Revelation 18:1-8

Revelation 18-1-8

Last time, we concluded by discussing how the capital city of the kingdom of the Antichrist, Babylon, wherever it may be (since its location is unknown, although I suspect it is a kind of euphemism for Jerusalem), will be destroyed. This is a result of the judgment of God, and we have just finished up with the angel’s explanation of that.

Throughout history, all of the nations raged their way to greatness and then fell into nothingness afterward. Most, if not all of them, have been pagan and about power, political or otherwise, and none have ever sought the glory of God or His kingdom. All have put their own interests first, rather than God and His glory. You might think the United States is an exception, and maybe it was, but it is never mentioned in this way in Scripture, and because of that, I think it is unlikely to remain that way. This is about the kingdom of Antichrist, and this chapter details the punishment of God upon the kingdom of Antichrist and ALL who participate in it.

There isn’t a big preamble tonight because this is really just a continuation from chapter 17. The Apostle did not mark out chapter or verse divisions for us. Chapter divisions came in the 1300s, and verse divisions came in the 1600s, at least approximately. All of this was to make a way for more precise study and preaching of the Word. Let’s put that to use and see what the text says. Maybe we should stop calling it a “chapter summary” and call it a “text summary” or something like that. Think about it and get back to me with ideas.

I broke the text down as follows:

KV2: The Fall of The Enemy Capital

2: And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “ Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.

1-3: The Angelic Announcement of Judgment

4-5: The Angelic Announcement to Evacuate

6-8: The Judgment of God and Their Reasons

This is nearly the end of the war, Beloved! And from what we have read, the kingdom of evil will destroy itself because the nature of evil is always to destroy and consume, though it may masquerade as other things for a time. It simply cannot, as we cannot, help but be what it is. The Lord Jesus, speaking of evil false prophets and teachers, said that we would know them by their fruits. In Matthew 7:16-20, it says, “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.” My own experience tells me that you can only pretend (that is what you are doing if you are a hypocrite or false believer) for so long. This applies in the case of evil or goodness, from what the Lord Jesus said here. If you are a real believer, there will come a point where you will not be capable of hiding that anymore. As encouraging as I find that, I have not yet arrived, and I humbly wait for the day it is true. My point, though, is that the same will apply to evil itself. Sometimes, it can masquerade and fool you just long enough to do its damage. I had an example of that just this past week, where the bad day I was having provoked a response in kind. I won’t go into details here because I have yet to meet with the offended party and apologize for my part in it, and I won’t have the opportunity for about 3 weeks yet, but I will take it. My own rudeness can masquerade as righteous indignation at times, and it revealed itself. (It’s mine now, yielded to Christ! Hallelujah!) I thank God for revealing it to me. That isn’t all that was revealed to me, and it is not things that are under my control, so I won’t speak about those. The evil here is nothing but a being that is acting a certain way until he can reach his goals. The Greek word for it, you may recognize. ὑποκριτής. We get our English word hypocrite from it. It means one who plays a part, an actor. That man is the Antichrist in this text. His evil will bleed out at a certain point. He will not be able to help it, because your true character will always come out, hopefully before it is too late for you. Here, his true evil character, which he has himself imbued into the very structure of his own world kingdom, will destroy itself because that is what evil does. That said, let’s get into the text and see how that plays out.

