Babylon - The Kingdom of Man. Revelation 17

Chapter seventeen focuses on the religious aspect of Babylon and chapter eighteen the economic or commercial aspect, and together they make up the political kingdom of Babylon which is just the final representation/manifestation of the kingdom of man on the earth. There has been this battle that has gone on in human history since the time that Adam fell—man’s attempt to organize himself, the human race to organize its activities, for its own goals, undefined by God and in rebellion against God, seeking to assert its own autonomy trying to find peace, happiness and stability apart from God. This has caused man to live in a dream world. The more men live in this fantasy world, generated by their own sin nature, their own rebellion against God, the more they are going to make bad decisions from a position of weakness and the more they are going themselves vulnerable to all manner of attacks-internal, external, military or economic collapse, whatever it may be. The more the governing powers—not just elected political officials but also the upper echelons in business and the powers behind the political powers—the people who manipulate the world system, the more they live in a fantasy world, the more they are going to create a house of cards until the least little thing will topple it. That is when civilizations collapse historically. God warned the Jews of this as they headed towards the divine discipline of the assault from Babylon in both Isaiah and Jeremiah and that the characteristic of this kind of arrogance is calling good bad and bad good. There is just a reversal of the polarity of good and evil, and the more we live in that upside down way of thinking the more dangerous it becomes to ourselves and to everyone around us. When that characterizes the leadership of industry, the leadership in business in economics, the leadership in politics and education, then that civilization is just waiting for the least little thing to cause it to collapse. Only believers have the truth.

Revelation 17:1 the harlot sits on many waters, indicating that there is an influence on the waters [nations] and that is a summary of her activity down through the ages. Verse three shifts to a more specific orientation which has to do with the woman’s posture within the Tribulation. So verse one is looking at her influence through the ages, verse 3 is the influence of the woman in the Tribulation. The word “judgment” in verse one is the Greek word krima [krima] which emphasizes both the sentence as well as the enactment of the sentence.

One thing we have seen is that there are two times in Revelation when an angel comes to John—in both cases one of the seven who poured out the bowl judgments—and says, “Come, I will show you…” The first is this angel showing him the abominations, the whores, of Babylon the kingdom of man. There is another angel from this group of even who will come to John in chapter twenty-one and will show him the bride of Christ. That is intentional; there is a specific contrast between this section (17:1-19:10 and 21:9-22:5), a contrast between Babylon and the evils of Babylon and the bride of Christ. There is the contrast between the devil’s prostitute or the harlotry, unfaithfulness of the kingdom of man versus the purity of the bride of Christ. On the one hand the devil’s prostitute is one that seduces and entices man to man’s destruction. The bride of Christ is the source of the gospel, the source of truth, the source of the message that leads to life and eternal glory. One the one hand the kingdom of man appeals to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, whereas in contrast the church is to manifest the character of the Lord Jesus Christ in being a humble and obedient servant. The harlot of Babylon is depicted as being clothed in the temporal riches and material glory of the world, whereas the bride is depicted as being simply clothed in white linen depicting the good works (divine good), the fruit of the Spirit that has been produced in the life of the church.

This is the first time in Revelation that we have seen an interpreting angel. In Daniel there was frequently an interpreting angel where a vision would be seen by Daniel and then an angel would explain not only what he had seen but what it meant. It was not left to man to come up with his own interpretation. In Revelation 17;1 the great harlot sits on many waters, in verse 15 the angels said to John, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.” That fits with the fact that it is the first beast which comes out of the waters. It was four beasts that Daniel saw coming out of the waters, the four beast which depicted the successive kingdoms that would dominate in the kingdom of man; that Satan would influence history through those Gentile nations. That is critical for developing a biblical view of history and nations. There is a tendency to glorify nations, but ultimately all nations in human history have played into these empires, and these empires have controlled and dominated history since the early civilizations of man. We tend to glorify the positive things of those empires and yet when God gives His evaluation and depicts them He depicts them as ravenous beasts. They are the best that man can do but God says it is bestial, the best that human viewpoint could do and it is destructive and arrogant. We have to use that as our framework when we interpret human history. The great harlot “sits on many waters,” and that depicts the Satanic influence on the nations of the world, the cultures of the world, the civilizations of history, because from the time of Adam’s fall there has been this battle in human history between the kingdom of man, man’s own attempt to assert his own independence form God, his own kingdom and his own authority, seeking his own peace and happiness, versus God’s way. The great harlot depicts the systems of thought that characterize human viewpoint. There may be many different ways in which human viewpoint manifests itself but it always has two characteristics. The first is autonomy and the second is antagonism—independence from God and hostility to God—and that characterizes all human viewpoint thought systems. So we see that human civilization is sat on by the harlot; she influences all of them.

