God’s command to spread out through the earth and multiply (Genesis 11:1-9). This, of course, is not to say that all cities—or that even all cities of the Bible—were built upon a spirit of rebellion against God. But it does appear that ‘cities’ and ‘rebellion’ against God’s rule have—at times—been strongly connected together. The history-long spirit of warfare against the rule of God will one day be summarized in a single city in the future; and as we saw in our last study of Revelation 18:9-20, that future city is already slated for judgment.
The things that are said in this passage about this city ‘Babylon’ that is yet to come sound very much like the things that were promised with respect to the kingdom of Babylon in the past. Isaiah 13:19-22 speaks of this past destruction of the ancient Babylonian empire; and in verse 20 in particular says;
It will never be inhabited,
Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there,
Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there (Isaiah 13:20).
That ancient kingdom met its end in one day; and its destruction is but a mere echo of the promised destruction of the ‘Babylon’ of our text in Revelation 18.
Here, we see . . .
I. THE THROWING-DOWN OF IT (v. 21).
A. A mighty angel (evidently another angel from what we’ve seen elsewhere in this section; which clearly speaks of the authority of heaven in actively bringing about Babylon’s downfall) took up a large stone “like a millstone”. A millstone (here, most likely the heavier ‘upper’ millstone) usually four to five feet in diameter, and often a foot thick. It was symbolic of something heavy—something that the city would sink by its own weight; and that the throwing down of it into the sea speaks of a violent ‘crashing’ judgment (Matthew 9:42).
B. To throw such a thing particularly into “the sea” (a large, deep, unplumbable body of water) would cause it to sink quickly to the bottom—never again to be even remotely capable of being recovered. And thus, it’s a fit symbol of the dreadful destruction of this ungodly city/system Babylon. The angel casts it into the sea with the words, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore.”
II. THE THINGS THAT ARE FOUND ‘NO MORE’ IN IT (vv. 22-23a).
A. As with any ‘great city’, there are many things that are connected with it and that either draw their life from it, or add their life to it. The many things that will end with the destruction of Babylon are then described by the angel:
1. There is an end of music and entertainment—as set forth in the “sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters”. (This would, of course, speak particularly of ungodly forms of such music and entertainment—things that have often been used by the devil to corrupt cultures and led people into immorality.)
2. There is an end of merchandise and the crafts-wares they sell—a love of things that has often degenerated into idolatry.
3. There’s an end to the food industries—as set forth by the silencing of the millstone.
4. There’s an end of the constant, twenty-four hour activity of the marketplace—as illustrated in the loss of the lamps to illuminate commerce both night and day. This ‘city that never sleeps’ will now sleep with the fishes!
5. There’s even an end to the celebrations of the ungodly—as set forth in even the loss of the happy voice of the bride and bridegroom.
B. All the activities of this ungodly system that—together–pridefully proclaim, “We can be happy and fulfilled and great without God,” will come to a sudden and violent end. Note that we’re told that none of these things are heard anymore in Babylon, or seen anymore in her, or found any longer in her as the center of it all. Her end with such things is clearly displayed to us as ‘final’.
III. THE REASONS FOR ITS JUDGMENT BEING SO FINAL (vv. 23b-24).
A. First, we’re told that this is because Babylon’s “merchants” were “the great men of the earth”. They were made ‘great’ in a strictly human sense by Babylon (see Matthew 20:25); and they held their greatness over others in an oppressive and inhumane manner (see James 5:1-6).
B. Second, we’re told that this judgment upon Babylon is ‘final’ because it deceived all the nations by its “sorcery”. This word may describe the practice of magical arts and the occult; but it also may describe the prevailing misuse of drugs (since the Greek word used—pharmikeia—is itself the one from which we get the English word ‘pharmacy’).
C. Finally, we’re told that this is because in the city was found “the blood” of martyrdom—that is, “of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth”. Jesus similarly lamented over the generation of the city of Jerusalem in His time, because it bore the guilt of “all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar” (Matthew 23:35). But Jerusalem’s destruction was temporary. Here, the destruction of wicked Babylon is final!
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What a horrifying place this future city will be! What a dreadful system of ungodliness it will embody! No wonder God’s judgment will, at last, fall upon it with such finality! And this all helps us to remember the warning of the apostle John in 1 John 2:17; that “the world is passing away, and the lust of it”. May we who are God’s people truly and faithfully ‘come out’ of her, lest we “share in her sins” and “receive of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4)!