Revelation 18:9-24 - Homiletics

Lamentations over the fall of Babylon.

In our previous study of "Babylon the great," we had occasion to remark that there were three forms under which a great Babylon might be recognized.

1 . In that worldwide spirit of alienation from God which has corrupted every form of human life everywhere.

2 . In any Church which, allying itself with the world power, fornicates therewith, and puts itself on the throne instead of God.

3 . Most manifestly of all in the papal Church, where every form of spiritual harlotry is seen at its very worst. Mr. Porter remarks, £ "Zion is the place where God dwells with men; great Babylon, the place where the priest sits in the seat of God." We would rather say, "Zion is where God dwells with men; Babylon the great is where any x , any unclean spirit, commercial or religious, sets aside the will of God, and so comes between men and their Maker." This harlot is seated on seven mountains—which are seven kings or kingdoms—which are seven heads of the beast. The world's might and energy are "beheld concentrated under this mystic number seven—in the one symbol of the beast; and this, it is important to bear in mind, is not merely Rome, nor the Roman empire, but a general symbol of secular anti-Christian power." If we thus see spirit rather than form referred to under this varied symbolism, we shall perceive at once the reason why some parts of these chapters apply rather to a huge commercial power and other parts to a huge ecclesiastical one; and hence the difficulty which is so frankly and clearly stated by Dean Alford £ will no longer be felt. As the writer in the 'Speaker's Commentary' remarks, "The whole passage points not to any single city, at any one single period, but, to the world city throughout all time;" and, we would add, not only to a religious but to a commercial harlotry; to any and every attraction by which the spirit of man is seduced from allegiance to God.

I. THE SAME SPIRIT OF ALIENATION FROM GOD , WHICH ASSUMES A RELIGIOUS FORM , ALSO PRESENTS ITSELF IN A COMMERCIAL ASPECT , ALL THE WORLD OVER . It is just as possible to put "business" between man and God as it is to put a priest between man and God. So far as we can read this Apocalyptic word, the commercial will survive the downfall of the papal Babylon. For ( Revelation 17:17 ) we are told that when the kings of the earth have ceases their amours with the papacy, they will "give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled;" as if there would be even a more determined manifestation of carnal world force after the death or, at any rate, during the decline of the papacy. Certainly it is that these are the two lines along which history is moving at this hour. The papacy as a whole is on the decline. The world is opening up more and more to commercial interchange; and it is just as clear that the commerce of the world, in the godlessness which so largely pervades it, is Babylon the great on the secular side, as that papal Rome is Babylon the great on its ecclesiastical side. And just as easily as we could draw out a ground plan in outline of a papal Babylon from the details in Revelation 17:1-18 ., so can we draw out a ground plan of the commercial Babylon from the details supplied in Revelation 18:1-24 . £ Ten features.

1 . Seated on many waters.

2 . A dominant power: "ruling over the kings of the earth."

3 . Proud and boastful: "I sit as a queen."

4 . Serenely secure: "I shall see no mourning."

5 . Self-sufficient: "I am no widow."

6 . Luxurious living in "wantonness."

7 . Intoxicated, and intoxicating others, with her splendour.

8 . Carrying on an international merchandise.

9 . Engaged in shipping.

10. Exporting or importing in sevenfold variety:

Could there be a more precise description of the commercial world spirit, which is at work among all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues—a spirit of which this England of ours in her world wide transactions is the chief manifestation at this moment? So that, as Dean Alford ominously remarks, some parts of the description rather suit London than Rome. Commercially, indeed, we have done with any avowed traffic in the bodies of men. But that in the sight of God many of the accepted maxims of some men of business involve a fearful trifling with consciences and souls, is not open to question. It is well known that almost every variety of export and import named here is ours. Our shipping interests are far larger than those of any other nation on the face of the earth. Our gross tonnage through the Suez Canal alone shows this. Our merchandise touches every shore. The splendour and renown of our name and fame intoxicates many and many a merchant. Luxury, self sufficiency, pride, godlessness,—these are to a grievous extent our bane and our poison. And who would venture to dispute the fact that, from sheer love of greed and gold, thousands on thousands will play fast and loose with truth and principle, and the right and God, and will say, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us"? And the fearful fact ought to be recognized and acknowledged, that even the hatred which some entertain of the priestly yoke arises from a refusal to wear any yoke at all. "Our tongues are our own; who is Lord over us?" So men speak. This evil is certainly so huge that it is nothing less than a "Babylon the great."

II. THIS BABYLON IS DOOMED . The means and methods of Babylon's fall have been indicated in the preceding homily ( q.v. ) . They are fourfold.

1 . Divine overruling.

2 . Human desertion.

3 . Heavy judgments.

4 . Retribution and desolation.

III. THE FALL OF BABYLON WILL CALL FROM MANY A BITTER LAMENTATION . There are three sources from which the lament will come.

