KBM Revelation 17

Hello and welcome to another episode, our 206th episode, of Kids Bible Minute. I’m your host Landon Rowell and the preacher for the church of Christ in Ramona, OK. Thank you for deciding to study God’s Word with me this blessed day and I want to encourage you to have your Bible with you so that when I mention a Bible verse you can pause this podcast and read that passage for yourself. I want you to see God’s Word and not just take my word for it. Now after you have read that passage unpause the podcast, and then if I read the verse out loud read along with me. If you are new to our study, first I want to say thank you for studying with us and secondly I want to let you know that you can reach all archived or past episodes easily at ramonacofc.com in the podcast section where there is a direct link to Kids Bible Minute past episodes. So as you all know we have been studying through the book of Revelation and find our study today landing in Revelation chapter seventeen. Now, remember, chapter sixteen was all about the destruction of Rome or Babylon, she was done.

Revelation 16:19 ESV

19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.

So why is it in chapter 17 that we still find Babylon standing? The answer is we are now getting more insight into the why and who is being prophesied to be destroyed. Remember the Sea Beast represented the brute force of persecution against God’s children while the Land Beast represented the intellectual force brought against God’s people through false doctrine. Here in chapter seventeen God rounds out the reason for Rome’s fall by explaining the lustful force thrown at God’s people through the rampant sexual immorality that was going in the empire. This lustful force is illustrated in this chapter as Rome is described as the “mother of all prostitutes and of earth’s abominations” (Revelation 17:5). Think about how God just described these people, how far they had removed themselves from their Creator by their actions and how far they had allowed Satan to pull their strings in this direction. If they couldn’t get God’s people through brute force, intellectual force, they would through man’s lust for sexuality. This should be a great warning to us all about how Satan operates. Along these lines also notice the description of Rome, you have this glamorous, wealthy, high society women (how Rome saw herself) and then this filth and vile woman described (how God saw Rome). There are a couple of “symbols” I want us to consider. The first where Babylon is said to be “was, and is not, and is to come.” What does that mean? This seems to be a simple antithesis statement meaning in opposition to that which is said of the Lord in Revelation 1:8 “who is and who was and who is to come.” In other words this is God’s enemy and that makes sense because she is “coming out of the “bottomless pit” only to be “thrown into perdition” or better translated “destruction.” Secondly, one of the main reasons we know this is dealing with the Roman Empire is that the seven heads represent the seven mountains the woman is seated upon. The city of Rome literally sits upon seven hills or mountains, not to mention the number seven represents completeness. So Babylon is the entire complete empire that rests or sits on its founder the city of Rome. Now there are a lot of speculation concerning which kings are under consideration in this and we might not ever “truly know” specifics here but what we can know is that they will “hand over their power & authority to the beast” while bringing war to the Lamb but as we already read in chapter sixteen they were conquered by the Lord of lords and King of kings.

Well, that concludes this Bible study for today. As always, I want to thank you for studying God's precious Word with me and I want to encourage you to continue to study God's Word every day. Be sure to use the wonderful material and other podcasts made available through the BWM App or website at biblewaymedia.org. I also personally have a website at gospel-preacher.com. Of course, make sure you ask your parents if it is ok by them before you download the app or go to those websites. I also encourage you to contact me personally with question about the Bible at the Ramona church of Christ email address [e-mail] or through our Facebook Page. Make sure you message the Ramona church of Christ in OK not California. Until we have an opportunity to meet again, peace be with you in Christ Jesus our Lord.