Revelation 17:9-18 – The monster and the whore

It is quite obvious that Rome sits on seven mountains. Everybody in the ancient world who knew something of Rome would know that it sits on seven mountains. It is more difficult to interpret the kings of verse 10. John said, “…and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while.” What does John mean? Did he expect us to identify the kings? Of course not. For most times John had spoken in symbols and figures. As we have indicated earlier, Revelation should be approached more with imagination than logic. So here is likely to be John’s intention. The seven kings stand for the seeming completion of the monstrous kingdom. And then there will be the appearance of a new king to take the kingdom forward into a brand new era, but instead will lead them to destruction. In other words, the monstrous Kingdom may appear impregnable, but forces within its own ranks will destroy it.   

The ten kings are likely to be the ruling elites within the monstrous system but were empowered with authority from the beast to be rulers for a short while. What we see in these ten kings were their allegiance to the beast. And they all have one purpose, that is, to give all their allegiance and authority to the antichrist. And they make war with the Lamb and are defeated. We know why they were defeated. It’s because they were dealing with the Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.

From verse 15 onwards, John proceeded to deal with the outcome of the harlot. The waters that she sits upon are described as peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. The beast and the kings together will turn against the harlot eventually. This tells us of the self-destructive power of evil. The harlot whom Revelation 17:4 describes as attired in purple and scarlet and adorned with jewelry is now totally stripped bare. The eating of her flesh portrays the brutality with which she was dealt with by her assailants. She is finally burned with fire.

The angel explained that God is the one who has set the hearts of the ten kings to do His will, to bring about the annihilation of the prostitute. They also whole heartedly aligned themselves and yield their sovereignty to the beast. And they join him in his assault upon the harlot and in his final war against the Lamb. Know it or not, the powers of evil are made to serve the purposes of God, although as His unwilling servant. The coalition between the beast and his allies will continue until God’s words, concerning the overthrow of antichrist, are fulfilled.

For John, “The great city that rules over the kings of the earth” was none other than the city of Rome, the wicked seducer. Her malicious influence has infiltrated the whole of the Mediterranean world. And she is referred to earlier as “Babylon the Great”, to show us that it’s not the city of Rome per se but the harlotry and abomination that is much like the spirit of the ancient Babylon.

Thankfully we are on the Lord’s side or rather He is one our side. There are many things about tomorrow that we may not understand. But let’s just hold on to the hand of Christ, the one who holds tomorrow. He is our sure victory! He will lead us on for His glory! Hallelujah!

Revelation 17:1-8 - Babylon the Great

What we see here is tied with the seventh bowl of the wrath of God. John was informed by the angel with the seventh bowl of what is to come. This new vision is actually a close-up look of the particular phases of the seven bowls. It includes a description of the woman and the beast, then an explanation of the figures, and only after that the final judgment. John was told he will see the punishment of “the great prostitute who sits on many waters”. Being carried by the Spirit away into the wilderness is by way of saying that he was made to focus and concentrate on the participants in this particular scene.

The great harlot is identified in Revelation 17:5 as Babylon the great. It accounts for why she is said to be sitting on many waters because the actual Babylon was located on the River Euphrates. But we know that John was not referring to Babylon per se but using it as a symbol. Babylon is a figure for all of the godless attempts of nations to rise to power and dominance, following the ways of the beast in conflict with God and His course. That’s also why she is described as one “…with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”  Although the title is Babylon, John was referring to Rome and its imperial cult and emperor worship.

Besides sitting on many waters, the harlot is said to be sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. Who is this beast? It is the beast that rose out of the sea in chapter 13. The great persecuting power that rules by force and is the supreme enemy of Christ and the church. The scarlet color is primarily descriptive and heightens the terrifying appearance of the beast. Blasphemous names cover its entire body very likely referring to the blasphemous titles of divinity claimed by the Roman emperors. The blasphemies are seen in their self-deification.

This mother of whore, full of arrogance and confidence, sits on top of the monstrous beast. Both the whore and the beast are fully compatible. She makes known her immoral intentions. This is a picture of godlessness. There will be strivings for power, wealth, pleasure, and luxury. All these done at the expense of fidelity to God and without regard for justice and the needs of fellow man. This whore is described as drunk and intoxicated with the blood of Christians who sacrificed their lives for the testimony of Jesus.  The outward appearance of the whore may be magnificent but the inside of her is full of abomination and disgusting stuff that will make one puke.

