Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #24 of Revelation, chapter 18, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 18:10:

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.

This refers to the “kings of the earth.”  We discussed verses 9 and 10 in the last couple of studies and we saw that they are bewailing and weeping and lamenting the burning of Babylon when they “see” the smoke of her burning.

We spent some time looking at the Greek word “blepo,” and we saw that the peoples of the world can “see” on one level and, yet, “not see” on another level.

We saw how the world saw the dead bodies of the two witnesses lying in the streets during the “three and a half” year period, the first part of the Great Tribulation, and they rejoiced and made merry.  Yet, in actuality, that was not literally the case.  There was no literal comprehensive understanding of the “dead” churches, but as the churches conducted themselves in the world and they went about their business at the time God’s wrath was upon them, the world did witness the effects of a dead church.  So, they saw it on one level and on another level they did “not see” or understand. 

Likewise, the world today is “seeing” on a certain level the judgment of God, with the increase of tremendous wickedness in the world such as the expansion of homosexual marriage in state after state in this country and in countries of other nations.  This particular sin is being highlighted all over the earth and it is a testimony that God has given man up to sin and it is the time of mankind’s judgment.  There are many other things, especially the absence of a faithful declaration of the true Gospel to the world.  God did bring the true Gospel to the world for 1,955 years through the churches, but that witness ended and then God used His people, the elect, to bring the true Gospel to the world outside the churches and congregations and to complete the evangelization of the world and bring in the last of the elect, the great multitude.  That was accomplished by the end of salvation, which concluded on May 21, 2011, and then God began judgment on the world and, suddenly, the witness of the true Gospel went silent; mission trips ceased; the declaration of the true Gospel over the radio airwaves ceased.  And God’s people were silent and brought no message for a time after May 21, 2011, but now the Lord’s people are sharing truth from the Bible, once again, but we are not evangelizing the world.  We are publishing the fact of Babylon’s fall and the fact that the world is under judgment.  With this activity there is a witness and a testimony to the world from the Bible and the world is seeing it on a certain level, but on the level of spiritual understanding, they are “not seeing” because they are not understanding what they hear.

In these verses, we read that they see the smoke of her burning and then it says in Revelation 18:10:

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment…

God likens Judgment Day to “five months” of torment and the torment means that the world is no longer receiving its consolation or enjoying its riches.  For a time the world laughed and for a time the world gathered together its treasures, but now it is Judgment Day and those that laughed are pictured by God as “weeping and mourning” and those that brought the Gospel with mourning and sowed with tears are pictured by God as “laughing” now. 

So, here, the rich men of the earth (the unsaved people) are “standing afar off for the fear of her torment,” and it goes on to say in Revelation 18:10:

… Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city!

Again, Babylon is a type and figure of the kingdom of Satan of this world, including the churches and congregations.  They all come under the umbrella of Satan’s rule and they are included in the fall of Babylon.

It goes on to say in Revelation 18:10:

… for in one hour is thy judgment come.

The reference to “one hour” points to the time duration God has assigned for the Great Tribulation period.  We will see that in a minute, but it is important for us to carefully read how God wrote this statement: “for in one hour is thy judgment come.”  It does not mean that Babylon is being judged in the hour or over the course of the hour because “one hour” typifies the Great Tribulation and Babylon was not the object of God’s wrath during the hour of Great Tribulation.  What was the object of God’s wrath?  It was the churches and congregations.  The Great Tribulation is really another way of saying the judgment on the house of God when judgment was upon the corporate churches.  It was not judgment on the world as yet or judgment on Satan’s kingdom; God was using Satan as an instrument of judgment.  Again, we can look back to the Old Testament, historically, to get a proper perspective by looking at the seventy-year period that typified the Great Tribulation, that “one hour” of judgment.  During those seventy years, who was being judged?  Was it Babylon?  No, because Babylon was increasing in power and might and they were the rulers that had dominion from 609 BC until 539 BC.  Babylon was not fallen at that time and they were not under judgment, but it was at the end of the seventy years and the end of the time that Judah was being judged by God.  In other words, it is at the end of the “hour” that Babylon comes under judgment, so when God says in our verse, “For in one hour is thy judgment come,” He is saying it has taken one hour to elapse and then at the end of the hour, the judgment upon Babylon comes.

We know the “hour” is a type and figure of the Great Tribulation.  It says in Revelation 17:12:

And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

The beast rose up out of the sea in Revelation 13 and it is the name God assigned to Satan primarily for the period of his rule during the Great Tribulation, so the beast ruled for “one hour.” 

In Matthew, chapter 20, God gives a very helpful parable about laborers that work in the vineyard for a 12-hour day.  They are hired at three-hour intervals from the beginning of the work day, but then that pattern is broken up at the eleventh hour, the “last hour.”  It says in Matthew 20:12:

Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.

In this parable, God pictures the day of salvation, as Jesus said, “Are there not twelve hours in a day?”  This is the work day, the time in which the Lord’s people labored in the field of this world to bring the Gospel to seek and find the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  God saved His elect during the day of salvation and that day goes on in a very normal way and laborers are hired at regular intervals, except there is a change at the last hour, the “eleventh hour.”  Another group is hired and they work only “one hour” and then comes the end of the day.  Then comes evening or “night,” and that last hour typifies the hour of Great Tribulation, followed by the “night” of judgment and Jesus said, “The night cometh when no man can work.”  You must work during the day (of salvation) and the last time we were able to do the work of evangelization wherein God could save sinners was that “one hour,” the last hour, which occurred during the last part of the Great Tribulation.  The immediately after the Tribulation, the sun was darkened, the moon did not give her light and the stars fell from heaven; it was spiritual night in which no “man” (meaning the Lord Jesus Christ) can work the work of God, which is that you believe.  In other words, there is no more granting of saving faith to sinners and the day of salvation has come to a close.

