The Final Desolation

18:21-24 And a strong angel lifted a stone like a great mill-stone, and cast it into the sea. "Thus," he said, "with a rush Babylon the great city will be cast down, and will never again be found. The sound of harpers and minstrels and flute-players and trumpeters will never again be heard in you. No craftsman of any craft will ever again be found in you. No more will the sound of the mill be heard in you. No more will the light of the lamp shine in you. No more will the voice of the bridegroom and the bride be heard in you; for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and because all nations were lead astray by your sorcery, and because in her was found the blood of the prophets and of God's dedicated ones and of all who have been slain upon the earth."

The picture is of the final desolation of Rome.

It begins with a symbolic action. A strong angel takes a great millstone and hurls it into the sea which closes over it as if it had never been. So will Rome be obliterated. John was taking his picture from the destruction of ancient Babylon. The word of God came to Jeremiah: "When you finish reading this book, bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates: and say, Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the evil that I am bringing upon her" ( Jeremiah 51:63-64 ). In later days Strabo, the Greek geographer, was to say that ancient Babylon was so completely obliterated that no one would ever have dared to say that the desert where she stood was once a great city.

Never again will there be any sound of rejoicing. The doom of Ezekiel against Tyre reads: "And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more" ( Ezekiel 26:13 ). The harpers and the minstrels played and sang on joyous occasions; the flute was used at festivals and at funerals; the trumpet sounded at the games and at the concerts; but now all music was to be silenced.

Never again will there be the sound of a craftsman plying his trade.

Never again will the sound of domestic activity be heard. Grinding was done by the women at home with two great circular stones one on the top of the other. The corn was put into a hole in the uppermost stone; it was ground between the two stones and emerged through the lower stone. The creak of stone on stone, which could be heard any day at any house door, will never again be heard.

Never again will there be light on the streets or in the houses.

Never again will there be any sound of wedding rejoicing for even love will die. Jeremiah uses the same pictures: "I will banish from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones, and the light of the lamp" ( Jeremiah 25:10 ; compare Jeremiah 7:34 ; Jeremiah 16:9 ).

Rome is to become a terrible silent desolation.

And this punishment will come for certain definite reasons.

It will come because she worshipped wealth and luxury and lived wantonly, and found no pleasure except in material things.

It will come because she led men astray with her sorceries. Nahum called Nineveh "graceful and of deadly charms" ( Nahum 3:14 ). Rome flirted with the evil powers to make an evil world.

It will come because she was blood guilty. "Woe to the bloody city!" said Ezekiel of Tyre ( Ezekiel 24:6 ). Within Rome the martyrs perished and persecution went out from her all over the earth.

Before we begin to study the last four chapters of the Revelation in detail, it will be well to set out their general programme of events.

They begin with a universal rejoicing at the destruction of Babylon, the power of Rome ( Revelation 19:1-10 ). There follows a description of the emergence of a white horse and on it him who is Faithful and True ( Revelation 19:11-18 ). Next comes the assembling of hostile powers against the conquering Christ ( Revelation 19:19 ); then the defeat of the opposing forces, the casting of the beast and of the false prophet into the lake of fire, and the slaughter of the rest ( Revelation 19:20-21 ).

Revelation 20:1-15 opens with the binding of the devil in the abyss for a period of a thousand years ( Revelation 20:1-3 ). There follows the resurrection of the martyrs to reign with Christ for a thousand years, although the rest of the dead are not yet resurrected ( Revelation 20:4-6 ). At the end of the thousand years Satan is again loosed for a brief space; there is final conflict with the enemies of Christ who are destroyed with fire from heaven while Satan is cast for ever into the lake of fire and brimstone ( Revelation 20:7-10 ). Then comes the general resurrection and the general judgment ( Revelation 20:11-14 ); and finally the description of the new heaven and the new earth to take the place of the things which have passed away ( Revelation 21:1-27 ; Revelation 22:1-5 ).

-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)