Revelation 18:14-19 - In one hour she has been brought to ruin

18:14-16

The traders and merchants will stand askance. For the luxury and splendour of Babylon will have vanished in a moment. The traders will be terrified. The city which once looked so great, so rich, so permanent will have come to nothing.

18:17-19

“In one hour ...”. The collapse happened suddenly. The collapse will cause people to remember how great she once seemed, and how complete the collapse is. Everyone is affected. The rulers of the nations, the traders and the sea traders. Their power and wealth were all dependent upon Babylon, so would collapse along with the city.

Daniel 11:33-36 - The king will do as he pleases

11:33-35

Verse 33 is quite an amazing verse really. It is a verse for mature Christians, not airy-fairy ones! We are called to be wise and to instruct other Christians. The command is consistent with 2 Tim 4:5: “But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” We are also told that some will “fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered”. The reference to “many who are not sincere” joining them might be referring to the Maccabean revolt when many insincere joined them when it was succeeding. While there are temporal references in all this, and temporal fulfilments, verse 35 points us to the ultimate end. Part of the purpose of the persecution is to refine, to make pure and spotless.

11:36

Having spent some time on the effect on the role of God’s people, we now return to the godless rulers. We have the picture of a king who does as he pleases, is utterly consumed by pride. He exalts and magnifies himself above “every god” and will blaspheme the Lord. There are echoes of this in Rev 13:5,6. He will be successful, but only for a time. Terrible things will happen, but they are all under God’s control, and fulfilling His purposes. And part of that purpose is the exercise of s wrath, His righteous judgement on man’s sin.

Revelation 18:9-13 - In one hour your doom has come

18:9,10

The kings who “committed adultery with her” will weep when they see her burning. For they had invested their future in Babylon. Babylon’s success was vital to their success. Babylon (as representing the world system) had seemed so strong and secure, yet now she was in a state of utter collapse. So the nations were terrified.

18:11-13

The merchants will also weep. For they too had tied themselves to Babylon’s success. Rulers had tied themselves to Babylon, through alliances and providing military support. Traders had tied themselves economically to Babylon. What we have is something akin to the “military industrial complex”, where the whole system is integrated and mutually dependent. The military industrial complex needed wars or the threats of wars to sustain itself. The Babylon system requires sin to keep going. All sorts of trading is mentioned, including human beings sold as slaves.

Daniel 11:29-32 - With flattery he will corrupt

11:29,30

The ruler of the north will venture out again to invade the South. This time his power will have waned and he will be opposed by ships and the battle will become so difficult that he will lose heart. This was Antiochus’s second campaign and marked a significant waning in his power, and Rome would be able to take advantage of this. NIV has “ships of the western coastlands” while ESV has “ships of Kittim”. Kittim was the ancient name for Cyprus, and came to represent other islands and coastlands of Palestine. Humiliated tyrants do not take defeat easily but vent their anger on others. In this case it would be taken out on the “holy covenant”. Not all in Israel would remain faithful to the covenant, but would forsake it and receive favour from Antiochus. Matt 24:12,13 warns of a similar response on the part of some.

11:31,32

“The abomination that causes desolation” is a topic of much debate, and is referred to in Matt 24:15. The temple had been fortified, but would be invaded by Antiochus and profaned. He would institute worship of false gods within the temple. There will be a division within God’s people. Some will be deceived and corrupted by flattery. However, those “who know their God” will firmly resist him. This is a pattern that we see again and again. In our own day there are many within the church who love to go along with the world in its immorality and stupidity. When we see this happen we should not be alarmed, but should remain faithful to the Lord and to resist all evil.