The harlot is the one with whom the kings of the earth, the power brokers of history, have committed fornication. They have been unfaithful to God and they have allied themselves with the thinking of the world system, the devil’s system, and the result is that the inhabitants of the earth are made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Drunkenness causes norms and standards to break down, divorcement from reality, inability to think objectively or accurately anymore. So those who imbibe of the world’s way of thinking and the arrogance of the world will ultimately be led to their own doom and collapse because they have become divorced from reality.

From 17:1 to 3a simply introduces what is going to be covered in this chapter. From 17:3b-6 we have the description of the woman who is riding the beast. “…and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.” That is crucial to understand. The woman is sitting on this scarlet beast, so this is the fourth beast mentioned in Revelation. The first beast mentioned is in Revelation 11:7, the beast who came up from the abyss kills the two witnesses. The next mentioned is the beast that comes up out of the water in chapter thirteen that has the seven heads and the ten horns. Then in the second half of that chapter another beast: the false prophet. Now we have this beast in chapter seventeen. Each one of those beasts has to be carefully analyzed. Some people try to merge them together but it can’t be done. That is important for understanding the dynamics of what is happening at the end of the Tribulation. Sitting on the scarlet beast depicts that the woman is, like a rider of a horse, in control of the beast. The beast here represents the kingdom, the woman represents the thought system that has carried throughout all of history—human viewpoint thinking that characterized Satan’s original rebellion against God, man’s rebellion against God—and that this thought system is riding the beast. That is what controls the beast. The beast is identified as having seven heads and ten horns, and later in the chapter those seven heads are going to be identified (v. 9) as seven mountains on which the woman sits. Mountains are often used in Scripture to depict a kingdom. It is also defined (v. 10) as seven kings.

One of the difficulties in going through these passages is that the king, the leader of the kingdom, is often used to simply represent the kingdom. It seems to slip back and forth from one place where it is talking about the beast as the person who runs the kingdom, the Antichrist, and then in the next statement it sounds more like the kingdom than the person running the kingdom, because they are so closely identified with one another.

What we will see is that the seven heads represent the seven kingdoms historically that have manifested the kingdom of man under Satan’s influence and power: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and then the future manifestation of the kingdom of Rome. What do all of these nations have in common? They were all anti-Semitic. They all assaulted Israel and the Jews and were all enemies of Israel. The ten horns represent the end times manifestation of that kingdom.

Revelation 17:4 ^NASB “The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality.” All of this depicts the wealth, the commercial prosperity of the kingdom of man. The word “abominations” is often used of idolatry and the filthiness of unfaithfulness to God (“immorality”).

When we look at the imagery of the seven heads and ten horns the first time we see it is in Revelation 12:3. There it is a description of the great red dragon, which is Satan. What that depicts is that the dragon, Satan, as the power of the kingdom of man. The dragon is the power of those seven heads, the historical manifestations of the kingdom of man, and the ten horns, its final manifestation in the future. The dragon is the one who has the heads and the horns.

In chapter thirteen the image changes a little. Revelation 13:1 ^NASB “And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns {were} ten diadems, and on his heads {were} blasphemous names.” Now it is not the dragon who has the seven heads and ten horns, it is the beast who has the seven heads and ten horns. This depicts the Antichrist. If we trace the beast in 13:1-9 it is the person, not the kingdom, but they are so closely identified that we can’t really distinguish between the two, although it is clear because of the head wound and other things individually. [2] “And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like {those} of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.” These beasts have all the elements of those beasts that Daniel saw depicting Babylon. Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome in Daniel chapter seven, and all of those characteristics are going to be together in this one end-time power. It will be the kingdom of all kingdoms in terms of human history, the greatest manifestation of human power that has ever existed. But this verse, in terms of comparing it with 12:1, depicts the Antichrist as the personification of the kingdom of man and historically against God. So in chapter 12 it is the dragon, Satan, that has the seven heads and ten horns; here it is the beast, the Antichrist. Obviously that is showing the close connection between Satan and the beast which is then going to develop in 13:2 where we are told that it is the dragon who is the one who empowers the beast. In 13:7 it is the beast, the Antichrist, who makes war with the saints and is given authority over every tribe, tongue and nation. That is the harlot sitting over many waters: authority over many nations. The fact that the beast comes out of the sea in 13:1 indicates that he comes out of the Gentile powers, and we see the addition of the blasphemous names on his head. This is going to connect to 17:3 which describes the woman as sitting on a scarlet beast full of names of blasphemies—same phrase in the Greek.

