With a mighty voice he shouted:
“‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’
She has become a dwelling for demons
and a haunt for every impure spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.” Revelation 18:2-3
She has become a dwelling for demons
and a haunt for every impure spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.” Revelation 18:2-3
Babylon
in the Old Testament was a city and an empire ruled most famously by
Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed Jerusalem in 597 BC. Babylon was judged for their sins when in 539
BC, the Persians rolled over Babylon and destroyed it completely.
Here’s
what we know about Babylon the Great in Revelation 18:
·
God’s people needed to
leave it soon because a terrible judgment was coming.
·
Her destruction will
be mourned by many.
·
Her destruction will
economically hit the world hard.
·
It was once a rich
city, now it was brought to ruin.
·
No music will come
from it.
·
No work will be done.
·
It was being judged
because it persecuted prophets and God’s holy people.
Only Jerusalem fits
this description perfectly when Rome destroyed it in 70 AD. Jerusalem economically was a trade hub for
the world and then became a spiritual mecca with Judaism and then
Christianity. It also, in the past,
pushed the worship of gods for too long.
Because it was a crossroads in the world, it influenced many parts of
the world—in God’s eyes, negatively.
Finally, the
persecution Israel showed prophets in the past (like Elijah and Jeremiah) and
Jesus in the present, actually killing God on a cross, racked up the sins
against it. Jerusalem needed to pay so
God influenced Rome to carry that punishment out.
Jerusalem is called
a prostitute in Revelation 17 and in chapter 18 as a type of Babylon. It acted a lot like Babylon in the past and
was treated as such in 70 AD.