John was perplexed. He anticipated the punishment of the harlot but not to see her in all her glory. So to help him with his perplexities, the angel explained. The beast, the one who was and who is not, will come out of the Abyss and be destroyed. The inhabitants of the earth are those whose names have not been written in the book of life before the foundation of the world.

How are we to understand the last phrase in verse 8, “…the beast that he was and is not and will come”?  God is presented as the unchangeable. He is always the same, the One, Who was, and Who is and Who is to come. The beast is not immutable. He changes all the time. This was a characteristic of the beast throughout the history of man, the continual rise and fall of evil powers.

The description of all these should make us, who live with the exposure of all the modern indulgences, take a good look at ourselves, and carefully consider how we want to please God. He is worthy of only our very best in life! 

Revelation 16:17-21 – The final bowl of God’s wrath

We come to the final or seventh bowl of the wrath of God. The seventh angel now pour out his bowl into the air. This is talking about the space between heaven and earth, the scope of the spirits, power, beliefs, ideas, philosophies, mindsets and influences. John tells us that the work is now complete. So as in Revelation 8:5 and 11:19, here also a sequence of judgments takes place. An earthquake, sounds of thunder, and lightning resulted from the collision that took place between heaven and earth. And Rome, the great city is split into three, other cities also collapse like a pack of cards and mountains and islands just disappear.

In describing all these catastrophes, John is depicting the downfall of the whole social and political system. He was not talking about the collapse of the physical world. In the human society great and horrible events will happen, and the most appropriate way to describe it is in terms of huge and heavy hailstones and quakes. God will allow the lies at the core of human society to be exposed. There will be a great shift in different human systems, and everything will be moved and changed, that nothing will ever remain the same again. In the midst of all this, God will remember Babylon the great and John will elaborate it in Revelation 17-18. The judgement of this city that had become the world’s whore is included in this seventh bowl of wrath. We can only appreciate what it means to be the people known as the bride, only when the terrifying distortion of this great whore has been exposed and destroyed.

Here we return again to verse 15, the verse that John slips in to keep us focused. “Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk naked and men will not see his shame.” Let us stay alert! As we see the changing tides of world events, let’s remember Peter’s call to stay sober minded, for the purpose of prayer in this last day. 

Revelation 16:10-16 – The fifth and sixth bowls

The intensity of the plagues becomes greater in the last three of the seven bowls. It’s amazing that in the midst of it, we have, as it were, a parenthetical statement. Some have thought that some copyists had added it. However, without a doubt this is put in intentionally by John. He does so because of the tendency, even for us, to become sleepy when inundated with materials concerning the plagues and terrible scenes that are hard to make sense. It is possible to become spiritually lethargic and turn off to what God is saying. So John included verse 15 to tell them to stay awake. Like soldiers in battle each one of us must always stay ready and alert, lest we may find ourselves not in battle attire and not ready for the program ahead.

The last three bowls are increasingly horrific. Its horribleness is seen in the ease people would give allegiance to the system now under judgement. In the visions of the seals and trumpets, between the first four and the last three there was an interlude for each. But in this vision of the seven bowls, there is no gap between the first four and the last three. Why? It is to indicate that there is no more opportunity for repentance. There will be no time for any to respond now. The judgement will be swift and complete as verse 17 declares, “It is done.” Those who fall under the judgement are those who had already been given ample opportunity to repent but had adamantly refused. They had made the choice to go down with the monster rather than to suffer and stand vindicated with the Lamb. They had chosen the easy path, highway of the harlot.

The fifth plague is a direct assault on the throne of the monster. At this point Roman was that monster. The point here is about striking at the power and authority of the world and causing it to crumble under the weight of its own system. The darkness is reminiscence of the plague in Egypt.

The sixth plague affects the River Euphrates. The seabed dries up not as a way out for the people but to enable the army from the east to carry out its intention. How did the rulers in the west get sucked into this battle? Verses 13-14 give us the clue. The dragon, the beast from the sea and the beast from the land, now also refers to as the false prophet will deceive the kings of the earth. Again this plague reminds us of the frogs that engulfed the land of Egypt. The frogs here are symbols of unclean demonic forces that are sent forth by this unholy triumvirate to lure the powers of the earth to commit and engage in a lost cause.  What about Har-Magedon? Is this referring to the Megiddo? It’s pointless for us to try and locate the exact place. The point is simply this: that all the world forces will be brought to one place so that they could be dealt with there.  

