Up to this point, we have seen the seven bowls of wrath poured out on the Roman Empire. In chapter 17, we zoom in to see in detail how that wrath affects the city and all those who depended on her. Rome’s demise has already been foreshadowed in 14:8 and 16:19.
Bruce Metzger (85) calls chapters 17-18 a “literary triumph of imaginative power.”
We are drawing our study of Revelation to a close. We have seen over and over again that Christians’ lives are threatened by the Romans and by Jews sympathetic to the Romans. We have seen Jesus emphasize to His followers the importance of faithfulness in lifestyle and in doctrine. Jesus warned both unfaithful Christians and non-Christians to repent. But, the wrath of the Lamb has an end. God’s wrath is finished in the seven bowls of wrath poured out on Rome (15:1, 8).
Chapters 17 & 18 picture for us the fall and destruction of the capital city of the world empire of that day and age – Rome/Babylon. She enticed men to trust her, to “make love” with her through commerce, and engage in her own idolatrous practices (17:1-2).
She tolerated everyone and everything except Christians who refused to submit. She became drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses of Jesus Christ (17:6). From 17:12 through chapter 18, John emphasizes that her destruction will come “in one hour.” That is, when God decides to destroy a nation, it will not take long. She claimed to be the “queen” (18:7) and tried to “reign over the kings of the earth” (17:18) but she is simply self-deceived. That’s what happens when one follows Satan, the great deceiver (12:9).
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So, when God brings Rome/Babylon to her knees, the nations who are guilty of fornication with her will weep, lament, and mourn (17:9-10). That’s the essence of chapter 18. Business comes to an end.
In 18:4, God calls on His own children, Christians: “Do not participate in her sins and receive her plagues.” “The persecuted church has always faced the temptation to compromise with worldliness and thus ease the tension of living in a hostile environment. Separation is the order of the day: sometimes physical, always ideological” (Mounce, 327).
We conclude these thoughts with one from Ray Summers and his commentary on Revelation: “Nothing can be economically good if it is morally bad. The same fate awaits any nation guilty of the same sin” (194).
The message from Revelation 17 & 18 that gives us hope: No nation is too powerful, no leader too crafty, no man too influential to thwart God’s spiritual laws. The church of Christ is God’s nation and it is the one He will protect until Jesus comes again.
–Paul Holland
