The Un-Creation of a Culture: The End of Babylon Text: Revelation 18:21-24
Introduction: When the Party's Over
We come now to the final, thunderous pronouncement of doom upon the great city, Babylon the harlot. Throughout this chapter, we have heard the lamentations of kings, merchants, and sailors, all weeping over the loss of their great trading partner, their source of wealth and luxury. But their sorrow is entirely worldly. They do not mourn for their sin, but for their portfolio. They do not weep for their rebellion, but for their riches. And so, their worldly sorrow leads only to death.
But heaven has a different perspective. In the verse just preceding our text, heaven, along with the holy apostles and prophets, is commanded to rejoice. Why? "For God has avenged you on her" (Rev. 18:20). The judgment that causes worldly men to tear their hair out is the very thing that causes the saints to sing. This is not vindictive bloodlust. It is a celebration of justice. It is the vindication of God's character and the answer to the martyrs' prayer, "How long, O Lord?"
To understand this passage, we must remember who this harlot city is. This is not some future rebuilt Babylon in Mesopotamia, nor is it simply pagan Rome, though Rome is the beast she rides. This Babylon is first-century, apostate Jerusalem, the city that was supposed to be the bride of Jehovah but had instead become a whore, committing spiritual and political fornication with the pagan powers of the earth. She was the city that rejected her Messiah and said, "We have no king but Caesar." And she was the city that, as Jesus Himself declared, was guilty of the blood of all the prophets and saints (Matt. 23:35). This judgment, which John is seeing in the Spirit, is the covenantal lawsuit of God culminating in the utter destruction of that Old Covenant world in A.D. 70.
What we are about to witness is not just a military defeat. It is a cultural annihilation. It is a systematic, deliberate un-creation of a society. God is not just tearing down the walls; He is silencing the music, extinguishing the lights, and stopping the weddings. He is taking away every last vestige of joy, life, and commerce because that culture had become defined by its rebellion against Him. This is a terrifying picture of what happens when a civilization's sin reaches its full measure.
The Text
Then a strong angel picked up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer. And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer; and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer; and the light of a lamp will not be shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth."
(Revelation 18:21-24 LSB)
Sudden, Violent, and Final (v. 21)
The scene opens with a powerful angelic demonstration.
"Then a strong angel picked up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, 'So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer.'" (Revelation 18:21)
This is not a slow decline. This is not a gradual decay. This is a sudden, violent, and catastrophic end. The imagery is deliberately chosen for its finality. A millstone is immensely heavy; its purpose is to crush. When it is thrown into the sea, it does not float. It sinks instantly, disappears completely, and is utterly irretrievable. This is a direct echo of God's judgment on the historical Babylon through the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah instructed Seraiah to read a prophecy against Babylon, tie it to a stone, and throw it into the Euphrates, saying, "Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise" (Jer. 51:63-64). John is applying this same prophetic sign-act to his contemporary "Babylon," Jerusalem.
The Lord Jesus used this same imagery. He warned that whoever causes one of His little ones to stumble, "it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt. 18:6). The leadership of Jerusalem had not just caused one little one to stumble; they had led a whole nation astray and had crucified the Lord of glory. Their judgment is therefore fitting. It is a millstone judgment.
The angel declares she "will not be found any longer." This signifies the complete end of the Old Covenant system. The temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the entire religious and cultural apparatus that had its center in Jerusalem, would be obliterated. It was not to be reformed or restored. It was to be sunk in the sea of God's judgment, making way for the New Covenant, the New Jerusalem, which is the Church of Jesus Christ.
The Great Silence (v. 22-23a)
The angel now details the consequences of this judgment, and it is described as a series of profound and deafening silences.
"And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer; and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer; and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer..." (Revelation 18:22-23a)
This is the deconstruction of a society, piece by piece. God removes all the signs of a functioning, living community. First, He removes the high culture. The music stops. The arts, the celebrations, the sounds that give a city its unique life and character, are all silenced. This is a reversal of King David bringing the ark into Jerusalem with shouts and the sound of the trumpet. The glory is departing, and the music is departing with it.
