The Harlot and the Beast
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On Many Waters
On Many Waters
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,
with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”
We discussed this last week
We mentioned that the harlot represent spiritual apostasy. Isaiah laments
How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice; Righteousness lodged in it, But now murderers.
And Jeremiah
I have seen your adulteries And your lustful neighings, The lewdness of your harlotry, Your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you still not be made clean?”
The prophet Nahum speaks of Nineveh
Because of the multitude of harlotries of the seductive harlot, The mistress of sorceries, Who sells nations through her harlotries, And families through her sorceries.
The reference here in Revelation is not just religious in nature but a perversion of all that is righteous and good for self satisfaction, power, and financial gain!
The reference to the Harlot is Rome of course adorned with wealth and intoxicated with the blood of the saints and today represents the world system of seduction for personal gain and self-satisfaction over righteousness and god’s ways
In vesre 16 we learn that she will soon be stripped naked and utterly destroyed
And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire.
Comforting words for those who are suffering under her rule!
Shae is pictured sitting on many waters
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,
In verse 15
Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.
It is a reference to the city of Babylon in which many waters flowed out to the surrounding lands
O you who dwell by many waters, Abundant in treasures, Your end has come, The measure of your covetousness.
It represents the influences she wields over the many nations
Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, That made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; Therefore the nations are deranged.
She has caused the nations of the world to follow and worship the beast. They are those who are not of the Lord
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Now John is taken to the day of the Harlot’s judgement, she is shown in her position of influence and power
The scarlet beast is the one who rose from the sea in chapter 13
Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.
The beast represents the great persecuting power which rules by brute force and is the supreme enemy of Christ and the church
The reference again os to the old Roman empire where the leaders would take titles such as, Theos (divine) or Soter (Savior) or Kyrios (Lord)
John will later tells us of the heads and horns
The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.
This picture shows the wealth and arrogance of the Harlot
Purple the most expensive dye signifying royalty or in this case deity, and scarlet signifying wealth and status
This contrasted against the saints clothed in fine linen white and pure
The Harlot is adorned in pride and sin, outward looking regal but inwardly and cesspool of death and destruction
The cup supposedly representing all of the carnal pleasures of this world but filled with abominations and impurities of her fornication! Filled with moral corruption and all manner of uncleaness!
It is Satans oldest trick, make something evil look good
Look at what is happening the world today and you can say amen!
I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.
Drunk with the blood is referenced in Isaiah
I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh, And they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. All flesh shall know That I, the Lord, am your Savior, And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
A retributional judgement for their actions against God
Remember the coliseums where the spectators were “drunk with the blood lust”
A picture now of the reign of the antichrist
Joh is expecting to see victory but up to this point has seen what appears to be defeat~
Now verse 7-18 define the judgment of the Harlot!
But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.
the revealing of the interpretation of the beast
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Clearly an intentional antithesis on the One who was, and is and is to come! Turning the tables on Satan
I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
We are reminded of the Beast of Rev 13 who received a mortal wound yet was resurrected!
It was this incredible power of resurrection that was the deceiving power of Satan
He is the little horn of Daniel 7
He is the fourth beast of Daniel 7:19
He manifested himself through the Emperors of Rome
This time he makes his final appearance before being thrown into the lake of fire
“Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.
The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.
Next week we will dive into this and its relationship to the Roman Empire