Revelation 18

A WEDNESDAY NIGHT BOOK STUDY
EDGEMONT BIBLE CHURCH
FALL 2009- SPRING 2010
APRIL 21, 2010
THE SEVENTH TRUMPET, A PARENTHESIS - Part 13
REVELATION CHAPTER 18:1-24
BABYLON, THE CITY, DESCRIBED, EXPLAINED, AND
DESTROYED
(Catching up on History)

I. ANGELS SPEAK WITH JOHN ABOUT THE FULFILLMENT OF THE
PRONOUNCEMENT OF THE SECOND ANGEL OF THE 7Th TRUMPET (14:8)
A. Another angel of the same kind he has been seeing and hearing from
descends out of heaven.
1. This angel is going to show John what had taken place after the second angel of the 7th Trumpet had made his proclamation regarding the fall of Babylon, the great (14:8) This fall takes place before any of the bowl judgments had occurred. Here we are having the details of what had taken place prior to the bowl judgments.
2. John says "After these things..." He is telling us that after he saw the destruction of Babylon, the mystery, by the 10 horns, he saw the destruction of Babylon, the great city.
B. This angel is one having great authority. This means he is a high-ranking angel of principality level or above. No name is given for him as has been the case for most of the others. Remember the angelic hierarchy? This helps us see the great importance of both his announcement and of the subject of that announcement, Babylon!
C. So brilliant is his glory (the light appearing around him) that it illuminates the earth as he gets closer to it.
1. What must this look like on earth? Think back on the Fourth Trumpet and the increased darkness there had already been on the earth (8:12,13).
2. How does an angel with a body emit light from it? Is there another set of rules in operation of which we know nothing?
3. This may look like a meteor descending to the earth. Angels and stars are often seen as synonymous in the scriptures.
4. You will recall too that at the time the second angel had made his proclamation of Babylon's fall two other angels had also made loud proclamations - one presenting the everlasting gospel and the other proclaiming the judgments that will fall on all who worship the beast and have his mark. This angel is even louder with his proclamation. The people on earth had been fairly warned by supernatural warnings as well as by the two witnesses and the 144,000 witnesses as well. How did those dwelling on earth and worshipping the beast miss this? How hard must their hearts be to ignore all these obvious and plain supernatural events and not see them as the hand of God?
D. He announces the fall of the great city of Babylon. Whereas the last chapter, 17, had spoken of the one world united religion that had been in operation from shortly after the flood, this time he speaks of the physical manifestation of the religion by mankind in the building of a commercial and cultural center and capital of the world. You will recall it was the beast and the horns that destroyed mystery Babylon. Here it is God destroying the manifestation of that wicked, religious system as a commercial center.
1. He announces her condition
a. The habitation of demons - Recall that 4 major angels had been bound at the Euphrates River and were released in the 6th trumpet (9:14,15). With their release came the release of 200 million demons (9:16)! They are all in the Babylon area. So it is true with the demons released from the bottomless pit in the 5th trumpet (9:1-12). Satan had already sent down 1/3 of the angels before the birth of Christ (12:4). All of his army had been cast down from heaven during the war with Michael (12:9) Babylon has become their new home and center of operations.
b. A prison for every foul spirit - a parallelism to the previous statement. This gives a description of the kind of spirits they were: Unclean.