Second, He removes the economy. "No craftsman of any craft will be found in you." Commerce ceases. The marketplace is empty. The workshops are shuttered. This is not just an economic recession; it is an economic erasure. The city that was a hub of trade, particularly religious trade connected to the temple, is now desolate.
Third, He removes the basic sustenance of daily life. "The sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer." The grinding of grain was the baseline sound of any ancient household. It was the rhythm of daily bread. To silence the millstone is to say that the most fundamental activities of life have ceased. There is no food, no work, no life.
Fourth, He removes the simple signs of habitation. "The light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer." The city is plunged into total darkness. No one is home. This is a picture of utter desolation, of a ghost town.
Finally, and most poignantly, He removes the future. "And the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer." A wedding is the ultimate sign of hope, of life, of a future generation. It is a covenant of fruitfulness. By silencing the voice of the bridegroom and bride, God is declaring that this city has no future. It is barren. It is cut off. The covenantal curse has come to full fruition. The city that was supposed to be the Bride of God is now a dead and childless widow.
The Indictment (v. 23b-24)
The angel concludes with the formal charges, the reasons for this absolute devastation. There are two main counts in this indictment.
"...for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth." (Revelation 18:23b-24)
The first charge is economic pride and idolatrous deception. The "merchants" here are not just tradesmen; they are the "great men," the powerful elites. This points directly to the corrupt leadership of Jerusalem, particularly the high priestly families like that of Annas and Caiaphas, who ran the temple as a massively profitable enterprise. They had turned the house of prayer into a den of thieves. Their influence was vast, but it was corrupt. The angel calls it "sorcery" (Greek: pharmakeia). This is the word from which we get "pharmacy." It refers to the use of potions, charms, and spells, and by extension, any kind of seductive deception that leads people into idolatry. The apostate leadership of Israel had bewitched the nations, presenting a false, works-based, ethnocentric religion that stood in opposition to the true gospel of grace in Jesus Christ. They were peddling a spiritual drug that inoculated people against the truth.
The second and final charge is the clincher. It is the charge of murder. "And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth." This is the smoking gun. How could one city be guilty of all the righteous blood shed on earth? Because Jesus said so. In His blistering rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees, He laid this very charge at Jerusalem's feet: "Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets... that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah... Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation" (Matt. 23:31, 35-36). From Stephen the first martyr to James the brother of John, and countless others, Jerusalem had become the butcher of God's people. She had filled her cup of iniquity to the brim, and now, in A.D. 70, that cup of wrath was being poured out upon her head.
Conclusion: The Harlot vs. The Bride
The fall of Babylon is not the end of the story. It is the necessary prelude to the wedding of the Lamb. The harlot must be thrown down so that the true Bride, the Church, can be presented in glory. The silence of the old Jerusalem makes it possible for the song of the new Jerusalem to be heard throughout the world.
This judgment in A.D. 70 was a world-altering event. It was the final, decisive end of the old world and the full unleashing of the new. The gospel was no longer tethered to a single ethnic people or a single geographic location. The kingdom of God was now free to do what Jesus said it would do: grow like a mustard tree until it filled the whole earth.
The warning for us is plain. Any culture, any institution, any church that leverages its spiritual heritage for wealth and power, that deceives people with a false gospel, and that persecutes the true people of God, is setting itself up for a millstone judgment. God is not mocked. He will have a pure and spotless Bride for His Son. He will vindicate His saints. And He will throw all the harlotries of men into the sea, so that they will be found no more at all.
Therefore, let us not weep with the merchants of the earth over the fall of corrupt systems. Let us instead rejoice with heaven, knowing that our God reigns, that He judges righteously, and that the kingdom of this world is becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever.