Amazing Facts Daily Devotionals Worthless Riches October 2, 2025 Walmart. Amazon. Apple. Do you recognize this list? These are the world’s largest private companies, with revenues exceeding $275 billion. More than 50 companies worldwide have revenues in excess of $123 billion. That’s a lot of change. It’s not hard to imagine that company owners, stockholders, and employees would wail if their businesses were suddenly vaporized. But is this what today’s text is talking about? Are the “merchants of the earth” owners of retail, automotive, healthcare, and oil companies? Maybe. There is some division on how to interpret this second group who lament the fall of Babylon, though the differing views are not necessarily mutually exclusive. On the one hand, the love of money has certainly been the “root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). No doubt, the merchants of the earth have often literally capitalized on being connected with Babylon. But there’s another view: This luxurious “merchandise” is spiritual. Instead of business leaders, this passage might be speaking of sellers of false teachings. These “great men of the earth” (Revelation 18:23) may not be Fortune 500 company presidents but spiritual leaders who have led others astray with the unbiblical teachings of Babylon. They may have also profited financially from promoting false doctrines that the worldly are keen to hear. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3, 4). False doctrines are fool’s gold. The empty, worthless fables of men are nothing compared to “the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God” (Romans 11:33). Dear God, I choose the eternal riches of the kingdom of heaven, the truths that lead to real happiness and peace. Thank you for supplying my every need. For Further Study: 1 Kings 3:10–12; Psalm 37:16; Proverbs 11:4, 28 Key Bible Texts And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: (Revelation 18:11 KJV)