Project 119: Revelation 17

 |  Project 119  |  Amy Hirsch

The Great Prostitute

One of my favorite things about a wedding is seeing the bride for the first time. If you aren’t in the wedding party, chances are when the doors are opened and she appears in the narthex, ready to walk down the aisle, this is the first time you’ve seen her on her wedding day in a beautiful dress and perhaps wearing a flowing veil. Brides seem to glow on their wedding days, don’t they? Sometimes, we can be even be taken aback by their beauty and radiance!

At this point in John’s vision, John is given a glimpse of something he hasn’t seen before; but rather than seeing a bride clothed in white waiting for her groom, he sees “a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names” (Revelation 17:3). She seems to be a woman of wealth and means, “arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls” (Revelation 17:4). But she doesn’t glow with the radiance of an innocent bride; rather, she is drunk on the blood of the martyrs.

Who is this woman? John learns that her name is “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations” (Revelation 17:4). She rides on the beast and derives her power from Satan himself. She is a woman of treachery and deceit, who finds joy in the suffering of Christ’s saints. She is the transfiguration of the adulterous spirit at work in the hearts of people, tempting and taunting and calling people to worship the things of the world. And she brings destruction to everything she touches. 

John and his audience would have clearly identified this woman with the pagan powers of Rome. And it seems as if the woman and the beast are invincible. John marvels at her when he sees her, clearly overcome by her treachery (Revelation 17:6). Yet the angel encourages John by reminding him that the power of all who opposed Christ is limited, because “they will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are called and chosen and faithful” (Revelation 17:14).

While we don’t live in the first century, we too see this same adulterous spirit at work in our world, don’t we? Satan works to lure our hearts away from God, to turn our allegiance from the Creator to created things. He rejoices as he watches the saints suffer for their faith. Yet we, like John, are encouraged as we are reminded that Satan’s power is only temporary, and that one day, God will forever vanquish evil. On that day, all of Heaven and earth will rejoice as the Bride of Christ is revealed, clothed in white, waiting in joyful expectation for the advent of her Groom (Revelation 19:6–8).

Revelation 17 (ESV):

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” 3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. 5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.”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. 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. 12 And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. 14 They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

15 And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. 16 And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, 17 for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. 18 And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”