As we close today’s thought, let us stay focused on verses 15. The Lord tells us that He will come like a thief at an unguarded hour. It behooves us, His beloved, to stay alert. We must remain undefiled. We must avoid being involved with any diabolical movement or program that seems to be more and more prevalent today. Let’s make a choice to walk with God and be guided and directed by His Word. This will help us in our quest for a triumphant life with the Lord.

Revelation 16:1-9 – the first four bowls

We all struggle with the concept of God’s wrath. How can a loving, caring God also be one who is described to have wrath? Essentially, the wrath of God consists of two critical elements. Firstly, we will see that He permits the wickedness of human to work itself out, to reap its own consequences. Secondly, when human wickedness gets out of hand, He steps in to intervene and stop it.  

As usual, these four plagues use powerful symbolic language. We get confused when we try to interpret and attach all sorts of meaning to each and everything described here. The message is quite simple really. It is intended to convey the message that God will allow nature itself (the earth, sea, river and sun) to pass judgement on human being. Why? For people are God’s image bearers and should have rightly reflecting the Creator God, but they have abused their position. They are tasked by God with the responsibility to care for the earth and to look after each other as fellow human being. But they have failed to do so, hence God will call on the natural elements to turn on them and judge them for their wickedness.  

These judgements are total and complete. With the seals and trumpets God did not harm or destroy everything. Only part of the world was destroyed because He was sending out a warning to those who need repentance. This time around this is absent. Everything in the sea dies and all the rivers turn into blood. No opportunity to repent is given. These plagues begin the process and will end in Revelation 20. By then God would have removed from His beautiful world those who have assisted in the destruction and decay described in this chapter. In Revelation 17-18, the imperial systems that have set up massive structures of injustice, will also have been dealt with. Then in Revelation 19-20, we’ll see the dark powers that lie behind these systems removed and ending with Death and Hades themselves.

In all these, we realize that the Creator God is not an unpredictable, disorganized and ill-tempered God. The love of this Creator God is clearly seen in the giving of His Son, the Lamb, to be our sacrifice, and this is the Son who shares His throne. If this good God does not hate the wickedness of all the systems that destroy so much of the nations, how can He be said to be a good God? If this loving God does not deal with human injustice and systems that dehumanize the human race and come up with something that will deal with it, how can He be a loving God?

As a loving God, He does not step in to deal with the situation immediately. He allows time and opportunity for those who still could be salvaged and rescued. But be sure that He will step in at the appointed time. This is what Peter meant, when he said, God has no desire for any to perish but that all should come to repentance. We should not interpret His grace as His slackness. While evil is taking its course, God in the right time will bring everything to its climatic closure. In the light of this, we must “seize the day” or as Paul said: redeem the time for the days are evil.    

Revelation 15:1-8 – Preparation before the final plagues

Having completed the somewhat lengthy parenthesis from chapters 12-14, John now returns to talk about the final series of seven – the seven bowls of wrath. Here John saw a great and marvelous sign. It shows seven angels with seven plagues, the final series of seven to be poured out. With these seven, the wrath of God is complete. This series of bowls anticipate the final judgement. It is interesting to note that in Revelation we see the experience in Exodus being used as typology.

Prior to talking about the seven bowls, John saw a sea of glass, like the one that was seen in Revelation 4:6. It is probably a symbol of the complete purity of God’s presence. However, here this sea is mingled with fire. It is likely to be describing the glorious brightness of God. And here on this sea of glass are overcomers. These are the people who did not succumb to the beast and his image, and the numbers of his name, the 666. They are those who stood with the Lamb and were fearless even unto death. So they now stand on the glass of sea, holding the harps of God. While the seven angels hold seven bowls of God’s wrath to be poured out, these saints hold harps to render music and song to celebrate God’s worthiness to judge, and His right to receive worship.

