Revelation 17The Great Prostitute and the Scarlet Beast

This is one of the wrath angels we saw last month in chapter 16, the ones who execute the final judgment of God. Now he’s the one doing the showing.

“Show you the punishment.” We need to see the punishment. Some of us don’t think we need to see wrath or punishment. We’d rather turn a blind eye to it, whether because we don’t have the stomach for it, or because we’re rich and comfortable enough that we don’t understand it.

We need to see it to understand how important it is to evangelize. And we need to see it to understand that we can make it through suffering, because everything’s going to be made right. God didn’t cause the suffering, but He sure is going to make it right.

Or maybe it’s because we’ve never truly suffered at the hands of severe, perverted evil. We live in such a blessed nation, a culture founded on the principles of God’s Word, and that has yielded great levels of peaceful and healthy results that affect every corner of our culture in prosperous ways. In spite of the fact that we’re drifting from those values, they are still prevalent even with unbelievers (they don’t realize where they got them, but it’s from the Word of God). So we have not seen the level of human suffering that believers in the first century saw personally and were seeing daily.

That’s why the wrath of Revelation is revealed to us. God wants to show us that wickedness will be punished and that righteousness will be rewarded. But righteousness cannot be rewarded without wickedness being punished.

The tables discussed: Why don’t people want to even imagine the wrath of God? Why do we need to see it anyway? (He had a few people’s faces in mind for that one.)

“The great prostitute”: a new character emerges. Throughout Scripture, any time there is a prostitute (Leviticus 17:7; Isaiah 1:21; 23:17; Jeremiah 2:20; 3:1; Ezekiel 16:15, 30; 23:7; Hosea 3:3; 9:1; Nahum 3:4), it almost always represents false religions, including Christians who are unfaithful to God (or, he added, Jewish believers who are unfaithful to God). We also see the false prophetess Jezebel (2:20) tied to sexual immorality.

There are actually multiple ladies represented in these celestial images. There is a sharp and specific contrast between the prostitute Babylon and the bride of the Lamb, the faithful church, in Revelation 19:7–8.

False religions and false Christianity are materialistic: they have glittery buildings, and are filled with pagan imagery and sinful and heretical ideologies. They will continually come after the true church and true believers, persecuting and martyring many (17:6). We see this in Islam, in Hinduism, in Communism, and even among some “christians.”

Quote-unquote Christians. Obviously they’re not actually Christians, if that’s what they’re doing.

This woman also contrasts specifically with the heavenly woman (Revelation 12; 21), who represents faithful Israel and by extension all faithful believers. She’s adorned with the sun, moon and stars, God’s majestic creation, while this prostitute is covered in man-made pretty things. Quite the contrast! No comparison in beauty. The enemy’s beauty will only ever be a cheap, silly copy of the majesty of God’s created beauty.

This false religion will also combine with political power, as has happened in many Muslim nations, Communist nations and even some “christian” nations. In John’s day it’s represented in Rome; we see that at the end of the chapter, where the angel throws in that the woman is “the great city” (17:18). It will be syncretistic, “welcoming” to many religions (not necessarily all); it will be tolerant and inclusive. The demonic will be very active in these religions (Revelation 18:2; Isaiah 47:12–13). All true believers are commanded to come out from her, or they will be condemned with her (Revelation 18:4).

These rulers, the “kings,” were subservient to the greater kingdom, Babylon, which was leading them to cheat on the true God. This was true in the Roman Empire at the time, and in many empires since, and it is still true today in the syncretistic and humanistic religions.

She’s unfaithful to God: there’s the idolatry, the adultery with these kings. For first-century Christians, Babylon would have represented Rome. But Babylon is a typology of all unfaithful kingdoms and empires throughout Scripture, so it’s going to represent the antichrist’s kingdom too.

“The angel carried me away in the Spirit” echoes Ezekiel, where “the Spirit lifted me up” (Ezekiel 8:3; 11:1, 24). The carrying was for clarity, revelation and fulfillment. The angel was fulfilling his own words, that he would show John the punishment of the prostitute.

