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11. An Angel Announces the Finality of Babylon's Fall (Revelation 18:21-24)
REVELATION 18:21-24
21 A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all. 22 The voice of harpists, minstrels, flute players, and trumpeters will be heard no more at all in you. No craftsman, of whatever craft, will be found any more at all in you. The sound of a mill will be heard no more at all in you. 23 The light of a lamp will shine no more at all in you. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will be heard no more at all in you; for your merchants were the princes of the earth; for with your sorcery all the nations were deceived. 24 In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth.”
How the Great City Will be Irretrievably Destroyed (v 21-23a): A great millstone that was used to press olives had to be powered by one or two donkeys. It is quite different from the small stone of a hand-mill, used to grind grain, which can be turned and lifted easily by a woman.
The angel took up such a great millstone and violently cast it into the sea, such that nothing and no one could hold up its immediate downfall (Revelation 18:21). Quickly it sank into the utter depths of the dark sea (Jeremiah 51:63-64). No man can ever bring up this stone again into the light of day.
With this symbolical action the angel described the unstoppable, quick and final downfall of the great city of Babylon. Whether the former Babylon was meant, or whether the Roman and later Christian Rome, the metropolis New York, or the bone of contention, Jerusalem, is not stated in Revelation. Certain and inevitable ruin stands before all of the God-resistant centers of our earth.
The formulated statement that Babylon will “never again” be found appears in verses 14, and between verses 21-23 of Revelation chapter 18, seven times. It is a sign thereof, that the destruction of Babylon is irrevocable and final.
The divine “out” for this city is especially applied to five areas of culture:
First of all, art is mentioned, with extraordinary men and women singers, accompanied by harpists, flutists and trumpeters (Revelation 18:22a). Artists are gifted by God to glorify Him, and are to encourage their listeners by setting texts faithful to the Bible to music. But, as soon as they start singing the melodies of the Antichrist and the mother of all harlots, they become deceivers for the masses. The angel said: The voices of musicians shall never again be heard in this city, because they had placed their talent at the disposal of the great seductress.
Afterward the angel spoke of craftsmen (Revelation 18:22b). In Oriental market streets small workshops border directly onto each other: carpenters, wood-carvers, tailors, knitters, blacksmiths, weavers, butchers, bakers, potters, glass blowers, music instrument makers, dealers in glassware, tinsmiths, book sellers, as well as gold and silver smiths. Most trade groups offer their products at too high a price and have to be bartered down. These masters of their trade must ask themselves the question, whether they have served God, or mammon. Did they honor Christ, or did they carry the sign of the Antichrist? Could the Holy Spirit inspire them and lead them into all truth, or did the lies of the false prophets make many of them into dangerous fanatics? John gives us the answer: The spirit of this city had contaminated all of them. Their artistic craftsmanship should never again be found in Babylon.
The angel spoke further of the grinding of the small millstones, powered by housewives or slaves, to daily mill the fresh flour needed to bake the flat breads for their families (Revelation 18:22c). The grating noise made the effort and loving care of the housewives evident, who felt responsible for the well-being of their husbands, children and slaves. But who did these women worship? Were they enlivened by God and His Lamb, or by the son of the evil one? The angel announced the sound of the small millstones would never again be heard in Babylon. All households of this city, together with those belonging to them, would be destroyed.
The next thing to be spoken of in John's vision is the light of a lamp, the oil lamps in the houses, corridors, spacious rooms and halls (Revelation 18:23a). Ancient Babylon was known for its sea of lights, illuminating the city at night. Nights brought to the hot days at least some cooling. In the brightly lit nights life was awakened. The book “One Thousand and One Nights” was later written in the area of Baghdad. But what did the lamps in the rooms, halls and balconies throw light on? Were they the witnesses of serious study and loving and caring family discussions, or did they light up sin, deceit and seduction? The answer was given indirectly by the angel, who with sadness discerned, that the light of these lamps would never again be kindled in this city.
Finally, the angel spoke of the voice of the bridegroom and bride, which was mostly a trilling sound, which women made by a quick vibration of their tongue, to celebrate the joyous occasion (Revelation 18:23a). Jeremiah had previously spoken of the mirth and gladness of wedding din as being the epitome of human joy (Jeremiah 7:34; 16:9; 33:11). But had the Babylonian weddings been consummated in God's name, or on the basis of a wedding agreement in the Antichrists´ name? Was the love of the bride and groom biblically grounded in the commandments and promises of God, or ideologically built upon the boundless freedom of the evil one? The angel sadly announced that the voice of the bridegroom and the bride would never again be heard in this city. No new life would enliven the future of this evil city. For all who choose to live and die without God and His Lamb there is no hope.
