Revelation 18:23

“The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore.  For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.

•         Sorcery is the ancient Greek word pharmakia, which means, “to prepare drugs.” The lure of commercial Babylon is like a drug addiction, fed by deceptive advertising. (DG)

• ·        The Babylonian system (since time began) had caused millions to offend the Lord and miss their opportunity for Heaven!  (JB)

Isaiah 23:8  Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth?

Nahum 3:4  Because of the multitude of harlotries of the seductive harlot, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations through her harlotries, and families through her sorceries.

Revelation 18:22

“The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore.  No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore.

• ·        In graphic and poetic language, John describes how the industry and commerce of Babylon come to an end. (DG)

• ·        Pipers--flute players. "Musicians," painters and sculptors, have desecrated their art to lend fascination to the sensuous worship of corrupt Christendom.  (JFB)

Jeremiah 51:64  Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her.  And they shall be weary.

Revelation 18:21

Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore.

• ·        Reminds us of what Jesus said in Matthew 18:6: But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. This applies to Babylon in Revelation 18, because she led others into sin. It is a terrible thing to sin unto yourself; it is even more terrible to lead others into sin.  (DG)

• ·        Will this fall hurt us? We will only be hurt to the extent that we invest ourselves in the mentality of commercial Babylon’s materialism and worldliness. (DG)

Isiah 51:63  Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates.

Judges 9:53  But a certain