When It's Right to Rejoice Over the Punishment of Evil and Evildoers. Revelation 18:20
There is a centrality that comes to Babylon in the Tribulation period, and Babylon is related to its own kingdom and is distinct from the Antichrist's initial kingdom which comes out of the old Roman empire. The reason for making that point is because of a question that has been raised: If Babylon is the economic heart of the Antichrist's kingdom why does he want to destroy his economic headquarters in the Middle East? That flows out of a distinction that has already been made between the kings of the east who committed immorality with Babylon and lament her destruction, and the ten horns that are on the beast representing the ten kings that are the core of the kingdom of the Antichrist. So we have to make a distinction, and as part of the answer we have to remember that Babylon is not a part of that original empire made up of the ten horns plus one. Babylon was never part of the old Roman empire. The last kingdom is a revival of the old Roman empire; Babylon is secondary. What happens in the first half of the Tribulation is that the Antichrist establishes a hegemony (political control) over the world. By the mid point of the Tribulation he becomes a world ruler and dictator. That includes his original empire of the ten kingdoms plus himself, and then other empire entities of which Babylon seems to be one. Babylon seems to be like Wall Street in that it is an economic center but not necessarily part of his original empire. There seems to be some sort of tension that develops between the ten kings that are part of his original empire and Babylon which is depicted as the woman who rides the beast. The beast has the ten horns, so there is the issue of control there and that control is primarily related to a religious and philosophical, and perhaps economical, tyranny that becomes overbearing to the ten kings; so they really want to get rid of that influence of Babylon.
So what we see in Revelation is that the kings of the earth are a different group than the ten horns or kings that are part of the revived Roman empire. Passages such as Revelation 17:2, 16 show this distinction. There is an intimacy between the kings of the earth and Babylon. In verse 16 the ten horns will hate the harlot. So the one group, the ten horns, hates the harlot, and the other group is making love to the harlot. So there are clearly two different relationships to the woman who rides the beast and the woman is clearly identified as Babylon. The Antichrist's original kingdom and the Antichrist clearly truly rejoice when Babylon is destroyed.
Revelation 18:20 NASB "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her." This is a command from the angel. The word that is translated "rejoice" is a present passive imperative and it means to celebrate, to rejoice, to be glad or delighted; it is not the normal word that we find for joy, which is chara [xara], but is the same verb that is used in Revelation 11 to describe the big party that the world throws after the two witnesses are killed by the Antichrist and their bodies are laid out for all the world to view.
There are two basic issues regarding the chronology of Revelation whenever we read anybody, and that is the debate about whether the trumpet judgments come in the either the first half of the Tribulation or the second half. Most people see the seals in the first half, the bowls in the second half, but where do we put the trumpet judgments? That is related to where we put the two witnesses. If we put the two witnesses in the second half, which is what a lot of people do, we have a problem. Their time of ministry is supposed to be 1320 days (3-1/2 years). If that 3-1/2 years is the second half, then from the abomination of desolation to the end of the Tribulation period then they would be killed about the time that Jesus returns, and that is when there would be this big celebration. The problem is that that would be the same time Babylon is destroyed and the picture that we have in Revelation 18 is that there is a lamenting. There is no partying going on, the world is in a state of grief over the destruction of Babylon. The other reason is that it doesn't leave any time for the other judgments that come after the death of the two witnesses if they are put in the second half. Therefore they must be in the first half. The Antichrist wants Babylon destroyed most likely because Babylon and the economic and religious systems have become too tyrannical, so there is rejoicing to have that thrown off and gotten rid of; and this is why the world is gathering for battle at Armageddon.
