Revelation 17:1-6

Politics, religion and the economy were always joined in one system in the great world empires.  Dictators maintained control over the people through religion and finances.  That is the case in the final empire of the Antichrist.  In Rev. 13 we met the end-time world ruler (with seven heads and ten horns).  He promises death to all who will not worship him.  And he controls people through an economic system that requires a special mark in order to buy and sell.

The woman in today’s passage rides the beast with seven heads and ten horns.  She is the mechanism of the end-time system of religion (Rev. 17:1-6), politics (17:7-18) and economics (18:1-24).  She is arrayed in purple and scarlet, the colors of the Roman emperor (political power), adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls (economic power), and holds a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication and is drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus (religious power).

Let us consider her name: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

·        Harlots and abominations go together in Scripture (e.g. Jer. 13:27; Ezek. 16, esp. v22,36) as referring to idolatry.  To worship a false god is spiritual harlotry (prostitution) and an abomination (disgraceful, obscene, outrageously evil).  As their mother she is the origin of this idolatry.

·        The origin of Mystery Babylon.  Babylon is tied to the origin of idolatry.  Gen. 10:6-10 refers to Nimrod, a great king in ancient Babylon.  History records that upon his death his wife Semiramis deified Nimrod, and then bore an illegitimate son Tammuz whom she claimed was Nimrod reborn.  The result was a religion with a trio of deities: father, mother and child.  The diffusion of the Babylonian empire as a result of the confusion of languages (Gen. 11:1-9) resulted in that form of religion being found in nearly every part of the world, including the Canaanite religions in the Old Testament time and the mystery religions of the Roman Empire in New Testament times.

·        The future of Mystery Babylon.  In Zechariah 5:5-11 the prophet saw a vision of a woman in a basket.  The woman is called Wickedness.  A lid is placed over the basket to keep her in place until a house can be built for her in the land of Shinar (which is Babylon).  When the house is ready the basket will be set there on its base.  This vision is fulfilled in Rev. 17-18.  In the latter days the house will be built, the basket set, the lid removed, and all the world will drink from the cup of her abominations.

Tomorrow we will see more of this evil world system.  Can I remind you of the present importance of today’s study?  Eph. 5:5 says that a covetous man is an idolater.  What you long for and will do anything to get is your god.  As Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matt. 6:21).  May the object of our zeal be the pursuit of knowing Christ! (Phil. 3:8-11).