Revelation 15 and 16 repeat the same series of events as Revelation 6 and 7 and Revelation 8 and 9. The seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls are all telling the story of history from the time of Jesus to the end of all things. And all three cycles end with the literal end of the world.

Jesus returns in victory at the end of the seven seals and the seven trumpets, and now we see that same thing with the seven bowls. Revelation 16 ends with the cosmic quake, the destruction of Babylon, and the final judgment God pours out on the devil, the forces of darkness, and everyone who aligns with them.

It ends with the great declaration:

“It is done.”

The climax of the seven bowls comes in Revelation 16:17–19:

“The seventh poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ There were lightnings, sounds, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as has not occurred since men were on the earth, so great an earthquake, and so mighty. The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.” — Revelation 16:17–19, WEB

And so yet again, we have come to the end of the story in chronological terms.

But now John does something interesting.

He hits pause and zooms in on this one specific moment in the story: the destruction of Babylon.

Zooming In on the Destruction of Babylon

What’s happening in Revelation 17–19 is not a different series of events than Revelation 15 and 16. What’s happening here is that we are getting a close-up, and John is laying down a series of visions that put the glory of God on display in the way that He ultimately destroys everything that is malevolent and wicked and in rebellion against His good plan and purpose to redeem the world.

In chapter 17, he does this by painting a vivid picture where the forces of darkness on earth are depicted as kind of a prostitute riding the beast. In chapter 18, it gets a little more granular. It uses the language of economic collapse, the collapse of the imperial system.

It takes the language of the Roman Empire, Roman wealth, Roman power, and the horrific violence that made it possible for Rome to rule over the entire known world at the time to describe the way that the Lord will ultimately put an end to the devil, the forces of darkness, and every wicked empire or ruler that aligns with him to oppose the Lord and oppress His people.

Metaphor One: The Beast

The first big metaphor that John uses here in Revelation 17–19 is that recurring biblical image: the beast.

And just like always, he describes the beast as a kind of recurring tool that the serpent uses in his war against the true King.

At the beginning of Revelation 17, John is carried into a kind of wilderness.

“He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.” — Revelation 17:3, WEB

Throughout the story that the Bible tells, the wilderness is a recurring metaphor for a place where God’s people are refined by the Lord during a period of suffering or struggle or persecution or oppression.

Especially in the prophetic books near the end of the Old Testament, we see God using this image again and again, taking the prophets to the wilderness to show them something important that they have to help His people understand. God’s prophets will go into the wilderness so the Lord can refine them as prophets and show them His will more clearly.

And at the same time, He takes His people into the wilderness as a way of preparing them for the next step in His mission for them.

I love the way He puts this in Hosea 2:14:

“Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” — Hosea 2:14, WEB

He’s using this metaphor that He’s going to bring His people, His bride, into the wilderness. They are going to suffer and struggle. And yet He’s going to protect and preserve them in the wilderness as a way of drawing them away from the idolatry and the wickedness and injustice they’ve fallen in love with.

And instead, He’s going to draw them back toward Himself.

And so now John is using that same image. He was taken away into the wilderness in this vision, and the beast was unmasked before his eyes.

The Scarlet Beast

When he sees the beast, what does he see?

It says the beast has a scarlet color.

They would immediately have associated that with a few things, but above all they would have associated it with violence. The beast is scarlet like the color of blood. The beast is a blood-spattered beast.

Its power has been consolidated and maintained through the constant threat of violence and conquest.

At the same time, it says the beast has seven heads, ten horns, and is full of blasphemous names. So he’s describing this beast in exactly the same way that he described the beast from the sea in Revelation 13.

Revelation 13:1 says:

“I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads, blasphemous names.” — Revelation 13:1, WEB

The beast from the sea essentially represented the violent imperial power of Rome in particular during the time of the seven churches, but also any powerful empire or ruler that wages war on the Lord and His people in every generation.

The Seven Mountains

And what is that beast?

He tells us exactly what the beast refers to.

Revelation 17:9 says:

“Here is the mind that has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits.” — Revelation 17:9, WEB

So he says that this woman is riding the beast, and he says that at the same time this woman is riding seven mountains.

So the beast is the same as these seven mountains.

A lot of preachers do a lot of weird speculative stuff to try to figure out what those seven mountains might be referring to. They always tie it to some future historical event or something that’s happening right now with Russia or China or Iran or whatever.

But the seven churches would have known exactly what it was talking about because in the ancient world they literally referred to Rome as the city on seven mountains or the city on seven hills.

And so he says the woman is riding the beast.

And then he says basically explicitly the woman is riding Rome.

So the beast is Rome.

Right now, the beast takes the form of Rome in the first century. But in the past, the beast took the form of Sodom and Gomorrah. It took the form of Egypt. It took the form of literal ancient Babylon, Persia, Greece, and so forth.

Any nation or empire or ruler who opposes the Lord and attacks His people is functioning as the beast.

The Beast That Was, Is Not, and Is to Come

Then he says something really interesting.

Revelation 17:8 says:

“The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction.” — Revelation 17:8, WEB

This is once again very important because that is taking the same language that the Lord uses to describe Himself, but now it’s describing the beast in a kind of bitter and satirical way.

Think of Revelation 1:4:

“Grace to you and peace from God, who is and who was and who is to come.”

Or Revelation 4:8:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”

God is eternally present.

God is eternally faithful.

And in a kind of mirror-image way, the beast is seemingly eternal.

He is seemingly never-ending.

Every time the beast is destroyed in one form, it comes back in another form. Every time it is taken down in one form, it resurfaces in some different form down the line.

So the beast feels eternal.

But unlike the Lord, the beast is not eternally faithful.

The beast is eternally hostile, eternally malevolent.

Nero Redivivus

That is the first place that your mind would go if you were one of the seven churches reading this in the first century. You would have thought back to Daniel and the way that he describes the beast as this kind of repeating, recurring, cyclical form of attack that the serpent unleashes on the Lord and His people.

But at exactly the same time, you would also have thought of the Nero Redivivus myth.

Throughout Nero’s life, and especially after he died, there was this kind of myth, this sort of superstition that said Nero would never really die. Even if he was killed, he would eventually come back one day.

If Nero were ever assassinated and replaced with another ruler, he would rise from the dead in some sense. He would return with the armies of the east to conquer Rome and rule over it forever.

The Nero Redivivus myth said that Nero was, Nero now is not, but Nero is to come.

Now, does that mean that John is saying Nero himself is literally going to rise from the dead and come back and take up the role of the beast again?

Probably not.

That could absolutely happen.

But most likely the point here is just that these things people say about Nero are true of the beast in whatever form it takes.

Nero was one form of the beast.