The NASB translation of verse 20 reads, "saints and apostles and prophets." In some of the MSS, primarily those that were used in the Textus Receptus, the MS tradition for the King James version, the "and" between "saints" and "apostles" was somehow dropped out. But in both the Majority Text and the Critical Text the "and" is included. That is, the vast majority of MSS, and so "holy" is not an adjective for apostles, it should be translated hagios [a(gioj] and should be "saints," i.e. believers. So this is a cry to rejoice over the destruction of Babylon. That raises an interesting question which is: is it right or when is it right for believers to rejoice over the destruction of evil in evildoers? And that even raises another question people ask every now and then: is it legitimate for Christians in the church age to have imprecatory prayers? An imprecatory prayer (contained in some of the Psalms) is when the psalmist is calling upon God to judge his enemies. Some people say it is never right to do that. There is a misunderstanding there. First, an imprecatory prayer is not a demand for God to bring judgment upon one's enemies, it is a request. It is no different from the request that we have seen in the fifth seal judgment when martyrs are praying to God to finally avenge their blood. It is a cry for justice to be enacted in the life of a believer when there have been those who have been unrighteous and sinful who are attacking and assaulting and who are the enemies of that which is righteous and just. We do not see any reason why believers cannot call upon God to bring judgment on evil and evildoers. He may say the same answer He gives to the martyrs in the fifth seal judgment, which is, it is not time yet, and to wait. Since we don't know always—according to Paul in Romans chapter eight—how to pray, we don't know precisely what to pray for, God the Holy Spirit is the one who really energizes our prayers and is a sort of divine translator in getting prayers right, and so we don't see any distinction between what David is doing in the Psalms when he is calling upon God to execute righteousness and justice in history. We do have a right to rejoice over judgment of evil and evildoers, especially when we understand where sin and evil comes from within the entire angelic conflict. That is, it is all rebellion against God and eventually God is going to bring all of that to a final level of judgment, which is what occurs at the end of the Tribulation in both the angelic and human realms in order to bring to a closure all of the rebellion that has occurred in both realms so that God can then establish His kingdom on the earth. There has to be a judgment and a purification before His kingdom can be established. This cry to rejoice over the destruction of Babylon echoes the prophecy that was written by Jeremiah in 51:48 NASB " 'Then [the time that Babylon would be destroyed] heaven and earth and all that is in them Will shout for joy over Babylon, For the destroyers will come to her from the north," Declares the LORD.'"
Revelation 18:21 NASB "Then a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, 'So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer.'" Again, this is a statement by the angel that refers to the final judgment on Babylon and never again will Babylon be rebuilt. The initial phrase, "a strong angel," takes us back in the book of Revelation to where a strong angel has appeared. This seems to be a class of angels. Three mighty angels are mentioned: 5:2; 10:1; 18:21. This angel gives a visual demonstration so that people might understand what is happening with Babylon. The word that is used here for "millstone" is a little different from the normal word used. This is the Greek word mulinos [mulinoj], and the normal word for "millstone" is mulikos [mulikoj], used in Luke 17:2. The difference is that it is not talking about a stone that has actually been used as a millstone but is one that looks like and appears to be like, and could be used as, a millstone because of the size. There were two different kinds of millstones that were used in the ancient world. There was a small millstone that would be turned by an individual for crushing grain, and then there was a much larger kind that would be turned by the use of an animal, and these would usually be between four and five feet in diameter, twelve inches thick, and would weigh several thousand pounds. The picture here is of an enormously heavy object being thrown into the sea which would create an enormous impact and tidal wave as a result. This is used to dramatize the absolute destruction that is going to come upon the great city of Babylon. There will be nothing left, nothing to be restored, and the city would never ever again exist.
To emphasize the extent of that judgment: Rev 18:22, 23 NASB "And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer; and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer; and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery."
"…will [not] be found in you any longer…" In the Greek there is an idiom here where the Greek uses a double negative plus a subjunctive mood in the verb, which indicates a totality; it is the strongest way you can say something, and it might literally be translated that "Babylon will not, never again," but in the English two negatives make a positive (not in the Greek). It conveys the idea of impossibility or absolute certainty that something would never ever occur again. So never again will any kind of music be heard in Babylon, it is completely and totally destroyed. The second statement applies to workmen, laborers, craftsmen. Not even the smallest lamp will shine, not even the smallest lamp of the most impoverished people. There is no light at all, just absolute darkness; darkness often being associated with judgment in the Scriptures. So the normal activities of life—marriage and giving in marriage—are gone; no commerce. The word "sorcery" is the Greek word pharmakeia [farmakeia]. This is not the word we associate with pharmacy, mostly dealing with medicinal drugs, but in the ancient world this word had a primary connotation of dealing with sorcery and magic, often using hallucinogenic drugs in association with religious observances. It is associated with demonism and idolatry. It was associated with Jezebel, 2 Kings 9:22—the word pharmakeia is used in the LXX in the translation of that verse; it is used in relation to Babylon in the Old Testament, Isaiah 47:12; and it is used in association with Nineveh which was the capital of the Assyrian empire in Nahum 3:4. So it indicates the true demonic dimension that lies behind all false religions and all false systems of thinking. Babylon is destroyed because of the kind of thinking, the religious thinking that emanated and originated with the fall of Babylon in Genesis 11 and has permeated and influenced all of the peoples of the earth, the nations of the earth, and has deceived them into rejecting God and rebelling against Him. Babylon as the ultimate source of that religion has now been destroyed.
