We are looking at Revelation 18:9, and as I said there are four different announcements that we can identify in this chapter. In Revelation 18:3 we have the announcement of coming judgment. Then in Revelation 18:4 the Lord calls for His people to separate themselves from those who are corrupted by sin and those upon whom His judgment will soon fall.
Now we come to Revelation 18:9 and we could call this the announcement of sorrow. This will go through to 18:17 where we find a lot of sorrowful people because of the destruction and judgment on Babylon the great. We begin with the kings and political leaders in Revelation 18:9-10, “And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her,” her being Babylon, “will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’” We see again here, the kings of the earth, these would be the powerful political leaders around the world, the presidents, kings, and monarchs and so forth. They are in deep mourning because they too have committed acts of immorality and sensuality and in other words, they have immersed themselves in the sins that characterize Babylon the great. Babylon the great’s sins have spread worldwide, and everyone has been cloned after them. As they watch from a distance, so these people are not actually in the city of Babylon that is being destroyed here, we see this is probably a literal city in which the whole commerce of the world is wrapped around. As that goes up in smoke, literally burned down, they weep and they mourn and they say, “Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.” As we saw earlier in Revelation 18:8, this seems to be a swift destruction. Things were going along very smoothly, the stock market was at the top of its numbers, the economic systems were going well, and people were wealthy and doing well and now suddenly a collapse. The bubble has burst completely, and the world is in a chaos and Babylon the great is being destroyed. So, the kings of the earth and political leaders mourn . . .