c. A cage for every unclean and hated bird - These all gather from the smell of death, ready to devour and indulge in a great gluttonous feast of flesh. It may even picture yet another parallelism to the demons and foul spirits. Birds, especially carrion birds, are seen as those assisting the devil in his work. This may picture the behavior of the demons and foul spirits occupying the place; like vultures waiting for the victim to finally die so they can devour it.
2. He announces the cause of this condition
a. All the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication
b. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her
c. The merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury
E. Another voice comes from heaven speaking this time to the inhabitants of Babylon, specifically to those who belong to God living in this wealthy, debauched place.
1. The voice commands the Lord's people to get out of Babylon
a. Lest they share in the sins of Babylon - sooner or later whatever one is around, one also begins to participate in its habitual behavior. Righteous Lot vexed his soul every day in Sodom and ultimately lost his entire family to its lusts or in its destruction!
b. Lest they receive her plagues - God is no respecter of persons. Whenever any community, regardless of population or geographical boundaries, continues unrepentant in sinful behavior, when God judges, the whole community and its residents, saved and unsaved, suffer the consequences. Here God warns his people to get out of sinful Babylon before He carries out His judgment.
APPPLICATION: Should not believers consider God's judgment on this gross city and begin to make our independent separation from this style of living now? Understanding that this is to be a tribulation judgment, does it not yet reveal to us God's standard of judgment on what is pleasing and displeasing to him? Should we not consider our need to separate ourselves from her sins?
2. The voice states again the justice and retribution due Babylon and reveals the just cause
a. Her sins have reached to heaven. The sins of Babylon were so numerous and so inseparably connected they were "piled up" or "stuck together" that, like bricks and mortar in the tower of Babel in the first place, they had reached heaven.
b. God was remembering their iniquities (perversions of the truth) God does not forget anything but He often doesn't choose to remember them. But know this, He is just and will remember them when His longsuffering has come to its terminal point. The blessedness of every believer is that God does not call to his memory their iniquities. Here the God of mercy has now brought to His mind the quantity and devastation of Babylon's iniquities. God's mercy and longsuffering have come to an end. Judgment has fallen.
c. The voice states the strength of the judgment against her
*She has to have rendered to her what she had rendered to others
*She was to be repaid double according to her works. This is right out of the "Mosaic" law: vs 6ff
*In the cup she mixed (her cup of ini4uities) she is to receive double (wrath)
*Make her punishment (torment and sorrow) as strong as her lust for her own glory and luxury. This too is from the Mosaic law in a principle called lex talionis, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth!
*This would come because she arrogantly said she was as relaxed as a queen on her throne and so secure that she could not be harmed. She was not a widow but the wife of many and she would see no sorrow, as she would not have her children die before her. She would always be taken care of. Compare this with Isaiah 47:5-11
*Her plagues were going to come in one day and would include death, mourning and famine.
*She will also be burned with fire for the LORD who judges her is so powerful He cannot be resisted nor stopped

