Revelation 18:3; For All Nations Have Drunk of the Wine of the Wrath of Her Fornication

Revelation 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 

The conjunction “for” focuses on the cause of the city’s fall: her prostitution with the kings of the earth and luxurious immorality with the merchants of the earth – For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 

The phrase “wine of the wrath of her fornication” indicates the source from which the kings have drunk. Surprisingly, “the wine of her fornication” in Revelation 17:2 has become divine anger toward herself through the inclusion of “of the wrath” to the earlier expression (Alford).

Revelation 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 

The passionate luxury and materialism of the great city have intoxication all the nations.

The three groups “all nations… the kings of the earth… the merchants of the earth” encompass the entire gamut of the world’s population. Everyone has united in an ungodly union with the great city, so mankind is universally morally bankrupt and God has chosen to act (Kiddle).

The words “of the earth” with the last two groupings denotes the mass of mankind as it does so often in this book (Lee). The merchants will suffer more than the kings with the fall of the city because the kings will have their political power left. They have only lost a partner in fornication, but the merchants will have lost everything. Commerce and trade is a major subject of the reminder of the chapter. The NT has frequent references to trade (Matthew 13:45; 22:5; 25:14; James 4:13), but none comes near portraying the vast world traffic of this chapter (Swete).

Matthew 13:45  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:

Matthew 22:5  But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

Matthew 25:14  For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.

James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

[Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 – An Exegetical Commentary, Moody, 1995, 318-319]

Today, in the fiat monetary system, money can be created out of thin air. We see the possibility of an such illusionary system before our eyes with nations growing dependants upon a small group of bankers.

We are also seeing the movement to the digital world with the advent of digital currency this past year. Indeed, wealth can be created in unparalleled and unprecedented ways. by the press of a button. The populations of the earth can also be enslaved by such a system. Buying and selling can be turned off and on like the turning of a tap on the entire population of the world in this system of the Antichrist. We are seeing the technologies enabling such a system to be implemented worldwide very quickly.

For the elect of God, we are exhorted to set our affections not on the perishable and confiscable of this earth but to be like Abraham to set his affections of the everlasting kingdom of God and labour for things eternal.

Proverbs 23:4-5  Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. 

May the Lord grant us understand to esteem the spiritual rather than the material and let the material things be used to fulfil the eternal purposes of God. Amen.