“Into a wilderness”: this woman, who fancied herself to be ruling many waters (peoples), was actually spiritually desolate. She was in a wasteland.

“Scarlet beast” is likely referring to the blood of the martyrs with which it was stained; the scarlet color itself typically refers to blood. Her power, which devoured Christians, was forever stained by them.

This opulent description of her rich adornment echoes the description of the satanic king of Tyre in Ezekiel 28:12–13, “every precious stone adorned you.” That’s a famous scripture that is connected to Satan a lot of the time, and he thinks the language there definitely leans that way: “I don’t know how you could apply it to just a human.”

“Golden cup” reveals the spiritual condition of the apostate church in the last days: it will try to offer people both God and worldliness. It will be a perverted Christianity that assures its members they can enjoy immorality and still be accepted by God. There are church movements already there or going in that direction. But there are many that are still faithful. Stay faithful.

Stay faithful to His Word.

The tables discussed: What is the allure of this kind of compromise (religion plus worldliness)? How do we fight it personally?

“Babylon the great the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth.” Babylon was a typology throughout Scripture of all peoples unfaithful to God.

“Written on her forehead”: prostitutes were known for having their heads uncovered in those days. Proper women of the time would have their foreheads covered. For first-century hearers, that it was written there was telling.

The drunkenness echoes the drunkenness of Babylon in Jeremiah 51:7: “she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine.” Babylon then becomes a type of all unfaithful nations and religious systems, and is used that way throughout Scripture. Here as well, Babylon also points to Babel (Genesis 10:8–10; 11:4), the center point of all human arrogance, pride and humanism: godless humanity.

“Drunk with the blood” was a grotesque and horrifying image to the ancient world. Cannibalism had been written about much before the first century and was considered by civilized peoples to be the worst kind of abomination. We may think of theirs as a more barbaric culture, which it was; but cannibalism was even more barbaric. They didn’t do that. That’s why John was “greatly astonished.”

“Seven heads and ten horns”: just as children often look like their parents, the beast (the antichrist) now bears a striking resemblance to the dragon (Satan) (12:3; 13:1). The dragon also had seven heads and ten horns.

The Abyss is the same place (the same word in the Greek) that the demons begged Jesus not to send them, asking to be sent into the pigs instead (Luke 8:31).

“The book of life” points back to Exodus 32:31–33; Psalm 69:28; Daniel 12:1; Malachi 3; Luke 10; Philippians 4:3; and Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27. It is the register of the names of those who belong to God, and it is the property of the Lamb of God.

This wasn’t a new concept for Jewish believers; they would have understood the idea of the book of life, but John was really hitting on it. Diane, who has a number of Jewish friends, shared that at the time of Yom Kippur, in the ten days after Rosh Hashanah, they believe God opens the books of life to decide whether they will live another year. “Interesting. Yeah, so that concept is very much in Jewish culture.”

“The creation of the world,” here and everywhere else it is used in Scripture (notably Matthew 25:34 and Ephesians 1:4), refers to the creation of the visible order of things: the creation event of Genesis 1–2.

“Once was, now is not, and yet will come” is a perversion and parody of the title of God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come” (Revelation 1:4). Once again, the enemy is only a cheap copy.

That title of God describes His eternal nature. And now you see this perverted, horrifying, grotesque thing: the beast who once was. He hasn’t been forever! He had an end, he was irrelevant for a while, and now he’s coming back, but only to his destruction. He’s coming back to be destroyed.

“This calls for a mind with wisdom.” For Christians, godly wisdom is required. You have to apply your mind, loving the Lord your God with your mind, to discern the end times. You can ask God for wisdom and He’ll give it (James 1:5).

The tables discussed: Talk about a time when you needed God’s wisdom. Where in your life do you need God’s wisdom now?

