Revelation 18:9-20

When the World Isn't Ready for What God Does

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on August 23, 2020 at Beacon Church.

My twin brother and I had the same best friend when we were around twelve years old. We loved hanging out at their house. He had a big family; a noisy family; a close family. In the colder months the woodstove was always going. They had a woodshop where they made crafts to sell at markets. So their house always had a pleasant smell of wood with a hint of lacquer. We would go there after school and head straight for the kitchen, grab a snack, and go play. His parents were immigrants from “the old country.” I remember his mom being funny and very maternal; his dad was a warm, quiet man who was loving but firm. He was the leader; the calm, stable centre in their family. And one day, just like that, he died of an aneurism. It was devastating. Four sons and a daughter lost their dad without the chance to say “goodbye.” A wife lost her husband, her lover, her anchor. I had been to a couple of funerals before but never to a Catholic church. And I had never seen people grieve like that—wailing, moaning, hopeless.

Almost every graveside ceremony I’ve done has included a reading from 1 Thessalonians 4:13, “we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” Next, Paul says, “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so…” and he goes on to explain why believers can have hope even in such loss. Last Sunday we saw, in verses 1-8, that the second coming of Jesus will be heralded by the way believers see Babylon fall and realize God is fulfilling His Word; and heralded by the way believers will respond to God’s Word as they hear it preached. Believers will prepare themselves for the return of the Lord, purify themselves, and pray. But today, in verses 9-20, we see that unbelievers will mourn like people with no hope. When the people in these verses react to the fall of Babylon, their hopelessness is manifested in three ways that should make you examine yourself and what it is that gives you hope.

They are damned by association

Before we look at who mourns for Babylon, please remember that this is not talking about the literal, ancient city of Babylon in Iraq. This is a symbolic way of referring to the city of Rome. Also, by calling Rome a “great prostitute” in chapter 17, we learned that this city is also a spiritually adulterous, apostate church associated with the city of Rome. So in these prophecies God has pointed His finger and identified the guilty party: the institution of the Roman Catholic Church, or more specifically, the Vatican. The first thing I want you to observe here is who mourns for Babylon when they see her fall. And you will notice that they really see that she has fallen. Which means this is a prophetic glimpse of a time immediately after God has judged the Church in Rome. But John describes Rome’s fall here using words from a prophecy about the fall of different guilty city, where the only ones who mourn were in cahoots with her.

These verses are a lengthy allusive reference to the fall of Tyre, a city-state on the coast of Lebanon. God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel and announced Tyre’s doom in Ezekiel 26-28. These verses in Revelation are filled with quotes from that prophecy about Tyre. In fact, the whole structure of this passage is modeled after that prophecy. Three groups of people lament the fall of both cities: I’m going to call them the monarchs, the merchants, and the mariners. (It's really the "kings of the earth," the "merchants of the earth," and the, "sailors of the sea" but "monarchs, merchants, and mariners" is easier to remember!)

The monarchs are the focus of vv9-10; the merchants are the focus in vv11-17a; the mariners are the focus in vv 17b-19. It’s the same three groups in Ezekiel that mourn for the city of Tyre: Monarchs (Eze 26:16-18), Mariners (Eze 27:29-30), and Merchants (Eze 27:36).

• 16 Then all the princes of the sea will step down from their thrones and remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground and tremble every moment and be appalled at you.  17 And they will raise a lamentation over you and say to you, "'How you have perished, you who were inhabited from the seas, O city renowned, who was mighty on the sea; she and her inhabitants imposed their terror on all her inhabitants!  18 Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall, and the coastlands that are on the sea are dismayed at your passing.'  (Ezek. 26:16-18 ESV; emphasis added)

• The mariners and all the pilots of the sea stand on the land  30 and shout aloud over you and cry out bitterly. They cast dust on their heads and wallow in ashes; (Ezek. 27:29b-30 ESV; emphasis added)

• The merchants among the peoples hiss at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever.' (Ezek. 27:36 ESV; emphasis added)

Chapter 27 in particular is a lament for Tyre, featuring monarchs, mariners, and merchants, and it also features a long list of luxury commodities in the middle of the lament (c.f. Eze 27:12-25), which shows how the mariners are connected to Tyre: it was their ships that brought Tyre her precious cargoes. The city of Tyre was an island fortress at the centre of an international economy: “The ships of Tarshish traveled for you with your merchandise. So you were filled and  heavily laden in the heart of the seas,” (Eze 27:25).

Ezekiel pictures Tyre like a great ship full of wealth and people, destroyed and drowned by the very sea she depended on: “Your riches, your wares, your merchandise, your mariners… your dealers in merchandise… all your crew that is in your midst, sink into the heart of the seas on the day of your fall,” (Eze 27:27). For Ezekiel, the “seas” that destroy Tyre are a symbol for “the nations” God used to bring about its destruction: God says, “I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock,” (Eze 26:3-4).

