Revelation 18:17, commentary and pictures

In one hour so great riches are brought to nothing in a sudden and certain collapse when Babylon's time has come and she is ripe for destruction under God's judgment. Those enriched by her, every shipmaster and company in ships and sailors and traders by sea with merchants and kings and rulers, stand afar off at a distance in fear and mourn her destruction. The ruin comes because of sin in the face of great light, pride and fraud and oppression of the poor and turning from God's law, and costly structures and vessels with their treasures fall by fire and water and the overturning of God's power. It belongs to the prophecy of Babylon's final condition, the next great event following the rejection of the threefold warning in Revelation 14:6-13, when her fall is complete and God's people still within her are called to separate from her. It is the present testing truth and last call of mercy to be read and given with all power by human agencies under the Holy Spirit before judgments fall, and its scenes show things yet to take place in the cities as a display of God's power because of sin that must not be ignored.

Sudden Fall of Babylon

In one hour so great riches are brought to nothing in a sudden collapse whose fulfillment is certain. This sudden loss is part of God's judgment on Babylon when her time has come and she is ripe for destruction. Those enriched by her stand afar off at a distance in fear and mourn her destruction. They include every shipmaster and all the company in ships and sailors and those who trade by sea and merchants, with kings and rulers and religious teachers standing in corrupt harmony with her.

The desolation means the most costly structures supposed to be fireproof become ashes in the flames of vengeance just as Sodom perished. Costly vessels wrestling with mighty waters sink into a watery grave with their treasures of gold and silver and their human freight, and costly ships and their treasures sink. Great buildings built story after story are thrown down by the turning and overturning of God's power, so that by one word from the Lord and one touch of His mighty power massive structures fall.

The cause is continuing in sin in the face of great light. It is abuse of privileges and taking advantage of fellow men, treasures accumulated by fraud, pride, and oppression of the poor, with false shepherds turning people from God's law to human theories. Man's pride will be buried with the treasures he accumulated by fraud and riches gained by fraud are buried in the destruction, while God will avenge the widows and orphans who in hunger and nakedness cried to Him for help from oppression and abuse. For a record is kept of every action for good or evil.

Last Message Before Judgment

The verse belongs to the prophecy of Babylon's final condition, which comes as the next great event after the rejection of the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-13. It describes scenes about to take place near the close of earth's history, when her fall is complete and God's people still within her are called to separate from her.

It is part of the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 that are being fulfilled as the very last call to the churches, the last message of warning that all are to hear and that is now to be given. After this call comes the time pictured in Revelation 19 when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into a lake of fire. Then the dragon who instigated the great rebellion against heaven is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, then comes the resurrection of the wicked and the final destruction of Satan and all the wicked, and then the final triumph and reign of Christ on this earth.

It is a testing truth for this time that all must read and understand, the present truth and last great testing truth as part of the third angel's message and the last call of mercy to be given more fully to the world as a message of warning to all. God in mercy holds back His judgments with long forbearance until this warning has been sounded, because many have not yet heard it. Revelation means revelation, and giving this message is the last work to be done for the world, to sanctify men and women and prepare a people to stand in the great day of God which is fast coming with stealthy, awful dread, and no other line of work is to divert minds from it.

The whole chapter is to be read and given with all its power and efficiency, with a loud voice by the human agencies God has chosen, so the world is not left in darkness and the earth is lightened with glory. It foretells events soon to be fulfilled, including the descent of a powerful angel whose glory lights the earth during the proclamation of the third angel's message. At that time the Holy Spirit empowers consecrated people to spread the knowledge of God and salvation throughout the world, as the church proclaims the message with great power.

The warnings contained in Revelation are to be given to the people and must not be treated as an inferior matter, though Satan would have the message silenced. They are to be proclaimed together with the Sabbath of the Lord as the seal of the living God and with what to expect from the papal power at the time when the Protestant churches reach out to grasp the hand of the power that has made void the law of God.

With Revelation 3, Revelation 16:13-21, Revelation 21 and Revelation 22 it is to be read and understood now because the perils of the last days are upon us. It is part of God's solemn warning about the last events of this earth's history, made known by Christ to John on the Isle of Patmos to call minds in these last days to the things which will be. Satan with evil fallen angels is constantly at work in all deceivableness of unrighteousness to deceive if possible the very elect, and if he can keep minds confused about these revelations he gains a great victory, so confusion now may be death unto death and there must be no confusion but pressing to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus with straight paths.

The Babylon so judged is mystic Babylon, and the judgment follows the consequences of false shepherds turning people from God's law to human theories. She is a church converted into Babylon by exalting the false and spurious Sabbath above the Sabbath which the Lord Jehovah blessed and sanctified for the use of man, by teaching the immortality of the soul, and by rejection of the truth. While her riches come to nought with kings, merchants, rulers and religious teachers standing in corrupt harmony with her, the message does not apply to the only people whom God has made the repositories of His law, and to broadcast that it does would give Satan exultation.

Warning for Cities Today

The scenes of the chapter show things yet to take place in the cities, with great riches coming to nothing in one hour while merchants and seafarers stand afar off, as a wonderful display of God's power because of the sins of the city. That display is God's rebuke upon men who have abused their privileges and taken advantage of their fellow men, and a special indication from God that must not be ignored by those who believe the prophecies. The sudden bringing of great riches to nothing in one hour was represented by the terrible judgment that fell upon San Francisco on April 18, 1906. The chapter is given to expose the wickedness existing in the world today and the importance of obeying God's law, and to warn the churches of their dangers so they will prepare before the day of judgment comes when the day of God's wrath comes.

The chapter warns of coming destruction on the earth to be fulfilled when the Lord arises to shake terribly the earth. Then terrible scenes will take place whose fearfulness cannot be imagined, and great buildings built story after story will be thrown down by the turning and overturning of God's power, so that by one word from the Lord and one touch of His mighty power massive structures will fall. Yet it is not a specific prediction that New York in particular will be swept away by a tidal wave, or that a particular city will fall at a stated time. The destruction calls God's people to come out of her that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues. It calls men who have abused their privileges and taken advantage of their fellow men to make amends for the wrong they have done and to hear the voice of the Lord.

Those who have witnessed such great destruction and felt the rebuke of God are forbidden to make light of it, to flatter themselves that they will build greater buildings, and to defiantly invest their means as before to build still greater buildings in the cities, for God will exercise His power to counteract their efforts. The time is right upon us when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. The flattering monuments of men's greatness will be crumbled in the dust even before the last great destruction comes upon the world. The description is enough to cause all who read it to fear and tremble, but those who do not love the light and will not come to the light lest their deeds be reproved will not follow on to know the Lord, saying by their attitude that they want their own way and not God's way.