But what you really need to worry about is not Nero.

What you need to worry about is the fact that after Nero dies, the serpent will raise up another beast. And after that one dies, the serpent will raise up another beast.

And he will continue doing this all the way until the end of time when Jesus returns and puts an end to that cycle once and for all.

Seven Kings and the Recurring Beast

We see that in Revelation 17:10:

“They are seven kings. Five have fallen, the one is, the other has not yet come. When he comes, he must continue a little while.” — Revelation 17:10, WEB

It says that this beast has seven heads, seven mountains, seven kings.

The point that this is trying to lock in on is not that there is one specific emperor or one specific ruler or anything like that that we need to watch out for.

The point is that the beast takes the form of one ruler after another.

A lot of times, we see people trying to map out exactly which rulers he would have had in mind by counting backwards from this. They say, “Okay, there are seven kings. Five of them have already fallen. Then there’s one who’s in office right now and the next one hasn’t been raised up yet.”

They try to count it out to see if they can map it.

And you can do that.

But I think that’s actually reading more into it than we’re meant to.

The point here is that the beast raised up ruler number one and he fell. He raised up ruler number two and then he fell. Ruler number three and then he fell. Ruler number four and then he fell. Ruler number five and then he fell.

Right now, we’re on ruler number six, but there are more to come.

And I think it actually really matters that he uses that number seven because, like we’ve talked about a lot, that number seven was associated in the ancient world with completeness.

This is not always the case. But when they say that there were seven mountains or seven kings or seven heads or whatever, the point is not necessarily that there were literally seven of anything.

The point is often that this is all-encompassing.

When they called Rome the city on seven mountains or seven hills, they were saying Rome rules all of the inhabited world, more or less. They haven’t gotten their hands on Parthia and a few other places, but for the most part they have a nearly eternal empire, a nearly universal empire.

In the same way, the point is that the serpent is behind every single empire, every single ruler who wages war on the Lord and His people in any form.

The Beast Is Doomed

But even though it seems like this beast is constantly coming back, constantly rising up, constantly waging war by the power of the serpent, that eventually comes to an end.

Revelation 17:11 says:

“The beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he goes to destruction.” — Revelation 17:11, WEB

So the serpent keeps on raising up new beasts, new empires, new rulers to wage war on the Lord.

But eventually the party comes to an end.

The lights go out.

The ultimate destiny of the beast in all of its forms is destruction, not victory.

That’s why Revelation 17:8 says that those who dwell on the earth will wonder when they see the beast.

But Revelation 17:11 says he will go to destruction.

Rebellious humanity is enthralled by each new form the beast takes.

But from the perspective of heaven, the beast is a doomed monster staggering toward the lake of fire.

That is metaphor number one: the beast.

Metaphor Two: The Great Prostitute and Babylon

But we’ve also got to talk about metaphor number two because at exactly the same time, John lays down the metaphor of the great prostitute or the great city Babylon.

Going back to Revelation 17:3:

“He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.” — Revelation 17:3, WEB

It says the beast is carrying a woman.

And he describes the woman in a really specific way.

Revelation 17:4 says:

“The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth.” — Revelation 17:4, WEB

So let’s break that down.

Purple, Scarlet, Gold, and Luxury

First things first, it says she is dressed in purple and scarlet.

In the ancient world, purple was associated with royalty and wealth and elite status, and scarlet was often associated with the same things.

Scarlet could mean different things in different settings.

So both the beast and the woman are dressed in scarlet, which can represent violence, blood, and conquest, but it can also represent royalty, wealth, and power.

It says she has gold, precious stones, and pearls.

They would immediately have associated gold, precious stones, and pearls with the luxury trade that fueled the Roman Empire, the wealth that enabled Rome to raise up the world’s most powerful armies and conquer smaller, weaker nations.

And that wealth was rooted in gold, precious stones, and pearls that were traded across the sea.

So this matches the cargo list that he’s going to dive into once we get into Revelation 18.

Revelation 18:12–13 says:

“Merchandise of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, all expensive wood, every vessel of ivory, every vessel made of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble; and cinnamon, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, and people’s bodies and souls.” — Revelation 18:12–13, WEB

There’s something really interesting happening here because he just described the beast in language that points directly at Rome and says, “This is who I’m talking about.”

And then now he’s describing this prostitute riding the beast with language that points directly at Rome and says, “This is what I’m talking about.”

And so the beast in its current form is Rome.

And the great prostitute in its current form is Rome.

This is a vision of Rome riding Rome.

Two Images of the Same Roman System

It’s very similar to Revelation 13 where there’s a beast that comes from the sea, which represents Rome, specifically the imperial power of Rome conquering nearly all the known world to oppress God’s people and oppose the Lord.

And the beast from the earth is also Rome, specifically the imperial cult, the worship system that forces you to worship the emperor and the empire and the gods of Rome to oppose the Lord and oppress His people.

It’s two separate images that unpack different aspects of the way that the serpent is working through this very specific human empire and human rulers to wage war on the Lord and His people.

And the same thing is true here with the beast and the prostitute riding the beast.

The Golden Cup Filled With Abominations

It illustrates that by using a really fascinating image.

Revelation 17:4 says she has in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth.

He says she has a golden cup.

So outwardly it’s beautiful.

They associated the golden imagery with worship or liturgy or religious rituals or things like that. So on the outside there is this beautiful worship. There’s this beautiful kind of religious ritual and ceremony, this beautiful culture like what we see in the culture of ancient pagan Rome.

There’s a lot of outward beauty to it.

But inside, it says, it is filled with abominations, impurities of sexual immorality.

Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry

We have talked about the fact that in the Old Testament they regularly talked about idolatry in the language of adultery.

They used sexual immorality as a metaphor for leaving behind true worship of the true God for false worship of false gods.

They would talk about leaving behind Yahweh for the idolatrous worship of the pagan nations, the wickedness of the pagan nations, the injustice of the pagan nations as prostitution.

Think of Ezekiel 23:32–33:

“The Lord Yahweh says: ‘You will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large. You will be ridiculed and held in derision. It contains much. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria.’” — Ezekiel 23:32–33, WEB

And on to verse 37:

“For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols.”

And so this great prostitute is Rome specifically in the way that Rome leads people away from true worship of the true God and into false worship of false gods.

Rome leads almost the entire inhabited world into idolatry and wickedness and injustice in exactly the same way that the great prostitute has done in every form she has taken throughout all of history.

The Great Prostitute Through History

So Sodom and Gomorrah were a form of the great prostitute.

Egypt was a form of the great prostitute.

Babylon and Persia and Greece and now Rome were all forms of the great prostitute.