KV2: The Fall of The Enemy Capital

In war, when the capital city of the enemy falls, it is a signal that the war is all but over. Fighting can continue for a bit, but it is over. This is the fall of Antichrist’s capital. He cannot win, and he chooses to martial one last stand, which we know will be in the valley of Megiddo from 16:16 of the book. All of the armies of himself and his allied forces (which I think is the entire planet) will gather at this spot to make one last great battle, which we will see when we get to the relevant bit of Revelation 19. By human standards, the Germans knew they had lost the Second World War when enemy soldiers from all the Allied forces reached the Berlin city limits. Fighting went on from street to street for a while, but ultimately, the Allies won that war. (Interestingly, they lost because Hitler could not help but be who he was, if you think about it.) This is a huge battle, but it is a last stand, nevertheless. This will take the form of, in the mouth of an angel, a big news headline, something like, “Babylon Falls!” It will break the back of the world system of control that was set up by the Antichrist. We can see it now being set up in little bits and pieces. One thing I have learned with 30-plus years working in retail: When you see the Canadian Thanksgiving decorations displayed in the promo aisle, in your wait for Christmas, you know that Halloween is just around the corner. When you see the system of the beast falling into place, you can know that he is coming, but what is just around the corner? ἁρπάζω! The snatching away of the real believers to meet our Lord in the air! Before any of the real wrath of God begins, we will be spared, according to the Lord in Rev. 3:10, which says, “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” We may debate about the details of this, but it is in the New Testament. The word occurs 14 times and 5 times in this context, 3 times by Paul (twice speaking of himself), and once each by Luke (the definitional example) and John. You cannot say I didn’t look it up. The important thing here is that we be ready for it when it does happen, whenever it happens. This is related to the very reason that Babylon is being judged in the first place: it did not walk in obedience to the law of God and the commands of Christ. Let’s jump into the text and see what it says about this.

1-3: The Angelic Announcement of Judgment

This section of text begins with “Μετὰ ταῦτα,” which we have said in the past is an indicator of a shift in events, but because we are backtracking out of the ordered timeline, we may see this as a marker to introduce new information instead of events. Still, an angel is introducing the information to John, which happens twice in this section of text. This is the first such announcement. Let’s look at what the angel announces and introduces.

1: After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory.

We already talked about the angel introducing new information for us, but this is a new angel on the scene. The Greek word “ἄλλον” from the text means “another” in English, and this angel is coming from Heaven, so John is apparently standing on Earth, or perhaps nearby, depending on where you think his point of view was. What we know about this angel is that he had ἐξουσίαν μεγάλην, or great authority in the sense of legal permission to say and do what he says and does. This is the guy who knows what is going on and is going to tell John, and by extension, us, as we read this.
It also says that the Earth was ἐφωτίσθη, illumined, with the glory of the angel. The Greek gives the sense that the light was given off by the angel to light up the scene so that John could see.

2: Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.

