“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.”
— Revelation 18:8 NIV
I had a friend growing up who had a spare room where he built an entire Lego city. It was incredible—he spent hours carefully putting every piece in the right place. One night we decided to sleep in there since we had been building so late. What he didn’t know was that I sometimes sleepwalked. Needless to say, his Lego city didn’t survive the night. In one fell swoop, it was destroyed.
Revelation 17–18 paints a similar but far more sobering picture of Babylon—an image of worldly power, wealth, and corruption standing in opposition to God. Babylon represents humanity’s attempt to build life apart from Him. Like the Lego city, it looks impressive—wealth and riches, people doing whatever they please, businesses thriving. But in one decisive moment, God brings it all down. And unlike my sleepwalking destruction, this collapse is far worse and final.
God’s judgment is not partial—it is total: “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!” (Rev. 18:2). The mighty city and all it represented is no more. And it is not temporary—it is eternal. Babylon is never rebuilt. Her smoke rises forever (Rev. 19:3). John emphasizes this by repeating the phrase “no more” throughout chapter 18: no more music, no more trade, no more weddings, no more life as usual. What the world thought was unshakable collapses in an instant.
The warning is clear: when we put our hope in anything other than God—especially in things opposed to Him—it is doomed to fall because it is not built to last. Yet this passage also comforts us: evil will not endure forever. Injustice, exploitation, and arrogance will not have the final word. God sees. God judges. God wins.
For believers, judgment is not the end—salvation is.
Pastor Jeremy Johnson