Revelation 18 gives us an ugly picture of the depravity of human nature. It has all come to a head at the end of the Tribulation Period. Ugliness was found in Revelation 17 with the apostate world religion called “the great harlot.” In Revelation 18 we see the fall of “Babylon the great” where the pollution and the immorality has totally infiltrated commerce, business, and politics to a degree that we have never yet seen on this earth. Now it has all come to a head under the leadership of Satan and his man the antichrist. God has pronounced judgment upon Babylon the great, He has called His people out of Babylon, so they do not participate in the sins or the judgments that are coming, and now we are looking at the announcement of sorrow. We find that the political leaders have already been sorrowful and now the business leaders are in great sorrow as well.
We pick up in Revelation 18:15, “The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls; for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!’ And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance, and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying ‘What city is like the great city?’ And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid waste!’” So, we have this continual sadness, and mourning and sorrow on the part of the merchants worldwide. Whether they are on land or ships or wherever, they have lost it all. Everything they lived for and loved and dreamed of has literally gone up in smoke with Babylon the great and it has been quick. Several times in Revelation 18:8, 10, 17 and 19, it says “in one hour she has been laid waste.” It wasn’t a gradual thing. It was an immediate thing indicating that God’s judgment is coming, and God’s judgment is doing all this. This is not a collapse in part because of bad handling of things or management or typical economic depression or collapse . . .