The angel announces, “Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great!” This is a heavenly headline, if you ask me. There is a bit of a debate among translators here. Some manuscripts have it repeated, some do not. I think it should be, but not for textbase reasons. In Hebrew and Aramaic, both of which the Apostle John was familiar with, when something is repeated twice, it may be taken as a confirmation of certainty. Here, that would mean Yes, Babylon has most definitely fallen. Our Lord Jesus did this. Truly, truly, or statements like that. John is simply telling the reader that this can be taken for truth here.
Babylon herself will become uninhabitable for human life. It doesn’t mean that things won’t live there, but it does mean that people won’t. Why not? Look at the things that do live there. It has become the dwelling place of demons! Demons, in my opinion, are the disembodied spirits of ancient living beings called the Nephilim in Scripture (Gen. 6), who were apparently the offspring of angelic beings who altered themselves to be able to have intercourse with human women, and those aforementioned human women. This gave rise to a race of corrupt hybrids who took on the characteristics of the false gods of the humans of the day (that rebellion against YHVH, no doubt). These beings began to war with each other and consume all the resources on the planet, including humans as sacrifices or meals, and that combined with the sinfulness of the people in those days, caused God to judge the world and destroy it in the flood, and only Noah and his three sons and their wives escaped on the ark Noah had built at God’s instruction. Who wants to live in a city full of unhappy poltergeists?
It was a prison [φυλακὴ] for every unclean spirit. It’s difficult enough to live in a city of angry poltergeists. But to live in a prison for them, and all the other unclean spirits, perhaps the race of giants that sprang up after the flood (the Gen. 6 text says that the Nephilim were on the Earth in those days, and also afterward. People who have studied this have included extrabiblical sources, so I’m not going to get into this, but we can chat about it later if you like). I don’t actually know. However, so far, we are talking about ghouls and ghosts, or other things that go bump in the night. There is a physical part to this as well.
Our translations may differ here, and I will try to explain why in a moment. The text says that this city will become a residence for all unclean and hateful birds. The word used for unclean [ἀκαθάρτου] means not clean, probably meaning ceremonially. Owls, crows, ravens, vultures, all carrion eaters come to my mind.
The reason our translations may differ here is that there is a textually disputed line that the NASB leaves out. It gave me a kind of chance to use my budding Greek skills to translate this: [καὶ φυλακὴ παντὸς θηρίου ἀκαθάρτου]. I use an interlinear in case I make errors, but in the place where the English words appear under the Greek, all that was there was a double n-dash. I actually had to translate it. Some of it was just a pattern already set in the verse itself, but I translated, “and a prison of every beast unclean.” It seems that this phrase is omitted in both Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, and the Latin and Syriac versions of the text. Apparently, the committee that was responsible for the critical text of the Greek New Testament concluded that the phrase was in the original because of the cross-references of this text in Isaiah 13 and 34. However, because it was not in the aforementioned key reference texts, they marked it out in their interlinear translation to indicate the uncertainty of its status in the original text. And it was 20 minutes of my life I will never get back.
Even if we put the text in, the verse is making the point that the city will be uninhabitable for humans, both naturally (the birds and animals being mostly predatory against humans) and supernaturally (the demons and unclean spirits). It does not sound like my idea of a good vacation spot without heavily armed and trained Navy SEALs for bodyguards, and even then, it might not be a great place. Next verse.

3: For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”

What is the real consequence of a corrupt world system? I think we can see some of its results here. The first of these is the idolatry of the entire world, which, because they did not love the truth, God gave it over to the great lie that is coming. We don’t see that whole lie here, but we can see some of the more tempting aspects of it here. The first thing we see here is the word for wrath. All nations will drink of the wine of her wrath that is due to her for her sinful actions. What are those? She got all of the nations to participate in her πορνείας. The word itself means “illicit sexual intercourse,” but is used in this verse to indicate a more metaphorical meaning, that being “the association of pagan idolatry with doctrines of, and professed adherence to, the Christian faith…” according to Vine. The theological word for that is syncretism, the mixing of pagan and Christian religious ideals and practices.
The verse goes on to inform the reader that the leaders of the Earth have committed acts of immorality with her. These acts in Scripture have always been equated with idolatry and syncretistic practices. What do you think the Golden Calf was? It was a form of syncretism. The children of Israel didn’t just drop the name of God; they equated it with the idol and worshipped it in lawless and sensual abandonment, contrary to what God actually wanted. The kings of the earth made their wealth their God, worshipping mammon instead, all the while calling it God. There is a connection in the Greek between the words for wrath and immorality! The second causes the first.
It wasn’t just the political leaders that behaved this way; it was also all the merchants. Why? It made them rich! See the phrase in the text? It is one Greek word: ἐπλούτησαν.
“…have become rich…” in the text indicates the Greek word. What made them rich? It wasn’t the money. The Greek word here for wealth, you should recognize in the Greek: δυνάμεως. Here, the feminine, genitive noun indicates that the power is closely related to the sensuality (στρήνους, luxury). Let me see if I can explain how and with examples. Greek, “Insolent Luxury.” JFB says to translate the phrase as “wanton luxury.” It is not speaking of earthly merchandise, but to spiritual wares, indulgences, idolatries, superstitions, compromises with the world (in the world’s favour), and the like, because the apostate church has literally made merchandise of humanity. Looking around and reading the headlines, governments that are given to the Antichrist already are openly doing this actively. When JFB was written as a commentary, this may not have been entirely so. Even then, they suggested that Protestant churches were not guiltless, but at least had purity at the center of everything they did. When I look at sites like Lifeway, the literature-providing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, I don’t think this is true anymore. One name: Alex Malarkey. I’ve told the story of how, when he wanted to renounce his heaven tourism book, his dad “helped” him write when he was like 4 years old. Then-President Ed Stetzer ignored him. For 18 months. Finally, he came to us at Pulpit and Pen and asked us to help. The short version is, we ended up with Ed Stetzer’s emails from inside Lifeway telling people to leave the book up because it had sold well. We exposed the organization and began a trend that ultimately ended Lifeway physical store locations, although the online store is still there. Even the vaunted Logos bible software, in its library sections, sells sexually explicit material as fiction. Basically, these are romance novels, according to articles at Protestia, where you can go look them up. Why? Because someone wants to live in wanton luxury. Such will be the vaunted “golden age” of the Antichrist. I am already hearing this kind of language in headlines from around the world.

