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Revelation 18:9-20: Godly sorrow.

⁹ ‘When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. ¹⁰ Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:

¹¹ ‘The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more – ¹² cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; ¹³ cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.

¹⁴ ‘They will say, “The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your luxury and splendour have vanished, never to be recovered.” ¹⁵ The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn ¹⁶ and cry out:

‘Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. ¹⁸ When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, “Was there ever a city like this great city?” ¹⁹ They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out:

‘’Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death’’ (2 Corinthians 7:10).

As Babylon disappears in a plume of smoke, great grief is expressed by those who benefited from the system. But this is not repentance. It may well be regret and remorse, but the dismay is over their ruin – their financial losses. It is not repentance for sin. These who mourn are not blessed; they will not be comforted, for they are not mourning over their wickedness. We have here an example of what Paul calls ‘’worldly sorrow.’’

Revelation 18: 11-13: Soul-traders.

 ‘The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more – ¹² cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; ¹³ cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.” NIV

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with trade. We live in an inter-connected world where people grow things, produce things, make things which others want and/or need, and are prepared to pay for. I can’t see that there is anything fundamentally wrong with the idea of goods fairly sold at a fair price. I don’t think the book of Revelation is condemning the normal processes of trading at this point. But, like everything else in the world, trade is now tainted by sin; it is contaminated by lust and greed, covetousness and dishonesty etc. Things get bought and sold that shouldn’t be. This also applies to people.

There is something slap you in the face shocking about the statement:

‘’…and bodies and souls of men’’ (13b).

 There is also something tragically contemporary about it. Human trafficking is a huge, corrupt, wicked business right now. We have modern forms of slavery.

Tom Wright explains its place in Roman times:

‘Slavery was to the ancient world, more or less, what steam, oil, gas, electricity and nuclear power are to the modern world. Slavery was how things got done. Life was almost literally unthinkable without it.

And yet John believed in the God of the Exodus, the God who sets slaves free. A huge amount of his book, as we have seen, was built up on the basis that what God did in Egypt he will do again, this time on a cosmic scale – and that the basic act of slave-freeing has already taken place with the sacrificial death of Jesus…(5.9)’ ‘Revelation for Everyone’ pp.164/165.

Slavery was the system upon which the ancient world was built. It was one of the expressions of ‘Babylon’ then, and it remains so now. But as we keep seeing, ‘Babylon’s’ days are numbered.

Revelation 18:9-20: Three Woes

^“9 ‘When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. ¹⁰ Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:

¹¹ ‘The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more – ¹² cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; ¹³ cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.

¹⁴ ‘They will say, “The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your luxury and splendour have vanished, never to be recovered.” ¹⁵ The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn ¹⁶ and cry out:

‘Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. ¹⁸ When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, “Was there ever a city like this great city?” ¹⁹ They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out:

Everything in the world which is man-made, however glorious it may appear, has a ‘sell-by’ date on it. It won’t last. Nothing in this world will, but Jesus’ words ‘’will never pass away’’ (Matthew 24:35).

I was considering this recently while on holiday in the beautiful Italian city of Florence. Jilly and I visited the Pitti Palace, where the powerful Medici family once lived and ruled. Their art treasures may still be around, but they are long gone. In the state rooms we saw portraits of various people who must, at one time, have been famous, wealthy, and maybe even feared. But we had no idea who they were! So it goes with this world’s pomp and glory. It is fading and passing.

‘The pleasures of sin are but for a season, and they will end in dismal sorrow.’ Matthew Henry

‘Babylon’ – the world system – is under God’s judgment, and it is a just judgment. She is on borrowed time. I was impressed by this quote from the ‘IVP New Testament Commentary’:

‘The kings, merchants and seafarers of the earth mourn Babylon’s demise with three variations, or stanzas, of the same song (18:10, 16/17, 19)…The merchants and the seafarers elaborate the basic stanza in keeping with their respective interests…The seafarers do not know it yet, but before long the sea itself will be gone (21:1).’

‘’The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever’’ (1 John 2:17).

Revelation 18:9-10: One hour.

^“9 ‘When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. ¹⁰ Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:

It’s a moment I’ll never forget. It was a September afternoon and I was on a pastoral visit, along with my colleague David. We were seeing a couple from our church when, suddenly, their phone rang. A relative of their’s, from the other side of the world, was calling them to say, ‘Have you seen what’s happening in New York?’ They immediately switched on their TV, and we watched stunned and appalled and terribly shocked as we watched the tragic events unfold. Who can ever for forget 9/11? David related how he had stood on one of those towers, and watched planes fly beneath him into La Guardia.

In the wake of these events, this picture of the fall of Babylon came back to me: ‘’In one hour your doom has come!’’ (Note the repetition of ‘’In one hour’’ – verses 17 and 19). It was deeply shocking to watch first one, and then the other tower come down so quickly. They just seemed to crumble to dust. I’m not saying the events of that day were the fulfilment of Revelation 18, but they are an example of how quickly symbols of worldly wealth and power can fall, and how fragile the whole (outwardly impressive) system is.

