Hallelujah!

Revelation 18:20-19:5

Main Idea: We are summoned to join the hallelujah chorus of heaven because Babylon will be judged and defeated.

I. The Harlot Condemned (18:20-24)

While the kings of the earth (18:9), merchants (18:11), and sailors (18:17) “weep and mourn” over the fall of Babylon, the “saints, apostles, and prophets” are commanded to rejoice in God’s judgment over the great harlot and the wicked city (18:20; cf. Rev. 6:10).

Jeremiah 51:47-49: Therefore, behold, the days are coming
    when I will punish the images of Babylon;
her whole land shall be put to shame,
    and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
Then the heavens and the earth,
    and all that is in them,
shall sing for joy over Babylon,
    for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north,
declares the Lord.
Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel,
    just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.

The mighty angel throws a “great millstone” into the sea (cf. Jer. 51:60-64), symbolic of the total and complete judgment that will be poured out on Babylon. The emphasis of Babylon’s final judgment is on what will be “no more” (6x):

No more music (18:22a)
No more industry & work (18:22b)
No more light (18:23a; cf. 21:23)
No more weddings (18:23b)

The reason for Babylon’s judgment is threefold:

1. Self-glorification (18:23c; cf. Gen. 11); Babylon’s merchants were pridefully the “great ones” of the earth, who propped themselves up by exploitation and greed.

“The chief purpose of humanity, according to [Revelation], is to glorify God and to enjoy him, not to glorify yourself and enjoy your own achievements. Self-glorification necessitates judgment in which a forced humbling occurs. It is idolatrous for Babylon and her allies to call themselves “great.” This title is reserved only for the true God. To focus on humanity as the center of everything and to forget God is the greatest sin.”
~ G.K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC)

2. Deceptive influence and seduction of the nations to idolatry (18:23d)

3. Persecution and violence toward the prophets and saints (18:24). “It’s important to think of judgment and its horrific finality not primarily in terms of the suffering it inflicts but in terms of the just retribution it represents.” ~ D.A. Carson

II. The Hallelujah Chorus (19:1-5)

After John is shown the final judgment and the end of Babylon, the worship in heaven is unveiled to him. The “great multitude in heaven” cries out with a loud voice: “Hallelujah!” (lit. “Praise God!”; 4x in Rev. 19; cf. Ps. 146-150).

This burst of ‘Hallelujah’ praise is because of:

God’s salvation: He rescues us out of Babylon by the victory of the Lamb (cf. 12:11; 17:13; Eph. 1:3-14).
God’s glory: He is eternally ‘weighty,’ significant, and consequential.
God’s power: He alone is ‘immeasurably great, not mighty Babylon or Rome (cf. Eph. 1:19-20).
God’s perfect justice: He has avenged Babylon in righteousness for her immorality. (19:2a; cf. Rom. 12:18)

“That’s the goal of everything the angel has been revealing. That’s what the whole book of Revelation is about. That’s the point of all God’s judgments, all God’s dealings with the world. All God’s plans for history from beginning to end have this one goal— worship God! Don’t worship the wealth of Babylon, don’t worship the power of Babylon, don’t worship the pleasures of Babylon, and don’t even worship the holy messenger who brings you the news that Babylon has fallen forever. Worship God! ... God let John hear the celebration of heaven so that in his exile and his suffering he might join in and worship God. And John wrote it down in a book so that we might listen to the worship of heaven and join in.”
~ John Piper, “Worship God!”

In response to the loud, exuberant, joyful worship of heaven, the twenty-four elders (representing the totality of God’s people) and the four living creatures (representing all of creation) join the chorus: “Amen. Hallelujah!” (2 Cor. 1:19-20). As the hallelujah chorus swells, a voice from the throne summons all of God’s servants, “small and great,” to join in worship (19:5; cf. Ps. 115:13).

“Corporate worship is the declaration in the midst of Babylon that we will not be drawn into her harlotries because we have found in God the satisfaction of our souls. Corporate worship is the public savoring of the worth of God and the beauty of God and power of God and the wisdom of God. Worship is an open declaration to all the powers of heaven and to all of Babylon that we will not prostitute our minds or our hearts or our bodies to the allurements of the world. Though we may live in Babylon, we will not be captive to Babylonian ways. And we will celebrate with all our might the awesome truth that we are free from that which will be destroyed... Corporate worship is the blatant, public savoring of God in the midst of a seductive Babylonian culture. Worship is the flagrant, open enjoyment of God as the fountain of life. It is a public declaration that God is more to be desired than all the pleasures of Babylon.”
~ John Piper, “Worship God!”

Psalm 150:6: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!