Revelation 18:4-8 - Come out of her, my people

18:4,5

So the first three verses have shown us the ultimate destiny of the world system, we now get the instruction to God’s people. And the command is “Come out of her, my people”. This is a quote from Jeremiah 51:45. Now we need to look at things in balance, i.e. look at the whole of Biblical teaching. This does not mean we have nothing to do with the world, we do not become hermits. In Jer 29 God tells the exiles to settle in Babylon and to seek the well-being of the place. So we are to seek the well-being of the place where we live, but we do so knowing its ultimate destiny. And we do so without denying Christ. As evil increases there comes a point where the world demands that we deny God’s ways or even God Himself. We must not go down that road. So in the West for a lot of the time it was possible to be faithful to Christ and to work within the world. Now this is starting to become increasingly difficult. We must not “share in her sins”. There are parts of the church that think it is a good idea to go along with the world. This is both wrong and foolish. If we do so then we will share in the judgement as well. “Her sins are piled up to heaven” and God will remember her sins. This does not mean He hasn’t previously realised what was going on! Rather it means that the time for judgement has come.

18:6-8

These verses describe the judgement. The world will receive double for what she has done.  She will receive what she has sown. The defeat of Nazi Germany was a good example of this. She inflicted terrible violence on various peoples, but when the tide turned the Soviets inflicted at least equal violence upon Germany. The judgement was terrible. Nazi Germany’s “plagues overtook her”, she was consumed by fire.

Daniel 11:21-28 - He will act deceitfully

11:21-24

A new ruler would now arise, one who was more evil than the previous ones (who were no paragons of virtue!). He is described as being “a contemptible person”. He was not honoured with any royal title and ruled by intrigue, This person is generally taken to be Antiochus Epiphanes (175-163 BC). Previously Israel and Judah had been conquered and sent into exile as an act of God’s judgement upon them for their persistent disobedience. Now they would be suffering persecution. Maybe we can see a parallel here with the Christian life. We are saved when we repent and believe. We need to acknowledge our sins and our sinfulness, and may have suffered much because of our sins. When we are saved there is much restoration, but life does not become easy, and we may suffer persecution.

The contemptible ruler made agreements with religious leaders. He flattered the people, making promises to them. This is a pattern that has oft been repeated in history. This leader will have absolutely no regard for the agreements he has made, abandoning them whenever it seemed convenient to do so. All this would seem to succeed, but only for a time. Again, we can see this pattern in politics time after time.

11:25-28

Egypt will wage war against Epiphanes, but the various intrigues of Epiphanes will have undermined Egypt and Egypt will not succeed. There would be division within the Egyptian rulers. People would lie to each other. For a similar situation in modern times one can think of Hitler and Stalin. For a time they had an alliance, only for Hitler to then launch an invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa), which did not end well for Hitler. There is the same pattern of lies, deceit and selfish ambition. The king of the North then returns to his own land. However, “his heart will be set against the holy covenant”. He profaned the temple, and slaughtered many of the Jews. It is noteworthy that it does not merely say he attacked Israel, but that he worked against the “holy covenant”. He is attacking God Himself. Jesus warned us that they will hate us because they hate Him (John 15:18).

Revelation 18:1-3 - Fallen!

18:1

You can look at Revelation in terms of the power of evil in the world. However, what it is really about is the absolute Lordship of Christ and the ultimate complete collapse of the power of evil. So in the world we see the power of evil being very real. This varies from time to time and place to place. Sometimes it appears as somewhat benign, we know something is wrong, we know there is sin, but things aren’t too bad really. Life in the West was pretty much like that for a significant time after WWII. Then there are places in the world where evil is rampant and life is really bad. In the West we now see the influence of evil becoming more apparent and being a Christian is less comfortable and sometimes uncomfortable. Part of how we respond in such circumstances is knowing that Christ is Lord and that the power of evil will collapse completely. So here we have a lament over the fall of Babylon. The major prophets have laments over the fall of various nations. So here an angel comes down from heaven and had great authority and splendour. We need to know that our help comes from heaven.

18:2,3

“Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!” The laments in the major prophets have played a part in what John sees here, e.g. Is 21:9 for this verse. Babylon, representing the world system, has collapsed completely. Only demons and impure spirits dwell there now. Collapsing regimes become increasingly corrupt, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were examples of this. Before the collapse  nations drank “the maddening wine of her adulteries”. The merchants growing “rich from her excessive luxuries” would seem to be more applicable to the United States, and it is interesting (and worrying!) that the large corporations are leading the way in promoting the “woke” agenda.