II. BABYLON, THE GREAT CULTURAL CENTER OF THE WORLD,
DESTROYED AND THE WORLDWIDE REACTION TO IT
A. Reactions of the kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her V 9
1. They wept and lamented for her when they saw the smoke of her burning
2. They stood at a distance because they are afraid of her torment. If they get too close they too will die. These were not in the city in it's hour of destruction. They are not going to reenter the city. There is nothing that can be saved from it.
3. They expressed their loss verbally. The destruction had come so quickly that no one had time to respond to it. If you were in it, you were dead. If you were not in it, you would not attempt to reenter even though they are taking a total loss on their investment. Their future was gone; they had nothing. These are likely the kings who will be going on to Armageddon soon. Funding their political machines of conquest is going to be difficult from now on.
4. This is not atypical for the political bosses to distance themselves from the devastation of the business world when it is expedient for them to do so.

B. Reactions of the merchants who became rich by her
1. They selfishly mourned and wept over her for no one was buying their merchandise anymore. It should be noted that there is no mourning over the loss of human life in this city! The merchandise is described. As you read through the list consider the massive trade network that had been developed to bring all of this exotic merchandise to a center that could not produce or develop it. The harvesting, mining, gathering, production and development were done elsewhere and shipped here.
a. Gold and silver
b. Precious stones and pearls
c. Fine linen and purple
d. Silk and scarlet
e. Every kind of object of citron wood
f. Every kind of object of ivory
g. Every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron and marble
h. Cinnamon and incense
i. Fragrant oil and frankincense
j. Wine and oil
k. Fine flour and wheat
l. Cattle and sheep
m. Horses and chariots - they were engaged in arms sales, weaponry and associated war machinery more than likely to the highest bidder without thought of ideology or purpose of use.
n. Bodies and souls of men! Human trafficking was a prosperous endeavor. Slavery, prostitution, child sexual/physical abuse, bondage and every demeaning, dehumanizing trade was prevalent. Having the souls of men means they were agreeable to being dominated and accepted it as their way of life. This city, because of its unclean spirits, had become sadistic, masochistic and abusive to the maximum it could be done.
o. Any fruit a soul longed for
p. All things rich and splendid - things you did not even think of were available.
2. They stood at a distance from her, weeping and wailing, for fear they would be included in her torment
a. They grieve for her greatness being ruined!
b. They are shocked at the quickness with which she has fallen!
3. The shipmasters, the sailors and those who trade on the sea stood at a distance in the same shock as their fellow profiteers. This is how we know this event happens before the bowl judgments. After the second bowl judgment all the sea has become the coagulated blood of a dead man; sea travel and trade will be impossible at that time. With the mention of these merchants, we see that the 2/3 of the sea which had not become bloody after the Second Trumpet (8:8,9) were still navigable with no stopping the trade.
a. They too expressed their dismay and disappointment when they see the smoke of her burning
* "What is like the great city?"
b. They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, once again for their own loss
* They bemoan their loss of gain
* They express shocking dismay that' it all happened so quickly!
III. THE VOICE OUT OF HEAVEN ADDRESSES A NEW AUDIENCE AND
DECLARES THE FINALITY OF BABYLON'S JUDGMENT
A. He turns his speech now to heaven and its citizens, the holy apostles and prophets. God has avenged them!
B. A mighty angel took a huge stone and throws it into the sea as an illustration of the violence with which Babylon is overthrown.
C. The voice now finishes his thought about the finality of Babylon's judgment
1. The day the music died (Bye, Bye Miss Babylonian Pie). The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters will never be heard in her again. Parades- gone; concerts- gone; night clubs-finished; no more mardi gras; music festivals -nevermore
2. No craftsman of any sort will ever be there again
3. No mills or bakeries or their goods will be found there. Foodless!
4. No lights will ever shine there again - no night life, no reading or study at night, no dinner celebrations after dark etc.
5. There will never be the joy of marriage, weddings, youthful unions again. Compare with Matthew 24:37-38
6. By their wealth, the merchants had become the great men of earth; now they were ruined
7. By her sorcery (pharmakeia) she deceived the nations. Pharmakeia is the word from which we get our English word pharmacy. It means to mix drugs for medicine. It is called sorcery for it involved those elements mixed together for the rituals practiced in their spiritual ceremonies. Potions, spells, hallucinogens, mind-altering drugs, behavior-modifying drugs helped convince the participants of the altered reality the shaman wanted them to perceive and trust as real. Not all citizens have to be "stoned" for it to have its behavioral and thought modifications. People are sheep-like and can be led, stone-sober into group behavior expected and demanded by trusted leaders. The nations were and are deceived by this sorcery. Compare with pharmaceutical sales in the world today!
8. The voice's final indictment is that in her, Babylon, was found the blood of prophets and saints and of all who were slain on the earth.

This is an actual geographical location somewhere on the earth during the tribulation. It is probably here now and may be more than just a city; it may include an entire nation. As you recall, Babylon was the capital from which the nation of Babylon received its name. It may be rebuilt as the old Babylon or it may be somewhere else. Many hold that it is rebuilt in the former location. Wherever it is, it is real and the judgment of it should sober every believer. It should cause us to examine our lifestyle and if it seems to relate to the Babylonian one we need to carefully consider God's warning and take heed now. Come out of her is a very pointed commandment. Babylon will never rise again after this destruction. Other passages that deal with Babylon's destruction are: Psalm 137:8; Isa 13:19-22; 14:22-23; Jer 50:13-15, 29,39; 51: 24, 29-37, 56