I was taken aback to learn that roses for the first-century Emperor Nero’s banquets cost nearly $100,000. Emperor Vitellius was able to spend $20,000,000 mostly on food during his brief one-year reign in 69 AD.
With this kind of spending, it is no surprise that the people who profited from Rome’s excesses were grieved.
And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo any more (Revelation 18.11).
Historians have found that Roman women wanted to bathe in silver tubs and wealthy Romans ate from ivory plates. Verses 12-13 read like a catalog of luxury items that the Roman elite craved.
The last item on the list included “slaves—and human lives.” It is estimated that as many as 60 million slaves were in the Roman Empire.
It is tragic to note that slavery has not been eliminated in 2023.
The human rights group Walk Free says up to 50 million people worldwide were experiencing forced labor or forced marriage in 2021.
The figure includes some 28 million people in forced labor and 22 million living in forced marriage.
The group defines modern slavery as “forced labor, forced or servile marriage, debt bondage, forced commercial sexual exploitation, human trafficking, slavery-like practices, and the sale and exploitation of children.”
The usual suspects, North Korea, Eritrea, Mauritania, Tajikistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan have the highest rates of slavery.
What should shock us is the fact that the world’s wealthiest countries currently import $468 billion worth of goods that have been produced with forced labor.
The Babylonian spirit that was identified in the first century as Babylon or Rome is part of everyday life in 2023.
“Modern slavery permeates every aspect of our society. It is woven through our clothes, lights up our electronics, and seasons our food,” Walk Free’s founding director Grace Forrest said.
The Just Judge, who always does what is right, will correct this system of inequality.
“The fruit for which your soul longed
has gone from you,
and all your delicacies and your splendor
are lost to you,
never to be found again!” (Revelation 18.14)
Economic Collapse
Jesus taught, “No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6.24).
How much pain takes place every day because people serve wealth instead of God?
According to Revelation, the day will come when Babylon (the world’s system that opposes God and harms humans) will be destroyed.
The people who have served wealth as their god will mourn.
The merchants of these wares, who grew wealthy from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
“Alas, alas, the great city,
clothed in fine linen,
in purple and scarlet,
adorned with gold,
with jewels, and with pearls!
For in one hour all this wealth has been laid waste!”
And all shipmasters and seafarers, 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?” (Revelation 18.15-18)
The remaining verses in chapter 18 describe the sudden and spectacular destruction of Rome, but also all who are living against God.
Society will demand that Christians “wear the mark of the beast,” but genuine believers will remain true to the Lordship of Christ.
People who remain and worship Jesus over wealth, pleasure, and the other attractions of culture will have a glorious future.
Revelation 19 contains a preview of coming attractions for God’s faithful.
“Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready;
“To her it has been granted to be clothed
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (Revelation 19.7-8)
YouTube Video
Rudy Ross and I discuss this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 