Revelation 17:16–18

There cannot be the smallest doubt that "the ten horns … and the beast" are to join against Babylon. After the closest links of religious attachment, we see the turning of the tide at the end. It is the day when the beast will no longer let Rome guide the political powers in any way. The civil power, grown proud of its empire, will turn and tear apart the harlot it once loved and honoured in the most degrading way. But the greater the false love shown to Rome now, the greater the hatred later. The beast will turn and destroy what it had loved and honoured so extravagantly.

"And the beast" is correct, not "upon." The beast, the imperial chief, and the kings under him will be of one mind in their outburst of anger and rage against the harlot. Superstition will fall before unbelief, never to rise again. The rulers of Christendom will drop all profession of the name of Christ, and seize the great wealth of Babylon for themselves.

The punishment given to the harlot seems to come in stages. First, hated. Her former allies and supporters now look at her with loathing and disgust. Second, made desolate. She is robbed of her wealth and left in ruins. Third, naked. Stripped of her purple and scarlet robes, she stands before everyone in her true character: a shameless and abandoned woman. Her moral nakedness and shame are plain to all. Fourth, "eat her flesh". It matters that the word for flesh is plural here. Her late admirers, now her bitterest enemies, devour her vast wealth and everything she gloried in. Fifth, "burn her with fire". This points to complete social and political ruin.

The ten kings and the beast turn from being the supporters of Rome. As her enemies they seize her possessions, strip off her splendid clothing, and destroy her very existence… the "beast" becomes the supreme object of worship. So the "woman," false to Christ since she will still trade on His name, will no longer be tolerated.

When the corrupt religious system pictured by the woman reaches the height of its influence, apparent success and glory, the worldly powers that were its main support will completely overthrow it… Here the judgment falls indirectly through the ten kings, not directly from the hand of God. The Lord Jesus will deal with the two beasts directly, in person, as we will see in Revelation 19, for in them the violence of sin reaches its climax. In the harlot the corruption of sin reaches its most horrible expression. God does not put His hand on the filthy thing. He uses the violent to destroy the corrupt.

"God has given to their hearts to do His mind." Note the distinction, "their hearts" and "His mind." They throw themselves into the work of destruction. Yet without knowing it, they carry out the fixed purpose of God.

After her political downfall, Babylon was overthrown but not destroyed. Her destruction comes later, and it is sudden. Revelation 18:8 says she will be burned up with fire, and that comes after the burning noted in the previous chapter.

The powers who destroy Babylon take full revenge on the guilty system that had enslaved them for so long. But here the veil is drawn aside, and we find that whatever they thought, they were simply carrying out the divine will... Notice the difference between "their hearts" and "His mind." They throw themselves into the work of destruction. Yet in the end they carry out God's fixed purpose without knowing it. The heart and mind of these destroying powers are united. They love the work God has set them apart for, though they do not know it, and they do it with fixed determination.

How remarkable it is to see man carrying out the words of God! His one thought is that he hates God and is wiping the most corrupt sham off the face of the earth. Babylon will certainly have deserved it. But the kings, without knowing how, are only doing slave's work for Him whose authority they reject.

It is easy to see why the religious power must be overthrown first. Its fall leaves the field clear for the imperial power to grow into its final form: apostasy, blasphemy, and rebellion against the Lord. Religion, however corrupt, holds human will in check, just as an ordinary government does, however bad it is. Even the worst government is better than none. That does not mean a corrupt religion is better than no religion at all.

"God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose." The purpose is not their own. A nation that prized its independence would refuse such slavery. Is there anything a kingdom would be more ashamed of than being nothing but the servant of a harsh, driving power? But here they are completely under his control. For the first time in Europe, all the western powers alike do the bidding of one ruler.

There is absolute subjection to the beast. The ten kings cannot keep their kingdoms separate and independent. So, by their own choice, they place themselves and their kingdoms under the rule of the beast... Verse 13 of our chapter credits this to the kings; verse 17 traces it back to God as its source.

In the destruction of this fearful system, the nations will be carrying out the will of God without knowing it. Their own aim may be to give the supreme ruling power to the beast. But God is over all, whether in the destruction of the false woman or in ending the reign of the beast. These evil powers can only last "until the words of God are fulfilled."

What a comfort to know this! God Himself, as our Father, guides us by His Spirit. At the same time His hidden providence controls circumstances and holds enemies in check where we could not be, and could do nothing if we were... God does not fail to work for us, and often works even through His worst adversaries.

Only Rome fits. "The woman" is the wider symbol. It marks her out as the great imperial city. "The harlot" is her corrupt religious character. That character takes in papal Rome, but it reaches on to the days of the Beast and the Antichrist, when the world has turned away from God.

Everyday speech has confirmed this blending of the city and the system without meaning to. We speak of people going over to the Greek Church, or the English Church. We do not mean that they have gone over to Greece or England. But to say that someone has gone over to Rome means that he has joined the Roman Catholic Church. So the language of the world agrees, without intending it, with the language of Scripture. Both identify "the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth" with the religious system that has its seat there.

The woman is declared here to be the symbol of the ruling city. That is beyond question. Now there was never a city that ruled as this city did. The better you know history, the more you will feel that it can only be Rome. There was only one city that ruled more, and longer, than any empire since the world began. Everyone in John's day would know where that city lay and what its name was.

The church shares Christ's rejection now, as far as the world is concerned. She is to reign with Him in the day of His glory. The false church, Babylon, wants to reign now — "the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth" (Rev. 17:18).

It is a religious system that is earthly at its very core, though it claims to be the true Church of God. It is earthly in where it came from, in the company it keeps, and in its character. She is the "mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations" (Rev. 17:5). She is the guilty partner and friend of the "kings of the earth" and the "merchants of the earth" (Rev. 18:9, 11). She seeks earthly splendour and "has dominion over the kings of the earth" (Rev. 17:18).

Seen from every angle, these two women stand in sharp contrast. The harlot is subject to Satan. The bride is subject to Christ. Great Babylon comes up out of the earth. Its beginning in history was human (Gen. 11:1-9); its development in the last days is satanic, as Revelation shows. The new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven, her true home, and from God, her blessed source. Satan dresses up the one (Rev. 17:4); God adorns the other (Rev. 19:8). Eternal ruin is the portion of the harlot; eternal glory is the happy portion of the bride.

The woman who will at last be destroyed by the ten kingdoms is that great, imposing system. Under the picture of a great city, she is shown as having reigned over the kings of the earth. As one writer has said, she has been "the seat of anxious and twisted ambition, of crimes and deceit of every kind, proud power over others, and worldly luxury and evil."

But before the final judgment — and I think this holds at all times, whenever the character of Babylon is seen with spiritual eyes — God's people are urgently called to come out of her, so that they may not share in her sins, and so in her plagues.