Two weeks ago, in Rev 17, we saw that the fall of the Roman Church also comes at the hands of the nations she relied on. The connections and parallels with the fall of Tyre are worth studying carefully. But two more interesting connections jumped out to me: 1) 17:16 alluded to the way Israel’s queen Jezebel was devoured by dogs. Jezebel was the daughter of the king of Tyre. 2) In Greek and Roman mythology, Tyre was the birthplace of the goddess Europa—from whom Europe gets its name—who was mistress to Zeus (or Jupiter for the Romans). The point is, it seems that there are a lot of good reasons why the Holy Spirit through John chose to foretell the fall of Rome by alluding to a prophecy about the fall of Tyre, fulfilled long before. Some connections only become visible in hindsight, once it is clear that this is about the fall of Rome. So when these connections with ancient Tyre are seen, they function to confirm that interpretation.

Now this might seem obvious but notice how sad they are when they see Rome fall. The monarchs: they will weep and wail when they see the smoke of her burning (9b); The merchants: they will weep and mourn because they will lose their businesses (11); The mariners: they will cry out and weep and mourn when they see the smoke of her burning (18, 19). This is very significant for three reasons:

1.     First, in 17:16, we learned that these kings had come to hate the Church of Rome.

2.     Second, in 18:5, we can see clearly that God is judging her because of her absolutely massive record of wrongs—her sins were piled as high as the sky—and God remembered her iniquity.

3.     Third, in 18:7-8, we saw that because symbolic Babylon was so arrogant, so defiant and unrepentant, God strikes her down, it says, “in a single day.”

Now in Bible prophecy it is normal for a day in the prophecy to represent a literal year.

• According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years…  (Num. 14:34a ESV; emphasis added)

• For I assign to you a number of days… equal to the number of the years of their punishment. …Forty days I assign you, a day for each year. (Ezek. 4:5a, 6b ESV; emphasis added)

So 40 prophetic days = 40 literal years in Numbers 14:34; and again days stand for years in Ezekiel 4:5 and 6. And we find the same principle of a day-for-a-year in the way Daniel 9:24-27 was fulfilled: seventy sevens, or 490 days in the prophecy, were fulfilled by 490 literal years.

Therefore, verse 8 seems to predict the fall of the Church of Rome in a single year. But whether it will happen in a symbolic “day” (a year) or a literal day, the swiftness and finality of God’s justice, when it happens, should be a sign to people who see it happen that it was God who did it. Now then, let me ask you a question: is there any hint in these verses that the monarchs, the merchants, and the mariners repent and throw themselves on God’s mercy? None. They mourn for Babylon, for the fall of the Vatican. In fact, they are also guilty by their association with Babylon. They do not care about how she had sinned against God. Her crimes don’t seem to bother them at all. And we can see why.

The monarchs: they joined in Rome's religious apostasy (v9a); they benefited from Rome's religious economy (v9a); The merchants: they used to make a living from trading with her (11); they gained wealth from Rome in the past (15); The mariners: they had admired Rome's grandeur (17b); they had grown rich by her wealth (19b). So that’s the first thing we learn about their reaction when God judges Rome: they don’t recognize it as divine justice; they don’t repent of their own sins. They mourn for her because they were complicit with Rome in her sins.

They are dismayed by loss

Despite their grief, the words of the monarchs, the merchants, and the mariners don’t give the impression that they really cared about symbolic Babylon as much as they cared about themselves. Their sadness is a selfish sadness. Now that’s not so obvious in the way the monarchs mourn for her, but there’s a hint of it in verse 9. “And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning,” (Rev. 18:9 ESV). It doesn’t say they loved her, only that they “lived in luxury with her”—and so “when they see the smoke of her burning” they don’t say, “O Lord, have pity on her!” or “Alas, beloved Babylon!”—they grieve because of how powerful she was and now she’s gone. “They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, ‘Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come,’” (Rev. 18:10 ESV).

The merchants and mariners are even more self-serving in their lamenting: the merchants “mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore,” (v11), and in verse 16, they aren’t sad about her as much as they are sad that so much wealth has been lost:

16 "Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls!  17 For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste." And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off… (Rev. 18:16-17 ESV)

The mariners do admire her (v18) and we’ll come back to what they say there, but their lament in verse 19 is because of how much money they made off her: “Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste…” (Rev. 18:19 ESV).

Notice this isn’t even about religion. That ship had sailed long ago. Earlier in Revelation, people were in awe of the power they saw in this church, in the Beast when the popes were in power; they worshiped the beast (13:4), everyone except true believers worshiped the beast (13:8) instead of God (14:7), and God condemned the false religion of the apostate church: “Another angel, a second, followed, saying, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality,’”(Rev. 14:8 ESV). But that was in the past. From the time of the fourth bowl judgment, people began to resent the rule of the Popes (16:9); and they rebelled against the rule of the Popes (16:10); and they turned against the Roman Church (17:16). In chapter 18, when they see the smoke of her burning, the monarchs, the merchants, and the mariners, it’s not about religion: it’s about money.

That’s the purpose of the detailed list of cargo in verses 12-13.

…Cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble,  13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.  (Rev. 18:12-13 ESV)

Mounce noticed that these 29 commodities fall into six categories:

(1)   precious metals and gems,

(2)   fabrics for expensive clothing,

(3)   ornamental pieces,

(4)   aromatic substances,

(5)   foodstuffs,

(6)   animals and people.[i]

And all of these were big ticket items imported by the city of Rome at the time when John wrote the book of Revelation.[ii] Including slaves for the games in the Colosseum. What I infer from all this is that although the Church of Rome, by the time this is fulfilled, no longer dictates how people worship, she is invested in imports and exports; she is very connected to the stock markets and finances of the nations. So the merchants in particular mourn because of what Rome’s fall has cost them. But they are also terrified.

Then notice the way the grief of the mourners shows another pattern: each lament is more intense than the one before it. First the kings of the earth raise a brief lament in verse 10; then the merchants a lengthier lament; then the sailors throw ashes on their heads in even greater sorrow. In Greek, the kings' lament is 18 words; the merchants' lament is 28 words; the sailors' lament is 31 words. John's word count poetically shows the grief developing and getting worse with each round.

There's an old Agatha Christie novel that had a title so politically incorrect and offensive it was given a new title, Ten Little Indians, that was also too politically correct and offensive, so that finally the book was called And Then There Were None. Despite the problems with the title, that book is still the world's best-selling mystery novel and one of the best-selling books ever. The earlier titles referred to a nursery rhyme featured in the story. Eight people are invited to an estate on a mysterious island. When they arrive, they meet a butler and a cook. Things get more mysterious when the butler and cook admit they don't know who the host is--they work for Mr. Ulick Norman Owen, but they have never met him. Things get even more mysterious when the first evening after supper a recording is played that accuses all the guests of murder. Then one of them realizes that the name of their host, Mr. U. N. Owen, is a play on words--his name is U.N. Owen, or unknown. The plot thickens as one by one each guest dies until only one is left.

And that's what I'm saying is happening here in Revelation 18:9-19. The characters are being picked off one group at a time. That's why the mariners, the sailors, the ones who seem to have been the least familiar with Babylon the Great, are the ones who grieve the most. By the time it's their turn to mourn, they are the only group left standing. Events have happened so fast. They are sickened to realize what started with Rome’s “burning” (9b), has engulfed everything. They realize what started with the fall of the Roman Church has brought down the whole house of cards.

The Monarchs: they said, “for in a single hour your judgment has come,” (v10); the Merchants: they wept aloud, “For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste,” (v17); the Mariners: they cried out, “For in a single hour she has been laid waste,” (v19). But not only does news of the ruin of Rome travel fast to the monarchs, then the merchants, then the mariners far away, her fall is a portent of economic disaster they see racing toward them like a tsunami. That’s why they mourn. That’s why they are dismayed. That’s why they see nothing but devastation. They have a sinking feeling they too are finished.

Remember the unsinkable Titanic? Ezekiel describes the fall of Tyre like a ship going down with no survivors. And when that ship goes down, the economy goes down with her.

In their wailing they raise a lamentation for you and lament over you: 'Who is like Tyre, like one destroyed in the midst of the sea? When your wares came from the seas, you satisfied many peoples; with your abundant wealth and merchandise you enriched the kings of the earth. Now you are wrecked by the seas, in the depths of the waters; your merchandise and all your crew in your midst have sunk with you.  (Ezek. 27:32-34 ESV)

Revelation 18:9-20 predicts a time when unbelievers will see the city and Church of Rome, fall suddenly, over the course of a year or as quickly as a day, and not realize it is a portent, a harbinger, a herald of final judgment coming quickly as the Day of the Lord approaches. They will have no hope left when they see all their hopes go up in smoke.

But you—I’m talking to Christians—is your hope in earth that passes away or in the Word of the Lord that will never pass away? Verse 20 adds Christians to the list of people who see these things and react. Believers will see it as the fulfillment of the Word of the Lord: “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!" (Rev. 18:20 ESV). I would suggest these are the words of the same voice that spoke from heaven in verse 4: “Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues…’” (Rev. 18:4 ESV).

It is the voice of God speaking to His people, the voice believers hear and listen to and love—when we hear that voice, we do not feel condemned; we are not dismayed or devasted. When we see God’s Word being fulfilled, believers do not stand far away in fear; all who trust in Jesus “rejoice!” (v20). This is how all Christians who love God’s Word will react to the fall of Babylon.

Verse 20 is a quote from Jeremiah 51:48, “Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for joy over Babylon…” but here John replaces everyone on earth with “saints, and apostles and prophets”: The Church the Lord Jesus Christ has built on the foundation of the prophets and apostles (see Mat 16:18; Eph 2:20). This is the people of God. This is how they  respond when they see God keeping His Word—the saints believe the Word of God; the apostles and prophets through whom God gave us His Word; together we rejoice as we see God perform His Word.

You are the bread of life, dear Lord, to me,

your holy word the truth that rescues me.

Give me to eat and live with you above;

teach me to love your truth, for you are love.[iii]