The Accusation of the Angel (v 23b-24): Following the five-fold sad memoriam over Babylon and her residents the angel revealed the pretence of the mystery which lay over this great city, and which had seduced the entire world: He revealed that the great dealers of the city held the power in their hands over the entire earth (Revelation 18:23b). They determined the prices. They took advantage of the needs of smaller producers. They chose the main focus of advertising. With their donations they “greased” the wheels of power politics and made sport with princes. Profit was their god, and their activities reflected their reckless representation of interest. The merchants of Babylon were cosmopolitan in focus. They sucked the nations dry and brought riches and luxury to Babylon. But in case reckless merchant calculation should be the real hallmark of Babylon, then where on our planet isn’t Babylon present?
In spite of their supposed “securities”, many of the rich and mighty have a very uncertain view towards the future, since they have no connection with the true God. Some go to the fortune-teller, have a horoscope drawn up, or hang up a blue bead in their cars or houses to “ward off the evil eye”. Whenever a person does not know himself to be grounded and preserved in the living God, he will search for help and direction from spirits, idols or sorcerers. Satanic black masses, table shuffling, reading of coffee grinds, inquiring after spirits and black magic, all rapidly increase wherever God and His Lamb are rejected. Demons inspire films, and books and magazines become the mouthpiece of unclean spirits. But even without these media every form of sorcery and witchcraft was at home in Babylon. The city was possessed with a host of devils.
The angel said that riches and occultism could lead to the killing of God's servants when these disclosed the sin of the city and called everyone to repentance (Revelation 18:24a). Perhaps there were brave witnesses to Christ living in modern Babylon, as well as Jews faithful to the Torah, who consented to no deceit, and who brought dark-dealings to light. Godless spirits hate those made holy in Christ, since they, by their faith, love and hope delay the break-in of the kingdom of darkness. Those sanctified and cleansed by the blood of Christ are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-14). They stand in a spiritual wrestling match with those deceived by the evil one. Tens of thousands of Christians were murdered in the Roman Empire because they did not worship the Caesars. Once again, in the Inquisition, and in the wars of the Counter-Reformation, hundreds of thousands of Waldensians, Huguenots and Protestants were killed, so much so, that J.A. Bengel noted to Revelation 18:24:“Rome has become the slaughter house of Christ's sheep!”
By stating that in Babylon was found the blood of all who were ever slain on the earth (Revelation 18:24b), the angel gives us reference to the one who was a “murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44). From the very beginning of time he had continuously inspired fanatics, power-hungry and drug addicts to force through their ideas, laws and goals using violence. Particularly tragic are the religious wars and persecutions, because they indicate demonically steered aberrations of their respective religions and churches. Jesus never killed anyone, and He never had anyone killed, even though He had the right to do so. He chose rather to die in the place of all men, to save them from the anger and judgment of God. He once commanded Peter, the leader of His disciples: “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).Woe to that church which, in the name of her dogmas, kills other people! In so doing she places herself in the smelly atmosphere of Babylon, only to be inevitably destroyed. God Himself will bring about the end of such a derailed church, unless she openly and completely repents.
Babylon originally was known as the “gate to God”. It became, however, the door to Satan, and contaminated the whole world. A satanically instigated aberration can rapidly ensue from a religious objective when arrogance, pursuit of profit, and one's own honor are coupled to it. The Antichrist, False Prophet, and Harlot of Babylon, lie in wait for every chance.
We should not forget that Jesus had particularly accused Jerusalem because her residents had killed the prophets and stoned those God had sent to her (Matthew 23:37). In saying so, the Son of God had His own death on the cross in view, which had to occur in Jerusalem. The two witnesses of the end time would also be killed in Jerusalem (Revelation 11:3-13; 18:20, 24). Could it be that in the end time Babylon will also toss its mantle over Jerusalem, so that the former “Holy City” becomes very unholy. Could it be because she chose not to have her dark, unchristian heart transformed? What does Babylon have to do with Jerusalem? In the end time both belong inexplicably to each other.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, The one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 23:37-39)
PRAYER: Holy Father in heaven, we worship to You and Your only Son because You condemned, in Your judgment, Babylon, as the source of all deception, to be entirely destroyed. Help us and our beloved not to fall into the traps of the deceiver, but to prefer to bear hatred, persecution and death rather than clinging to the deception of the father of lying. Amen.
QUESTION:
- What are the angel's final complaints against the mother of harlots and her followers?