The Apocalypse

The Visions of John in Patmos:

By Edward Dennett

Chapter 18

REVELATION 18, 19:1-4.

ANOTHER vision opens out now before the mind of the apostle. In the preceding chapter the judgment of the great harlot was announced, and the instruments of its execution are revealed; whereas now we are permitted to see the disappearance of wicked Babylon, and the effects upon the various classes of the empire who had been in relation with her. But, as has been more than once pointed out in these Apocalyptic visions, the result is anticipatively proclaimed. John thus writes: "And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." (vv. 1, 2.) Twice before the judgment of Babylon had been mentioned (Rev. 14:8; Rev. 16:19), and now the providential governmental instrument, the angel, descends to earth for its accomplishment, working, however, as we have learned from the previous chapter, through human agents, the beast and his vassal kings. But it is rather the accomplishment announced by the angel, revealing, at the same time, what Babylon, that which once bore the name of Christ, has become — the dwelling-place of demons, and the prison of unclean spirits, and of every form of Satan's power.¹ The grounds, or one ground (see Rev. 19:2), of her judgment is stated. Balaam had taught Balak how to seduce the children of Israel to eat things offered to idols, and to commit fornication. (Rev. 2:14.) Jezebel in Thyatira followed in his steps (Rev. 2:20); but Babylon seduced the nations and the kings of the earth with the golden cup of her abominations and her fornication.² (Rev. 17:4,) She, moreover, who had professed to belong to Him, who when here had not where to lay His head, made the merchants of the earth "rich through the abundance of her delicacies." (v. 3.) Not only therefore had she become false to Christ, but she was the practical denial of all that He was and is, and, in fact, utterly apostate, completely ruled as she was by the god of this world.

Another voice is now heard "from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." (vv. 4, 5.) This appeal to the people of God has occasioned considerable difficulty, inasmuch as on the surface it leads to the supposition that saints might still be found in Babylon. It must be remembered then, in the first place, that Babylon represents a spiritual system, and that this system, in its main moral features, has been in existence over since the days of John. Thyatira and Laodicea, in fact, contained the root of all the evils which are afterwards seen fully developed in Babylon. The instruction therefore is for all ages, calling upon God's people to come out, and to be separate from that which can be spiritually discerned as Babylon, in which, as in Ezra's and Nehemiah's days, so many saints are enslaved. (Cp. Jer. 50:8; Jer. 51:6-9.) And they are also reminded that, if they continue to be mixed up with such a system, they will become partakers of her sins, and be governmentally subject to her plagues. Was there ever a day since these words were written when this solemn, urgent call needed to be more persistently sounded out through the length and breadth of Christendom than now? For what do we behold? Babylon plainly manifesting herself, and boldly rearing her head with her arrogant claims, as well as insinuating herself into popular favour and acceptance by her subtleties and flatteries. Let God's people therefore everywhere be obedient to this heavenly voice, and come out of her; for her sins are fast reaching up unto heaven, and the cup of her iniquities is already nearly full.

The question still returns, Is there no application to the eve of Babylon's destruction? That there can be no Christians in Babylon, at this period, is seen from the fact that the church is already in heaven. There will be Jewish saints on the earth, and, as Rev. 7 teaches, also Gentile believers, who will have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; but we have no information as to whether any of these, wearied out with their persecutions, may be tempted to seek shelter within the precincts of Babylon. If so, the call would be also addressed to such; yet the main significance of the cry is to all who may have become at any time mixed up with the principles that will finally concentrate and express themselves in Babylon.

The following verses need careful attention. The voice continues: "Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." (vv. 6, 7.) The question is, To whom are these words addressed? It would seem to be a continuation of the address to God's people commenced in verse 4; but this is scarcely possible on two grounds; first, because the saints are not the executors of judgment upon Babylon; and, secondly, because we know that the beast and the kings, the ten horns, are the appointed instruments for this purpose. This has led some to suppose that the address is to the latter. This, however, would scarcely be in accord with what is found in this book; and consequently we regard these verses more in the light of an annunciation of the judgment, and the principle upon which it will be executed, than as a summons to those chosen to be the vessels of God's vengeance. The principle of the judgment is a known one in Scripture. God dealt in the same way even with Jerusalem (Isaiah 40:2); and in Babylon being "rewarded" as she had "rewarded" God's people, we have a direct reminiscence of the manner of the judgment upon Babylon of old. (See Psalm 137:8-9; Jer. 50:15-29.)

Then, after the principle of the judgment is explained, we have a striking presentation of the moral character of Babylon. She had "glorified herself, and lived deliciously." What a revelation! And what an unfolding of her utter apostasy! Self-exaltation, the perfect antithesis to the life of our blessed Lord, had been her sole object! And, moreover, her "life" expended itself in her own gratification. Morally she was in the desert, and yet she deceived herself into the belief that it was a paradise, and lived deliciously. Even more than this; "for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." This language corresponds, almost exactly, with that used by Isaiah, when denouncing judgment upon the "daughter of Babylon" (Isa. 47); and it teaches us therefore that the mystic Babylon of the future is the moral descendant of the city of Nebuchadnezzar, embodying the same moral features, and drawing down from heaven the same vengeance. A still more striking thing to be observed is, that Laodicea's boast, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," is the moral root of all the evil here portrayed as existing in Babylon. While, however, man in his vain self-confidence may shut God out, seek his happiness in his own resources, and vaunt himself upon his own acquisitions and their stability, the time will come, as in the case before us, when God will interpose and exact a strict account according to the standard of His own holy requirements. Hence it is, as following upon the statement of Babylon's pride, self-glorification, and self-sufficiency, that it is said, "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." (v. 8.) It is the beast and his horns (Rev. 17:16) who are the seen executors of the judgment, but they are but the blind servants of the will of God.

In the next place, down to verse 18, a description is given of the effect upon various classes of the destruction of Babylon. It will suffice to specify one or two features of the picture. It will be noted, first of all, that the kings of the earth, those who had committed fornication, and lived deliciously with her, are loud in their lamentations over the destruction of "that great city Babylon." This is by no means inconsistent with the fact that they, or some of them, had united with the beast to despoil her of her possessions. Many a gigantic abuse has often been judged in great popular movements, or even by peaceful legislation, and yet the framework of society has been shattered by its removal. Babylon, with its wide-spreading roots, will have interlaced itself with almost every social fibre of the life of the nations; and her fall, therefore, will spread universal dismay and confusion as well as render human governments unstable and powerless. This will account for the wail of these kings, as they stand "afar of for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come." (v. 10.) The other mourners over Babylon's fall are commercial, "the, merchants of the earth (v, 11), those who had been "made rich by her" (v. 15) in their traffic in all the various articles, for which the demand had been created or stimulated by Babylon's needs and influence; and "every ship-master, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea" (v. 17); for all that had ships in the sea had also been made rich "by reason of her costliness." (v. 19)

All this description, it will be at once understood, is symbolical, the import of which is that the whole commercial system of the empire is utterly deranged, if not destroyed, by the judgment upon Babylon. The blow that falls upon her destroys with her the prosperity of the habitable world; and hence the universal sorrow; for men are ever ready to bewail the loss of the means of their comforts, wealth, and affluence.³

There is ever an utter contrariety between God's thoughts and man's. All classes of the people sorrow over Babylon's fall; and now we are permitted, in contrast with this, to hear the estimate in heaven of this event. "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her."⁴ (v. 20.) What thus causes universal sorrow and widespread dismay on earth is the occasion of joy to heaven, and to those who had been witnesses for Christ, and some of these martyrs for His name's sake (v. 24), on earth.

We have thereon a symbolic action to describe Babylon's destruction. "And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." (v. 21.) So was it with ancient Babylon. Jeremiah "wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon," and he directed Seraiah, who accompanied Zedekiah to Babylon in the fourth year of the latter's reign, after he should have read the book in the very presence of Babylon's prosperity and magnificence, to bind a stone to it, and to cast it into the midst of Euphrates; and as he did so, he was to say, "Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her." (Jer. 51:60-64.) The meaning of the action is the same, therefore, in both cases; it betokened violent, complete, final, and irreversible destruction. Never more was either to rise again; and thus we have in our chapter the solemn declaration that henceforth all strains of music, all mechanical activities, the sound of millstones, should be for ever silenced, that nevermore should shine within her the light of a candle, or be heard the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride. The desolation was to be complete; "for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." (vv. 23, 24.) Combining the several grounds of Babylon's judgment it will be seen that they are four — "idolatry, corruption, worldliness, and persecution." God had borne long with this wicked system which had profaned His name, and falsified His truth; but now His mighty hand has descended upon it, taking vengeance for all the iniquities which had filled the earth with defilement and corruption.

The first four verses of Rev. 19 give the celebration in heaven of the destruction of Babylon. John "heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are His judgments: for He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever." (vv. 1-3.) It is an interesting question as to who are these that, with "a great voice," raise this song of praise. They are a class, evidently, outside of the twenty-four elders, and they are as clearly not angels. The inference is, therefore, that they are those who had been martyred on earth after the church had been removed, called up on high. The ground of their celebration of Jehovah-Elohim, their God, is the character of His judgments — they are "true and righteous," as displayed in the destruction of the great corruptress of the earth, and in avenging the blood of His servants at her hand. They repeat, in the intensity of their joy, their Alleluia.⁵ Then the solemn statement, in contrast with this burst of joy in heaven, is given, as significant of the everlasting judgment that has fallen upon the harlot: "And her smoke rose up for ever and ever." (Compare Jude 7.)

Following upon this, the four-and-twenty-elders (seen as the twenty-four elders here for the last time), and the four living creatures, who had been the spectators of the joy of the "much people," themselves "fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia." (v. 4.) The mind of heaven is one, both in praising God, and in rejoicing over the vengeance that has overtaken Babylon; and that mind, while in full communion with, indeed the expression of, the mind of God, is, let it be repeated, in direct opposition to the mind of man. God and all heaven rejoice over that which man esteems as his greatest calamity. What an exposition of the alienation of men  "from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart!"

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1) The reader may compare Isaiah 21:9; Jer. 50:39; Jer. 51:8, 37, as to the destruction of the historical Babylon.

2) The reader may instructively compare Ezekiel 16:15-34.

3) A striking example of this is seen in the fact that, after the healing of the demoniac, and the consequent destruction of the swine, the Gadarenes prayed the Lord Jesus to depart out of their coasts. They preferred to have the demoniac, and their swine, to the presence of Jesus, because He had interfered with their earthly possessions.

4) Literally it is, "For God hath judged your judgment upon her."

5) This means in its Hebrew form, Hallelujah, Praise ye Jehovah, or Jah. The last five Psalms commence and end with this word, this note of praise.