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Revelation 19:1-10: Praise commanded.

After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:

³ And again they shouted:

⁴ The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:

⁵ Then a voice came from the throne, saying:

⁶ Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) ⁹ Then the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ And he added, ‘These are the true words of God.’ ¹⁰ At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.’ NIV

We move from the threefold ‘woe’ on Babylon to a threefold ‘Hallelujah’. This is a response to the order in 18:20:

Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets!’’

 The fact that praise can be commanded shows that it is about more than feelings. Whether we feel like praising God or not, we should. Even if God never did another thing for us, the fact that Jesus loves us and died for us is good reason for endless praise.

Let us ‘’Worship God” (10), and Him only.

Revelation 18:21-24: Further thoughts.

^“21 Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:

Before moving on into chapter 19, here are two further thoughts on this passage:

‘Any institution that misuses wealth, power and pleasure resembles Babylon. Not only does John judge Babylon, but he implores his people to avoid being enticed and then entrapped by the illusion that prosperity and power protect persons and institutions from the ultimate demands of God’s justice. That message has contemporary relevance. The seductive powers of wealth, social status, and culture threaten the church because they are subtle deceivers that blur the distinction between the values of God and the    values of the world.’ Asbury Bible Commentary.

‘Babylon is a city founded on violence, not only the blood of the martyrs. Babylon has been at the centre of a network of violence that spanned the world, and all who have been slaughtered on earth have, in a sense, been slaughtered at the behest of Babylon. The merchants have grown rich on the back of military conquest. Money and power have done their collective worst, and John lumps them together, as we have seen, under the metaphor of fornication. Babylon the whore is gone, and will not return. And we, who live in the shadow of modern Babylon’s, can and must shudder as we too, watch the plume of smoke and smell the bitter smell.’ Tom Wright: ‘Revelation for Everyone’, p.166.

(For further study see Jer.51:60,61,63&64/Nahum 3:14/Deut.19:16-20).

Revelation 18:21-24: Pied Piper

^“21 Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:

There can be no question that this present world system is on borrowed time. Its end will come (21). This message is hammered in with the repeated use of the word ‘’never’’.

It struck me as I read this that one of the ways ‘the world’ influences is by music. It is a ‘Pied Piper’. It casts a spell on people. It mesmerises. It influences in ways that go far deeper than logic. This is not to say that music is bad. Not at all. But we do need to try to analyse the messages the culture is preaching to us constantly. It comes at us through a variety of means. It will have us under its spell in no time if we are not on guard. The prevailing culture will ‘disciple’ us in its ways if we do not determine that we will be discipled by Scripture, God’s Word.

‘’By your magic spell all the nations were led astray’’ (23b).

In his book ‘Don’t waste your life’, John Piper says ‘America is the first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death.’ Western Europe can’t be far behind.

PRAYER: Lord, please awaken me to the cultural forces that will shape my life only too gladly, if I do not allow you to do the shaping. Help me to swim against the strong tide.

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.’