The consequences of living for yourself are not so different from the fate of Babylon, are they? It is not surprising; both are rooted in personal rebellion against God and a desire to call your own shots, even when there is a large probability it will hurt you in the process. If you continue on that path, it will sadly not end well for you. We will move on to the next section.

4-5: The Angelic Announcement to Evacuate

Not everyone will be destroyed with Babylon. We have said all along that there will be real believers on the Earth right up to the return of Christ. These believers will be warned to flee the city and/or system so they don’t end up being punished for the sins of the whore. Let’s jump in to see the contrast.

4: I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;

This may be an angel, or it may be God Himself speaking the warning. I prefer to think this will be God Himself speaking supernaturally to every believer, but it doesn’t have to be this way. I see this to be like the warning given to Lot by the angels that visited him in Sodom. It was only given to him and his family. However, it could be more like the warning of Jeremiah. This is almost a direct quote from Jeremiah 51:6, 45. John may have known this and may have been referring to those texts. Those verses say, “Flee from the midst of Babylon, And each of you save his life! Do not be destroyed in her punishment, For this is the LORD’S time of vengeance; He is going to render recompense to her…Come forth from her midst, My people, And each of you save yourselves From the fierce anger of the LORD.” I think the former, because there is a chance that smart unbelievers could also escape when they hear the warning, but I think it will be like Lot telling his extended family and friends. They just won’t get it, won’t understand, won’t care, like that.
What is that message? Get out now. Evacuate. Don’t stick around and find out, because it will be really bad for anyone there. Puritan Matthew Henry says of this passage, “Fair warning is given to all that expect mercy from God, that they should not only come out of this Babylon, but assist in her destruction.” I adore the love with which this must be spoken, and this might be why I think this is the voice of God, direct and audible to His elect. The voice will say, “Come out of her, my people.” ἐξέλθατε ὁ λαός μου ἐξ αὐτῆς… God takes the time to speak to them words of rescue and words of identification. MY people. You are MINE! I love you all. Come out so you don’t undergo the punishment of the world as I pour out my wrath. These believers probably missed the ἁρπάζω event because they were not yet believers, and they are also being told to get out, just like God told the Christians in Jerusalem in AD 70. Jesus gave the signs, and the Apostles taught them faithfully. Believers were warned. There is a story that I heard, I think from Dr. Chuck Missler, when he was still here. He said it was the case that not a single Christian died in that destruction of Jerusalem. None of God’s elect here will be harmed either, unless they disobey the call, as did Lot’s wife. Can you imagine all the ways this could be made compelling to believers who may not know what is around the next corner? How about a voice only you can hear telling you to get out now? That would convince me, but so would a voice from heaven everyone could hear, so I don’t know, but either way, I’d get out.
Why? I would not want to participate in the consequences of her sins. I already don’t want to have the sins around me. I think I am beginning know what Peter meant when he wrote, “…and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds)…” in 2 Pet. 2:7-8. These believers, who have been hunted and persecuted to death for their faith in Christ, will be ready to go. I’m ready to go now. God help me be patient and wait for Him and His timing.

