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9 The kings of the earth who sinned sexually with her and shared her wealth will see the smoke from her burning. Then they will cry and be sad because of her death. 10 They will be afraid of her suffering and stand far away and say: “Terrible! How terrible for you, great city, powerful city of Babylon, because your punishment has come in one hour!” 11 And the merchants of the earth will cry and be sad about her, because now there is no one to buy their cargoes— 12 cargoes of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, red cloth; all kinds of citron wood and all kinds of things made from ivory, expensive wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, carriages, slaves, and human lives. 14 The merchants will say, “Babylon, the good things you wanted are gone from you. All your rich and fancy things have disappeared. You will never have them again.” Revelation 18:9-14
In Revelation 17 & 18 the Lord tells us about the double fall of Babylon. There will be the fall of spiritual Babylon in Revelation 17, then, there will also be the collapse of the economic system of Babylon in Revelation 18.
In v.9 of today's text we read, "The kings of the earth who sinned sexually with her and shared her wealth will see the smoke from her burning. Then they will cry and be sad because of her death."
The final world government of the antichrist will be judged, and the kings of the earth will respond with great sadness. They would not cry over their sin, but they will cry over their loss of wealth, power and prestige. Though God gave them multiple opportunities to turn to Him and from His judgment, they continued to believe the lie.
These ten kings of the earth were chosen by the antichrist to rule the various regions of the earth. And under them there will be other rulers. And when they see the capital city of the antichrist burning, they will for the first time believe that they will be losing the battle.
These kings are described as those who sinned sexually with her and shared her wealth. They were described in this manner back in Revelation 17:2 and Revelation 18:3. They had literally tied all their passions into this system. So, when Babylon burns, they will see it as losing their lover. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
In v.10 we read, "They will be afraid of her suffering and stand far away and say: “Terrible! How terrible for you, great city, powerful city of Babylon, because your punishment has come in one hour!"
This was also spoken of back in Revelation 16:19 where the seventh bowl was poured out and Babylon was given the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. The kings will stand at a distance with their armies on their way to Armageddon. And they will watch on TV as the empire burns.
This will provide for them the motivation to go to Armageddon. They will be led there by demons. They will think it’s going to be a last effort to rescue the world, and they wind up, as you well know, warring with each other, and destroyed by the coming of Christ.
Babylon will have survived the six seals and the seven trumpets. So, the people thought it would survive anything else that God had to throw at them. And the kings of the world whose economies and whose lives were dependent upon that, who had put all their hopes and all their ambitions and all their dreams for survival into that brain trust, now are disillusioned and disappointed.
In v.11-13 we read, "11 And the merchants of the earth will cry and be sad about her, because now there is no one to buy their cargoes— 12 cargoes of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, red cloth; all kinds of citron wood and all kinds of things made from ivory, expensive wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, carriages, slaves, and human lives."
The second weeping group is the merchants or the businessmen of the earth. They will also weep and mourn over Babylon's loss, because no one will buy their goods anymore. The salesmen will all weep and mourn over her. Their pain will be purely linked to their desire for money. But money is not their issue. It is their love of money that will be the issue. They will not be able to meet their quota. They will not be able to sell their stuff anymore.
They will not weep over their souls, they will weep over their wallets. And John lists twenty-eight items of commerce here, including slaves. This is a similar list to the one found in Ezekiel 27:12-22. These were typical items of business in the ancient world. And, of course, John is seeing into the future, but he’s seeing into the future from a perspective that is comprehensible to him, goods that were familiar to him. These goods are representative of the kind of things that will be bought and sold in the future, if not in some cases, the same things, such as gold and silver.
It is quite interesting that business and government will come together. We see this in our world today. And, that will be the way it will be in the end. The governments of this world will become one with the business leaders of this world. They will be totally dependent on each other. And, in today's text, they will weep and mourn together, not for something that is necessary and precious, but they will mourn for the luxuries of this world.
In v.14 we read, "The merchants will say, “Babylon, the good things you wanted are gone from you. All your rich and fancy things have disappeared. You will never have them again."
In the end, God will bankrupt the system of Babylon. He will do this to show everyone that the way of the antichrist will never satisfy. Once Babylon, the banking center of the world, is destroyed, everything will fall with it. And, those who live for this world will be greatly disappointed in the end.
There are only two eternal things on earth today: people and God's Word. Everything else will ultimately be burned up. Instead of investing in the things of this world, we must choose to invest in how we get the word of God into the souls of people. People are going to go to one of two places, heaven or hell, and that decision will be made during this lifetime. For this reason, it is important that we make sure we have received the Lord Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Then, we must ask Him for the passion that we need to invest in His word and people. Eternity is a long time not to get this right.
