The Big Funeral

Series on Revelation

II The Viewpoint

E Cycle Five, Seven Messages of Judgment on Babylon

4 The Mourning

Text: 18:9-20

Introduction

This section regarding Babylon, the city of this world is filled with laments. We are all familiar with the fact that there is a book in the Bible called Lamentations, written by the prophet Jeremiah. In it Jeremiah, after the city was destroyed and the Temple burnt, bewailed the miserable state of his own nation, and John Calvin adds, “Not after the manner of heathens, but that he might show that even in so disastrous a state of things some benefit might be derived from what he says…It is an easy thing to extol in high terms the favor of God in prosperity, and also to exhort those who have reasons to hope well to entertain confidence…but when things are in a state of despair, and God seems to have forsaken his Church, since prophecy still remains in its force, and God appears as stretching forth his hand to the miserable, and to such as are almost in a hopeless state, we hence derive much benefit.” Thus the Lamentations of Jeremiah ultimately direct people to hope in God. However the laments in our text hold out no hope at all. In the Bible there are approximately 130 laments. Individuals lament in affliction, prophets lament over heathen nations and their own country, and there are laments over suffering and death. Almost all of them are calling people to repent and turn to God, but in our text it is too late. Too late that is for all except the saints of God for we read in verse 20, Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you. Literally the last phrase should be translated “For God hath avenged you on her;” in other words, for God hath judged your judgment on her. This is the The answer to the prayer of the martyrs in Revelation 6:10. Hengstenberg suggests “the doom which she pronounced upon you,” and Wordsworth, makes the words mean, “He has taken your cause out of her hands into his own.” The meaning is clear, for it is just as Paul says in II Thessalonians 1:6, that Jesus will be “revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.” and “He will punish those who do not know God,” Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you. This is described here in 18:9-19 with a series of laments from the mighty, the merchants and the mariners.

I The Mighty

In verses 9 and 10 it is the mighty, the powerful, the kings who mourn. When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: “ ‘Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!’ It is not without reason that the Bible warns us that the love of money is the root of all evil. The kings mentioned here are not the same as the kings in 17:12 and 16 who participated in the destruction and fall of the great whore, The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast…The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. By contrast the kings mentioned here in verses 9 and 10 mourn the loss of the prostitute, and they mourn her loss because these kings were apparently merchant nations who benefited from commercial trade with the anti-God world system. I have been told and passed on the dictum that when you are trying to understand why certain things happen in the halls of power it is best to follow the money. Do that here, because the love of money is the root of all evil. By the way Ronald Reagan said, “It’s been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.” Note also that these kings stand far off because the doom of Babylon forecasts their own demise and destruction. Remember Psalm 2 predicts their fate when God the Father says to His Son, “Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”

II The Merchants

For the exact same motive the merchants now lament the destruction of the great harlot in verses 11-17, The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more—cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men. “They will say, ‘The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.’ The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn and cry out: “ ‘Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls! In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!’ The catalog of products is somewhat bewildering even in the twenty-first century. The luxurious life-style of the upper classes in Rome was unbelievable. They had products from Spain and Egypt, China and Africa, India and what is present day Europe. I had the good fortune to spend a few days in Manhattan when my wife was attending classes there. Near the port of New York there is a profusion of exotic foods and I passed open air vegetable and fruit markets that had many items I had never seen before and could not identify at all. Ancient Rome was that way. It took fleets of boats, disembarking at Tyre, to bring not only precious metals, iron and exotic woods; spices, wine and oil and ivory and fabrics of every kind and wheat and flour, but also beasts of burden and slaves. We are explicitly told that “The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment.” Money is the thing; gold not God. It is a fitting retribution because you may remember in 13:17 we are told that the beast deprived the followers of the Lamb of the right to buy and sell. Now the merchants who worshiped the beast are themselves denied that right, and they realize that without buyers their business is doomed. Customers can no longer buy because of the economic collapse that has made buying and selling impossible. in 2012 that does not sound so impossible. We should also note that the last group listed is the bodies and souls of men. In the first century slavery was an established legal institution and we see here how cheap human life was. Not only is it listed last, but the Scripture states with disdain it was not only the bodies but the souls of men that were enslaved and sold for gold. Life was cheap and money was God, and my how they mourn their financial loss. Thank God that we believers were redeemed not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Lamb of God. In those days there were no orphanages, and abandoned children became slaves along with prisoners of war and debtors. We think we are sophisticated, but things haven’t changed much because we just murder our unwanted children in abortion clinics. Human life is still pretty cheap, and the first and only people to care and start orphanages and adoption services are Christians.

III Mariners

Now joining in the lamentation are the sailors, the seamen without whom none of these diverse dainties could have been bought and sold. There were no eighteen wheelers, and no freight trains, just ships. Other than slow moving caravans most of the products came by boat. In the twenty-first century where are the treasure hunters going but to the bottom of the ocean where the ships are sunk. So we read in verses 17-19, Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, “Was there ever a city like this great city?” They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out: “Woe! Woe, O great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin!” Undoubtedly, many people have gone to sea because of their love of it as it is celebrated in Psalm 107:23-29, Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful deeds in the deep. For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. But the issue here is not the majesty or the thrill of sailing the seven seas that is lost; it’s the money. The mariners obviously benefited from the trade and there was a lot of it. In I Kings 10 we read about Solomon’s wealth and it says in verse 22, The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons. Ezekiel in chapter 27 pronouncing God’s judgment on another ancient city, the seaport of Tyre, recalls the nations that traded with her: Persia, Tarsus, Greece, Rhodes, Aram (Syria), Israel and Judah, Damascus, Assyria, Sheba and Arabia and many more we would not recognize. Then Ezekiel recounts her end and the mourning in almost the same words as here in Revelation 18. In verses 29-32 he writes, All who handle the oars will abandon their ships; the mariners and all the sailors will stand on the shore. They will raise their voice and cry bitterly over you; they will sprinkle dust on their heads and roll in ashes. They will shave their heads because of you and will put on sackcloth. They will weep over you with anguish of soul and with bitter mourning. As they wail and mourn over you, they will take up a lament concerning you. Now neither Rome or Babylon was a seaport, but they depended heavily on this trade by sea both for their necessities and their excesses. Furthermore, John is not writing about a particular city such as Babylon here; the name applies to the city of civilization, the Godless city of man. In the end then it should be clear that money is the root of all evil. A wise Thomas Jefferson said, “Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.” Ralph Waldo Emerson caught the temper of Babylon when he wrote, “A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.” This is Babylon where you live and its greed will not end well. As we said at the beginning, only those who trust in the Lord will rejoice when the money is gone. Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.’ ”