Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 17b-19

17b And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off 18 and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?” 19 And they threw dust on their heads, as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! In one hour she has been laid waste.

The city is pictured here as being laid waste in one hour. We have already discussed the phrase “one hour,” and you will recall that it denotes a time of critical importance and activity as in the phrase, “My hour has not yet come.”

Nero’s fire raged a week and failed to destroy the entire city yet the fire that God sends destroys the city in one hour! Rome’s fall is total and complete and worse than anything Rome could imagine.

This dirge of the shipmasters reminds us of Ezekiel 27:28-30 —

At the sound of the cry of your pilots the countryside shakes, and down from their ships come all that handle the oar. The mariners and all the pilots of the sea stand on the shore and wail aloud over you, and cry bitterly. They cast dust on their heads and wallow in ashes.

Although Rome was not on the coast, the merchandise of the world entered at its port in Ostia. And again, the shipmasters weep over their loss of trade. Their concern is for themselves, not for Rome.

We see in these verses the incredible materialism of Rome, and if we are looking for modern day parallels, that one is impossible to miss. We may still print “In God We Trust” on our money, but our actions speak much more loudly than those words.

The motto “In God We Trust” first appeared on our coinage during the Civil War. But there is one particular gold coin that does not include that motto. Why? Teddy Roosevelt specifically asked for its exclusion. He knew the lifestyles of many of the men out West where those gold coins were most seen in circulation, and he did not believe that God’s name should be used on coins that were spent in saloons, gambling halls, and brothels. The President expressed this view in a letter dated November 11, 1907:

My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto [In God We Trust] on coins, or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence which comes dangerously close to sacrilege. A beautiful and solemn sentence such as the one in question should be treated and uttered only with that fine reverence which necessarily implies a certain exaltation of spirit. Any use which tends to cheapen it, and above all, any use which tends to secure it being treated in a spirit of levity, is from every standpoint profoundly to be regretted.

My how times have changed! How far have we already fallen? Sadly, most today trust in their dollars rather than in God. They have everything that money can buy — but have nothing that it can’t. As one commentator noted, “like the uprooted vine that generated the self-consuming fire in Ezekiel 19:14, a culture that worships commercial success will strike the sparks that ultimately burn it to ashes.”

Please visit ThyWordIsTruth.com for free audio lessons on Revelation, for a unique daily Bible reading calendar, to read about God's plan of salvation, to read the answers to hundreds of questions submitted by our readers, and for much, much more.