Revelation 17-19

What’s Happening?

John sees a vision of two brides representing two kingdoms—the false Jerusalem that has rebelled against Jesus and the new Jerusalem that follows him even unto death. One is an adulterous prostitute, the other is a faithful and pure wife. Throughout the Bible, joining other nations and powers opposed to God is described as adultery and prostitution. While remaining faithful to God alone is seen as being a blameless bride.

John sees a prostitute riding on a beast and enticing empires and kings, represented as heads and horns, to join her in rebellion against God. It is a picture of how adulterous Jerusalem has partnered with Rome to persecute Christians. As Israel’s kings have done throughout history, she partners with the riches of other kings and gets drunk on the violence of other empires, instead of being faithful to God alone (Revelation 17:1-2). John sees that the prostitute is drunk on the blood of the faithful ones she and her lovers have slaughtered. She is dressed like a priestess riding the back of a seven-headed, ten-horned monster (Revelation 17:3-6). Though she is wearing the priestly garments of Jerusalem’s temple, she is representing a counter-kingdom and its wicked rulers  (Revelation 11:7-9, 17:18, 18:24). In an attempt to build her own global kingdom apart from God, she will slaughter any citizen of Jesus’ kingdom who refuses to join them. 

But a messenger from heaven announces that adulterous Jerusalem will be destroyed by the kings she loved instead of God. As they have done throughout Israel's history, the kings she trusted in turn on her and destroyed Jerusalem (Revelation 17:15-16a). Appropriately, she receives the punishment prescribed for when a priest’s daughter becomes a prostitute—to burn with the lust she had for others through death by fire (Revelation 17:16b; Leviticus 21:9). In this way, God’s words concerning adulterous Jerusalem’s fate are fulfilled (Revelation 17:17).

An angel then calls prostituted Jerusalem “Babylon.” Babylon was Israel’s adulterous partner that led to her first exile and the destruction of her first temple. The angel announces that Jesusalem and her current temple will fall (Revelation 18:1). As Jesus promised, the mountain of the temple would be thrown into the sea for not faithfully worshipping God alone (Revelation 18:21-24). The false Jerusalem that has become an adulterous wife will pass away. Immediately, another angel calls for all followers of Jesus to remove themselves from adulterous Jerusalem so that they do not become like her and receive her coming destruction (Revelation 18:4-8). But when Jerusalem is betrayed by the powers she trusted in, they do not weep over their sin or the loss of their temple. Instead, they weep over the loss of the wealth and power the kings and empires had brought them (Revelation 18:9-20). Their tears are not tears of a repenting wife, but the tears of a bitter adulteress.

In response to the unfaithful wife’s tears and destruction, the faithful wife rejoices in victory. A great multitude in heaven erupts with praise, celebrating that God has condemned the prostitute and vindicated his faithful bride (Revelation 19:1-5). A new song begins, announcing that Jesus is now ready to marry his faithful bride, who has endured through the prostitute’s persecution. Together, Jesus and his faithful wife will feast at their wedding banquet. And an angel tells John to write down the truth that followers of Jesus are not simply survivors but a beloved spouse to whom Jesus intends to join himself forever (Revelation 19:6-10). The wedding party then rides out with their Husband and King, Jesus, at the front of the procession (Revelation 19:11-14). United with his faithful bride, the King of kings, proceeds to put the whole world in order with the power of his Word (Revelation 19:15-16). 

Then all creation joins in the wedding banquet as an angel tells the birds to prepare to feast on the bodies of kings, captains, and soldiers of the beasts’ evil armies (Revelation 19:17-18). This is the same imagery God gave to Ezekiel when he promised the defeat of wicked nations and the coming of his righteous kingdom (Ezekiel 39:17-21). Wicked nations will be so removed from the world, that their bodies will not only be scattered on the battlefield but carried piece by piece by the birds of heaven to the remotest corners of creation. No trace of evil will be left as Jesus and his faithful bride rule creation together. 

Where is the Gospel?

In Revelation 19, one incarnation of the land beast—the prostitute city of Jerusalem, guilty of killing both Jesus and his first followers—is destroyed. John’s vision predicted that the imperial beast would turn on the prostitute and burn her to death. Historically, this happened when Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in the year A.D. 70. But John’s visions show the reality behind wicked nations and adulterous religion, which God’s people can expect to come true again and again. 

In whatever nation you live, false religion will always find a way to entwine itself and seduce the power of the state to trust in their riches, lean on their power, and push out the rule and reign of Jesus and his followers (John 15:20). But Revelation promises that false religion, evil kingdoms, and all the powers behind them will one day fall forever. 

The prostitute’s defeat began when the faithful husband, Jesus, refused her every temptation. When tempted in the wilderness, Satan offered him the riches of kings and wine of power (Matthew 4:1-11). But Jesus was faithful to God alone so that he could present to himself a bride faithful to him alone. In defeating the temptations of Babylon, Jesus became the only King of the only Kingdom who has not fallen to destructive lusts of the prostitute. Therefore, he is the only King of the only Kingdom dedicated to worshipping God alone. So now, he is calling a faithful bride out of unfaithful kingdoms to reign over the nations with him as his spotless wife. For after Babylon falls forever, Jesus and his faithful bride will celebrate their marriage feast, becoming the final faithful King and Queen who rule the world forever and worship God alone. 

John reveals to us that false religion will always be destroyed by the imperial powers they trust. 

This is exactly what happened on the cross. The religious establishment of Jerusalem married itself to the power of the Roman empire to kill Jesus, and within a generation Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome (Matthew 24:34). And while Jesus rose from the dead, Jerusalem’s false priesthood and temple did not. Jesus is on his throne above the powers of false religion, the state, and Satan (1 Peter 3:22). Babylon has fallen before and it will fall once and for all by the hand of the King who rules over them all. Jesus has joined himself to a faithful bride who can conquer the temptations of Babylon until she falls forever under their feet. Jesus will come to feast with us, his beloved bride in a world free from all evil. 

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who destroys Babylon. And may you see Jesus as the one who has defeated the power of false religion in order to marry his bride.