And any nation that leads people away from true worship of the true God into false worship of false gods, into idolatry and wickedness and injustice, is a form of the great prostitute just like it is a form of the beast.

We see this all throughout God’s Word.

Every time a city or nation chases after other gods, dives into idolatry and wickedness and injustice, that city or that nation is referred to as a great prostitute.

Think of Isaiah 1:21:

“How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.” — Isaiah 1:21, WEB

Ezekiel 16:15 says:

“But you trusted in your beauty, and played the prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on everyone who passed by.”

The primary point here is not sex.

The primary point here is humanity is prostituting itself out to false gods and wickedness and injustice rather than returning to the true God to be His bride.

The Prostitute Seduces the Kings of the Earth

And it says this is one of the chief tools that the serpent uses in his war on the Lord and His people.

He draws people away from the Lord and into idolatry and wickedness and injustice by building ideological systems, philosophical systems, religious systems, and investing them with the power of empire.

I think Revelation 17:2 puts it clearer than anywhere else.

It talks about this great prostitute:

“With whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and those who dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her sexual immorality.” — Revelation 17:2, WEB

This image of the great prostitute who seduces kings, seduces empires, seduces cultures means they begin to share in the idolatry and wickedness and injustice that she represents.

They begin to enforce that idolatry and wickedness and injustice.

So that if you follow the true God and you pursue righteousness and you stand for justice, then you will find yourself on the margins of any culture that is enthralled by the great prostitute because it is as if the majority of the culture around you is drunk on her deception.

And you are one of the few that is sober.

And if you’ve ever been in a room full of drunk people, they hate the one sober person in the room, right?

Rome Was Drunk on the Blood of the Saints

The result is that in a culture that is enthralled to the beast and the great prostitute, things eventually inch toward full-on persecution in one form or another.

But the form that persecution took during the time of these seven churches under the great prostitute Rome was literal violence.

You would be arrested, tortured, and ultimately killed.

At that point in time, they would capture Christians, throw them into the arena, use them as fodder for the Colosseum matches. They would feed them to lions for public entertainment, have them killed by gladiators as entertainment for the masses.

This is part of how the Roman Empire kept the peasants happy so they wouldn’t revolt each year when they hiked taxes even more and confiscated more property and drafted more children into their armies and so forth.

And so the empire ran on blood.

It literally held its population together by scapegoating and crushing anyone who dissented from the idolatry and wickedness and injustice of the culture, especially Christians.

And so the way that John describes it in Revelation 17:6 is:

“I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” — Revelation 17:6, WEB

When John saw her, he wondered with great amazement.

“Mystery, Babylon the Great”

And just to make sure there is no doubt or confusion, John’s vision writes in all caps and says:

The great prostitute is Babylon.

The great prostitute is the same thing that Babylon is.

The great prostitute is the same thing that the beast is.

The great prostitute is another image of any human empire or ruler or power structure or world system that opposes the Lord and attacks His people.

Revelation 17:5 says:

“On her forehead a name was written, ‘MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.’” — Revelation 17:5, WEB

She is marked on her forehead just like God’s people are marked on their forehead.

We’ve talked about the fact this is a metaphor.

If you belong to Jesus, then metaphorically, symbolically, you are marked on your head and your hand. You are sealed on your head and your hand.

You have the mark of the Lamb.

The name of God is metaphorically marked on your head and your hands.

The idea is that you bear the name of the One that you have given yourself to on your head and your hands.

And in the same way here, it says that this great prostitute belongs to herself. She has her own name marked on her head.

Her name, Babylon, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth, is marked on her.

So John is saying this woman is not some specific individual woman near the end of time.

This is that recurring enemy that the serpent raises up.

She is the great prostitute.

She is the great city Babylon.

She is the beast.

The Woman Sits on Many Waters

We see that once again when he says that she sits on many waters.

Revelation 17:15 says:

“The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.” — Revelation 17:15, WEB

This is important because throughout the Old Testament, this combination is constant code for Babylon.

Think of Jeremiah 51:13.

The Lord says to Babylon:

“You who dwell by many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness.” — Jeremiah 51:13, WEB

That same language is used here to describe this great prostitute.

She is Babylon just like Sodom and Gomorrah and Egypt and Persia and Greece and now Rome.

And so many future cities and empires will be Babylon.

She is yet another example of the way the serpent raises up wicked empires and wicked rulers to imitate that same pattern of beast worship, imperial cult, exploitation, seduction, persecution.

“The Great City Which Reigns Over the Kings of the Earth”

Revelation 17:18 says:

“The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.” — Revelation 17:18, WEB

You take this language together, and if you were from one of these seven churches in the first century, you would have known exactly what it was pointing to.

That language of a great city sitting on top of many waters was the same language they used to describe Rome itself at that particular point in time.

In the same way, the great city that reigns over the kings of the earth was exactly the language they used to describe Rome at that point in time.

This essentially is a direct and explicit label.

They’re basically coming right out and saying:

Right now, the form this takes is Rome.

And so this image of the great prostitute represents Rome as the imperial capital, the global economic center, the religious propaganda hub, the violent exploitative power that seduces the people of the world with comfort and luxury, but then devours them with violence.

It all makes up one demonic system.

It tries to force you to join the pagan guilds so that you will gather at their pagan feasts to worship pagan gods with pagan orgies and make pagan sacrifices, burn incense to the pagan god Caesar, or else be imprisoned or tortured or killed.

All of this is represented by the beast and the prostitute riding the beast.

That’s metaphor number two.

The Battle of Two Cities and Two Women

And so essentially, kind of the big reigning metaphor over all of this is this metaphor of the battle of two cities.

There is the prostitute city versus the bride city.

There are two metaphors stacked on top of each other here.

The battle between two women.

One is a prostitute.

The other is a bride.

And the battle between two cities.

One is Babylon.

The other is the true Jerusalem.

I love the way John wraps everything up in Revelation 21:9–10:

“One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were loaded with the seven last plagues came, and he spoke with me, saying, ‘Come here. I will show you the wife, the Lamb’s bride.’ He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” — Revelation 21:9–10, WEB

So there’s this kind of heavenly Jerusalem or true Jerusalem, the people of God.

And then there is this other city here in Revelation 17:1.

The angel says:

“Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters.”

The city who sits on many waters.

So there is the prostitute city Babylon, a city that uses and devours everyone it comes into contact with, versus the bride city, the New Jerusalem, the city that heals and is healed.

There is the empire that seduces humanity to destroy humanity versus God’s people who belong to the Lamb and invite rebellious humanity to come and find redemption and healing through His blood.

The Kings of the Earth Align With the Beast

But with all of this in mind, John’s vision goes somewhere really fascinating.