Revelation 18:3: Excessive luxuries

‘For all the nations have drunk
    the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
    and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.’ NIV

I am struck by the words ‘’excessive luxuries’’ in verse 3b. We live at a time where there is a growing divide between rich and poor. The ranks of the super-rich are swelling, and the largest amount of the world’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of relatively few people. But such a system cannot last. It will sooner or later collapse beneath its own weight.

I am not saying that it is wrong to have wealth. But whatever we have is ours to steward. It is a sacred trust. Remember: ‘’From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked’’ (Luke 12:48). There is a way of living, a way of spending money, that is careless of the needs of others. From such worldliness may God keep us (or, indeed, deliver us).

Revelation 18:4-8: Love not the world.

⁴ Then I heard another voice from heaven say:

I seem to remember a quotation from someone which went some thing like this:           ‘The unexamined life is hardly worth living.’  That came into my mind this morning as I thought and prayed about the urgent call in verse 4:

‘’Come out of her, my people, so that you don’t become embroiled in her sins, and so that you don’t receive any of her plagues.’’ (Tom Wright’s translation). This echoes the summons of Isaiah 48:20, 52:11,20 & Jeremiah 51:45. It also reminds me of John’s words in in 1 John 2:15-17: ‘’Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.’’

 ‘The unexamined life is hardly worth living.’ We need to be able to take a step back, to be objective and discerning, so that we are not unthinkingly sucked into the ‘Babylonian’ lifestyle. We need eyes to see where worldliness might be encroaching, and the resolve to decisively turn away, with God’s help, from things which are liable to His judgment. As Tom Wright says, the whole system is hollow, riddled with deceit and lies, and heading for disaster.

One further thing to point out from these verses is that Babylon’s downfall is self-inflicted. Ultimately she brings the judgments on herself.

PRAYER: ‘The world is ever near me, around me and within; O Jesus draw thou nearer, and shield my soul from sin.’

Revelation 18:1-3: How are the mighty fallen?

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendour. ² With a mighty voice he shouted:

‘We shall see John’s own vision of this ideal city at the end of the book. But for the moment we are shown its opposite: the city which tried, like Babel of old, to make itself The Place, the summit of human achievement, by its own efforts and to its own glory – and ends up shrinking to a shell, with the wild desert creeping back into its palaces, its temples, its fine streets and shops and courtyards. Creation will reclaim what arrogant humans had thought to construct. Babylon will become a place for demons, for unclean spirits, for birds and monsters of all the wrong kinds.  And this, John says, is good news – just as the destruction of Babel, and the confusion of tongues (Genesis 11) was good news. The angel who shouts out that Babylon has fallen (echoing Isaiah 21.9 and Jeremiah 51.8) is bringing the news that human arrogance and oppression, and the wanton luxury and vice to which they lead, will not have the last word. God will have the last word, and creation itself will hear this word as a word of freedom, a sigh of relief, a flood of glorious light (verse 1) let in upon a darkened dungeon.’ Tom Wright: ‘Revelation for Everyone’, p.159.

It is important for us to grasp that this all-pervasive world system, spoken of as ‘Babylon’, has limited time. It will fall.

Revelation 17:18: World domination.

¹⁸ The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.’ NIV

One final thing to note from chapter 17 is that ‘Babylon’ – this demonic system – profoundly affects the political structures of the world. The rulers are ruled.

‘’We wrestle not against flesh and blood…’’ (Ephesians 6:12).

‘…the abiding and overriding lesson for the church, then and now, should…be clear. The brutal but seductive ‘civilisations’ and national empires, which ensnare the world by promising luxury and delivering slavery, gain their power from the monster, the System of Imperial Power. Some have called this ‘the domination system,’ a system which transcends geographical and historical limitations and reappears again and again in every century.’ Tom Wright: ‘Revelation for Everyone’, p.157.

Revelation 17:9-18: Self-destruction.

⁹ ‘This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. ¹⁰ They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while. ¹¹ The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.¹² ‘The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. ¹³ They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. ¹⁴ They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings – and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.’¹⁵ Then the angel said to me, ‘The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. ¹⁶ The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. ¹⁷ For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to hand over to the beast their royal authority, until God’s words are fulfilled. ¹⁸ The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.’ NIV

It’s been pointed out that when someone climbs a hill, he doesn’t then complain that he didn’t see contour lines all around it. He understands these are map symbols intended to convey a certain reality. It may be that the symbols we find here, in our passage, correspond to certain historical realities in John’s day. Or, it may be that one day we will open our newspapers and see what we read here coming to pass before our eyes. But surely there is a key point that shouts to us. It is that evil is ultimately under God’s control. If we witness evil dictators strutting on the world stage (or have to live through their rule), we should remember their time is short, and God is on the throne. Furthermore, evil will ultimately turn on itself and destroy itself. Christ, and His followers, will conquer, even though it be at great cost.