|
|
|
The Great Harlot
I. The destruction by the seven bowls of wrath is swift; perhaps too fast to understand what has happened.
A. One of the angels who had held the bowls of wrath offers to show the judgment to John in detail
B. As we read, notice the similarities of this description to prophecy of the fall of Babylon - Jer. 51:7-8, 13
C. What we have is a repetition of history. Babylon fell to rise no more. However, another city has risen in the spirit of Babylon of old. Like ancient Babylon it too would fall for the same reasons.
D. The Babylon in Revelation is Rome
1. It sits on seven mountains - Rev. 17:9
2. It reigns over the kings of the earth - Rev 17:18
3. She sits on many nations - Rev 17:15
4. I have books which claim Babylon is Jerusalem, but these statements do not describe Jerusalem – especially in John’s time.
II. The Great Harlot - Rev 17:1-18
A. Why a harlot?
1. Satan has three approaches to destroy the works of God and His people
a. Political brute force, symbolized by the beast from the sea
b. False religion, symbolized by the beast from the earth and also known as the false prophet
c. The world of lust, symbolized by the harlot.
2. Seductive and immoral - verse 2
a. Sin is deceitful - Heb 3:13
b. Deceived by various lusts and pleasures - Tit 3:3
3. Wealthy and vain - verse 4
4. She produces and nurtures abominations in the world - verse 5
5. Several cities were called harlots in the Old Testament
a. Ninevah - Nahum 3:1, 4 - The harlot of conquests
b. Tyre - Isa. 23:15-17 - The harlot of commerce
c. Babylon - Isa 47:5-15 - The harlot of worldly pleasures
d. Jerusalem - Isa. 1:21 - The harlot of religion
6. This harlot combines the worse of all these prior harlots
B. She holds a rich cup, but it is filled with filth - verse 4
1. She is drunken on the blood of martyrs - verse 6, see Isa 29:9, Hab 2:5
2. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus describing the emperor Tiberius, “He is not thirsty for neat wine as he was thirsty then, but warm him up a tastier cup – the blood of murdered men.”
C. She wears a headband - Verse 5
1. Edward P. Myers, “This is a reference to a Roman custom where prostitutes in public betrothals wore upon their foreheads a frontlet giving their names. These were the sins and trademarks of Roman prostitutes. Seneca mentions the custom of a prostitute wearing a headband on which was written her name or some descriptive phrase showing her occupation.”
2. The harlot calls herself “Mystery”, but we know precisely who she is.
D. She sits
1. She sits on many waters - verse 1
a. These are the various people she rules over - verse 15
b. This was the weakness of Rome, it conquered many nations by force, but it could not mold them into one nation - Dan 2:42-43
2. She sits on a beast - verses 3, 7
a. The beast is the sea beast mentioned in chapter 13. It is the government system which supports the harlot.
(1) Mike McDaniel said, “This is the great civil persecuting power which rules by military might and by the brute force characteristic of a beast. The fact that hte heads of the beast are later expressly identified as seven kings supports this idea.”
b. It is scarlet – arrayed in splendor.
(1) Scarlet is the color of royalty - Matt 27:28
(2) But it is also the color of sin - Isa 1:18
c. The seven heads and ten horns are the same as in chapter 13, it is the complete power and authority of Rome.
(1) It was Rome’s ability to subjugate other realms - verse 13
d. The beast is full of blasphemous names
(1) William Barclay said, “Every Emperor was called “divus” or “sebastos,” which means divine. Frequently the very name “God” or “Son of God” was given to the emperors; and Nero on his coins called himself “the Saviour of the World.” For any man to call himself divine was a blasphemous insult to God.”
(2) For example, Domitian issued his decrees as “Lord God Domitianus.”
e. This beast was, is not, about to come out of the abyss, and go to destruction.
(1) This is a corruption of the designation of God, who was, who is, and who is to come.
(2) It also refers back to beast who took a deadly blow, but survived.
(3) Referring to its persecution of Christians
(4) It had persecuted (under Nero)
(5) It was currently in a lull
(6) It would soon come back to its purpose.
(7) It would then be destroyed.
3. She sits on seven mountains (or hills depending on the translation) - verse 9
4. Go back to chapter 12 and contrast this harlot to the woman introduced in verse 1
a. The first woman is also a city as we will see in Rev 20:9, 21:2
b. These two women are the opposites in character, position, and destiny.
E. The seven kings - Rev 17:10-11
1. Five are dead, one currently reigns, the one to come will reign for a short while. An eight is coming who is one of the seven.
2. Many guesses as to which rulers, but none fit the facts well.
3. Better is that seven is a representation of all the kings.
a. Caird said, “By the same token the seven kings are a symbolic number, representative of the whole series of emperors, and they would remain seven no matter how long the actual list happened to be . . . The one point John wishes to emphasize is that the imperial line has only a short time to run before the emergence of a new monstrous Nero, an eight who is one of the seven.
F. The ten kings without kingdom - Rev 17:12-13
1. Rome’s power was in her provinces. The rulers of the provinces received authority from Rome for a short while, but they have no real authority, power, or kingdom on their own. Everything they have goes to Rome.
2. This was done by God’s decree – Verse 17, see also Dan 4:17
3. Verse 16 tells us that the downfall of Rome will come when the provincial kings rise up in rebellion. Even in the days of Christ and the apostles we see a government very concerned with rebellion – squashing any hint of outburst immediately.
4. The description of the downfall is similar to Ezek 16:35-41
5. Notice the extreme contrast to how she originally looked.
III. Revelation 17:14 is the key verse of Revelation. It is a summary of the whole book.
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|