After setting up all of this groundwork, it paints this symbolic picture where every human kingdom and system and power structure and ideology that is in rebellion against King Jesus ultimately comes together in some way to wage war on the Lord and His people as part of the beast, part of the great prostitute, part of the great city Babylon.

Revelation 17:12 says:

“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour.” — Revelation 17:12, WEB

That’s important because kind of like the number seven, the number three, and so on and so forth, that number ten is frequently used in ancient Jewish apocalyptic literature as a symbol of fullness or completion.

So like before, this is not necessarily saying that there are ten specific literal flesh-and-blood human kings at some point in the future that we need to be looking out for.

The point is all the kings of the earth, all the kingdoms and systems and power structures of the earth in some way come together with the beast.

So in this vision, it’s an image of a collection of rulers and power brokers aligning themselves with the power of the beast and becoming tools in the hands of the beast.

Revelation 17:13 says:

“These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast.” — Revelation 17:13, WEB

So in some sense they start doing his will.

They start carrying out the goals of the beast.

Every Rebellious Kingdom Serves the Serpent

The point is relatively simple.

Every human kingdom that is in rebellion against the Lord is ultimately serving the beast and beyond that serving the serpent.

Every human system or power structure that is actively rebelling against the Lord is serving the beast, serving Babylon, serving the great prostitute.

And that means ultimately serving the serpent.

History bears that out.

If we look throughout history, what we see is kingdom after kingdom, empire after empire, nation after nation that draws people away from the truth about God and away from following His will and His ways.

And that includes so many kingdoms and nations and empires that considered themselves Christian.

History is filled with systems and power structures that claimed the name of Christ but functionally ruled like the beast.

And that includes America at so many points throughout our history.

That includes the so-called Holy Roman Empire.

That includes the European empires throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries and so on.

What we are seeing is fallen human kingdoms and systems and power structures giving themselves over to be tools in the beast’s hand as he wages war on the Lord and His people.

Their Authority Lasts “One Hour”

But Revelation says this isn’t going to last forever.

Revelation 17:12 says again:

“They receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.”

Now, one hour is another common apocalyptic image that means a short, limited period.

So the world system of our fallen and broken world may rage against the Lord and His people for years, centuries, millennia.

And it has.

And that will continue on until the return of Jesus.

And yet at the return of Jesus, it will come to an end.

The Beast Destroys the Prostitute

It’s going to come to an end in a remarkable way.

John has what I can only describe as a Three Stooges gag in the middle of his vision.

As he describes the bizarre and violent and sometimes frightening imagery of these visions, it builds towards this climax that reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

There’s the scene where Indy is running from a massive horde of enemies. It’s a long chase scene, and finally it reaches the climax.

A master swordsman appears.

He is sharpening his blades.

He’s preparing to charge.

You’re expecting the biggest fight of the whole movie.

And then Indy pulls out his gun and shoots him, and he just falls back and dies.

It’s anticlimactic.

All of that buildup, and then it just lands with a thud.

That same thing happens here.

After all that buildup, the beast prepares for war. The human rulers, empires, and world systems that rebel against God prepare for war.

And then as they line up for battle, they destroy themselves.

God doesn’t have to lift a finger.

Revelation 17:16 says:

“The ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute, and will make her desolate, and will make her naked, and will eat her flesh, and will burn her utterly with fire.” — Revelation 17:16, WEB

The beast turns on the great prostitute.

The kings of this world who aligned themselves as tools in her hands will turn on her.

The Self-Destructive Nature of the Beast

It uses the language that they will eat her flesh and burn her corpse, which was again common ancient Near Eastern language for betrayal, for stabbing an ally in the back.

They use this language to describe somebody who engaged in evil who is then betrayed by one of their evil co-conspirators.

Essentially:

You get what you deserve.

You aligned yourself with people you couldn’t trust.

And surprise, it turned out you couldn’t trust them.

You teamed up with someone to destroy somebody else’s life.

And surprise, the person you teamed up with to destroy someone else’s life destroyed your life.

They cannibalized you.

That same image is used here in this vision.

But remember, this is a vision.

It’s not meant to be taken hyperliterally.

So what is the point?

Since we know that the beast, the great prostitute, and Babylon all refer to the same thing, the point is pretty simple.

Whenever rebellious humanity gives itself to the beast or Babylon or the great prostitute, it’s an inherently self-destructive act.

Aligning with the beast is destroying yourself.

Rebelling against the Lord is destroying yourself.

It’s as if you are devouring yourself because the beast is self-destructive.

Just like the serpent is self-destructive.

Satan’s entire plan from the very beginning has been self-destructive because you cannot win against the Lord.

In the same exact way, following after the serpent by rebelling against the Lord is self-destructive.

By rebelling against the Lord, you are choosing self-destruction.

The Serpent Is Destroyed Through His Own Rebellion

We see that in the image of the beast devouring itself.

The beast devouring the prostitute.

They plunge themselves into the same fate as the serpent because they cannot win.

And so in some sense, this vision is saying that in the end, the destruction of the serpent will be at the serpent’s own hands.

And the same thing is true for everyone who follows after him in rebellion against the Lord.

There’s a logic to this.

Two things are happening at the same time.

The first we’ve already talked about.

It is inherently self-destructive to rebel against the Lord.

The more that you rebel, the more your own mindset becomes self-destructive like the serpent’s mindset.

But at exactly the same time, the Lord has released the beast from his restraints in this vision.

And with those restraints removed, the beast is not empowered to destroy Jesus.

He’s empowered to destroy himself.

God Uses Their Rebellion to Judge Them

Revelation 17:17 says:

“For God has put in their hearts to do that which he has in mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished.” — Revelation 17:17, WEB

What does that mean?

It means that even when the beast and the kings of the earth act in hatred toward the Lord, God is using their free choices to carry out His judgment.

He bends the treacheries and attacks of wicked empires and systems in rebellion against Him into the weapons that destroy them.

Because of the self-destructive nature of sin, the Lord’s enemies collapse from within.

They destroy themselves.

And yet the Lord is behind their destruction.

He executes judgment by removing the restraints that prevent all of us from destroying ourselves.

As strange as that sounds, the Lord has been preventing the beast from completely destroying itself out of mercy.

But when He pours out His final judgment, He removes that restraint and the beast flings itself into destruction.

The same is true for every person who continues to rebel against Him to the end.

God executes judgment on the beast, on Babylon, on the great prostitute, on the serpent by using their own idolatry and wickedness and injustice as the axe that severs their head.

He pours out His judgment by allowing them to disintegrate into self-destruction.

That is one image that Revelation uses to describe the final victory of Jesus over the forces of darkness.

The Victorious Rider on the White Horse

But there’s a second, very different image that is just as important.

