The Lamb Conquers Babylon Part 2
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Revelation 1:19.
19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.
Jesus’ outline of Revelation:
What was seen: Jesus Glorified - Revelation 1:9-20.
What is: the Seven Churches - Revelation 2-3.
What will be: Jesus’ judgement in the seven seals, trumpets and bowls. Revelation 4-22.
Revelation 17-18 are two visions which expound on the fall of Babylon in the bowl judgments.
Today we are going over the angel’s interpretation of the vision to John of the great prostitute riding the seven-headed and ten-horned beast.
We will see God’s plan to vanquish evil and chaos in this world - that the Lamb conquers, and in him we are more than conquerors.
Revelation 17:6c-8.
6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.
7 But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.
John marveled greatly at the vision. What is meant by John marveling? Is the action positive or negative?
We all can be tempted to be fascinated with evil, yet this is not what Jesus calls us to. He wants us to be fascinated with him, and, In this context specifically, with him conquering the great prostitute through judgment.
I believe John does not have a lapse in judgement in being in awe of her, but his reaction was one of alarm and dread at the vision. The Septuagint shines light on this. In it the translators used the same Greek word “THAUMAZŌ” to describe Daniel’s condition in Daniel 4:19.
16 And Daniel was greatly amazed and the real meaning of the thing alarmed him. And, alarmed, with trembling seizing him, and his appearance altered, and with a disturbed head, and for a time astonished, he answered me with a humble voice, “O king, may this dream come against those who hate you, and the interpretation of it come against your enemies!
Beale makes this observation concerning John’s state of mind.
“Here the idea of being “appalled” should be understood in the sense of shock and fear. John should not fear the nightmarish vision he has just seen concerning the horrible nature of the beast and the woman and their persecution of Christians.”
We all need to ask ourselves the question the angel asked John. Why do we marvel? We may be tempted to marvel in awe or dread of evil, yet we need to remember the Lamb conquers.
Good news! The angel will tell us the mystery of the vision. We need the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom to understand his interpretation.
The OT background for the vision and interpretation is Daniel 2:41-45 and Daniel 7.
41 And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.
42 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.
43 As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.
44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,
45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
The feet and toes of the statue in this vision are in parallel to the ten horns of the beast of Revelation. This is the last kingdom or kingdoms to be destroyed by God. Good news! The Lamb wins.
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
8 I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.
11 “I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire.
19 “Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying, with its teeth of iron and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet,
20 and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its companions.
21 As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them,
22 until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.
23 “Thus he said: ‘As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces.
24 As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings.
25 He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.
26 But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end.
The fourth beast of Daniel 7 is the beast the great prostitute is riding in Revelation 17 which is the beast described in Revelation 13. They both have ten horns. They both are presented as the last kingdom to stand against God. The Anti-Christ originates from both beasts. See Daniel 7:24-25 and Revelation 13:5-7.
The beast in verse 8 is described as “was and is not, and is about to rise.” This threefold divine formula is the beast copying divinity revealed in Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.””
The Anti-christ is more than someone opposed to God. He wants to take God’s position. Yet the irony is, he can’t and never will, for the Lamb conquered him on the cross, validated by the resurrection, and this victory will be brought to consummation at his coming. Come, Lord Jesus, come. The Lamb Conquers!
The beast comes from the abyss, the place where God has locked up the worst of the angels. We see this pit opened in the fifth trumpet in Revelation 9:2. Yet, what is the beast’s end? His end is destruction, for the Lamb conquers!
The world marvels at the beast. They are in awe of him for they see him as God, as the threefold formula indicates.
Those who’s names are written in the book of life do not marvel, nor are they afraid of him, for they know the Lamb conquers.
Revelation 17:9-11.
9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;
10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.
11 As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.
The call for wisdom is drawn from Daniel 12:10, “Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand,” and reiterated from Revelation 13:18, “This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”
We all need wisdom. It is a good thing that we who believe only need to ask in faith and God will gift it generously, as seen in James 1:5.
Lord, please give us wisdom to understand this passage. Holy Spirit lead us and teach us, opening our spiritual eyes to see and understand.
The seven heads represent seven mountains on which the woman is seated. The woman is also seated on the beast, communicating that the mountains and the beast are potentially one and the same.
Coinage in the first century portrays seven hills with the goddess, Roma, sitting on them. The preterist understand these seven mountains to represent the seven hills of Rome. Some futurists would see this to speak of a renewed Rome. Insert coins
The angel in verse 10 says that the mountains symbolize kings. So now we have the seven heads of the beast, representing seven mountains, which symbolize seven kings. Are you confused yet? Lord, give us wisdom to understand.
The seven mountains are kings; five have fallen, one is, and one is to come for a short time.
It is of no surprise that there is much debate on who these kings are.
The preterist sees the kings as the Roman Emperors. There are more than seven emperors so they propose four enumerations. The first four are shown in the graph below.
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The futurist who sees the beast as a revived Rome would favor the last enumeration in the graph below.
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Beale, an idealist, points out this concerning mountains:
“Mountains symbolize kingdoms in the OT and Jewish writings, for example, Isaiah 2:2; Jeremiah 51:25; Ezekiel 35:3; Daniel 2:35, 45; Zechariah 4:7; 1 Enoch 52; Targum Isaiah 41:15.”
If mountains represent kingdoms in the OT, and kings represent their kingdoms, then perhaps the seven heads which are represented as seven mountains, which are the seven kings, represent seven kingdoms who oppress the world. Paige Patterson, a futurist, writes:
“… the reference is more probably to the seven oppressive kingdoms that constantly subjected the people of God to intense persecution. These kingdoms enumerated in Holy Scripture according to Thomas are as follows, “The five kingdoms of the past are the ones who have persecuted God’s people: (Egypt, Ezek 29–30; Nineveh or Assyria, Nah 3:1–19; Babylon, Isa 21:9 and Jer 50–51; Persia, Dan 10:13 and 11:2; Greece, Dan 11:3–4).” Added to these five kingdoms would be the sixth—the Rome contemporary to John. These evil world systems—Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece—give way to the sixth, which is the Rome of John’s day. The seventh follows—the last day of persecution by a world empire; and the eighth, the final expression of that which is actually one of the seven.”
Beale, an idealist, writes:
“It is possible that, just as the seven churches represented seven actual churches but also symbolized the church universal, so the seven heads and mountains could represent seven historical empires, or seven Roman emperors figuratively representing all Roman emperors, themselves symbolizing all empires throughout history.”
Concerning the beast, which is the eighth king or kingdom, and is of the same evil as the seven, Beale writes:
“The “eighth,” like “seven,” has a figurative meaning. “Eight” likely had such significance in earliest Christianity. After six days of creative activity, God rested on the seventh day. The seventh day completed the creative process and may have been seen as initiating an eighth day, in which the regular operation of the new creation began. Likewise, Christ died on the sixth day of the week, rested in the tomb on the Sabbath, and rose from the dead on the eighth day.” Therefore, calling the beast an “eighth” is another way of referring to his future attempted mimicry of Christ’s resurrection.”
“Though the eighth head has the same wicked nature as the others, he is different from them in that he is an even fuller embodiment of Satanic power and in that his reign concludes history.” Being conquered by the Lords return.
We will not know any of this for sure till Christ returns. What we do know is that the Lamb conquers. Let’s live in his victory. Come, Lord Jesus, come.