Babylon represents the a city, a kingdom, a world system opposed to God.
Revelation 18: 1-3, Babylon's destruction announced
After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice he shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries."
The world system, now fallen, is described as a place of evil – of evil spirits, greed and excess.
Revelation 18: 4-8, Babylon's destruction announced
Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup. Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, `I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.' Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.
The people of God are called to leave the world system and are reminded that that system will fall (or is falling.)
Revelation 18: 9-10, People lament the end of the great earth city
"When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: "`Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!'
The kings and those who benefited from her excess are terrified in her passing.
The kings and those who benefited from her excess are terrified in her passing.
Revelation 18: 11-17a, Babylon's destruction announced
"They will say, `The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.' The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn and cry out: "`Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls! In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!'
Babylon is the center of commerce. She is described as a city of wealth, luxury, prosperity. (Our modern capitalistic society should understand it well.) The End of Babylon brings an end to the wealth of traders and merchants and they, like the kings, grieve over their loss of profit and luxury.
Revelation 18: 17b-19, Babylon's destruction announced
In one hour she has been brought to ruin!
Here Babylon is described from the view of those at sea, the merchants and ships who benefited.
Is Babylon really a city? In one moment she is a city (like Rome or New York City) and in another moment she is the empire (such as the Roman empire) represented by the city.
Revelation 18: 20 – 24, Babylon's end is sudden
Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.'"
Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said: "With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again. The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again. No workman of any trade will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again. The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world's great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray. In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth."
The fall of Babylon is quick and dramatic. And complete.
For further thought: Who would John's readers have identified with Babylon? Would the identification be different today?
I guess I have already spoken to your question. Augustine probably gave the best answer to this in his _City of God_. Babylon is both a city and an empire--the arch-city and arch-empire--in a way that we scarcely know anymore. Cities are cities. Capitals may no longer be the principal cities of a nation, although London remains the capital of the UK and the UK's chief commercial center as well; so also, I guess, with Paris. In fact, US cities--particularly the preeminence of New York City--may be sort of anomalous in world history in exceeding the commercial wealth of the capital. This seems to be the case as I think quickly around the world about capitals such as Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Vienna, and so on. BTW, the descriptions of Babylon's extensive commerce and trade make even more recognizable the alignment between the US and Babylon in the present day, but in actual fact you can see that alignment with every contemporary center of world commerce and power. It's all one system. It's all a system opposed to God. We covenant people of God are, in the final analysis, aliens and strangers in this place. We look for a city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God (Heb. 11). And we hope for the day when all this present system of commerce and power will come crashing down. To the extent the wealth of this system is serving the City of God, it is doing so subversively, undermining it, applying use of that wealth to a fundamentally different purpose of extending love, justice, salvation. And the agents of that world system suspect it, sometimes know it very clearly, and when they see the threat of the covenant people of God, they come after it with guns blazing, the lions hungry, the instruments of torture laid out and ready for employment. We are refugees and strangers, here on sufferance at best, and most of us, through most of history, have suffered for following the Lamb. The Christian calling is a hard road.
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