And that is the image of Jesus as the victorious rider on a white horse.

Revelation 19:11 says:

“I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war.” — Revelation 19:11, WEB

Now this is not the same rider on a white horse from Revelation 6 and the seven seals.

This is Jesus Himself.

And we know that by the way the rider is described.

It says this rider is faithful and true.

Just like Revelation 3:14 says:

“The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of God’s creation, says these things.”

And so essentially it says this rider is that same Faithful and True One that John saw when he looked at Jesus.

The Word of God

At the same time, it says this rider is the Word of God.

Revelation 19:13 says:

“He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called ‘The Word of God.’” — Revelation 19:13, WEB

Just like John describes Jesus throughout his Gospel and his other letters.

At the same time, it describes this rider on a white horse as having eyes like a flame of fire, just like it describes Jesus in Revelation 1:14.

And Revelation 2:18 says to the angel of the assembly in Thyatira:

“The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things.”

And even more, it says He had many crowns, more diadems than any other ruler.

Revelation 19:12 says:

“His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has names written, and a name written which no one knows but himself.” — Revelation 19:12, WEB

In other words, it says He has the ultimate authority.

These are the images you would use to describe a King who has more power than all the other kings combined.

He is more highly exalted than any other ruler or authority that has ever existed or will ever exist.

King of Kings and Lord of Lords

We see that exact same thing when it says that this rider is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Revelation 19:16 says:

“He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.’” — Revelation 19:16, WEB

This is claiming the names Yahweh claimed for Himself in the Old Testament.

Think of Deuteronomy 10:17:

“For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons, nor take bribes.” — Deuteronomy 10:17, WEB

Think of Daniel 2:47:

“The king answered Daniel, and said, ‘Of a truth your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you have been able to reveal this secret.’” — Daniel 2:47, WEB

All of this is screaming:

This is Jesus Himself.

He is returning as a warrior King to conquer the devil and the forces of darkness once and for all.

The Messiah Rules With a Rod of Iron

And my personal favorite, it says:

“He will rule with a rod of iron.”

That is taken directly from Psalm 2.

Revelation 19:15 says:

“Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty.” — Revelation 19:15, WEB

That’s an almost direct quote from Psalm 2:9:

“You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” — Psalm 2:9, WEB

So this is the Messiah King we’ve been waiting for, who will break the rebellious nations and bring them to submission under Him.

It says He treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God.

He executes the justice of God against the injustice of our fallen and broken world.

He is pouring out the righteous wrath of a holy God on everyone who has rebelled against Him, perpetuated the brokenness of the world, continued the injustice of the world, furthered the wickedness of the world, contributed to the idolatry of the world in persistent unrepentance to the end.

It’s an image of King Jesus striking the death blow in the great spiritual war that has been playing out between the Lamb and the serpent since the fall.

And it is the death blow.

The Armies of Heaven Follow the Lamb

I love the way Revelation 19:14 puts this:

“The armies which are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white, pure, fine linen.” — Revelation 19:14, WEB

He is leading the angels and His people into battle to finish what He started once and for all.

They are clothed in white, pure linen, the same way His people are described in Revelation 7, the same way His bride is described later in chapter 19.

But there is something important to grasp here.

None of them are described as doing any killing.

The Lord is surrounded by an army of angels and Christ’s followers dressed in white, but none of them strike anyone.

Instead, all the striking is done by King Jesus Himself.

Kind of.

Why do I say kind of?

It’s because of the way he describes His sword.

The Sword Comes From His Mouth

King Jesus goes into battle without a sword as we would normally think of it.

Instead, it says His sword is His mouth.

His sword is His Word.

Revelation 19:15 says:

“Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations.” — Revelation 19:15, WEB

We saw the same thing in Revelation 1:16:

“He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.” — Revelation 1:16, WEB

What is this talking about?

Hebrews 4:12 is what it’s talking about:

“For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” — Hebrews 4:12, WEB

In other words, the Word that comes from the mouth of the Lord is like a sword.

It has the power to kill and to heal.

It has the power to put to death and make alive.

It has the power to convict, to draw to repentance, to condemn in righteous judgment.

This is not a literal metal sword coming out of Jesus’s face.

This is a vision.

These are signs.

They signify things.

They are not meant to be taken literally.

They are images meant to help us understand something that straightforward literal words can’t quite capture.

This is the power of God’s speech.

The power of God’s authoritative declaration.

This is the power of the gospel itself.

The True Lord Speaks and the Empire Falls

The Roman Empire declared that Caesar was Lord and Savior, that his rule was eternal, that his empire would never end.

But the real Lord of Lords steps forward, opens His mouth, speaks, and the empire falls apart.

His enemies crumble to dust.

He kills the devil and the forces of darkness without a single actual weapon, just with the Word of His mouth.

But even more than that, it says He does all of this without violence.

The Blood on His Robe Is His Own

Revelation 19:13 says:

“He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called ‘The Word of God.’” — Revelation 19:13, WEB

Jesus arrives at the battle already covered in blood before anyone swings a sword.

Why?

It’s because the blood on His clothes is not the blood of His enemies.

It’s His own blood.

Jesus conquers His enemies by His own blood on the cross.

Remember Revelation 5.

One of the elders says:

“Don’t weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome; he who opens the book and its seven seals.”

And John says:

“I saw in the middle of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain.”

And remember Revelation 12:11:

“They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony.”

Christ wages war not by killing His enemies but by dying for His enemies.

He defeats the devil and the forces of darkness through His self-giving sacrifice on the cross.

The Final Battle Was Won on the Cross

The final battle at the end of time was won on the cross, in the tomb, and on Easter morning when He rose from the grave.

The serpent is defeated by the crucified God.

The beast is defeated by the crucified King.

Rebellious humanity is redeemed by the crucified Savior.

Which means this final war is not a contest.

There’s not actually a battle.

The Lamb shows up covered in His own blood and the enemy withers.

That’s why John describes this in such a radically anticlimactic way.

Revelation 19:19 says:

“I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army.” — Revelation 19:19, WEB

And then immediately after that, verse 20:

“The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.” — Revelation 19:20, WEB

And then verse 21:

“The rest were killed with the sword of him who sat on the horse, the sword which came out of his mouth. All the birds were filled with their flesh.” — Revelation 19:21, WEB

They line up for war.

But the war is already over before they even form ranks.

Nothing can stop the victory of the Lamb now that His blood has been poured out on the cross.

The Clash Between the False Gospel and the Truth

And so the war here at the end of Revelation is not a clash between two literal armies.

It’s the clash between the false gospel of the beast, the great prostitute, the great city Babylon, coming from the serpent, drawing people away from the truth, versus the truth that gives life, ends death, heals and restores and fixes what is broken through the gospel.

