Bird's-eye view
In Revelation 18, we are not given a new prophecy so much as a detailed commentary on the judgment announced in the previous chapters. The great Harlot, Babylon the Great, has been judged, and now we are invited to the funeral. But this is not a somber affair for the saints. It is a declaration of God's righteous victory over the seductive and blasphemous world system that has persecuted the church and intoxicated the nations. This chapter is a loud, glorious, and final announcement that the city of man has fallen, and it has fallen for good. The angel who brings this news is not a minor functionary; his glory illuminates the entire earth, signifying that the truth of God's judgment dispels all the darkness and deception of the fallen world order. The charge sheet is read out, and the reasons for her destruction are made plain: her demonic nature, her spiritual fornication with the world's rulers, and her corrupting economic sensuality.
Outline
- 1. The Proclamation of Babylon's Fall (Rev 18:1-3)
- a. The Glorious Messenger (Rev 18:1)
- b. The Mighty Proclamation (Rev 18:2a)
- c. The Desolate Result (Rev 18:2b)
- d. The Threefold Indictment (Rev 18:3)
- i. The Nations Deceived (Rev 18:3a)
- ii. The Kings Corrupted (Rev 18:3b)
- iii. The Merchants Enriched (Rev 18:3c)
Context In Revelation
Chapter 18 follows directly on the heels of the description of the great Harlot, Babylon, in chapter 17. There, we learned her identity as the great city that reigns over the kings of the earth, riding the beast of pagan empire. In the preterist framework that I hold to, this refers primarily to apostate Jerusalem in the first century, which had become a harlot by rejecting her husband, Yahweh, and colluding with the beast of Rome to crucify the Messiah. She became the very thing she was supposed to stand against. Now in chapter 18, the consequences of that harlotry are announced in detail. This is not a future fall at the end of time, but a declaration of the historical judgment that came upon Jerusalem in A.D. 70, a judgment that serves as a pattern for how God deals with all such apostate, persecuting cities and cultures throughout history. The fall of Babylon is the fall of the old covenant order, clearing the way for the new covenant kingdom, the New Jerusalem, to fill the earth.
Verse-by-Verse Commentary
v. 1 After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory.
John sees "another angel." This distinguishes him from the angel guiding John in chapter 17. This is a messenger of high rank, sent directly from the throne. He comes "down from heaven," indicating the verdict is celestial, not terrestrial. The judgment of Babylon is not a historical accident but a divine decree. He has "great authority," the kind of authority that can execute such a sentence. And notice the effect: "the earth was illumined with his glory." The glory of God, reflected in His messenger, is like a sunrise that banishes the night. Babylon operates in darkness, through deception, shadows, and lies. But the truth of God's righteous judgment is a blinding light. When God decides to act, the first thing that happens is that things are seen for what they are. The glory of this angel exposes the tawdry fraudulence of Babylon's counterfeit glory.
v. 2 And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “FALLEN, FALLEN IS BABYLON THE GREAT! And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean bird and a prison of every unclean and hateful beast.
The announcement is not whispered. It is bellowed "with a mighty voice." This is a public proclamation for all the world to hear. "FALLEN, FALLEN IS BABYLON THE GREAT!" The repetition, echoing Isaiah 21:9, emphasizes the certainty and finality of the collapse. The verb is in the past tense, a prophetic perfect. From heaven's perspective, it is already done. God speaks, and it is so.
What follows is a description of the utter desolation. She has become a "dwelling place of demons." When a culture, a city, or a church rejects the presence of the Holy Spirit, the space does not remain empty. It becomes haunted. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does the spiritual realm. The departure of God's glory means the arrival of demonic squatters. She is a "prison" for every kind of spiritual filth. The imagery is of a place so thoroughly corrupt that it is quarantined. The unclean spirits, birds, and beasts are all Old Testament symbols of moral and spiritual defilement. Babylon, which presented itself as the pinnacle of human culture and sophistication, is revealed to be a stinking, haunted ruin, a cage of spiritual corruption.
v. 3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the power of her sensuality.”
Here is the reason for the verdict, the "for" that grounds the judgment in justice. The indictment is threefold, covering the cultural, political, and economic spheres. First, "all the nations have drunk of the wine." Babylon is a cultural exporter of idolatry. Her worldview is intoxicating, promising freedom and pleasure, but it is laced with poison. It is the "wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality." The sin and the punishment are mixed in the same cup. Spiritual adultery, which is idolatry, is the foundational sin. Cultures that buy into Babylon's lies are drinking down God's wrath along with the pleasure.
Second, "the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her." This is political compromise. Rulers and governments get into bed with the harlot system for power, for stability, for advantage. They form unholy alliances, trading away principle for political gain. They legitimize her idolatries in their halls of power.
Third, "the merchants of the earth have become rich by the power of her sensuality." This is the economic engine of the whole system. Babylon's "sensuality" or "luxury" creates immense wealth. The merchants, the global capitalists, are the ones who profit from her lusts. They cater to her insatiable appetites, building their fortunes on the back of her moral corruption. This is a direct indictment of mammon worship, of an economic system detached from the law of God and driven by covetousness. The entire global enterprise, cultural, political, and economic, is implicated in her sin and therefore shares in her judgment.
Application
We do not live in first-century Jerusalem or Rome, but Babylon is a perennial reality. Every culture that sets itself up against Christ, that persecutes the church, and that intoxicates its people with materialism and idolatry is a daughter of Babylon. We are living in the middle of one right now. The command for us, which comes in the very next verse, is to "Come out of her, my people."
This passage teaches us to see the world system for what it is: a glorious fraud that is destined for the ash heap of history. It may look powerful, glamorous, and permanent, but the verdict has already been rendered in heaven. It is fallen. This should give Christians immense courage. We are not allied with a losing cause. We must not be intimidated by the political power of the kings of the earth, nor seduced by the cultural wine of the nations, nor tempted by the riches of the merchants. To get in bed with Babylon is to share in her plagues.
Instead, we must be those who, by the illuminating glory of God's truth, see things as they are. We must recognize idolatry for what it is and call it that. We must understand that a culture that rejects God doesn't become neutral; it becomes demonic. Our task is not to make a deal with Babylon, or to try to make her a little more moral. Our task is to be citizens of another city, the New Jerusalem, and to live as ambassadors of that city, calling others to come out of the darkness and into the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, before the final judgment falls.