REVELATION 17
In chapter 21 “one of the seven angels which had had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues” shews John “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”. In this chapter one of the same angels shews him “the sentence of the great harlot”. The contrast between the two must arrest the attention of every reader. One is the true church — holy, heavenly, luminous with divine glory. The other is “great” but unfaithful and corrupt. She “sits upon the many waters”, and as these were explained by the angel their meaning is not uncertain. “And he says to me, The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues” (verse 15). This shews the wide extent of her influence. But she not only influences peoples but kings. “With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication”. She has had baits to offer to kings and courts which have made it worth their while to court her favour that they might secure them. In this way she has enhanced her own wealth and glory by ministering what was attractive to others, much as Tyre — which is also called a “harlot” (Isaiah 23) — did with her commerce (Ezekiel 27). But all such influence in the world must be at the cost of fidelity to Christ. It can only be achieved by being untrue to the church’s place as the suffering witness to a rejected Christ. She is a “great harlot”.
Then “they that dwell on the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication”. She has brought men under idolatrous influences. And [p. 180] this is peculiarly obnoxious to God, as coming in after the full revelation of Himself in His Son, and after the gift of His Spirit to shed His love abroad in the hearts of believers. Such idolatry is infinitely worse than that of the heathen.
“And he carried me away in spirit to a desert”. What a contrast to the elevation of chapter 21: 10! It is an appropriate scene for what yields no refreshment or spiritual food. All the magnificence of Babylon — though it is the concentration of human pride and glory — is a moral desert. No refreshing springs are there.
“And I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns”. The beast is thus identified with the first beast of chapter 13; it is the political system, the revived Roman Empire in its last form of ten kingdoms — the toes of the image of Daniel 2. The woman is the corrupt religious system. The beast is a blasphemous power; he will allow the woman to sit upon him as long as it suits his purpose to do so, but in the end he will hate her, and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh and burn her with fire (verse 16). It is perhaps doubtful if Babylon will ever again have the real ascendancy that she has had. A so-called “church” which has position and influence amongst men is useful to governments. But I have no doubt that the tendency will be for the secular power to become more and more averse to religious pretensions, and at the bottom to “hate the harlot”, though allowing her a place for a time.
“The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and had ornaments of gold and precious stones and pearls”. She had glory where Christ had reproach and rejection. It is really Satan’s masterpiece that what calls itself the church should have become a crowning glory of the world. The things mentioned here are often used as figures of what has divine value and beauty, but on “the mother of the harlots, and of the abominations of the earth” they can only represent fleshly and worldly glory and attractiveness. The golden cup in her hand is “full of abominations and the unclean things of her fornication”.
The blessing of this chapter lies to a great extent in the contrasts which it suggests. One can hardly think of the cup in the harlot’s hand without being reminded of “the cup of the Lord”. His cup is full of new covenant blessings, the divine and spiritual portion of His saints. It speaks of the remission of sins, and of the knowledge of God revealed in love through the death of His Son. It is filled with spiritual blessings, all secured through redemption, and subsisting in a risen and glorified Saviour. It ministers peace to the conscience, and divine satisfaction and joy to the heart. But the harlot’s cup is “full of abominations” — the common Scripture word for what is idolatrous; that is, it is “the cup of demons” (1 Corinthians 10). And it also contains “the unclean things of her fornication”. Being unfaithful and corrupt herself, she can only bring men under the influence of unholy intimacy with the world.
Babylon began with Nimrod (Genesis 11). It is the ancient seat of man’s glory and ambition, and independence of God. Abraham was called out of the country where Babel was set up to know the God of glory and to wait for His city. It is terrible to think of all the principles of Babylon developing in the profession of Christianity. They will take their final [p. 182] form there after every living member of Christ has been taken out of it by the rapture. But all the moral features of Babylon are present now, and they are to be judged and avoided by the people of God wherever they may be found.
Then, further, we read, “I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus”. We cannot be surprised that John “wondered, seeing her, with great wonder”. He had not wondered when he saw the dragon, or the beast, or the antichrist. To behold them active in evil was no wonder to the seer. But to see that which had borne the Name of Christ having such a character might well make him wonder. He had known the Lord’s judgment of idolatries and corruptions which were germinating and developing in the assemblies (chapters 2 and 3). He had known what it was to see a Diotrephes ruling in the assembly, refusing his authority, and casting the faithful out (3 John). But he could hardly have conceived that things would ever come to the state depicted in Revelation 17 and 18.
With the history of christendom before us, we know how true is the picture. And we can understand what it will be in that awful coming day, when there will be no longer, as in Thyatira, a remnant of true saints to preserve some divine features in the midst of surrounding corruption. There have always been, and there still are, many true saints even in those great professing bodies which have been most corrupt, whether eastern or western. But in the days of Revelation 17, 18, this will no longer be the case. All saints of the assembly will have been translated. The call to “Come out of her, my people,
[p. 183] that ye have not fellowship in her sins, and that ye do not receive of her plagues” (Revelation 18: 4), has present force to any who find themselves in that which they can discern to have the features of Babylon. It is also a warning to saints who will be found on earth after the rapture of the assembly.