So the beast that seems unstoppable is actually one word away from being captured and destroyed by the power of King Jesus.

And the result of all of this is celebration.

Heaven Celebrates the Fall of Babylon

Revelation 19:3 says:

“A second said, ‘Hallelujah! Her smoke goes up forever and ever.’” — Revelation 19:3, WEB

They are celebrating the final destruction of Babylon, the beast, the great prostitute, and the serpent king himself along with the rest of creation.

John’s vision starts using language that echoes Isaiah 34, Genesis 19, and other passages like that.

When Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, it said:

“The smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.” — Genesis 19:28, WEB

When Edom was destroyed so it could never again oppress God’s people, it said:

“It won’t be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever.” — Isaiah 34:10, WEB

These were small-scale judgments on earlier forms of the beast.

But this is the final judgment that puts an end to the beast once and for all.

There is no Babylon 3.0 after this.

A wicked empire will never rise again.

There will never be another Pharaoh.

There will never be another Nebuchadnezzar.

There will never be another Nero after this.

There will never be another Sodom and Gomorrah or another Egypt or another Babylon or another Persia or another Rome.

All the injustice of the world will be shattered and brought to an end.

All the wickedness of the world will be done away with forever.

All of creation will celebrate that the serpent has been crushed once and for all under the feet of the long-promised Savior.

And everyone who aligned themselves with the serpent all the way to the end has been crushed with him.

The Great Supper of God

It uses a striking metaphor to describe all of this.

It calls it the great supper of God.

Revelation 19:17–18 says:

“I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, ‘Come! Be gathered together to the great supper of God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, both free and slave, small and great.’” — Revelation 19:17–18, WEB

This is a recurring Old Testament image.

When the Lord destroyed the enemies of His people, they described a feast where birds and animals picked the bones clean.

In the ancient world, an unburied corpse was a sign of disgrace.

A body eaten by birds was the ultimate humiliation.

It meant defeat.

It meant no one was left to bury you.

What’s happening here is that the devil and the forces of darkness are being disgraced and humiliated on the deepest level imaginable because they have been fully and finally defeated.

The Lake of Fire

And at the same time, it uses another image: the lake of fire.

Revelation 19:20 says:

“The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.” — Revelation 19:20, WEB

And one chapter later, it says in Revelation 20 that Satan himself will be thrown in with them.

Now, the point here is not that there is a literal lake of fire that people are literally going to be burning in.

There may absolutely be a literal lake of fire.

I’m not saying there’s not.

But that is not the point of this passage.

The point is that everyone who has aligned themselves with the serpent by rebelling against the Lord all the way to the end is plunged into a never-ending abyss of destruction.

Like fire destroys.

It consumes.

That’s what it does.

And so every human ruler, human empire, human system, human power structure that opposes the Lord and attacks His people is plunged forever into destruction.

Every false religion, false prophet, false god that leads humanity away from the truth is plunged into this abyss of destruction.

And the serpent behind all of it, influencing all of it, is plunged forever into this abyss of destruction.

The Final Judgment Is a Day of Celebration

And the result is that creation cheers.

We think of the end times as a scary period we hope we don’t have to live through.

But Revelation paints it as something that leads to celebration.

We think of the final judgment as something to fear.

But Revelation paints it as the most joyful day in history so far.

I love Revelation 19:1–2:

“After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation, power, and glory belong to our God; for true and righteous are his judgments. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.’” — Revelation 19:1–2, WEB

And then Revelation 19:4:

“The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying, ‘Amen! Hallelujah!’” — Revelation 19:4, WEB

And a voice from the throne calls out in Revelation 19:5:

“Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!” — Revelation 19:5, WEB

All of humanity, all of creation, and all of the angels burst into celebration and worship because they are filled with joy at the final judgment, at the destruction of the devil and the forces of darkness.

All evil, all injustice, all wickedness, all idolatry, all falsehood, all sickness, all death, all mourning, all grief, all rebellion is coming to an end because the Lamb has won the victory.

And all of this is personified in the destruction of the beast, the destruction of Babylon, the destruction of the great prostitute.

Babylon Is Thrown Down Forever

Because all of that is true, John pauses right about here to directly address the seven churches.

He does a kind of call and response.

It’s almost like a cheer routine.

He leads them in celebrating the end of the beast’s reign of terror over God’s people.

I love Revelation 18:21:

“A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, ‘Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all.’” — Revelation 18:21, WEB

This is basically a direct quote of Jeremiah 51:63–64.

It describes the destruction of literal ancient Babylon centuries before that.

It’s an echo of Ezekiel 26 and 27 that describes the destruction of ancient Tyre, another empire that opposed the Lord and oppressed God’s people, an earlier form of the beast.

He merges all this language together to say two things.

First:

Rome will fall just like Babylon fell, just like Tyre fell.

And second:

One day every Babylon, every Tyre, every Rome will fall fully and finally.

Tyre was a past Babylon.

Rome is the present Babylon.

And every Babylon, past, present, and future, will self-destruct in the end.

When the Lord removes His loving restraints, there will no longer be a corrupting world system like the one you have endured.

Revelation 18: A Funeral for Babylon

So in Revelation 18, John does a kind of funeral for Babylon, the beast, the great prostitute.

Except instead of lamenting like you normally do at a funeral, he celebrates.

It’s like going to a funeral where everyone is cheering that the person is dead.

But very specifically, he breaks it down into three groups.

Number one, he talks about the nations, the masses of people who’ve been enticed into the idolatry and the wickedness and the injustice of Rome or rebellious humanity drawn in by Babylon, the beast, the great prostitute.

Number two, he talks about the kings of the earth. In the first century, the client rulers beholden to Rome. More broadly, all rulers, empires, and systems that follow the serpent, join the beast, oppose the Lord, and oppress His people.

And number three, the merchants.

In the first century, the economic class thriving on Rome’s unjust and exploitative system. More broadly, that’s all of rebellious humanity that rejects the Lord to gain power and prestige and status and wealth.

The Kings Mourn Because Babylon Was Useful

Revelation 18:9–10 says:

“The kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived wantonly with her, will weep and wail over her, when they look at the smoke of her burning; standing far away for the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For your judgment has come in one hour.’” — Revelation 18:9–10, WEB

All these kings, empires, systems in rebellion against the Lord mourn Babylon’s destruction.

Not because Babylon was good.

But because Babylon was useful.

In the first century, client kings gained prestige and protection and economic advantages and political leverage through their alliance with Rome.

And in exactly the same way throughout history, empires that reject God’s ways, God’s rule, through exploitation and conquest and idolatry gain advantages over those that try to rule faithfully.

