Here John describes a society where people have become merchandise. We do not need to look reproachfully at the ancient world in this respect, for there were still serfs in Russia in the nineteenth century, and more than a million African slaves in America. The slave trade was a profitable business in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in which many seafaring nations took part. It is estimated that there are still several hundred thousand slaves in the countries around the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, see remarks. Nevertheless, there is a big difference between classical slavery and the slave trade that existed in the southern states of North America and elsewhere in the world. There was no free working class in ancient times. If you were poor and became a slave, your life was guaranteed as the property of an owner, a rich man. You were often very much respected. Slaves who were freed often remained with the family with whom they had been in service. Educated Greek slaves were sought after as educators and teachers of Roman families. Israel’s slavery in Egypt is an example of hard, torturing oppression. The situation was also very unfavourable for slaves in Babylonia, where they were primarily regarded as objects of trade. However, consider the industrial proletariat that came into existence following the industrial revolution of the 19th and 20th century. Many slaves of ancient times were hundreds of times better off! And what should we think about the great masses of people in the third world? Are they much better off? The exploitation of impoverished people has occurred in every century and in every culture.
Slaves as merchandise that the merchants involved with ‘Babylon’ cannot be ‘sold’ anymore. Suddenly one cannot put them as a commodity on the markets of Babylon. Immediately, the collapse of ‘Babylon’ as an economic system means something worse for the ‘masses’ worldwide than slavery: poverty without hope, unemployment, hunger and finally death. The transport firms, the merchant navy and air cargo traffic cease operating as well, and the financial banks are left with few investment opportunities. Everything collapses.
‘Babylon’ is addressed directly in this verse. This happens shortly in verses 22–24 too. By whom? Who is the speaker? The ‘other angel’?1 The ‘other voice’?2 John himself? Christ? We will find out. It is said to ‘Babylon’: “The fruit you longed for and all your luxury and splendour, everything your soul lusted after, which your natural life as a human being desired, have all vanished for ever and your life of luxury will never come back.” If you have no inner satisfaction, peace of mind and inner happiness because of your relationship with God and Christ, you will try to fill that inner void by chasing after all kind of ‘things’. ‘But our hearts will be full of unrest until it finds peace in You O Lord’, the Church father Augustine once said – knowing this from personal experience! Those who have no ‘spiritual life’ have to fill this void with an endless stream of things and gadgets—a continual hunt for luxury, looking at the neighbours, becoming jealous, doing everything in their power to have the best for themselves as well.
‘Advertising’ contributes to all this. The body asks for its little pleasures as well, from one satisfaction to another, by sex, food and drink and all kinds of entertainment. Each new stimulus has to be different and stronger than the previous ones, because the pleasure soon passes. Psychedelic substances, alcohol, narcotics, heavy rock disco and pop music bring on stupor and sexual gratification in every possible and impossible ways—forbidden fruits that the human soul longs after. Augustine was right when he said that man’s soul will be restless until he finds rest in God. Whoever surrenders his or her life to Christ is freed from chasing after things. After having experienced this new inner peace with God, they do indeed enjoy all the good things of this world that God gives, but is not a slave to them. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”3 But your inner happiness does not depend on ‘owning things’ or experiencing ‘mind-blowing kicks’. What is really satisfying, rich life for ‘spirit, soul and body’ can only be found in Christ.4
• The King James Version says: “the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee.” That is very clear. This is about more than fruit, like apples, oranges, bananas, kiwis and mangos! It is about everything natural man chases after, everything that is tasty and delicious.
• The forbidden fruit in Paradise about the knowledge of good and evil looked so desirable! Genesis 3:6 “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes / pleasing to the eye, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
• The Lord Jesus says: “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things.” (Matthew 6:32) What do our hearts run after?
• Two rough estimates by scholars of the number of slaves held over twelve centuries in the Muslim world are 11.5 million and 14 million, while other estimates indicate a number between 12 and 15 million slaves prior to the 20th century. Slavery in the region long persisted after its abolishment by western countries. Saudi Arabia, for example, formally ended the practice only in the 1960s amid pressure from its ally Washington. Yet it still exists in various forms in the Middle East, including in the case of migrant workers who are paid low wages, if at all, for hard labour while living in squalor. This is still true in Saudi Arabia – which is notorious for its “slave maids” – and notably in Qatar, where the growing death toll among workers imported to construct World Cup venues has caused humanitarian organizations to call on football’s governing body to move the games elsewhere.
• According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, nearly 3 million people are enslaved in the MENA region, representing some 6.4% of the total population. Victims include involuntary recruits in state and non-state armed groups; those forced into marriage or commercial sexual exploitation; and those subjected to forced labour and debt bondage. The atrocities committed by Islamic State since 2014 have contributed in large part to the subjugation, including the wholesale enslavement of tens of thousands of Yazidis in Iraq.
Bible References:
1.Revelation 18:1 2.Revelation 18:4 3.1 Timothy 6:6–10, 17–19; 2 Corinthians 6:3–10; James 2:1–5; Colossians 2:20–23; Philippians 4:8; Acts 2:46; 1 Timothy 4:3; 2 Timothy 3:4; 2 Peter 2:13 4.1 Thessalonians 5:22–23
