Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #36 of Revelation chapter 18 and we are going to read Revelation 18:23-24:
And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
I will stop reading there. This brings us to the end of chapter 18. As we discussed last time at the beginning of verse 23 the “light of a candle” not shining any more at all in Babylon is pointing to the removal of the Gospel light. Remember that in Psalm 80, verses 3, 7 and 19, God said, “Cause they face to shine, and we shall be saved.” Without the light of the candle shining, it means there will be no salvation and no one can become saved. Then it went on to say, “and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee.” These point to the voice of Christ, the Word of God, and the voice of the bride, the true believers that carried the Word of God, will no longer be “heard,” as God will not open the spiritual ears of anyone in the world, ever again, because His salvation program has come to a close.
Finally, it says at the end of Revelation 18:23:
… for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
We already discussed the “merchants” of the earth in verses 11 and 15. They were involved in “buying and selling” and God listed their merchandise. Here, He tells us that these merchants were “the great men of the earth.” The reference to “great men” uses a slightly different word for “great” than we find in other places. The Greek word “megas” is used elsewhere, like it is used to refer to the Great Tribulation, which is “megas thlipsis.” But our word is a different but related word. It has a different Strong’s number, which is Strong’s #3175, and it is only found three times in the New Testament. It is also found in Revelation 6:15-17:
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Here, the “kings of the earth” were also in view earlier in Revelation 18. Remember, they stood afar off and they were crying, “Alas, alas,” as they saw Babylon burn. Likewise, the “great men” that are identified with the merchants are also seeking to be hid in the day of God’s wrath, which indicates they are unsaved people. I think we can say they represent the authorities of this world or the “powers that be” of this world – they are the great men of this earth or the “men of renown.” They are the great ones that the world admires. This word, Strong’s #3175, is also found one other time in the New Testament in the Gospel of Mark. In this case it is not translated as “great men,” but it is translated as “lords” in Mark 6:20-21:
For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee;
The word we are looking for is translated as “lords” here, where it says he “made a supper to his lords” or the great men of that area that were under Herod’s jurisdiction. This is the same word that God is using when speaking of Babylon and the merchants or “great men” of the earth. God is emphasizing that the judgment is upon the earth, just like Isaiah, chapter 24, kept repeating that fact, again, and again, so it could not be missed – it is the final judgment of mankind upon the earth.
It goes on to say in Revelation 18:23:
… for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Again, speaking of Babylon, God says she was involved in “sorceries.” The word “sorceries” is also translated as “witchcraft” in Galatians 5:20, as God gives a list of the lustful desires of the flesh. But we have an equivalent word in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 47, as the Lord describes the judgment upon Babylon (as is the case in Revelation 18), He says in Isaiah 47:9:
But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.
Again, Babylon is being accused of “sorceries.” In the Old Testament the Hebrew word translated as “sorceries” is Strong’s #3785. In the New Testament this Greek word is translated as “sorcery” or “witchcraft” and in the Old Testament it is also translated as “sorcery” or “witchcraft,” so it is an equivalent word.
It says in Isaiah 47:11-15:
Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know. Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.
God is describing some of the sorceries of Babylon. Tell me, do they not sound familiar? It mentions astrologers, stargazers and monthly prognosticators. What do we have today in this world? We have astrologers, stargazers and we have people that are involved in the “spirit world” and will do a séance. We have everything under the sun in the world today and they profess to be in the spiritual realm – they read your future; they read your palm; they look into a crystal ball; they consult a Ouija board. The world is involved in all of these things and much, much more and God notices. They have great interest in the occult and reading tea leaves and cards and, yet, the world has no real interest in reading the Bible or hearing the Word of God. That was the one place in the whole world where there is a true spirit and right spirit and where God does declare the end from the beginning, as God is the only one that knows the future. He is the one who wrote a Book about events that would take place in the future, but the world has no genuine interest in truth and the things of God. They prefer the lie. They want to deceive people. They want to manipulate people, as they bring falsehood and all kinds of underhanded dealings through their “sorceries.” Of course, the churches are involved in this because they have entered into dark, spiritual things like “falling over backwards” and “speaking in tongues” and claiming to receive dreams, visions and messages from God, but they are not from God. It is all “sorcery” and it comes from Satan and the kingdom of darkness, the Babylon of this world. What a terrible, ugly mess the world has become and the churches have become and Babylon has become because of their sorceries. All nations are deceived. You have people that read their horoscopes in the newspaper every day. You have people who go to psychics to see what the future holds for them: are they going to find love or are they going to become wealthy? They go to someone who does not have a clue. It is just one big cesspool of iniquity that the world has gotten involved with because they deny and cut off the one true source of knowledge of the future, which is God’s holy Word, the Bible. Therefore, they open themselves up to everything else under the sun and God says that the judgment upon Babylon is due to its “sorceries” wherein all nations were deceived.
