The Power of Satan’s Earthly Agents (17:1-18)
Last week, we learned that Babylon does not represent any one specific city but, instead, represents humanity in organized opposition against God and people in rebellion against Him. We find that after the final outpouring of wrath on the world and Babylon (Revelation 16:9), an angel came and spoke to John, further revealing more about Jesus’ victory over those who are doing Satan’s bidding. The angel revealed how God’s judgment would finally fall on Babylon.
Earlier, Revelation mentioned Babylon as “that great city” that “made all the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Revelation 17 will further describe Babylon. Unlike the Church, the woman clothed with the sun (12:1), undefiled and virginal (14:4), Babylon is thoroughly immoral, the image of sinfulness itself.
Read Revelation 17:1-6
– Verse 1 says Babylon is a “great prostitute… seated on many waters.” What does this say about trying to pinpoint Babylon only to one specific place, and no more than that?
– Based on the 1st seal that Jesus broke (13:1), who was the beast with seven heads and ten horns? Yet, in the first seal, who was behind the evil deeds of the beast?
– This section of Revelation uses sexual imagery to make its point. What is the point of the “kings of the earth” committing sexual immorality with the prostitute of Babylon, who is being driven by Satan?
– What is the result of this unholy union? (vs. 6)
Read Revelation 17:7-11
– God was earlier described as “the One-Who-Is and the One-Who-Was and the One-Who-Will be” (1:4). Here, the beast is described as “the beast that was, and is not, and will arrive” (17:8). What does this say about the beast?
Rome is a city of seven hills. So, going back to John’s day, Babylon most likely represented Rome. The angel then mentioned five who have fallen. We cannot identify those five kings with certainty as we don’t know with which king (emperor) the angel starts. Many have tried and the lists of emperors are all different, based on several factors:
- The emperor who begins the list
- When someone thinks Revelation was written and then counting backwards
- Should any emperors be skipped, as some only ruled for a few months (Galba, Otho, and Vitellus)?
– Although we cannot identify the seven kings with certainty (five who were, one who is, and one to come), what else is to take place? (vs. 11)
If Revelation continues to follow its previous pattern (the six seals described events around the time of John, both before and after), then like the seventh seal, the beast described as an 8th leaps to near the end when Christ will return. Even more, Revelation does not use the direct article (the) to describe the eighth like it does when describing the seven. Revelation 17:11 literally reads: “and itself is an eighth, yet it is out of the seven.”
What does this lack of the direct article mean? It means the eighth will be different from the seven, even though it is still trying to achieve the same goal–the destruction of Christ’s Church.
Read Revelation 17:12-18
– From whom do the ten kings derive their power?
– What do these ten kings join with the beast in doing?
– What do the angel’s words tell us about the control the beast, which belongs to the seven, that is the prostitute, has (The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages)?
– What do the ten kings eventually do?
The Destruction of Satan’s Earthly Agents (18:1-24)
This entire chapter not only portrays the fall of the Church’s enemies, but also the end of all pleasures, cares, and riches that Satan used to lure people away from Christ. Before describing Babylon’s fall in further detail, John hears a voice that calls God’s people to separate themselves from Babylon. The angel reminded John that to be in league with Babylon is to be a partaker of her sins.
This chapter is also arranged in an ABCBA chiasm (remember Lesson 2 on poetic forms?). We see the chapter arranged as so:
A: 18:1-3: Fallen is Babylon
B: 18:4-8: Message to God’s people: Come out of her!
C: 18:9-19: A view of Anti-Christic worship
B’: 18:20: Message to God’s people: Rejoice, you are vindicated!
A’: 18:21-24: Fallen is Babylon!
Because of its chiastic form, we will study this chapter based on the poetic form.
Fallen is Babylon!
Revelation 18:1-3
After these things I saw another angel come down out of heaven, having great authority; and earth was illuminated by his glory. And he cried out with a strong voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is the great Babylon, and is become the habitation of the devils, and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean bird, and a prison of every unclean and hated beast. For all nations have drunk the wine of her wrath and her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth were made rich by the power of her luxuries.
Revelation 18:21-24
And a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall the great city Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard in you no more; and every craftsman of every craft, shall be found in you no more, and the sound of a millstone shall be heard in you no more; and the light of a lamp shall shine on you no more; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard in you no more: because your merchants were the great men of the earth; because by your sorceries all nations were deceived. And in her was found the blood of the prophets, and of saints, and of all who were slain upon the earth.
– In Revelation 18:1-3, we see a sequence of four descriptions further explain the totality of what makes up Babylon. What do the four descriptions and the type of descriptions tell us about Babylon?
– Who or what has become enraptured with what Babylon has to offer?
– When Babylon is destroyed, how complete is her destruction?
– What atrocious acts had Babylon committed?
Message to God’s People
Revelation 18:4-8
And I heard another voice out of heaven, saying, Come out of here, my people, In order that you may not be partakers of her sins, And that you not receive her plagues. Because her sins have reached to heaven, And because God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back and as she paid you back, and double to her double according to her works: In the cup which she has filled fill to her double. As much as she glorified herself, and lived luxuriously, give her as much torment and mourning: because she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no mourning.
On this account her plagues shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be burned up with fire: Because strong is the Lord who judges her.
Revelation 18:20
Rejoice over her, heaven, and saints, and holy apostles, and prophets; because God has judged her, because of her judgment of you.
Psalm 103:12: As far as east is from west–that is how far God has removed our transgressions from us.
Hebrews 10:17: [God says because of Christ’s offering,] “And their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
– How are things different for those in Babylon?
– How did Babylon see herself?
- She sits a queen but is no widow?
- She is described with a repetition of three: queen, no widow, see no mourning. What does this say about how she sees herself?
– What is the end fate for those lured in by Babylon?
– Why may Christians rejoice that Babylon is no more?
– Why do you think that earth is not mentioned in celebrating Babylon’s downfall?
Read Revelation 18:9-18
In these verses, we see for the first and only time in Revelation, what the “worship” of Babylon entails.
– What can we see that ends when the king of the earth lament the fall of Babylon?
– Why are the merchants weeping?
– Why are the shipmasters and seafaring men weeping?
– What then were those lured in by Babylon really worshiping?
– How do we, in part, commit this same sin of idolatry?
Click here to go to Lesson 15.