We see in Revelation 3 & 4 the description of the woman as the influence and power representing the thought system that controls the kingdom, and it does bring about a measure of prosperity and security and wealth and success. But it is doomed to failure. The mystery (v. 5) is something that has previously been unrevealed, and what will be revealed at this time is her intrinsically evil character. This is not known except by divine revelation.

This is Babylon the great, the harlot, the source of all of the spiritual unfaithfulness and idolatries of the earth. So this has to take us back to Genesis chapter ten where we are told of the sons of Ham, beginning in verse 6: “The sons of Ham {were} Cush [Ethiopia] and Mizraim {Egypt] and Put [Libya] and Canaan.” The sons of Cush: [7] “The sons of Cush {were} Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and Raamah and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah {were} Sheba and Dedan.” The key one to come out of Cush is Nimrod in v. 8: “Now Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth.” This indicates his power. He is asserting himself as an organizer, of men. There is a political and economic element here. [9] “He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.” That has the idea of “against” the Lord. He was setting himself up over against God and the start of his kingdom is described as {10] “… Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” And he is also going to establish Nineveh (v.11), Assyria. So from Cush out of Ham come these traditional enemies of Israel—Egypt, Babylon, Nineveh. Shinar is the source of the Baylonian empire.

The details are in chapter eleven. Genesis 11:1 ^NASB “Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.” This was the first global society—one world government. Language expresses thought systems. If we get to know someone who is truly bi-cultural and bi-lingual they will tell us that when we are thinking in another language we think differently about reality than we do in another language. Language shapes the way we think, look, and interpret reality around us. Words mean things; words change things; words express ideas. Before Babel they all thought the same, they all had one language and one speech and were united in the way in which they approached reality.

Genesis 11:2 ^NASB “It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. [3] They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and burn {them} thoroughly.’ And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.” They began to congregate. What was the command in the Noahic covenant? Multiply and fill the earth! [4] “They said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top {will reach} into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’” This is spiritual. Why have a top in the heavens? So “if that evil, nasty God sends a flood again we are going to survive.” This all has a religious motive; it is antagonistic to God; man is asserting his own autonomy and independence. God said to scatter; they built the tower so they wouldn’t be scattered.

Genesis 11:5 ^NASB “The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. [6] “The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” When everybody can speak the same language they start trying to develop a conspiracy to overthrow God. [7] “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” It is clear from the Bible that the whole episode at Babel was Satanically inspired to assert the kingdom and autonomy of man against God. God foils Satan’s plot by confounding the languages and developing all of these multiple languages so that the people can’t talk to each other, and he fragments all of human society by giving them different languages. Ever since then Satan has been trying to reverse that and get everybody back together where everybody can communicate, be on the same page, understand each other, and create that one world government so that he can establish his kingdom upon the earth. [8] “So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.”

The kingdom of man then begins to grow. It has different manifestations—the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians. Babel has an interconnected political, social, economic and religious purpose. All of this was coming together in the episode of the tower of Babel and this was the beginning of man’s attempt to establish himself over against God.

Isaiah 13 and Jeremiah 51 are the two key chapters on the prophecy related to the destruction of Babylon. Isaiah 13:6 ^NASB “Wail, for the day of the LORD is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.” The term “day of the Lord” is a technical term for a time of unique divine judgment and it is used primarily in the Scriptures to refer to the end time judgments at the end of the Tribulation. Sometimes it may refer to the whole Tribulation period but primarily it refers to final part of the last half of the Tribulation, basically the bowl judgments and the Armageddon campaign. So the judgment on Babylon is identified here as being in the end of the Tribulation period.

Isaiah 13:9 ^NASB “Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it.” That is, God will destroy the sinners in that land. [11] “Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. [12] I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold And mankind than the gold of Ophir.”

Isaiah 13:19 ^NASB “And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.” In Genesis 18 when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah what did it look like? Nothing was left. There was no one who lived on those sites. But that is not true about Babylon. It was thought to have been true but Babylon still existed at the time of the New Testament and long into the church age into the early middle ages, and there have been Arab villages that have continued to exist on the site of Babylon up until modern times. So this has never been fulfilled. [20] “It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch {his} tent there, Nor will shepherds make {their flocks} lie down there.” So this prophecy regarding Babylon has never taken place, and so there is a basis for saying there will be a resurrection of a literal Babylon that will take place in the Tribulation period and will be a seat of economic and political power in relation to the Antichrist’s kingdom.

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