Series on Revelation
II The Viewpoint
E Cycle Five, Seven Messages of Judgment on Babylon
2 The Meaning
Text: 17:7-18
Introduction
The Apostle John is asked a question by the angel who has shown him the great prostitute; “Why are you astonished?” This is a question for all of us. It implies that we should not be astonished at the developments of evil in this present fallen world. Jesus made clear in Matthew 24 that this age in which we live would be characterized by wars and rumors of wars, but we should not be alarmed which is another way of saying, don’t be astonished. Before the end there will be national uprisings, famines, earthquakes, persecution, apostasy, false prophets, increasing wickedness, and the love of many growing cold. Jesus’ advice is to stand firm to the end and do not be astonished. Jesus says that in this time many will be deceived. Nonbelievers will be astonished but God’s true children should persevere in faithfulness. What are our expectations? We need to read the entirety of our text because the expectations are distributed throughout the verses. We read in verses 7-18, Then the angel said to me: “Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns. The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come. This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while. The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction. The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers. Then the angel said to me, The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to give the beast their power to rule, until God’s words are fulfilled. The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. We live in an age overrun with evil. What should we look for and expect. The forces of evil will be confederate, counterfeit, comprehensive, callous, and combative.
I Confederate
The confederation of the forces of evil appears first in the question in verse 7, “Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns.” The beast or antichrist supports the woman who is secular idolatrous religion. It was that way in the Roman Empire as the emperor was deified and it is that way today in the deification of the state. This alliance between the political sovereigntys of this age and the idolatrous religion is also evident in verse 9 where we read, “This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. In classical literature Rome is sometimes described as the city of seven hills, but notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary by numerous and able expositors, these words cannot be applied directly to any seven emperors of Rome. It may be granted that John had the thought of Rome sitting upon its seven hills in his eye as one of the manifestations of the beast, but the whole tenor of his language is too wide and comprehensive to permit the thought that the beast itself is Rome. Rome is simply the manifestation in the Apostle’s day and many more will follow down to our own time.
II Counterfeit
The counterfeit nature of evil is evident already from the description of the great prostitute and all her beguiling attributes, but is made very clear in verse 8, The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come. These words are a travesty of what we read of the Son of man in chap. 1:18 “I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I became dead: and, behold, I am alive for evermore.” An antichrist is before us, who has been slaughtered unto death, and the stroke of whose death shall be healed as mentioned in 13:3. We also seem entitled to infer that when this beast appears he shall have the marks of his death upon him, so that he is the evil counterpart of the “Lamb standing as though it had been slaughtered,” in Revelation 5:6. Throughout the New Testament the Devil is portrayed as the great liar and deceiver and so Paul warns us believes in Ephesians 6:11, Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
III Comprehensive
The evil of this era is comprehensive in its scope both with regard to space and time. In verse 9-11 we read, The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while. The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction. Lange correctly comments. “As noted previously our task here is, to abide by the laws of symbolism and not take a leap into geography, although we assume that there is an allusion to the City of the Seven Hills. As in Daniel 2, the world-monarchies are, represented in the four beasts, so there is also here, doubtless, an antithesis to be taken for granted. The seven mountains are seven forms of empire—in the sacred number, because the State, taken in the abstract, is subservient to the purposes of the Divine Kingdom. The kings are despots, representing the dark side of the world-monarchy, its God and Christ-opposed conduct—hence, pre-eminently, its bestial nature. The reference is not to individual kings.” This would be impossible because the kings simply cannot be identified. Many interpreters, past and present, have fallen into this error of trying to identify the people spoken of. The Reformers, even in their keen perception, mistakenly identified the pope as the antichrist and the harlot. But it is not the Pope of Rome or any other single individual that is important. It is important to see that the message is one of universality. Lange continues, “We reckon once more, therefore, the four world-monarchies of Daniel and add to them the Roman-Herodian government as the fifth monarchy. The sixth king is the Roman Empire at the time of the vision, and the Seer prolepticly beholds the coming of a seventh, a world-monarchy, on which the Woman can ride for a short time.” The short time is the age in which you live because from a divine perspective the age is short and Jesus is coming soon, even after 2000 years. Thus we see the point of the vision is to show that the tyranny of the beast and the harlot throughout history and for all time. Evil is also comprehensive in space being universal and catholic in its nature so that nobody can scape it, as we read in verse 15, Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. There is no time and no place that is immune from this horror.
IV Callous
How callous is this evil and its perpetrators? That is revealed in verses 16-18, The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to give the beast their power to rule, until God’s words are fulfilled. The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. The prostitute represents all idolatrous religion. She reigns as long as she is useful. The state uses her to help in its domination of men, as Rome used its emperor worship to control its citizenry. This is repeated over and over. The clearest example of this alliance is Islam in our day. But it has been illustrated before in the state religion of Roman Catholicism in the middle ages, and even in Korea. Professor Hwansoo Kim in describing the past century of chronic Buddhist in-fighting and state-collusion, showed that there was no separation between religion and politics in Korean Buddhism. In the minds of Korean monastics, Professor Kim claimed, the ‘mundane’ and ‘spiritual’ is inextricably intertwined. Here in our text we have the ultimate example, but what happens here is that the secular state, the antichrist, turns against the prostitute, religion, and no longer has any use for her. In our time we see state support for all kinds of spirituality, but only in so far as it is useful to further the secular concerns of the state. When it is no longer useful the secular state savagely disposes of the harlot.
V Combative
The combative nature of evil is unlimited. We see in verses 12-14, The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers. The war is against the Lamb and His followers. Jesus is identified with His suffering people. We read in chapter 12 that the woman was in the wilderness in verses 13 and 14, When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. The woman is God’s people and the war is against them as well as the Lamb. Imagine yourself in the first century hearing this litany of persecution while being persecuted, and then hearing that the Lamb will defeat the forces of evil. Imagine yourself as a persecuted Christian in communist China, or Iran, or North Korea hearing the same message. Evil in our day is confederate, counterfeit, comprehensive, callous, and combative, but it will fall before the King of Kings when He returns.
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