The song the saints offered is described as the Song of Moses, the bond servant of the Lord, and the song of the Lamb. Why the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb? It is because of the similarities both songs have. In both situations we see a great and mighty act of the Almighty God. And also both have within its context God taking vengeance against the ungodly and saving His people. Furthermore both also show the righteousness of God. He truly is worthy of worship whether in works, in worth or in wisdom. He is worthy to be worshiped and feared in every way, and His judgment will also reveal that.

Immediately following this scene, another scene appears. In the Throne room in heaven, John saw a tabernacle of witness that is opened. In Moses Tabernacle, the place of witness was where God would come and meet with His people. But this tabernacle of witness in heaven was not for God’s servant or priest to go in and meet God, but to let the seven angels gloriously attired to come out. They would then collect, from one of the four living creatures, the seven golden bowls, full of the wrath of the glorious God. These bowls of God’s wrath are not meant for Egypt but for Babylon, and all in the world that have been taken in by her seductions. What this passage is saying is this: the final showdown is set. The dragon and his two beasts have to be dealt with still. They have led many into their destructive ways. And now the time has arrived for these destroyers to be demolished. This is the purpose of the seven bowls with all its catastrophes, to be followed by the final judgement.  

This chapter rounds up in verse 8, by describing the Temple in heaven as filled with the smoke of the glory of God. This has always been the case. God’s glory is always shrouded with His glory smoke. It happened at Isaiah’s commission (Isaiah 6) and the dedication of Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 8). We know the final outcome of the devil and his beasts is nearing. Till that day arrives, when they are finally destroyed, we still need to wise up to their devises. In the meantime, let us deploy our spiritual weapon and be ready to ward off our enemies’ last bastion before his annihilation.    

Revelation 14:17-20 – Reaping the harvest (2)

In verses 17-20, we see the second of the two visions that bring chapter 14 to a close. We also said the purpose of these two visions is more about salvation rather than condemnation, because the salvation discussed in Revelation is about salvation-through-suffering. This vision about harvest and vintage will show us more clearly why it is strikingly so.

In these verses, an angel came out of the temple in heaven and like the Son of Man, he too has a sickle. In this vision, there is yet another angel with power over fire. He came out of the altar calling out loudly to the one with the sickle, to gather the vintage. He is specifically told to put in the sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe. So that angel with the sickle swung straight into action and gathered clusters of grapes and throw them into the great wine press of God’s wrath.

Why did John say here that grapes were thrown into the wine press of God’s wrath? The book of Isaiah is very likely the source where John got his material. In Isaiah 63, we see a royal figure. He is the Messiah whom the prophet had developed from Isaiah 9 and 11, and also from the Servant described in Isaiah 42 and 53. He is seen to be treading the grapes all by Himself. His garment is being stained with the juice of the crushed grapes in the process. He is seen to do so to seek vengeance on the people. He does so by crushing and trampling on the people who had destroyed God’s earth and enslave God’s people. Standing alone, this would have led us to conclude that harvesting the grapes and throwing them into the winepress of God’s wrath is referring to the coming judgement.  

But in John’s references in Revelation 19:13-16, the stain on the Messiah’s clothes was His own blood. In Revelation, we are told repeatedly that the Lamb had conquered through His blood and His sacrificial death. And His followers are to do so in the same way.  It’s true that the way God works out salvation and the way He works out His wrath are vitally connected. They both met at the cross and also in the martyrdom of the followers of Jesus. So N.T. Wright said that "The wine press is where God’s wrath is being prepared, for Babylon and those who worship the monster to drink. And the wine is the lifeblood of the martyrs who are being harvested."

Verse 20 tells us that the wine press was trodden outside the city. This makes it clearer on the above explanation. If this is about judgement than the wine press should be right in the heart of the city and not outside it. Outside the city as we know is a reference to where Jesus was taken to be crucified. Interestingly, in Acts 7:58, Stephen the first martyr of the church was also taken “outside the city” to be stoned. It’s hard to comprehend the horrid description of the “blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.” Bear in mind that we are dealing with symbols here in Revelation. Whether this refers to the enormity of God’s grace or judgement, it’s hard to tell. 

God will ultimately bring His plan to fruition. In the meantime, Christians are called to endure the trials and suffering with joy. So like James had said, let us consider it all joy, when we face different kinds of trails. When we confidently face them with patience and endurance, it will yield amazing results. We will certainly come to a point where we will be complete and lacking nothing.  We have nothing to lose!