Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her bin the cup she mixed. As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.’ For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.” (Revelation 18:4-8 ESV).
The symbolic language used in the Revelation is very fluid. I believe it is helpful for us to step back at this point in our study and review what some of the key symbols represent. Going back to Revelation 13, we see that one of the chief strategies of the devil in his war against God and His people is to make use of a beast who deceives nations into worshiping him. Ancient Rome and its demand for emperor worship is one manifestation of this beast, but in a broader sense it can also stand for any empire opposed to the Lord. By the time we get to Revelation 17, however, the beast is no longer ancient Rome but comes to signify an ultimate evil that Rome, represented by the prostitute Babylon riding the beast, thinks is under her control. The ten horns on the beast are ten kings, probably representing various nations Rome has conquered. Rome believes that she has tamed this beast and these nations, having brought them under her dominion. However, this rule will not last long, for the beast and other kingdoms will turn on her when God brings Rome to an end (vv. 15–18).
The chapter we being today (Revelation 18) declares the surety of Rome’s fall, echoing language from prophets about the end of pagan powers (cf. Isaiah 34). Such destruction will finally fall on the Roman Empire and only detestable beasts will reside there. When the city of Rome fell a few centuries after John wrote the Revelation, the population drastically shrank. Some estimate that in the first century, about one million people lived in Rome, but when the city fell to the barbarians in the fifth century, fewer than thirty thousand people remained.
Our reading takes the announcement of Rome’s coming fall as a warning to believers. In language reminiscent of some Old Testament texts (cf. Isaiah 48:20; Jeremiah 50:8), believers are exhorted to flee Rome lest they share in her destruction. Recall that earlier in Revelation, congregations such as those at Thyatira and Laodicea were condemned for the willingness of many of their members to profit by engaging in the pagan rituals associated with trading guilds (cf. Revelation 2:18–29; 3:14–21). The coming fall of Rome would be a disaster for anyone dependent on Rome, and they would be destroyed as well. All who engage in practices of empires that God forbids will fall just like those empires. In a personal way, the call is to every individual to come out of those practices of blind loyalty to obviously wicked people. Doing something good cannot be our litmus test for loyalty.