Her guilt is further indicated. Revelation 18:24 NASB "And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth." This is a direct reference to all of the martyrs that have been murdered during the Tribulation period. Cf. Revelation 6:10 NASB "and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'" Notice the emphasis there on holiness and truth.
The scene then shifts in Revelation 19:1 NASB "After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.'" The first phrase, "After these things" doesn't mean necessarily that the events of chapter nineteen chronologically follow the events of chapter eighteen, although that is true in this case. This is how John changes from one scene to another, and so there is just a scene shift here that takes place. He shifts from the destruction of Babylon and the interpretation of the destruction of Babylon by this angel to another scene which is in heaven. The first six verses of chapter nineteen focus on "four plus one Hallelujahs." The reason for saying that is because in almost every commentary talks about the four Hallelujahs. In Greek there are four Hallelujahs, but we have to ask what Hallelujah actually means. Four Hallelujahs: vv. 1, 3, 4, 5 [praise in Heb. is Hallelujah; the others are transliterated; this is a translation], and 6. So there are really five Hallelujahs in this section. The Greek word hallelouia [ ((Allelouia] would be pronounced the same as the Hebrew, which is Hallelujah. Hallelu is a second person plural—you all praise; hallel is the Hebrew word for praise; the u ending is the second person plural ending. It is a command to the people, calling upon them to praise Jah, the first syllable in Yahweh, the name for God. So chapter nineteen begins with this section that focuses on actually five Hallelujahs because the statement in verse 5 to praise God is a statement that is a translation of the word Hallelujah. So there are four Hallelujahs plus one translation, all of which means the same thing: to praise the Lord. These four occurrences of hallelouia here the only times that we have run into this word in this way in the New Testament. In the Psalms that phrase Hallelujah is used twenty-four times.
It is interesting to study how that word is used. It is used at the end of five psalms: 104, 105, 115, 116, 117. That is significant in those particular psalms. Psalms 113-118 are called the hallel psalms. It was the singing of hallel psalms that was common at Passover and Tabernacles. That is what the disciples of Jesus sang before they went out after celebrating the Passover. The word is used at the beginning of Psalm 11 and 112, and Hallelujah is used at the beginning and at the end of Psalms 106, 113, 135 and 146. So it is a call to God's people to praise Him. Praise Him for what? If we examine the contexts of these psalms what we discover is that all of them are somehow connected to God bringing judgment upon the enemies of Israel. So the call to praise God is Israel is to praise Him because God has victory over His enemies, protected Israel and destroyed the enemies. The focus of Hallelujah is really a call to praise God because He has protected His people, has secured salvation for His people, and He has destroyed the enemies of His people. All of those ideas go back to the essence of what is found in imprecatory prayers—the believer calling on God to destroy his enemies.
When we get into Revelation 19:1 this gives us a bit of an understanding of what is happening in heaven as this chorus of singing erupts, praising God because Babylon has been destroyed and all the inhabitants of Babylon have been destroyed, the leaders of Babylon have been destroyed. Millions of human beings have been incinerated in the destruction of Babylon because it is now time for God's judgment to be enacted upon the earth. "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God." He is the one who provides salvation in delivering from His enemies who have controlled human history against Him in this great end-time war that has taken place during the Tribulation period. The glory belongs to God because He and He alone can bring victory over sin and evil. There is honor for Him for what he has done in vindicating His saints. Then power because God as omnipotent is the one who is able to do that. So as we look at this what is the real basis, then, for understanding what God is doing? It is His character. We have to always start with God's character. People want to start with human experience and then they come up with some sort of experiential idea of what justice is, what love is, and what God is like; then they reach something like this: How can there be rejoicing in heaven over the slaughter of millions of human beings? When you start with man and start with a limited finite expression of man then it is easy to see how you can reach those conclusions. But when you start with God as being the one who is absolutely true and righteous, the one who is absolute justice, the one who is love Himself, and that the human race and the demons are the rebels against Him, and that He has postponed His judgment for century after century so that he can expend His grace to millions and millions of people to give them the opportunity to trust in the message of salvation, we see a picture of God showing tremendous patience and forbearance toward mankind before they are finally brought to judgment. And those that are left are those who under no circumstance would ever trust in Jesus Christ.
