Today’s reading is Revelation 18.
The Judgment on Tyre
In Monday’s post, one of the background passages I suggested you read was Ezekiel 26-28. Though this passage was written about the ancient seaside city of Tyre, the connections between that oracle and Revelation 18 is unmistakable.
In Revelation 18:17b-19, we read:
And all the shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?” And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste (ESV).
See how similar this is to Ezekiel 27:29b-33:
The mariners and all the pilots of the sea stand on the land and shout aloud over you and cry out bitterly. They cast dust on their heads and wallow in ashes…in their wailing they raise a lamentation for you and lament over you: Who is like Tyre, like one destroyed in the midst of the sea? When your wares came from the seas, you satisfied many peoples; with your abundant wealth and merchandise you enriched the kings of the earth (ESV).
The parallels are clear. Babylon, like Tyre of old, would be judged. And the surrounding nations would not mourn the loss of Babylon for the sake of Babylon, but because the goose that laid their golden eggs had been cooked.
Trading Like Tyre
In Ezekiel 27:12-25, Ezekiel declared the extent of Tyre’s sea-faring trade. He listed 19 cities, states, countries, regions which traded extensively with Tyre. He explained these merchants traded in silver, iron, tin, lead, bronze, souls of men, horses, ivory, ebony, emeralds, purple, embroidery, coral, ruby, wheat, honey, oil, wool, wine, iron, cassia, calamus, lambs, rams, goats, precious stones, gold, garments, and carpets.
In Revelation 18:11-13, the voice from heaven declares the goods in which Babylon traded and by which the merchants and kings of the earth were made rich:
And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is human souls (ESV).
While the lists are not identical, the overlap is unmistakable. Babylon in Revelation, like Tyre in Ezekiel, was wealthy and made a certain class of people wealthy alongside her. But all this trade will come to naught when God brings judgment on her. And the merchants will mourn at their loss of wealth, not at their loss of Babylon.
A different Ending
Go back and reread the passages above from Ezekiel 27 and Revelation 18 describing the merchandising. Clearly, though the voice of heaven is anchoring its speech in the ancient oracle of Ezekiel, it is doing so to make its own point. It isn’t simply quoting and repeating. It is borrowing imagery to drive home a new point.
One obvious difference is the voice from heaven doesn’t use the same order as that of Ezekiel. Heaven’s voice seems to have a loose order that builds to a crescendo. It starts with inanimate objects of value, moves to decorative items, then to scents and spices, then to foodstuffs, then to living creatures. But notice the very end.
In Ezekiel 27:13, the trade of human beings is casually slipped in without emphasis in the long litany of goods and merchandise. However, in Revelation 18, the voice from heaven builds until it crescendos with the declaration that Babylon traded in “slaves, that is, human souls” (ESV). Allow me to share Robert Young’s more literal translation:
…and cattle, and sheep, and of horses, and of chariots, and of bodies and souls of men (Revelation 18:13 b, YLT)
Despite several translators making the choice to say “slaves,” the text actually says, “bodies.” Don’t neglect to tie this back to where the list began in vss. 11-12. As the list begins with *cargo* of gold, silver, etc., it ends with cargo of bodies and souls of men. Can you think of a more dismissive and degrading way to speak of trading in humans, what we today call “human trafficking”? They weren’t trading in people, but in bodies. However, heaven’s voice wants us to understand this was not merely a trade in bodies but in lives or souls.
The issue is not merely that among other trades they also traded in slaves. The issue is they traded lives, they traded souls. The first time “souls” is found in Revelation is Revelation 6:9 when we read of the “souls of those who had been slain for the word of God.” In Revelation 12:11, we learn about those who conquered the beast because they loved not their “lives” or “souls” even unto death. In Revelation 20:4, John saw the “souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus.” Yes, we do see this word used as an adjective to describe the “living” things and creatures that died when the trumpets sounded (Revelation 8:9) and the bowls were poured out (Revelation 16:3). But the emphasis in Revelation is clear. Souls are lives, human lives.
Babylon had slain and ended the lives of Christians. The beast had tormented the lives of disciples to death. But in like manner, their very means of business and prosperity was on the backs of the bodies and souls of men. They didn’t merely trade in goods, they traded in lives, in souls. Who mined the silver and gold? Slaves. Who milled the wheat into fine flour? Slaves. Who harvested the spices, who weaved the garments, who pressed the oil, who tended the animals? Slaves. Who lived and died in poverty and oppression so the merchants and kings could have their wealth? Slaves. That is, Babylon traded in the bodies and souls of men. The blood/souls of the martyrs cried out against Babylon. But so did the blood/souls of the traded cargo of bodies. While the blood of martyrs watered the seeds of Christ’s kingdom, we can say the blood of slaves watered the wealth of Babylon. And for that latter claim, Babylon would be judged.
Don’t Treat People as Commodities
Let us not be deceived. When we treat the bodies and souls of our fellow man as nothing more than commodities from which we can enrich ourselves, we are compromising with Babylon. James 5:1-6 demonstrates there will be those who own the fields and there will be those who work the fields. No doubt, those who own the fields will have more than those who merely work them.
However, in the context of James’s sermon on the pure and undefiled religion of loving God and loving our neighbors, he essentially parallels visiting orphans and widows in their affliction (James 1:27) with impartiality between the rich and the poor when they come in our assemblies (James 2:1-7) with giving to our needy brothers and sisters what is needed for their bodies (James 2:15-16) with giving living wages to workers (James 5:1-6). In other words, one way in which we can love our neighbors is to provide meaningful work for them through which they can actually make a living and provide for their families. Babylonians bring workers into their fields in order to line the pockets of the Babylonians and squeeze as much out of the bodies and souls of the workers as they can. Disciples bring in workers to provide a mutually beneficial means for loving, sharing with, providing for, and caring for the bodies and souls of the workers.
Let us take care not to get caught up in the sins of Babylon just for the sake of putting dollars in our retirement accounts or even food on our tables.
Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 18.
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PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family
How does Revelation 18 prompt or improve your hope in God?
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