Revelation 18:13

And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

John keeps walking us through Babylon’s inventory, and the picture gets more disturbing the farther we go. This is not a world built on simple provision. It is a world built on excess, indulgence, and human exploitation.

Fourth floor: cosmetics.
Cinnamon, perfumes, ointments, frankincense.
This is the world of scent, image, allure, and presentation. Babylon is obsessed with appearance. She wants everything polished, attractive, and intoxicating.

Fifth floor: food court.
Wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, beasts, sheep.
Not mere bread for survival, but abundance for indulgence. Babylon does not just feed hunger. She caters to appetite. She trains people to live for taste, for comfort, for the next pleasure.

Sixth floor: automotive.
Horses and chariots.
This is movement, prestige, transportation, visible status. In our day we might think of luxury vehicles, power, speed, and all the machinery that says, Look what I can afford.

And then John takes us lower still.

The basement: bodies and souls.
That is where Babylon is finally exposed for what she really is. Beneath the perfumes, the fashions, the fine dining, and the displays of wealth, she is trafficking in human beings. She does not merely sell products. She uses people. She consumes lives. She reduces men and women made in the image of God into commodities.

That is the horror of Babylon. She looks glamorous upstairs, but downstairs she is devouring humanity.

And notice what is missing in this whole inventory. These are not the simple necessities of life. This is not a chapter about plain bread, plain clothing, and humble shelter. This is luxury piled upon luxury. Materialism gone mad. A civilization drunk on excess and blind to what it is becoming.

That is always the direction of unchecked worldliness. It starts with beauty, comfort, and convenience. It ends with dehumanization. Once a culture forgets God, people eventually stop being precious and start becoming useful. They become labor units, market segments, objects of appetite, tools for profit. Babylon specializes in that kind of blindness.

Jesus is the exact opposite. He never used people. He loved them. He did not size them up for what they could produce, purchase, or provide. He saw the image of God in them. He touched lepers. He called outcasts. He welcomed children. He died for souls.

So this passage is not merely about a future city. It is a warning about a whole way of thinking. Whenever luxury matters more than righteousness, whenever appetite outruns gratitude, whenever image outranks truth, whenever people are treated like things, the spirit of Babylon is already at work.

Beloved, do not be dazzled by the upper floors. Ask what is happening in the basement. Ask what kind of system this really is. Ask what it does to souls. Because any culture that grows rich while treating people as merchandise is already standing under the shadow of judgment.

Stay near Christ. He will teach you to value people above possessions, holiness above indulgence, and truth above glitter. Babylon may specialize in materialism gone mad, but the kingdom of God treasures what Babylon forgets most: the eternal worth of a soul.