Located on the banks of the River Euphrates, the great city of Babylon was a powerful and influential city in ancient Mesopotamia. During its prime, the city not only served as a capital for several empires but also as the focal point for all commerce and trade in that region. In the Bible, Babylon is first mentioned in the book of Genesis as a city that existed before the time of Abraham (Genesis 11:9) or any of the Egyptian rulers. Babylon played a significant role in the history of Israel, as it was the place where many Jews were exiled after the destruction of Jerusalem by king Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. The four contemporary prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel all experienced exile and extensively wrote about the significance of the great city in Israel’s redemptive story from their perspective. As part of the revelation that John received, he was also shown the fall of this great city and with it the uprooting of corruption from the world.
The Lure of Babylon
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”
Revelation 17:1-2 (NIV)
The identity of the prostitute is not a mystery for John’s audience as almost all the Old Testament prophets used similar adjectives to describe the city. Babylon was the great city that distanced Israel from God when they were captured and taken into exile. Like a prostitute that causes separation in a marriage, the seductive nature of the great city has the same effect on our union with God. The kings of the earth along with their subjects fell victim to her intoxicating charm. They abandoned their relationships with the LORD for idolatry practices and the pursuit of exalting their names. This behaviour did not subside with the fall of Babylon but is prevalent even today when we see the same lust for power in the world around us. To cast further aspersions on the city the writing on the woman’s forehead read
BABYLON THE GREAT
Revelation 17:5 (NIV)
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
The woman entices the beast of the sea into accomplishing her will. She masks her vileness by putting on her dress of purple and scarlet. She puts on her best ornaments and glitters with gold to fill the masses into accepting her as their queen. Anyone who crosses her, she fills her cup with their blood and drinks from it. She is drunk with the blood of the people who stand firm for Jesus. She takes pleasure in the death of the followers of the Lamb. God allows her to have her moment in the sun and she uses her power to corrupt the nations and bring them to their knees to worshipping her.
John’s Astonishment
When John saw the lure of Babylon and the effect it had on the inhabitants of the earth, he was astonished and deeply distressed. We live in a fallen world where the kings of the earth will seek to further only their agenda. The lure of Babylon will convince us that joining them in their pursuits will be in our own interest. However, that road that leads to Babylon is the one that leads us away from the Garden and the presence of the Lord.
We are so preoccupied with fulfilling our own desires and the desires of the people around us that we forget to ask God for the will He has for our lives. The prince of the world, satan, uses our own desires to drive a wedge between us and our LORD. Seeing the despair that John was experiencing, the angel approached him and explained the events that he had just witnessed.
The beast that the woman rides is a depiction of the earthly rulers installed by the prostitute with the beast from the earth being one of them. The ten horns are future kings that will hand over their temporary power to the beast to wage war against the Lamb (Revelation 16:12-14). The waters beside which the prostitute sits are the sea of people who have abandoned their allegiance to the Lamb and have embraced the beast as their one true ruler.
Warning for the Followers of the Beast
Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
Revelation 18:4-5 (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;
for her sins are piled up to heaven,
and God has remembered her crimes.
The image of the sins of the people reaching up to heaven is perhaps a callback to the futile efforts at building the tower of Babel by the citizens of Shinar (Genesis 11). The people being called out of Babylon are those who have been saved by God’s grace and are warned not to share in her sins anymore. It is reminiscent of Lot’s exodus out of the twin burning cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. If we do not pay heed to God’s warning and still have the desire for the city, we will suffer the same consequences as the inhabitants of Babylon.
In her heart she boasts,
Revelation 18:7 (NIV)
‘I sit enthroned as queen.
I am not a widow;
I will never mourn.’
What is preventing us from leaving the city? Why can’t we make a clean break? We don’t want to admit that we need help, lest the people around us might think we have turned soft. We are in a constant state of denial and are constantly toiling to portray ourselves as righteous. This self-righteous behaviour makes us believe that we are surrounded by a cocoon of protection which will break in an instant at the slightest sign of trouble. Thus, much like Babylon the prostitute, who is in denial of her real state, it is our pride and arrogance that hinder us from finding our path back to God.
The Fate of Babylon
The threefold woe over Babylon’s demise involves the kings, merchants and sea captains who all benefitted from the rise of the ‘great city’. The kings are the ones who have power and authority over other people, be it large nations, small territories or even the leaders of the local church. These kings have used the influence of the beast to gain more power for themselves and in the process further tighten their grip on their people. Leaders who have used their power to further their own selfish agenda rather than bring people closer to God.
The merchants are the ones who profited off of Babylon’s destructive ways. These merchants seek to line up their pockets by using the glitz and glamour of their commodities to attract people and make them slaves of the beast. They trade in the luxuries and comfort of the world and lure people away from their Creator. People have sugar-coated the true message of Christ and made a convenient religion out of it that helps them achieve their goals. They will deeply mourn the fall of Babylon as without it they have nothing to sell.
The sea captains go hand in hand with the merchants as they help move their coveted cargo across all the corners of the earth. In John’s vision, the vast expanse of the sea has been compared to the deepest pits of hell. The creatures coming out of the sea are seeking to turn God’s people from the path that leads to HIs temple. Thus the sea captain might be symbolism for the creatures of the sea or demons that seek to destroy God’s creation. They have experienced God’s wrath thus they do not destroy His creations but stand afar and provide ammunition to the merchants and the kings to carry out their destructive plans. They help the merchants grow their business of preaching the false message and provide signs and wonders that generate shock and awe among the masses. They too will be helplessly looking as Babylon, their ‘great ship’, sinks into the abyss and they are unable to deter God’s people anymore.
The music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again.
Revelation 18:22-23 (NIV)
No worker of any trade will ever be found in you again.
The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again.
The light of a lamp will never shine in you again.
The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again.
What is Our Babylon?
The destruction of Babylon is not about the recounting of the fall of an ancient city but a concept that seeks to dominate our lives. This concept is so powerful that it even controls the beast and with it the rules of the world. Even the beast and his followers loath the prostitute and are not able to overpower it. The tower of Babel was a concept that the people created when they wanted to reach the level of God. Religion is another concept that has been created not only to control people but also to put God inside a convenient box that they can open as and when they desire. Though the ways of this world may seem attractive and even attainable they will only separate us from God. Anything that is standing in our way to reach God is our Babylon and God is asking us to not fall prey to its alluring ways but seek His kingdom above all.
Discussion Questions
- Who is the prostitute and why is she sitting by many waters?
- Why do the beast and the ten kings hate the prostitute?
- Who are the kings, merchants and sea captains mourning the fall of Babylon?
- What is our Babylon?
The Jordan Valley 
Reply