5: for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Why would God send such a message? Because it will be high time to judge the whore for her immorality. The text tells us that her sins will have been “joined together” in the Greek. “Piled up” may be a kind of reference to the tower of Babel, where they were trying to build a tower to reach the heavens and confront God. The nuance of the Greek says, “reached so far as to come into close contact with, and to cleave unto,” according to JFB.
“God has remembered.” I used to have trouble with the phrasing here because it suggested to me that God forgot for a period of time. God does not forget, and he created the elephant to remind us of that. “An elephant never forgets…” Neither do we sometimes. What we do is recall it to mind. That is what is happening here. God, at the proper time, and for maximum effect, is calling it to the top of His mind. What is he calling to mind to deal with? Her ἀδικήματα. Wrongs, misdeeds, and injuries caused will be called to the front again because it is now time to deal with them ultimately. Her iniquities will be remembered and punished. Her time has run out.
Beloved, this puts a very stern warning shot across the bow of the sinner. Salvation is a time-limited offer. You only have as long as you have breath to turn to God, and you have a finite number of those remaining. You know you are a sinner who has no hope of ever raising enough payment to deal with the price you will have to pay before the Judge of the whole Earth. Turn to Christ, who paid that price in full for you. Don’t wait, you don’t know when you will run out of breathing room. I say the same thing to those of you who have strayed a little from the path into backsliding. Sinner, Jesus is calling softly and tenderly to come home! This is also a time-limited offer. Don’t let this expire, because you risk the loss of your rewards for faithfulness. All you have lost now is time. Don’t run out of that. Babylon will. In the text, she just has. Next paragraph.

Why the gospel references? Because God loves you! More than you can ever know. Love is His very essence. He doesn’t want you to run out of time either, but He will not wait for one second longer than He has given you. It is all the opportunity you have required. Turn to Him in repentance and faith and become one of His children, destined to be with Him forever.

6-8: The Judgment of God and Their Reasons

The logical question that comes is, “Why does God judge things and condemn sin?” God is holy. He is righteous, and He is true. People are not. Humanity as a whole has been condemned for disobedience, unless they take the free gift out of the sentence of death on us all. The Hebrew word for holy is qadosh, and it means to be completely set apart. God is apart from His entire creation in this way, and those who violate His holy standards in particular. This is called sin, or in Greek ἁμαρτία. It is literally “missing the mark.” Picture an archer aiming at a target, firing his arrow at the bullseye. The archer has used all his strength on this shot, sending the arrow as far as it can go. However, ballistics involves gravity eventually, and that arrow falls to the ground before it reaches its target. That’s ἁμαρτία. You missed or fell short of the target. Our target in spiritual matters is to follow the moral law of God.

Most people think of this as the Ten Commandments, and we can work with that model. No one but Jesus has ever successfully kept any of them, and He kept ALL of them. I won’t go into detail, but I am certain I have committed all ten by Jesus’ definition in Matthew 5. So has everyone else. Wait, I hear you say. I’ve never committed adultery! You mean you have NEVER looked with lust or unwarranted desire on another person? Jesus said that’s committing adultery with them in your heart. All guys do that. My wife tells me that all girls do it, too. Okay, but I have never murdered anyone! Jesus said that if we were angry without a good reason at anyone, we have already committed murder in our hearts. There is always a deeper meaning, my friend. It is this that God judges in perfect holiness and with perfect justice as only He can, on all those who will refuse to turn to Christ in repentance of their sins and faith in His resurrection. For those who just felt hope in their heart for the first time, turn to Him now, right where you are.

For those of you who were offended by the mention of the name of Jesus or the truth that you cannot do this for yourself, go away and die in whatever hole you choose in the fashion that seems best to you. That’s your choice. Now make it. Let us know in the comments how it goes. Let’s get into the text.

