The amazement of the kings of the earth Revelation 18v8-10.
"Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail, and lament for her, when the shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment saying "alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come."
- The swiftness and severity of the judgment. We can only imagine the description that is here. In modern terms it could be a nuclear attack, or an asteroid from outer space, or something else.... we just don't know. What we do know is that it will come very, very swiftly and unexpectedly. Verse 8 "Her plagues shall come in one day." Verse 10 "In one hour is thy judgment come." Verse 17 "In one hour so great riches is come to naught." verse 19 "In one hour is she made desolate. What has taken years, to build this greatest city of all time which rules the world and controls vast riches, suddenly comes to nothing. This was predicted beforehand; Isaiah 14v4 "How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased. The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked;" Isaiah 14v2 "For I will rise up against them saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name and the remnant;" Isaiah 47v11 "...........and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly which thou shalt not know." We now think of the severity of the judgment "She shall be utterly burned with fire." Anyone reading this should tremble in the knowledge that God can in a short space of time totally annihilate a city of this world. Other scriptures give account of this but by far the most comprehensive statement is in Jeremiah 50v35-38 where it says a sword will come upon the Chaldeans, upon the inhabitants of Babylon, upon her princes, upon her wise men, upon her liars, upon her mighty men, upon her horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her.......... a sword is upon her treasures, and a drought is upon her waters for they shall be dried up. The same chapter in verse 46 comments "at the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations. This will be the greatest calamity ever witnessed because it will be seen by the whole world.
- The strength of the Lord in battle. "Strong is the Lord God who judges her." Here we see the might of God against the might of earth. Babylon which symbolises the greatness and splendour and power of earth is totally broken in one day. There is a common saying "Rome wasn't built in a day." this is true, but Babylon will be destroyed in a day. Jeremiah 50v23-24 sums it up "how is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!"....... because thou hast striven against the Lord." In Jeremiah 51v15-18, in the midst of the account of Babylon's destruction attention is drawn to the power and might of the Lord. (Readers should pay attention to these verses).
- The sins of the kings of the earth. No-one is too high ranking, or too great to avoid the judgment of God. The sins of these kings and these are far greater in number than the ten horns, they are the kings of all the earth. What they did was commit fornication with the woman and lived luxuriously with her. They defiled their souls by uniting to a corrupt system for the sake of material gain. In this time period the twin evils of materialism and humanism will hold sway. It is always easier to go with the flow than to "swim against the tide." The kings of the earth now reap the fruit of their life choices as they see the source of their power and riches come to nothing.
- The shock felt in the world corridors of power. They bewail and lament her fall. Bewail means to cry vocally and loudly; to lament is to grieve over a period of time. Their whole world has collapsed. They have just witnessed the collapse of everything that they held dear, they are now proving the futility of power without God and the deceitfulness of riches. They stand afar in fear of her torment, lest the same destruction comes upon them. The fear of God takes hold, but it is all too late; they sold their souls to the devil for a morsel of bread. The folly of their thinking is exposed in the final statement "Alas, alas that mighty Babylon that great city." They will find, as everyone will find, there is only one who is mighty, and there is only one who is great.
Amazon bookshelf George Neilly
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