You cannot become a powerful empire while remaining faithful to the Lord.

You just can’t.

Because the things that are required to become a powerful empire are fundamentally opposed to God’s will and God’s ways.

But now the power of the serpent is broken.

Babylon is no more.

And the kings who followed her, the empires and the rulers who followed her, will go down with her.

The Merchants Mourn Babylon’s Wealth

But at the same time, he talks about the merchants.

Revelation 18:11 says:

“The merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise any more.” — Revelation 18:11, WEB

And then in Revelation 18:12–13 it names exactly what they are losing.

It says:

“Merchandise of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, all kinds of expensive wood, vessels of ivory, precious wood, brass, marble, cinnamon, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour… and slaves, human bodies, and souls of men.”

They are losing wealth that is built on luxury goods and imported materials and exotic resources.

But actually more than that, they are losing the raw exploitative power that came with partnering with Babylon.

Because Babylon is built on exploitation.

The wealth of Babylon is stained with blood.

The Wealth of Babylon Is Built on Human Bodies

In the first century, Rome’s wealth was inseparable from its slave economy.

It was built on conquering weaker nations, enslaving their people, breaking their bodies for profit.

That same thing was true of pre-Civil War America.

The same thing was true of Imperial Britain.

These were all functioning as Babylon.

The same thing has been true of every wicked empire in history.

But now in the end, the power of Babylon is gone.

Babylon has been cast into the lake of fire.

And so will every wicked, destructive, exploitative system that is bound up with her.

What Revelation 18 Says to the Seven Churches

And so if you were one of the seven churches reading the book of Revelation when it arrived at your doorstep, you would hear all of these things in one of two ways.

If you were one of the churches who was faithful to the Lord and therefore persecuted, what you would hear in all of this is:

The people who gained wealth and power by exploiting you are going down.

They will either repent and be redeemed, or they will persist in their rebellion and be destroyed with the beast and the serpent.

And if you were one of the churches that was compromising with Rome to avoid persecution, you were walking away from your faithfulness to the Lord to avoid being persecuted.

Then what you would hear is:

The wealth that you have been chasing is going to vanish.

The stability you’ve been trying to buy through your compromise is going to collapse.

If you build your identity around Rome’s wealth and power and comfort, if you rebel against the Lord in order to fit in with pagan Rome, then you will go down with Rome.

You will go down with every Babylon, past, present, and future, in the end.

Because that is what happens to everyone who compromises with the beast system to avoid persecution or gain access to its wealth.

“Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon the Great”

I love the way Revelation 18:2 puts this:

“He cried with a mighty voice, saying, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.’” — Revelation 18:2, WEB

That is nearly a direct quote of Isaiah 21:9, the language Isaiah used to describe the fall of ancient Babylon.

It says in Revelation 18:7:

“However much she glorified herself, and grew wanton, so much give her torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.’” — Revelation 18:7, WEB

That is a near-direct quote of Isaiah 47:7–8, once again about Babylon.

Rome claimed to be eternal and invincible just like ancient Babylon did.

But now it’s being brought down.

Babel, Babylon, and Humanity’s Attempt to Become God

In the same way, this is echoing the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11.

They said:

“Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”

And in the same way, it echoes Jeremiah 51:9:

“We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let’s each go into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.” — Jeremiah 51:9, WEB

In the same way, now Revelation says her sins have piled up.

It says in every form that it takes from one generation to another, Babylon always tries to dethrone God and become its own god.

But it always ends exactly the same way.

It ends in destruction.

Babylon Becomes a Haunt of Unclean Creatures

And so it says Babylon has become a dwelling place of demons, unclean birds, unclean beasts.

That is a nearly direct quote of Isaiah 13:19–22, which again is a play-by-play of the destruction of ancient Babylon.

This is extremely specific, well-known ancient Near Eastern imagery.

They use the image of an abandoned city turned into a haunt for wild animals and unclean spirits to describe total collapse.

Babylon will collapse completely and never rise again.

And when that happens, the cycle will be over.

There will be no more fallenness.

No more brokenness.

No more rebellion.

No more unjust systems.

No more wicked power structures.

It will be over.

“Come Out of Her, My People”

It says this is what awaits everyone who aligns themselves with the beast, with Babylon, with the great prostitute, with the serpent all the way to the end.

Therefore, it says:

“Come out of her.”

Revelation 18:4 says:

“I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don’t receive of her plagues.’” — Revelation 18:4, WEB

Now, we need to talk about that because that’s easy to misunderstand.

That does not mean literally move away from Rome.

There is no way to get away from Rome.

Rome covered almost the entire inhabitable world at that point in time.

What it means is:

Do not give your allegiance to Rome.

Do not compromise with Rome’s idolatry and wickedness and injustice.

Do not participate in Rome’s sin.

Be faithful even while you live in Babylon.

Be in the world but not of the world because this is what will happen to everyone who aligns with Babylon in whatever form it takes.

God Gives Babylon Back What Babylon Gave His People

But John caps off the funeral for Babylon in maybe the strangest way possible.

He once again celebrates.

But this time, he celebrates very specifically the way that God is giving Babylon and the beast and the great prostitute back the same exact terrors that they inflicted on God’s people through the ages.

Revelation 18:24 says:

“In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth.” — Revelation 18:24, WEB

It says the wicked world systems have persecuted and tortured and killed God’s people in every generation.

Rome is the current form.

But it will take other forms in the future, just like it has in the past.

Therefore, Revelation 18:20 says:

“Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints, apostles, and prophets; for God has judged your judgment on her.” — Revelation 18:20, WEB

The prophets were murdered by beastly empires.

The apostles were murdered by the beast Rome.

The churches are being persecuted by the beast Rome.

And now the beast system is being overthrown.

God has judged Babylon with the judgment she imposed on you.

God is bringing the cruelty of the great prostitute back on her own head.

Babylon’s Condemnation Is Self-Inflicted

But once again, remember the metaphor here is that this destruction is self-inflicted.

This condemnation is actually self-administered.

This is not God arbitrarily beating up on Babylon.

This is Babylon destroying itself.

And now John reaches the climax of this cycle of visions.

Everything else was a setup.

And this is the punchline.

The Bride of the Lamb

While the serpent and the beast, Babylon, the great prostitute, and all who follow them into rebellion are given over to their self-destructive compulsion and cast into the lake of fire, at exactly the same time, it says God’s people are restored fully, finally, and forever.

It says everyone who has walked away from the beast, walked away from the serpent, and come to the Lamb in faith and repentance is raised in glory and gathered to Him in eternal joy.

And it uses a really specific metaphor to explain this.

It uses the image of God’s people as the bride of the Lamb.

