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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”
Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery:
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.
Revelation 17:1-6
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As we move to chapter 17 of the Book of Revelation, edging ever closer to the ultimate climax where Jesus returns to judge the world and claim complete and utter victory over Satan and all those who committed allegiance to him, we first come to the events leading up to that moment, events that come after God’s final judgment is poured out through the seventh angel and his associated bowl of wrath. As we will see, this chapter is centered on a figurative woman figure who is identified and labeled as Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes. We’ll split this chapter in two, the first being an introduction to this figure before we get into more detail in the second half tomorrow.
First, let’s look again at verses one through six:
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”
Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery:
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.
We know by now that John is the author of this book and he was commanded early on by Jesus to write down what he witnessed. Thankfully, John did just that because if he hadn’t, we wouldn’t have this book in the scriptures.
Here, we find John being addressed by “one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls” who said the following:
“Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”
Here, before John knows anything else about this mother of prostitutes, he is told that she is destined for punishment, and the implication here is that the punishment will be coming from the Lord God Almighty. As we have seen throughout this book, God’s judgment on the world and the evil abiding on it is a pervasive theme.
So what do we learn about Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes?
Well, like any woman who sells herself to another sinfully, preying on the lust of her victims, here we find that this Mother of Prostitutes had “intoxicated” the “kings of the earth” as well as “the inhabitants of the earth” with “the wine of her adulteries” so that they would all commit spiritual adultery against God by giving her their devotion and affection.
We see John learning more as he is “carried” away “into a wilderness” by “the angel”. There, he sees the woman (the mother of prostitutes) “sitting on a scarlet beast” which was “covered with blasphemous names” and had “seven heads and ten horns”. This was none other than the antichrist, the monstrous beast of the sea that we were introduced to in chapter 13.
As for the woman, she was “dressed in purple and scarlet< while “glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls”. We read that she “held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries”. Although there isn’t certainty as to the exact identity of Babylon the Great here, it appears best aligned to represent the overall, abundant evil that had anchored itself in the world, especially within the most powerful nations and their respective cultures. This uncertainty is why the identification “written” on the woman’s “forehead” is described as a “mystery”.
One thing that isn’t unknown is the wickedness of this woman figure for the scriptures tell us that she “was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus”. Indeed, the malevolent woman was a fitting partner with Satan’s chief henchman, the antichrist, as together they persecuted Christian believers, shedding the blood of many of them who ended up martyred for their faith and the cause of Christ.
The woman and beast were indeed a formidable pairing but as we know, punishment is on the horizon for them both. Before we get to that, we’ll learn more about this evil duo in the closing verses of this chapter tomorrow.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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