Revelation 18:1-8 - The Fall of Babylon
John paints a picture of a city abandoned by the dreamers, the builders, the community organizers and those looking with hope for the good things life has to offer. The city is empty, and everything that cities are built to keep out are beginning to creep in. John names them and describes them as haunts in verse 2:
‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!
She has become a dwelling for demons
And a haunt for every impure spirit,
A haunt for every unclean bird,
A haunt for every unclean and detestable animal. (Rev 18:2)
As Babylon does its work, as “the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries,” and as “the merchants of the earth grow rich from her excessive luxuries” (Rev 18:3), the citizens of the city sink lower and lower into despair, growing bitter towards their leaders, and finally fleeing the city.
Drifters replace families. Criminal enterprises replace businesses. Family pets no longer play with children, instead scavengers — dogs and vultures — pick at the bones of every kind of dead and decaying creature.
This is how Babylon ends. Every time.
But it is not the Lamb, nor it’s followers that rise up and destroy the city; it is the natural progression of human greed, enslavement, and pursuing power and luxury that brings her to ruin, according to verses 4-7:
Revelation 18:4–7 (NIV):
“ ‘Come out of her, my people,’
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
5 for her sins are piled up to heaven,
and God has remembered her crimes.
6 Give back to her as she has given;
pay her back double for what she has done.
Pour her a double portion from her own cup.
7 Give her as much torment and grief
as the glory and luxury she gave herself.
The evil that Babylon sends into the world turns in on herself, resulting in her destruction.
Think of it in terms of the culture of a company. When the employees start to take advantage of each other and the customers for profit, bending the truth, abusing other employees, and using power in unChristlike ways, it becomes a feature of the culture. Once it is baked in, each employee who enters is forced to take part in the corrupt actions that the culture demands. And as each employee becomes corrupted, the goodness that holds people together begins to break down and fail. Good people start to leave, exacerbating the problem as those who stand in their way are removed. A this point, you can’t just switch out the leadership to fix it, you need the shift the entire culture.[1]
In Revelation 18, Babylon falls after it reaps the harvest it has sewed. She has received “double for what she has done” and has received “as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself” (v6-7).
John’s description of her posture towards the world exposes her coming downfall:
Revelation 18:7–8
In her heart she boasts,
‘I sit enthroned as queen.
I am not a widow;
I will never mourn.’
8 Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her:
death, mourning and famine.
She will be consumed by fire,
for mighty is the Lord God who judges her
Babylon’s arrogance, pride, injustice, and insatiable desire for more lead to her downfall. In the end, that is how Babylon destroys herself every time. It is a repeating story that plays out in every generation because, as we’ve already said, Babylon is Timeless![2]
[1] For more on changing the culture of a community, read McKnight and Barringer’s “TOV.”
[2] McKnight & Matchett, Revelation for the Rest of Us.