We talked a little bit about this earlier, but now we can flesh it out fully.

Two Women: The Prostitute and the Bride

We see two metaphors of two women.

On the one hand, there is rebellious humanity raging against the Lord, following the serpent, described as a great prostitute.

And on the other hand, there is repentant humanity.

Everyone who has come to the Lamb to submit to Him as King, worship Him as God, and throw ourselves on His mercy as Savior is described as His bride.

Revelation 19:7–9 says:

“Let’s rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let’s give the glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. He said to me, ‘Write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”’ He said to me, ‘These are true words of God.’” — Revelation 19:7–9, WEB

I love the language here.

It says they were dressed in fine linen, which is the righteous acts of the saints.

In other words, God has formed us into an obedient people, a faithful people, a people who do what is good and righteous, who glorify Him through the way we live.

We reflect His goodness and His glory.

We live out His will and His ways.

And when we do that, it glorifies Him and it makes us joyful.

Fine Linen and Sanctification

This is an image of God’s sanctifying power.

Remember fine linen.

They associated that with purity, cleanness.

And so essentially, once we were wicked like the great prostitute.

And yet the Lord changed us from the inside out.

He molded us.

He transformed us.

He gave us a new nature.

He gave us a new heart.

He is forming us into a righteous people who reflect His righteousness.

And that is represented by the fine linen that the bride wears.

The Linen Was Given to the Bride

And yet at exactly the same time, it says that fine linen the bride is wearing was given to her.

It’s not her fine linen.

It’s the Lord’s fine linen that He gave to His bride.

This righteousness is not something that we already had.

It’s something He gave to us.

He didn’t love us because we were righteous.

He loved us because we were unrighteous.

But He loves to redeem the unrighteous and restore the unrighteous.

So He loved us when we were unrighteous like the great prostitute.

And because of the love that He loved us with, we became righteous.

He poured out His blood for us on the cross to forgive us fully and freely and forever.

And as a result, we became His people.

He knocked down the wall between us and Him.

He sent His Spirit to dwell within us.

And the Spirit began to sanctify us so that now He is growing His righteousness in us.

Day by day, He is growing that fine linen that we wear as His bride over us.

Justified by Grace, Sanctified by the Spirit

In other words, we are His bride because He justified us through the cross.

He poured His grace out on us as a gift on His own dime.

And now we live like His bride by living in a way that reflects His goodness and His glory before a watching world.

But I need to point out something really important right here.

And that is that this is not describing some distant end-times event that has no bearing on today.

This is describing our lived reality right now.

You are the bride of Christ right now if you have come to Him in faith and repentance.

If you are in rebellion against Him right now, you are aligning yourself with the great prostitute right now.

These are not warnings about the future.

These are realities that have been true since the fall and are true today and will remain true until Jesus returns.

Right this moment, you are the bride of Christ waiting for the wedding feast.

The Wedding Supper of the Lamb

I love this image.

John sees this kind of symbolic image of a great wedding where King Jesus marries His bride.

He’s using the image of an ancient Near Eastern wedding to describe the way that Jesus bought us, redeemed us, is restoring us, and will one day glorify us, and has devoted Himself to us, will protect us and preserve us, and will raise us up with Him and give us everything that is His.

That is a beautiful image.

But that is what it is.

It’s an image.

Because you are already His bride.

And we know that because this is exactly how the rest of the New Testament speaks.

The Bride of Christ in Ephesians

This is the same language Paul uses in Ephesians 5.

And when Ephesians 5 uses this bride-of-Christ language, it uses it to describe us.

Ephesians 5:25–27 says:

“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for her; that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and without defect.” — Ephesians 5:25–27, WEB

He says:

You are the bride of Christ.

And as His bride, His glorious kingly return is good news for you, not bad news.

When He returns, your response will be celebration alongside redeemed humanity, redeemed creation, and the angels and the heavenly hosts.

It will be like a massive wedding feast.

The Prostitute and the Bride at the Final Feast

John paints this image where while the great prostitute, Babylon, the beast, is drunk on blood, dressed in gold and luxury, sleeping with kings, but ultimately doomed, you, the bride of Christ, who are persecuted and oppressed and dragged along the pavement, stripped down by this fallen and broken world, will be rescued and made whole.

And so at this metaphorical wedding feast, the great prostitute is there.

But she’s being eaten.

Her body is the food.

Her body is being picked clean by the birds and the animals at this great wedding feast.

But at exactly the same time, you, the bride, are at the feast.

And you are the guest of honor.

The same judgment that destroys the Lord’s enemies rescues the Lord’s people.

The same wedding feast where the enemies of the Lord are devoured is the wedding feast where you, the people of God, are honored.

The Question Hanging Over Everyone

And so the question that is hanging over everyone, everywhere, throughout all of time is this:

Will you continue to rebel against the Lord all the way to the end so you are destroyed with His enemies? Or will you come to Him in faith and repentance so that you are rescued with His people?

Will you feast with the Lamb?

Or will your body be the feast when you are given over to self-destruction?

And that is the question that was hanging over the seven churches.

The Warning to the Compromising Churches

On the one hand, John writes to the compromised and unfaithful churches that walked away from the truth to protect themselves from pagan Rome.

Churches like Laodicea, Thyatira, Pergamum, Sardis.

Churches that said things like:

“I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing.” — Revelation 3:17, WEB

They’ve abandoned the Lord for luxury, for security, for prestige that feel like blessings.

They curried favor with Rome.

They aligned with Caesar.

And to them John says:

You are not rich and powerful.

You are riding on the coattails of the beast.

You are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

These things are not blessings.

They are bait.

They look like a golden cup, but they are full of abominations.

They look like purple robes, but they are exploitation and violence.

You are riding a drunken prostitute who drinks the blood of martyrs and rides a beast into the lake of fire.

You are trying to sit on Rome’s throne, but you will end up on her funeral pyre.

Give your loyalty to the King it belongs to.

Not the false god-king Caesar, who is going down in flames.

But the true God-King who rides the white horse, whose robe is spattered with His own blood poured out for you.

The Promise to the Faithful Churches

And at the same time, he writes to the faithful churches that have been viciously persecuted for their faithfulness.

Churches like Smyrna.

And to them he says:

Do not worry.

Your persecutors are on borrowed time.

They have no future beyond the judgment.

You may die with the Lamb today, but you will reign with the Lamb tomorrow instead of burning with Babylon.

You may be oppressed by Satan’s throne today, but Satan’s throne will be shattered and replaced by the throne of the Lamb tomorrow.

The end result of all of this is your wedding feast.

He echoes Revelation 2:10:

“Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer… Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life.” — Revelation 2:10, WEB