Revelation 14:8 Commentary and Bible Study

The second of a group of three angels now announces the fall of Babylon. John sees the final scene of this world. The kingdom of darkness is in a terminal state of collapse. The great institutions of the devil are coming to an end. Babylon which has been so successful in sealing men in destruction cannot pass away without heaven’s celebration. This marks the end of the devil’s reign and the end of his grip on a world which he has usurped.This is the first of a number of references to Babylon in the Book of Revelation. It is the same Hebrew word that is also translated Babel, that ancient city built by Nimrod that is described in Genesis 10:10 and 11:9. There God confused the tongues of the people to impede their rebellion in building a tower or ziggurat to heaven. This was an attempt to draw the people of the world together in an organised unity and to prevent their being distributed across the face of the earth as God had commanded. It had a strong religious element to it. It was an attempt to form a new religion that would unite all the world and do away with the worship of the living God. It anticipated the final kingdom of antichrist. It showed the direction in which Satan would like to take mankind and required a drastic step by the Lord to prevent the premature arrival of the kingdom of the beast. The Hebrew word to confuse is balal which when combined with a preposition becomes ba-bal, ‘in confusion’ or ‘in babbling’. Babylon’s role after this was to become the kingdom which took over from Assyria as the scourge of Israel. Israel was taken into captivity in Babylon for seventy years. Isaiah foretold these events and warned the people of the impending judgment of the Lord on their nation because of their refusal to turn to the Lord and worship and obey him (2 Kings 20:14-18). In due time Nebuchadnezzar came up and besieged Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:1) which finally fell. But although Babylon is dealt with as a political kingdom by the Old Testament writers, they also use it as a symbol of a spiritual entity. When the Book of Revelation was given, the fall of the earthly Babylon was long since past. Why then this reference to a city which disappeared so long ago, unless it still has prophetic significance in John’s day? Indeed, this is how Isaiah too expects us to understand Babylon (Isaiah 13:19-22). As so often in Scripture, God worked first in the physical realm to teach parallel lessons in the spiritual realm. Israel as the typical people of God faced a physical enemy who was in turn a type of the spiritual enemy of the true people of God. Long after the destruction of the Chaldean kingdom, another Babylon would still be harassing the people of God, and continue to do so until the very end of the world. That enemy would also experience a destruction from which it would never recover. The Spirit gives us this certain hope of ultimate victory. He speaks of this as a completed act even though from our perspective that fall is still future. This is the way that the prophets indicated the certainty of future events. What then does Babylon stand for? It stands for the world – that is, the world of luxury, the world of self-pampering, and of non-stop entertainment, of objects of art and wealth and plenty, the world of self-love and materialism. Babylon the great, Babylon the place of acquisition, the place to serve yourself and your lusts (Isaiah 21:9; Jeremiah 51:7-8). She is not to be limited to any one instance of spiritual adultery such as the Roman Catholic Church, for she makes all nations to drink of her poison. The Roman Catholic Church, though widespread, is not universal. This harlot has access to every man on earth, whether they live under Catholicism, communism, Islam or plain secularism. All of these have a common origin which makes them diametrically opposed to Bible-based Christianity.The nations experience wrath because they are exposed to the judgment of God on account of their fornication. This is not limited to physical fornication, though it includes that. It is all that is opposed to the commandments of God. It is the giving of the honour and service to created things, service that belongs exclusively to God. It is guaranteed to stir up his jealousy and anger. Babylon urges them to get drunk on her pleasures and to forget about the future. But the consequences are more real and more near than they imagine. Wrath is inseparably joined to the enjoyment of her pleasures, and therefore the wine she causes them to drink is called the wine of the wrath of her fornication. This is her deception. Her victims think that they have come to her to drink pleasure, but in fact they drink wrath.