Crocodile tears. Everyone has taken part and enjoyed the fun. Yet now the great settling of the accounts has come but no one reaches out to help the ‘woman’, the ‘whore’. All the high-ranking people, kings and the elite, lament when they see the columns of smoke rising up from the crushed and burnt-out centre of the anti-Christian world. More because of the realisation that it is finally all over for them and their lifestyle too, than for the city itself. Whereas the spiritual principle of Babylon took centre stage in the previous verses, it is now the city itself that is being referred to as ‘the centre of world power’ that meets her end. This is like the ‘smoke of Sodom’ that Abraham sees in the distance,1 like the ‘columns of smoke’ of Edom2 and the ‘fire’ in Egypt3 and Tyre.4 The kings of Tyre are stunned by its downfall,5 not so much with sympathy, but more because of the consequences for themselves. They are frightened of suffering pain, of being drawn into her fate and dare not come close to the centre, the heart, the seat of the fire. They express their lament, but do not reach out to help, for fear of being dragged down with Babylon’s fall. There is no real solidarity. They complain and moan about the loss of the things they lust for, the irreplaceable damage to their interests—but they leave the city to its fate of doom. A ‘whore’, a ‘prostitute’ is not loved, only desired to satisfy lusts. Later on the merchants’ reaction will be far more serious. The business-people are really hurt and threatened in their sheer existence by the fall of this world-wide centre of commerce. Believers know that what God’s Word says about taking revenge has come true “Do not take revenge, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: It is Mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord.”6
The kings who are whining here are not the same ten kings who waged war against the Lamb and those who are His,7 and who had allied themselves strongly with the ‘beast’. Those kings were the ones who were used by God to bring Babylon down. Around them, in a wider circle however, there is always a great multitude of ‘lower gods’ who do not really join in, but who do share in the profits. When disasters strike the earth, economic prosperity ends. No one can stop the process of decline.
Insurance companies often exclude damage as a result of war or earthquakes or other ‘natural disasters’ from their policies in ‘the small print’ of the assurance polis, because no one would be able to cover the billions they would have to pay out. If America had not remained relatively unscathed in the Second World War and General Marshall had not developed the Marshall Plan to help Western Europe, that had been shattered and totally destroyed by war, it would have taken many more years before the war damage was more or less repaired and prosperity for the people of Europe back on track.
The ‘centre of power’ (also the centre location of the world-wide computer networks?) is now destroyed, and everyone realises that it is finished. ‘Babylon’ is finished; this civilisation is finished and so we are finished. Military armies cannot help any more either. Rich America is no more. The world has become a plundered, smoking heap of ruins. Only total devastation is left. There is no more hope—unless God still knows of a solution. He does indeed, for it is His world, His Creation, His Universe. And there are still His people, the people of Israel, and the people chosen from the Gentile world who know that all the promises given to them in His Word will be fulfilled. All the promises He gave to Israel He will fulfil for Israel. And all the promises He gave to His Church He will fulfil for His Church. He is the powerful God, Who will not let go what His hand started. Israel is the greatest sign of hope the world has ever seen. Because there still are so many unfulfilled ‘Covenants and Promises’ God gave to Israel! And He will fulfil them all in His future to come!
• Solomon’s Proverbs say: “Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death”8 and “Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf”9—even those who have died, for they will be raised to immortality,10 to inherit the Kingdom.11
• The Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery Program, was a U.S. program providing aid to Western Europe following the devastation of World War II. It was enacted in 1948 and provided more than $15 billion to help finance rebuilding efforts on the continent. Being the brainchild of U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, for whom it was named, it was crafted as a four-year plan to reconstruct cities, industries and infrastructure heavily damaged during WWII and to remove trade barriers between European neighbours – as well as foster commerce between those countries and the United States.
• In addition to economic redevelopment, one of the stated goals of the Marshall Plan was to halt the spread of Communism on the European continent.
Bible References:
1.Genesis 19:24–29 2.Isaiah 34:10 3.Ezekiel 30:8 4.Ezekiel 28:18 5.Ezekiel 27:35 6.Deuteronomy 32:35 NIV; Romans 12:9, see also Jeremiah 50:15 and 29, 51:24–26; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; 2 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Peter 3:9 7.Revelation 17:12–14 8.Proverbs 11:4 9.Proverbs 11:28 10.1 Corinthians 15:42 11.1 Corinthians 6:9–10, 15:50; Matthew 5:5, 25:34.