This isn’t the first time in Revelation John has told you that you need wisdom. He said it in chapter 13 as well (13:18), the dark one, the Empire Strikes Back chapter where the enemy looked like he was winning. You’re going to need wisdom and discernment to get through that season.

So who are all these kings and horns and heads and hills? It sounds complicated, but when we break it down, it will make sense.

“Five have fallen”: the five fallen kings are past kingdoms. You could line these up a number of ways (for example, as Roman emperors), but the best he’s seen is lining them up with the great empires that ruled before the first century: Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia and Greece. When you line it up like that it’s pretty clean, because then the sixth one is Rome.

The first-century believers would have figured out the king who “is” very easily: five kings, that’s the past; one king, that’s right now. In Daniel 2 the statue goes from the head all the way down through different metals, and then the feet are iron and clay, because they’re a mixture. There’s a lot happening. That’s what we see now.

“The beast … is an eighth king.” This is the kingdom of the antichrist, who will head up the final world empire. The eighth king = the antichrist = the final worldly empire. He’s the pinnacle of the same ungodly world that has ruled and continues to rule over the world. Even here the angel has to point forward to the destruction of this system and kingdom.

Remember the spiral helix? We’re seeing chapter 19, the final battle, all throughout the book. That’s where it’s going.

The “ten kings” echo Daniel 7:24, “The ten horns are ten kings.” They are the ones who will give the antichrist their power in order to lift him up to oppose Christ. The ten kings will give the antichrist their power. We’re not sure exactly who they are yet, but we can make some educated guesses based on nations right now that specifically oppose Christ and Christianity.

(On the ten kings’ “one hour,” someone asked, “Do they get their hour of fame?” “Yeah, one hour. Two chapters.”)

So the beast and the ten kings will wage war against Christ. This is a glimpse again, through the spiral helix, at the last battle that comes to its fullness in Revelation 19. At the same time as showing the conflict, the angel points ahead to Christ’s victory: and not just Christ’s victory, but His followers’ victory!

“King of kings” was a title used by many rulers in the East throughout history; you see some of them right in Scripture (Ezra 7:12, Artaxerxes; Ezekiel 26:7 and Daniel 2:37, Nebuchadnezzar). However, the Jews reserved this title for the only true God (Deuteronomy 10:17; Daniel 2:47). He’s the only King of kings, and they added to it Lord of lords.

Diane shared from her own study: those with Him are “called, chosen and faithful,” and you have to be all three. Many are called, but fewer are chosen; you’re chosen in the furnace of affliction, through the suffering step; and then faithful, staying through it to the end. “Proven faithful. Amen.”

The tables were asked to take this one home: What does it mean to share in Christ’s victory?

“The waters” were first seen in Revelation 13:1, when the beast came out of the sea, and now they’re under the woman in 17:1 and explained here. The woman thinks she’s ruling over something, but the dragon is just manipulating the whole thing. The beast comes out of this chaos of the syncretism of “peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.”

Syncretism is a false unity. It’s the inclusiveness heresy: everybody’s invited, they take in all religions, “you’re all accepted, you’re all okay.”

So here’s what’s happening: the syncretistic prostitute, the false religions, will hold sway for a season over the nations, the chaotic waters she sits on. However, the beast will throw down the syncretistic false religion of all, to replace it with the totalitarian regime of worship of himself.

The antichrist will expose the false religions for being nothing, fake and false, for their emptiness and their powerlessness, which is something God wanted to happen anyway, so He’s going to use the beast to do it. That’s what “leave her naked” is for: exposing them. He’s going to destroy that whole system, that whole mentality, and replace it with worship of himself, as we saw in chapter 13: “They’re powerless. I’m powerful. You all have to worship me now.”

In other words, what follows the perverted syncretism, tolerance and acceptance of all religions can only be totalitarianism, and the worship of Satan himself masquerading as a false Savior of the world.

This will be accomplished by governments handing over their power to the beast: the ten horns, the kings. “For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose.”

And they’re going to come together in that great battle. It’s all being alluded to; it’s pointing there.