6: Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her.

To put it bluntly, it’s payback time. Beloved, we all face a judgment of some kind. Some people will stack up rewards like cordwood. (A cord is a stack of 8-foot logs that is 8 feet long and four feet high. I don’t know or care about the etymology of the word. I used to be a bush pile-it. My dad, he cut the bush, and I piled it. Old joke.) Others will stack up judgment upon judgment. In the last verse, we saw just that; the harlot had stacked up judgments that reached to heaven in that sense. And now every single one will be repaid. With damages, and that in kind.
Even as she has paid. She “rewarded” people for actions. She rewarded the martyrs with death for their testimony to Jesus, as an example with relevance. One commentator says it this way: “She had not rewarded or repaid the world power for some injury which the world power had inflicted on her; but she had given the world power that which was its due, namely, spiritual delusions, because it did not like to retain God in its knowledge; the unfaithful Church’s principle was, ‘Populus vult decipi, et decipiatur.’ ‘The people like to be deceived, and let them be deceived.'” She knew they were deceived. She let them continue in their deceived state. Maybe she didn’t want to offend them. Maybe she didn’t care. Maybe it’s what she wanted. This is the reason she will be judged harshly.
She will be rewarded in return, says the Lord. She will be paid more than she has earned. Double for her actions. Twice the dose of the cup of wrath that she gave to others. One commentator said this: “She had given terror (making war against the believers and spilling their blood, 13:7; 17:6) and should receive twice as much terror in return. She had lived in luxury—this should be matched with torment and sorrow.” It will not be pretty, and it will not be over quickly. It will last for the rest of the ages of the ages. And it. Is. Deserved. Earned, even. And God will always “pay His debts” (if you didn’t catch the irony there, God will not have debts. If He needs something, He will create it Himself.) The only debt He will ever incur is that sinners will owe Him, one way or the other. They will either owe Him payment for a lifetime of sin, or they will owe Him everything they are and have because of the great mercy He had on them in regenerating them and saving them by Christ’s work on the cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, slain from before its’ foundation for all those who will ever turn to Him.

7: To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I SIT as A QUEEN AND I AM NOT A WIDOW, and will never see mourning.’

For every action, there is a reaction. Sometimes that reaction is intended and good. When I put the steak on the grill and cook it for 5 minutes per side, I have a juicy, medium steak. That is intended and good. If I were to cook it for 30 seconds per side, it would be a blue steak, and I cannot eat raw steak. I have a friend who likes blue steak. Personally, I don’t know how he can get past the taste of the raw beef, but hey, to each his own. James! How’s the weather down under, bro? Praying for you and the family in Brisbane! But that’s an example of how all actions have consequences.
Here, the whore has only ever glorified herself. I will take a moment to explain what I think this is, because everyone I know, including me, has been guilty of this. You put the most positive spin on events and even exploit them to your own benefit. You may not do a lot of this if you are older in Christ, but the susceptibility remains as long as we are in the flesh. We can recognize it all over. People who give such commercials for themselves while they attempt to make themselves look important. I’ve even seen it in the pulpit. Hey, people! It isn’t ever about you! And you should be trying NOT to draw attention to yourself, fellow servants! This woman is the opposite of that! Hey! Look at ME! I’m special! She sure is…
She has lived “sensuously.” The Greek implies this has to do more with luxurious living than seduction or sex. She has spared no expense for her own personal comfort. She has invested in personal comfort. She has only ever given things away when it benefited her. This is not the kind of girl you should bring home to mother. And yet the analogy can be seen in churches. Padded pews. Soft chairs. Soft lighting. Air conditioning. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all of those things. However, I do NOT REQUIRE them. She did, and stopped at nothing to get it.
The angel pronouncing this judgment says that for the amount of self-aggrandizement and wanton luxury she has lived in, give her the same amount of torment (βασανισμὸν, torture) and mourning (πένθος, sorrow). Every action has a consequence. Because we can only choose the action and not the consequence, make sure to choose your actions based on the known and stated consequences. But I didn’t know the consequences! Then study your bible, bro. Ignorance is no excuse under the Law, and you know it.
Contrast this to the whore. What is her attitude? “I SIT as A QUEEN AND I AM NOT A WIDOW, and will never see mourning.” No acknowledgement of wrongs done, no acknowledgement of trauma caused to people, no thought or fear of consequences. The average sinner today, represented here. This will be worse, because it is a system of belief built on premises of lies. One commentator said, “‘I am no widow … I shall see no sorrow,’ marks her complete unconcerned security as to the past, present, and future. I shall never have to mourn as one bereft of her husband.” (Bengel in JFB)
Another way of saying this is, “I am above the Law.” Bad news, lady. No one is above the Law. And you, of all people, cannot plead ignorance. You have been flagrant and ambitious in your violations. Next verse.