Revelation 19:2 NASB "BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER." The statement focuses continuously on the character of God. He is the one who is absolute truth and the one who is absolute righteousness. Righteousness is a reference to His character, the absolute standard of His character; justice, which is reflected here in His judgments, is the outworking of those standards. So the standards begin with truth and righteousness. Those are terms that we frequently associate with integrity, and that is why when we sometimes talk about the character of God four attributes are grouped together as the integrity of God—His righteousness, which is the standard of His character; His justice and truth; and then the outworking of that in terms of justice and mercy. Justice = applied righteousness; mercy = the application of God's love and grace to people. At least three of these four attributes are frequently combined in different contexts in the Psalms. E.g. Psalm 89:14 which is a meditation on the Davidic covenant NASB "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness [mercy] and truth go before You." So those in the heavens are praising God because of His character. He is true and righteous, and this relates to His judgments. Look down to Revelation 19:11 NASB "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it {is} called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war." So these same titles are applied to Jesus, emphasizing His character as the one who is qualified to bring about this judgment, to implement the judgment of God against all those who have rebelled against Him. "His judgments are true and righteous," verse 2, talks about an absolute standard, an objective standard.
When we face issues in life that bring about more or less ethical conundrums where ethical people raise issues about Christianity they are usually starting with a finite reference point. But when we start with the acceptance of the fact that there is an absolute standard of righteousness and truth then it makes perfect sense. But when we don't start with an absolute standard of righteousness and truth it doesn't make sense, and so to the unbeliever this is just all backwards and it doesn't make sense to him because as far as he is concerned righteousness and truth are relative concepts, and they are based only upon his experience in which case there really is no such thing as absolute righteousness and truth and they just become tools and words that are used by politicians and power brokers. There is no real everlasting concept of righteousness and justice embedded in a person, as we have in the biblical view of God. The Bible sets this view of God completely over against all human concepts of gods, goddesses and philosophical concepts.
The multitude cries out for true and righteous are His judgments because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornications. So the corruption that is in the earth is not something that God created in the earth—this solves the problem of suffering: God didn't create suffering, He created a perfect world and perfect creatures, but He gave those perfect creatures volition, the ability to make choices and to decide. Some of those creatures chose to disobey God and that is what brought sin and suffering into the universe. Babylon is seen here are the source of that corruption—negative volition tracing back to Nimrod and the founding of Babylon in Genesis chapters ten and eleven which show that Babylon and the philosophical religion that comes out of Babylon in opposition to God are the source of corruption of all of the thinking, all of the government thinking, all of the economic systems, everything that happens within human history.
The root meaning for "fornication" here has to do with infidelity or unfaithfulness to a covenant. That covenant is viewed as the creation covenant between God and man. Man was created to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field (Genesis 1:26, 27). Man has rebelled against God and broken that covenant; Babylon asserts a separate destiny, a separate reality, a separate religion for man, and so at the very core of Babylonian religion and all human systems of religion there is this infidelity toward God. That is what corrupts the earth; it is unfaithfulness toward God. The result is that God has avenged on her—bringing of judgment—the blood of His servants shed by her. This is the answer to the prayer of the martyrs in Revelation chapter six. This brings about another response.
Revelation 19:3 NASB "And a second time they said, 'Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER.'" This is an interesting verse because in just a couple of weeks Christ establishes His kingdom and its perfect environment, then the present heavens and earth are going to be destroyed and we go on into eternity. There are a couple of different ways to solve this question. One is that often the term forever and ever is used in certain contexts to refer to the end of the present age. The term aionos [a)wnoj] comes from a word that also means age and could mean just until the end of the present period of time or present dispensation. Another way of looking at this is that this is actually simply an idiomatic expression for the complete and final destruction of Babylon that she will never ever again rise up. That is also possible.
Then we have the reintroduction of the 24 elders and the four living creatures. Revelation 19:4 NASB "And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, 'Amen. Hallelujah!'" The four living creatures are similar to cherubs and seraphs, two different orders of angels, but they are a high order of angels closely associated with the throne of God. The 24 elders refer to a group of church age believers who represent the totality of church age believers before the throne of God. It is a representative function. God who sits on the throne is the Father; the Son doesn't have a throne yet.
Revelation 19:5 NASB "And a voice came from the throne, saying, 'Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.'" We are not sure who this is; it is clearly not the voice of the Father. The Lamb is not usually expressing Himself in this way so maybe it is just another angel; we are not sure.
Revelation 19:6 NASB "Then I heard {something} like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.'" The voice of the great multitude would be like the sound that we would hear from a large gathering of hundreds of thousands of people, almost a defining roar. This is the verse that inspired Handel when he wrote the Messiah and the Hallelujah chorus.
Illustrations