In answer to John’s wonder the angel tells him the mystery of the woman, and of the beast which carries her. The beast is the Roman Empire revived by satanic power; it comes up out of the abyss. “It was, and is not, and shall be present”. They who dwell on the earth will wonder to see it revived. The “seven mountains, whereon the woman sits” are also an obvious allusion to Rome. But the beast will not come up again to have a long career; he comes up and goes into destruction (verses 8, 11). The ten horns “receive authority as kings one hour with the beast”; their time is a very brief one. It is cut short by the heaven opening and the “King of kings, and Lord of lords” coming forth followed by the armies which are in heaven (chapter 19). The last act of the beast, and of his confederate kings and their armies, is to gather together to make war against the Lamb at His appearing. The issue of that conflict is that “the Lamb shall overcome them”, and their doom is declared in chapter 19: 20, 21.
But before that last act of open rebellion, the ten horns and the beast will be used of God to destroy the harlot. The corrupt religious system will be destroyed by the secular power. “And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire”. How completely does God over-rule [p. 184] everything! Though the way the ten kings give their power to the beast is a crowning point of man’s lawlessness, the complete apostasy of power, it is seen to be subservient to the will of God. The very fact of their unity is attributed to God. “For God has given to their hearts to do his mind, and to act with one mind ... until the words of God shall be fulfilled” (verse 17). It is an immense stay to the heart to see that even Satan himself is God’s servant, and that what he does only fulfils God’s words. This great triumph of Satan, this immense confederation of powers, this vast league of nations, will fulfil God’s word, and execute His long-deferred judgment on the hateful harlot. It gives one a profound sense of how completely everything is under the mighty hand of God. He allows this great concentration of unified imperial power for His own purposes, to bring in judgment on the great harlot. We may be sure that what bears the Name of Christ only to dishonour Him is the most hateful thing to God. Nothing in the whole of Scripture is depicted as such an object of abhorrence to God, and to heaven, and to His saints, as Babylon. And because she has sought corruptly to rule kings and peoples, God has ordained that her destruction shall be at their hands.
There is one sentence in chapter 17 which stands in holy contrast to everything which marks the great harlot. “They that are with him called, and chosen, and faithful”. How blessed to think of such a company! There are those who will be “with him” in glory, but before being with Him there they have been with Him in reproach and rejection here. They have been “harmless and simple, irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation”. They have appeared “as lights in the world”, not as having earthly or worldly glory, but as carrying the moral beauty of what is heavenly. They have not ministered to the lusts of men, or corrupted them by what was idolatrous, but they have held forth the word of life.
Such have been “called”. They have been the subjects of a powerful and effective operation of God in the sovereignty of His love and mercy. They have been called out of the idolatrous Babel world even as Abraham was, to be in the light of the God of glory, to be strangers and sojourners here, and to wait for God’s city. If we really know the God of glory, idolatry will be excluded from our hearts, and we shall understand the character of His city; we shall not be deceived by the carnal glory of Babylon.
Then those who are “with him” are “chosen”. I take “chosen” here to refer to the choice of complacency, because it comes after “called”. If it were the choice of sovereignty it would have come first. Christ is God’s elect One — the Object of His delight and choice. It is written of Him, “I have exalted one chosen out of the people” (Psalm 89: 19). And the saints are spoken of as “the elect of God, holy and beloved”, in the same sense of God’s choice because of His complacency in them. As “the elect of God” they put on “bowels of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any should have a complaint against any; even as the Christ has forgiven you, so also do ye. And to all these add love, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to which also ye have been called in one body, and be thankful”
([p. 186] Colossians 3: 12 - 15). How beautifully does this describe the true adornment of the assembly! What a contrast to being “drunk with the blood of the saints”! If the moral loveliness of this establishes itself in our affections in the power of the Spirit, it will preserve us from being captivated by the spurious adornments of Babylon.
And, lastly, the saints “with him” are described as “faithful”. They have kept the word of Christ, and have not denied His Name; they have used the treasure with which He entrusted them for His gain; they have kept the faith. Such features as these are entirely absent in Babylon. The “great harlot” is gaudy and attractive in a natural way; the “bride” is attractive because she comes out in the character and moral beauty of Christ. These chapters are written as divine warning against an idolatrous system where every influence really shuts out what is of God and of Christ. It is dreadful to contemplate such a picture, but it should lead us at every point to the contrast in “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”.
The church is holy and heavenly, and her influences are divine and life-giving; she has “rivers of living water” in having the Spirit. There is a river that makes glad the city of God — the blessed power of the Spirit making good in the affections of the saints all that God is as revealed in the grace of redemption, and all the fruits of divine love. There is no desert there: it is the garden of God. The attractions of Babylon have no divine element in them. The attractiveness we should covet is to be able to present what is of God and of Christ. We do not want fine buildings and music, and things that appeal to the natural man. But we should covet to [p. 187] be attractive to souls that fear God; there should be that about us which would attract thirsty souls with spiritual needs and exercises. The assembly is the circle on earth where God is known, where the unsearchable riches of Christ can be found, where the Holy Spirit dwells. It is God’s city. The contrast between Babylon and Jerusalem challenges us at every point. What are we delighting in, and cultivating, and exhibiting? The features of the great harlot, or the features of the bride? If I am on the line of what ministers to vanity and self-exaltation, either in myself or in others, that is the line of Babylon.