1 . From kings, as they see the great city which was the glory of their empire reduced and brought low.

2 . From merchants, whose sources of wealth are dried up, so that "no one buyeth their merchandise any more." £

3 . From men of the sea, who gained their living by trading from port to port, because there is no longer any principal mart with which to trade. And clearly this is such a lamentation as godless men would make. We read in Revelation 16:21 that when the destruction came men blasphemed God because of the hail. In strict accordance therewith is the spirit of the wail over Babylon's fall It is not that God has not been glorified. It is not that her busy life has been used for purposes most utterly selfish and often vile, for the lamentation over the ruin is just as selfish as their commerce itself has been ( Revelation 16:11 ). Their cargoes no one buys any more! Surely, nothing could bespeak the degradation of man when in apostasy from God, more than such a lamentation as this. It all centres in self. They have made their commerce their god. Ah! earthly souls will be earthly still, even under the ruin of all they hold most dear. Here we see sketched before us men—men made for God, to enjoy him, to love him, and to obey him—clad in sackcloth; and why? Because they have not honoured their God? Ah, no! But because no one buys their cargo.! It is as if an orphan child should centre all his grief on a lost farthing, and think nothing of his disobedience to his lost parents. Nor can we fail to detect in this lament a note of bitterness against God. They see that the great Power they have been ignoring is working against them, and that they are bankrupt for eternity. Terrible beyond expression must it be for a man who has lived for earth, to find the world for which he lived departing forever. How bare and forlorn and desolate must he feel! The harpers, and singers, and pipers, and trumpeters are forever still; the sound of hammer and anvil is heard no more; the whirl of the mill has ceased; the sheen of the silver, the glitter of the gold, the light of the lamp, have vanished away; the voice of gladness, and of the bridegroom and the bride, are hushed; and the man is left alone. His gods are gone, and he is confronted with the God whom he neglected, to find—alas! too late—that his whole life has been a mistake. He has loved and served the creature more than the Creator, and now, instead of finding his joy in God when every earthly joy is gone, his only look out is a vista of bankruptcy and of irreparable woe. All his dignity has disappeared, and is reduced to a moan and groan that no one buys his cargo!

IV. THIS PICTURE OF GODLESS AND HOPELESS LAMENTATION OUGHT NOT TO BE STUDIED IN VAIN .

1 . We should first of all learn that the hold of God on all that we have and are is absolute. We are but tenants at will. The proud and conceited talk as if the world were ours—"My river is my own, and I have made it for myself"—is an abomination to the Lord. God has never waived his rights in entrusting to us his loans. Let merchants, stockbrokers, bankers, bondholders, traders, learn this lesson. In our great city it is too often forgotten. At any moment God may bring all our possessions to nought; and he will do that at his own time, not waiting for ours.

2 . It may well yield us matter for lamentation that the use of so much earthly capital is a perverted one. Many of God's gifts are put in alliance with overreaching, corruption, and fraud. In themselves they are not to be despised. "Every creature of God is good," etc. But when things of wealth and beauty become the instruments of apostasy, it is sad indeed. And the more so when we add to all this the thought that Divine gifts misused do, in so being misused, deceive and ruin the souls of men, and in proportion to the joy which their right and proper use would have brought is the treasured up woe which their abuse will certainly ensure.

3 . Let us learn to look at whatever is beautiful and costly and artistic as precious in the truest sense, only as it is allied to or in harmony with righteousness. Beauty and wealth are only of genuine value when employed in accordance with God's will and Word.

4 . Let us take care that, so far as we are concerned, we have no share in this heart apostasy of Babylon the great, even in the commercial world. The voice cries now, "Come out of her, my people" (cf. Isaiah 48:20 ; Isaiah 52:11 ; Jeremiah 1:8 ; Jeremiah 51:6 , Jeremiah 51:45 ; 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 ). If we would not share her plagues, we must not share her sins. "Come ye out from," etc. For in this London of ours Babylon the great and the New Jerusalem are side by side. There are those who are in Babylon the great, the slaves of godless gain or godless pleasure. There are those who belong to the new and eternal city, the New Jerusalem, who grave on the bells of the horses, "Holiness to the Lord," and whose daily toil is being sanctified for him. And oh! it is worth a struggle to be living even now in that city of God, into which no foe can enter and which no convulsion can for a moment disturb. It may cost something to renounce all fellowship with Babylon. But it is worth infinitely more than it costs. Yea, to be right is so transcendently great, that the question of cost should scarce be deemed worth a thought. Better die with Christ than reign with Caesar. Let us dare to be singular. By the gewgaws of this Babylonian harlotry many are attracted. So be it not with us. A nobler aim be ours, even to "seek the things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God;" and when our communion with this earth is sundered, we shall find our home in the New Jerusalem. Hence we may "go forth of Babylon … with a voice of singing," and may "utter it even to the ends of the earth The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob."