Revelation 18:1-3

After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority and the earth was lit up by his glory. He cried with a loud voice saying: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a dwelling-place of demons, and a stronghold of every unclean spirit, and a stronghold of every unclean and hated bird, because the 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 have grown rich with the wealth of her wantonness."

In this chapter we have a form of prophetic literature common in the prophetic books of the Old Testament. This is what is called "A Doom Song," the doom song of the city of Rome.

We quote certain Old Testament parallels. In Isaiah 13:19-22 we have the doom song of ancient Babylon:

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendour and pride of

the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God

overthrew them. It will never be inhabited or dwelt in for all

generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherds will

make their flocks lie down there. But wild beasts will lie down

there, and its houses will be full of howling creatures; there

ostriches will dwell, and there satyrs will dance. Hyenas will

cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; its time

is close at hand and its days will not be prolonged.

In Isaiah 34:11-15 we have the doom song of Edom:

But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the

raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion

over it, and the plummet of chaos over its nobles.... Thorns

shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its

fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for

ostriches. And wild beasts shall meet with hyenas, the satyr

shall cry to his fellow; yea, there shall the night hag alight,

and find for herself a resting place. There shall the owl nest

and lay and hatch and gather her young in her shadow; yea, there

shall the kites be gathered, each one with her mate.

Jeremiah 50:39 and Jeremiah 51:37 are part of doom songs of Babylon:

Therefore wild beasts shall dwell with hyenas in Babylon, and

ostriches shall dwell in her; she shall be peopled no more for

ever, nor inhabited for all generations. And Babylon shall become

a heap of ruins, the haunt of jackals, a horror and a hissing

without inhabitant.

In Zephaniah 2:13-15 we have the doom song of Nineveh:

And he will make Nineveh a desolation, a dry waste like the

desert. Herds shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts

of the field; the vulture and the hedgehog shall lodge in her

capitals; the owl shall hoot in the window, the raven croak on

the threshold; for her cedar work will be laid bare. This is the

exultant city that dwelt secure, that said to herself, "I am and

there is none else." What a desolation she has become, a lair for

wild beasts! Every one who passes by her hisses and shakes his

fist.

In spite of their grim foretelling of ruin these passages are all great poetry of passion. It may be that here we are far from the Christian doctrine of forgiveness; but we are very close to the beating of the human heart.

In our passage the angel charged with the message of doom comes with the very light of God upon him. No doubt John was thinking of Ezekiel 43:1-2: "He brought me to the gate, the gate facing east; and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the east; and the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with his glory." H. B. Swete writes of this angel: "So recently he has come from the Presence that in passing he brings a broad belt of light across the dark earth."

So certain is John of the doom of Rome, that he speaks of it as if it had already happened.

We note one other point. Surely the most dramatic part of the picture is the demons haunting the ruins. The pagan gods banished from their reign disconsolately haunt the ruins of the temples where once their power had been supreme.

COME YE OUT! (Revelation 18:4-5)