Useful Bible Studies > Revelation Commentary > chapter 18
In every house, people would light a small oil lamp each night. They would then put it in a high place and it would provide light until morning (Matthew 5:14-16). People would take a lamp with them if they had to go out by night. Without lights, the city would be a dangerous place. Thieves and wild dogs would attack people on the streets. Only a city without inhabitants would have no lamps at night.
Weddings were very joyful occasions; everybody joined in. There would be great processions and much noise. Babylon will never again have such happy events. People expected that children would be the result of those weddings. The birth of children seemed to promise a good future for their city. However, Babylon could have no hope for the future.
Then, verses 23 and 24 explain the reasons why God has made this final judgement against Babylon.
The first reason is that Babylon’s traders were great and important men. It is not wrong, of course, to be powerful. However, it is very wrong to use that power in a wicked manner. By their wealth and power, Babylon’s leaders tempted rulers across the world not to serve God (18:9). Their nations then behaved in the same evil and selfish manner as Babylon’s people did (18:3).
The second reason seems even more serious. Babylon used witchcraft (magic) to control those other nations. The Bible teaches that all kinds of witchcraft are very wrong (Deuteronomy 18:9-13). It was bad enough that Babylon’s people were teaching the world to act in a wrong and selfish manner. Now they were trying to gain even more power, by means of the spirit world (Isaiah 47:9-13).
We shall read about the last, and most serious, reason for God’s judgement against Babylon in verse 24.
Next part: A proper punishment for the murder of God’s holy people (Revelation 18:24)
Please use the links at the top of the page to find our other articles in this series. You can download all our articles if you go to the download page for our free 700+ page course book.
© 2016, Keith Simons.