8: For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.

In one day. This is possibly metaphorical language to express a short period of time, but John’s “last hour” (1 John 2:18) has lasted 2000 years, give or take. It could mean one hour. I don’t know, but it says her πληγαὶ will come. That is the nominative, feminine, plural noun for plague. What plagues? Well, the Seal, Trumpet, and Bowl judgments come to mind, but it may be special stuff also. It goes on to say θάνατος, which is translated here as “pestilence,” but literally means “death” (Nominative, masculine, singular). Then it says “mourning” (πένθος, sorrow as v.7, also neuter and singular). Then it says “famine” (λιμός, dearth [middle English for scarcity or lack of something] or hunger also). Then it says she will be burned up with fire. If that is metaphorical in meaning, it means the city will be completely consumed. If it meant literally, I think it means the same thing. So either way you look at it, the city will end there. So, for the “It’s all just poetry!” crowd, how about that? Poetry can have literal meaning.
The bottom line here is that the world system of the beast will be ended in a short period of time, starting with her capital city, wherever that is. Why will this happen? Because κύριος ὁ θεὸς is ἰσχυρὸς. Lord the God is mighty. In fact, He isn’t just mighty. He is the mightiest of all. I remember a Michael Card song. The Lamb is the Lion is the name of the song, and I’m not sure of the album, but the last three lines of the chorus give me shivers. “They will flee from the harm // of the Carpenter’s strong arm // and face the burning anger of the Lord.” Carpenters know how to build things. They also know how to tear things down quickly and effectively. In Jesus’ day, it also meant they were stone masons, cement contractors, the guys who made the stucco lining for your walls, drywallers (okay, drywall wasn’t a thing, but they would have done it easily), and like that. They would have to have incredible strength and stamina just to do the work, and they would have to understand engineering to know how to make things and unmake things, especially in an environment where things would be reused. The repetitive lifting and heavy work would give real strength to the arms, the back, the legs, the shoulders, or anything else they used in working as a carpenter. The Carpenter’s STRONG arm. This will be the arm that breaks Babylon, though the details may not be known yet.

We will leave off here with the text this evening. We can see that there is a lot of rich apocalyptic language in the text, but that does not mean it cannot be plainly understood and that it is “just” poetry. It is poetry, but it is truth also, and beautiful and terrible in its descriptions and metaphors. I am reminded of the concluding lines of John Keats’ Ode to a Grecian Urn, which say, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” It is poetry, and it is also truth to an extent. I don’t agree with the sum of the expression of it, but I might reword it to our theme in this study to be something like, Poetry is truth, and truth poetry … and that is all you need to know.

That’s what I saw in this evening’s text. Next time, we will look at Revelation 18:9-20. It seems like a big chunk to me, also. But there really isn’t a good way to break up what is the world’s lament for Babylon the great. It is a song of judgment and regret to be sure, but now that the system is broken and cracked open, we can gain some insights that are faith-building.