Then it goes on to say in the last verse, in Revelation 18:24:
And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
People have read this and made an assumption or attempted to tie it in with what we read in Matthew 23 and then they determine that Babylon must be speaking of the churches and the congregations, because Christ is speaking to the Pharisees, who represent Judah of old, and Judah is a type of the churches. The Pharisees represent those false pastors and elders in the churches and congregations. There is some truth to that, but it is not the whole truth, so let us turn to Matthew 23, where Christ addresses the scribes and Pharisees, and it says in 23:34-36:
Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
Here, Christ is faulting the leaders of Judea and He said they are guilty of the blood of the prophets, wise men and scribes which God sent to them. That is true. God did send many prophets and scribes and wise men to Israel and they killed many of them. But notice the statement God makes in verse 35: “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.” Now we have a problem because Israel was formed going back to Abraham or to Jacob (whose name was turned to Israel) and Jacob was born in 2007 BC and his name was changed to “Israel” in 1907 BC, but Abel was one of the first human beings on the earth. He was a son of Adam and Eve and he was slain near the very beginning of the creation of the world, which was created in 11,013 BC. If Jacob was not born until 2007 BC, it means that Abel was killed and his blood was shed about 9,000 years before Jacob (Israel) was even born. So how could Christ say to the leaders of Israel that they were guilty of the blood of Abel?
The blood of Zacharias is something we can understand because Israel did kill him. We read in 2Chronicles 24:15:
But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died.
Then it says in 2Chronicles 24:19-20:
Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto JEHOVAH; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear. And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest…
Now he was not a direct son of Jehoiada, but he was a descendent of Jehoiada. In the Bible God can refer to someone as a “son” if they are a descendent like a grandson or even a great grandson. Then it goes on to say in 2Chronicles 24:20-22:
…which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of JEHOVAH, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken JEHOVAH, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of JEHOVAH. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, JEHOVAH look upon it, and require it.
It is interesting that the Lord Jesus said, “the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.” It will be required of this generation and this statement actually fulfilled the words of Zechariah as he died, being stoned to death. God would require that justice be done for the shedding of his blood.
We have another question: “Why does it refer to Zacharias?” Zacharias lived hundreds of years before Christ came to earth. Many of God’s prophets were killed after Zacharias in the centuries that followed, but it seems Christ is making an all-encompassing statement by reaching all the way back to Abel near the time of creation and then he gives another name that seems to encompass the “end” of all those that would be killed.
But, why is it Zacharias? It is because of the age of Jehoiada the priest when he died. Jehoiada was 130 years old when he died and the number “130” is “10 x 13.” The “10” points to completeness and “13” points to the end of the world because 1988 was the 13,000th year of earth’s history. So you have the completeness of the end of the world as judgment began on the house of God in 1988. It was then that those that were previously faithful while the Holy Spirit was in the midst (typified by Jehoiada the priest) rebelled against God and slew His servants the prophets over the course of the 23-year Great Tribulation period, just as Zacharias was slain between the temple and the altar. So it is an all-encompassing statement that represents all the prophets that were killed from the very beginning unto the last to be killed at the end of the world, as the 13,000th year of earth’s history brings us to the time of the very end. Yet, Christ says He holds them accountable for all the blood of the prophets, or is He holding the scribes and Pharisees alone accountable? Let us go back, again, to Matthew 23. After Christ made the statement concerning the blood of Abel and Zacharias, it says in Matthew 23:36:
Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
There is a parallel passage in Luke 11:49-50:
Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
Which prophets’ blood was shed from the foundation of the world? It was the blood of all the elect that was shed in Christ as we died in Him and this is further evidence that He did die for sin at the foundation of the world and we died with Him in that sense. And God says, “That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation.”
Then God goes on to say in Luke 11:51:
From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
God repeats that it shall be “required of this generation,” and what generation is that? Well, the Bible tells us in Matthew, chapter 12, when some of the scribes and Pharisees were requesting a “sign” from Christ. Jesus responded in Mathew 12:39-41:
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
It says “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation,” and Christ was speaking in the present tense and condemning them, but they will not arise until the end of time at the end of the world, so how could it be called “this generation”? The reason Christ can refer to “this generation” and, yet, have the end of time in view is because it is the same generation, spiritually, from the fall of man which would take us back to the time of Abel. At the fall of man the “generation of evil” began. He said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.” The “generation of evil” is the people of the world that have dwelt in the earth since man disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden and the entire time span from that point to the end of the world is considered by God to be the “generation of evil.”
That “generation” is also the time of Satan’s kingdom from the beginning when he took the authority and mankind became in submission to him when Satan deceived and conquered them in the Garden of Eden. This began the kingdom of Satan or the kingdom of Babylon, spiritually. And from the beginning, Babylon was involved in the slaying of Abel and Babylon was involved with Zacharias and all God’s people right up until the end of the world. Therefore, God requires of “this generation” the blood of the prophets, as it says in Revelation 18:24:
And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.