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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.

Revelation 17:9-14: Christus Victor.

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.’ NIV

In all the comings and goings of kings and kingdoms, their risings and fallings, we need to remember that there is a ‘Grand Master’ moving the pieces on the chess board, and even the moves made against Him He will use to defeat the opposition. He is: ‘’Lord of lords and King of kings’’ (14). Though all hell may be let loose on earth, in the end Jesus wins.

I believe it was a theologian called Gustav Aulen who wrote a book entitled ‘Christus Victor.’ There may be many things in Revelation we find hard to understand, but surely we can see this? Jesus is victorious, and His people – His battered, persecuted, slain people – will share in His triumph.

Revelation 17:4: Glitzy.

⁴ The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. NIV

Superficially ‘Babylon’, the world system is attractive. So we may be deceived by the glamour. It’s possible to be seduced by the image. You may find that you very much want to drink from that ‘’golden cup’’, but you need to see that it’s filled with poison. The outward appearance and the inner reality are contradictory.

Tom Wright throws out a challenge:

‘This terrifying, multi-layered denunciation of the outwardly delightful and inwardly deceitful city ought to give pause for serious thought to all those of us who live within today’s glossy Western culture – and all others who look on and see our glitzy world from afar. Where are we in this picture?’ ‘Revelation for Everyone’, p.153.

PRAYER: Lord, I pray for eyes to see through.

Revelation 17:1-8:The collapse of the system.

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. ² With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.’³ Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. ⁴ The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. ⁵ The name written on her forehead was a mystery: babylon the greatthe mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth.⁶ I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished. ⁷ Then the angel said to me: ‘Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns. ⁸ The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come. NIV

One day, ‘Babylon’ is going to fall.  In John’s day, Babylon represented Rome – outwardly impressive, but inwardly corrupt. However, Rome was but one expression of Babylon, which is that entire world system a system standing opposed to God. It takes on different forms in different centuries, in different lands and different regions. But it is always there as an all-pervading presence. Yet one day it won’t be.

This passage enables us to see its essentially demonic nature and empowerment (3, 7, 8; see chapter 13). Babylon ‘’rides’’ upon the beast.

This world is seductive, like a prostitute. The sexual imagery is potent. First of all, Rome was filled with its own moral decadence, and eventually, like all such empires, it collapsed under its own weight. Secondly, paganism and sexual immorality tend to go hand in hand. Thirdly, sex is one of the devil’s most potent weapons, and he uses it repeatedly to take people down. Fourthly, adultery, in the Bible, is a metaphor for spiritual infidelity, where people chase after other gods.

When we drink what the world offers, we are going to get disoriented, and we are liable to be seduced. The world may look attractive, but there is poison in her ‘’golden cup’’ (4).

This world is savage (6). We are reminded again that in a world like this – a world system that hates Jesus – it is fundamentally a dangerous thing to align with Him and bear witness to Him. The world will hate us for that. ‘’I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus’’. (Tom Wright translation).

Babylon, and what she offers, is a pale, poor, perverted parody of reality. The backdrop to Revelation is a true, faithful ‘marriage’ relationship between the Lamb (Jesus) and His bride (the church). Indeed, this is the big picture story of the Bible: God offering to marry a people. The devil tries to seduce us with a gaudy, glitzy alternative that can never satisfy.

Revelation 16:17-21: A great fall.

¹⁷ The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ ¹⁸ Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. ¹⁹ The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. ²⁰ Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. ²¹ From the sky huge hailstones, each weighing about forty kilograms fell on people. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible. NIV UK

Like Humpty Dumpty, ‘Babylon’ is going to have a great fall, and the next two chapters will deal with this subject in great detail. In John’s day, people would probably have understood ‘Babylon’ to represent Rome. Rome has long gone of course, but the ungodly, indeed demonic, world system that was expressed in the Roman Empire, is still with us. But one day, it will all come crashing down.

Consider Tom Wright’s words:

‘John’s hearers would have no difficulty in getting the point. This is not the collapse of the physical earth. This is the only way to describe the collapse of the entire social and political system on the earth. Terrible things will happen in human society, for which the only fitting metaphor will be earthquakes and huge hailstones. God will allow the lie at the heart of pagan society, like a crack in the earth’s crust, finally to be exposed. The tectonic plates of different idolatrous human systems will move against one another one more time, and nothing will ever be the same again.’ ‘Revelation for Everyone’, p.148.

Revelation 16:15: A further thought on the thief.

¹⁵ ‘Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.’ NIV

I had some friends who owned a bakery. I often visited them as they were fairly new Christians. One day, as I was stood in the back of the shop, drinking a cup of tea with them, one of the couple said, ‘You never know when the Public Health Inspector is going to call. So you always have to keep the shop clean. He could drop in, unexpected, any time.’ I can’t remember what else in the conversation this was related to, but I do remember it being said (and I was deeply grateful for the sermon illustration!!)

Lights went on for me when he said that. I drew a mental parallel with what the Bible teaches about the second coming of Jesus. Again and again, in the New Testament, His return is spoken of without date, to keep us on our toes. Many Christians respond to second coming teaching with speculation; but the response the Bible wants to stimulate has everything to do with sanctification. We are to believe that Jesus is coming soon and let that affect how we live now.

PRAYER: Lord, I pray that the expectation of Jesus’ return will get into my bloodstream and affect all I am and do.

Revelation 16:13: A burglar calls.

¹³ Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.NIV

It was a Wednesday afternoon like most others, except that the street seemed quieter than normal. We were enjoying the peace of a day off, and we were totally unprepared for what was about to unfold. Around 3.20 we left home to pick up our young daughter from a local primary school. By the time we returned, around 3.45, a thief had paid us a call and got away with one or two things. His visit was completely unexpected.

 This is not the first time the Bible uses this analogy, and we get it don’t we? Or we should. I heard a denominational leader say recently that the reason why many church leaders in ‘third world’ countries are so industrious in preaching the gospel and planting churches, is because they really do believe Jesus is coming soon. ‘But we don’t,’ he said. He has a point. Oh, I know some do, but many of us have lost our edge, our sense of urgency. We do need to live ‘in the future tense’ – live in the light of His coming. There is a stark warning to heed in this verse.

‘‘…I suggest…John is aware, as the plagues become more terrible, that some of his hearers might nod off, not physically but spiritually. How easy to think, ‘Oh, yes, those people have got it coming to them – they are wicked and they deserve it; but we’re all right, we can just relax. Let’s sit back and enjoy the movie.’ No, you can’t, John is saying. I’m talking about the serious danger of deceitful spirits let loose in the world. Many of you have a poor track record at recognising deceit when it stares you in the face. You need to keep awake…’ Tom Wright: ‘Revelation for Everyone’, p.145.