So we find these kinds of references in the Bible that help us to understand that “one hour” does point to the Great Tribulation.  Then there is this reference in Revelation in 8:1:

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

We accurately understood this verse and Mr. Camping was very correct about this verse.  “About the space of half an hour” is referring to the first part of the Great Tribulation, the 2,300 evening mornings we read about in the Book of Daniel, which went from the beginning of the Great Tribulation on May 21, 1988 to September 7, 1994, when virtually no one was being saved.  That is why there was “silence in heaven.”  When someone is saved, the Bible says there is joy in heaven, but when no one is being saved, there was “silence in heaven,” because virtually no one was being saved in the world.  It was for “about” a half hour, but it is not exact because it did not literally represent half of the time of the Great Tribulation.  The 2,300 days works out to about six years and four months, so it is not half, but God wanted to identify with the “hour” of Great Tribulation, so He referred to it as “about half an hour.”  The entire Great Tribulation is the full “hour” and the hour represents the actual 23 years (or 8,400 days).  Then at the end of the 23 years (at the close of the 8,400 days), as represented by the seventy year period of Babylon’s rule, spiritual Babylon falls and the light of the Gospel goes out and judgment is upon this world, typified by Babylon.  So God says, “For in one hour is thy judgment come.” 

Just so we understand this fully, God made sure that in the original Greek it says literally, “For in one hour your judgment came.”   It is in the “past tense.”  The judgment or the “hour” has passed and in “one hour” the judgment came and at the end of the hour it is time for Babylon’s judgment.  It is the end of the 12-hour work day and the last hour has expired; evening has come and it is spiritual night.  Now it is time for Babylon’s judgment.

Let us go on to Revelation 18:11:

And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

This is similar to the language of the “kings of the earth,” who also bewailed and lamented for Babylon.  The same Greek word that was translated as “bewail” is translated here as “weep,” so it could read, “And the merchants of the earth shall bewail and mourn over her.”  So we know it is a similar reaction and a little later on they are also going to cry, “Woe, woe!”  The merchants of the earth are viewing the destruction of the Babylon of this world and they are particularly troubled because “no man buyeth their merchandise any more.”  In some following verses, God will give a lengthy list of that merchandise and we will take a look at that, but right now we just want to look at this phrase, “the merchants of the earth.”  We came across this term already in Revelation 18:3:

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

Here, God speaks of the merchants of the earth waxing rich and we also see that it says in Revelation 18:15:

The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

Again, we see the merchants are made rich and this tells us there is a “common denominator” God is using when He speaks of the merchants of the earth and that “common denominator” is riches.  They are being made rich through their dealings with that great city Babylon. 

When we look up the word “rich” or “riches,” we find some interesting things.  For instance, it says in Luke 6:24:

But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.

Here, we find God addresses the “rich” and He pronounces woes against them.  He says, “Woe unto that that are full” for ye shall hunger.  Woe unto you that laugh now! For ye shall mourn and weep.”  And what did we find in Revelation, chapter 18?  We find that the merchants of the earth that waxed rich through their merchandising with Babylon are crying, “Alas, alas,” which is the same Greek word as “Woe, woe!”  It is the same Greek word used several times in Luke 6:24, as He pronounces the woe: “But woe unto you that are rich! For ye have received your consolation.”  The people of the world enjoy the things of the earth and they go about their daily business without any thought or concern about God.  Their focus is on bringing riches to themselves and their families.  They want to enjoy and indulge in as much of the world’s riches as possible and God is saying, “Yes, you can do that and you can be rich now.”  By the way, this does not necessarily refer to just physical things, but it can refer to the fact that they are rich in the fact that they are attempting to “store up” treasures on earth and not in heaven.  We read in Luke, chapter 12, of a rich man, and it says in Luke 12:16-21:

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

When we take a closer look at these statements we see that it really addresses the mindset of people and the desire of their hearts.  What is the focus of their lives?  Are they trying to please God?  Are they trying to store up treasures in heaven through salvation and eternal life?  Or, is the focus of their lives everything that has to do with this world?  They are laying up treasures for themselves or their families, but they are not laying up treasures in heaven. 

I used to think that when God spoke of the “rich,” He had in view those that were unsaved in the churches because they had the Bible and they had some wisdom that God had given them, but actually this is not so.  It is far more than that, because it is also the unsaved people that are busy and active with their lives as “merchants,” as they try to obtain the treasures of this world, Babylon.  They go to work and they are working for themselves.  It is all self-centered and they are treasuring up riches for themselves and not for God.  Only God’s elect have the God-given desire to do the will of God and to focus on storing up treasure in heaven.

We do not have time in this study, but in our next study, Lord willing, we will take a look at the rich man (who had much of this world) and the poor beggar Lazarus.  Christ gave this parable of the rich man who ended up in “hell” and Lazarus who went into Abraham’s bosom, which is a picture of God and eternal life with Him.  We will look at the things that Abraham said to the rich man in hell regarding the fact that the rich man had received in this life his good things and Lazarus evil things, but now Lazarus is comforted and the rich man is “tormented.”  Again, we will go back to the language of Revelation, chapter 18, where they are “standing afar off for the fear of her torment.”