Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #2 of Revelation, chapter 17, and we are going to be reading Revelation 17:1-5:

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

I will stop reading there.  As we have begun chapter 17 in the Book of Revelation, we have seen that God is continuing the discussion of Babylon in relationship to this present world and the final judgment upon it.  In verse 1, we saw in our last study that John saw the judgment of the “great whore that sitteth upon many waters,”  and that “great whore” was Babylon, as verse 5 indicated: “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

We discussed why Babylon is called “THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS” because it pictures Satan’s kingdom of darkness, the kingdom he ruled over right from the very beginning when Adam and Eve fell into sin.  So Babylon is the enemy kingdom of the kingdom of God. 

The “great whore,” who is Babylon, is “sitting upon many waters,” and the waters were defined in Revelation 15:17:

And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

These are four groups of people that are unsaved people and they typify the four points of the compass – North, South, East and West.  That is where you can find all the peoples of the earth and it represents all the people of the world that never became saved.  They are a part of the kingdom of Babylon or the kingdom of darkness in this world.

Then it goes on to say in Revelation 17:2:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication…

The kings of the earth have committed fornication with Babylon and “and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”  When we find this phrase “the kings of the earth,” it is a phrase that can identify with the true believers or with those that have identification with the true believers, such as the Jews of old or professed Christians; they are not a true “Jew” or a true “believer,” but since they profess to be God’s true believers that are said to be “prophets, priests and kings,” spiritually, then God can identify them with this phrase “kings of the earth.”  And this same phrase can be used to refer to true believers that do become a spiritual king.  For instance, it says in Revelation 1:5:

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

Here, the phrase “kings of the earth” is very positive.  It speaks of the individuals that have truly become saved and God calls the Lord Jesus “the prince of the kings of the earth,” the true believers. 

Also, it says in Revelation 21:24:

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

This is speaking of the new heaven and new earth, so it must be that the “kings of the earth” that bring their glory and honour into it can only be the people that God has saved.

On the other hand, we see another use of this phrase in the Book of Revelation, in Revelation 6:15:

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

Since these “kings of the earth” want to be hidden from the wrath of the Lamb, the wrath of Christ, in the Day of Judgment, they are obviously not true believers.  Instead, they are the professed Christians, the ones that thought they were a child of God.  They would be among those in that day that say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name…and in thy name done many wonderful works?”  Yet, they are not saved, so Christ’s response is, “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.”

Also, it says in Revelation 19:19:

And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

The one seated on the horse is Christ, as we can see when we read the earlier verses – He is on a white horse and his armies are the saints of God that follow him, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.  But, here, the “kings of the earth” are aligned with the “beast” and their armies and they are gathered together to make war with Christ and the saints, so this means these kings can only be the unsaved within the corporate bodies of the churches and congregations of the world.

So when we read in Revelation, chapter 17, about the “the kings of the earth,” it could either be the true believers or the unsaved professed believers, so it is the context that will determine which group is in view.  Here, it is the great whore Babylon “With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”  Due to the context, it appears “the kings of the earth” shown here are the unsaved within the churches (the professed Christians).  They have been involved in spiritual adultery and spiritual fornication with Babylon, as they have lusted after other kinds of gospels and gone astray from the commandments of God’s Word, the Bible.  That seems to be the emphasis here.

Then it also speaks of “the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”  I think this is looking at all the people outside of the corporate churches that are unsaved.  In other words, Babylon, at the time of the end ascended to heights of great power and ruled over the churches and the world like never before.  We read of that in Revelation 13, for instance, when the beast came up out of the sea.  So God is looking at all the unsaved people of the world, but He is breaking them up into two groups: 1) the kings of the earth that committed fornication with Babylon (the professed Christians within the churches); and 2) the inhabitants of the earth, the people outside of the churches that are also unsaved, but they did not have a relationship with God as did the people within the churches. 

For instance, this same Greek word translated as “inhabitants,” Strong’s #2730, is found in Revelation 8, a chapter in which God describes judgment on the “third part,” which pointed to the judgment upon the corporate churches, as judgment began on the house of God as the first “four trumpets” sounded.  Then it came time for the transition of the judgment on the churches to the judgment on the world, and it said in Revelation 8:13:

And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

The word “inhabiters” is our same word.  This is a clue phrase to let us know that the judgment is now expanded and it has widened to include all the unsaved people of the world.  In one sense, we could say that God had been judging “the kings of the earth” that were within the churches and, now, He is going to judge the “inhabiters of the earth,” those outside of the churches.  He used similar language in Jeremiah, chapter 25, a chapter in which God began the judgment upon the city called by His name, as we read in Jeremiah 25:29-30:

For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Now God is speaking to the nations of the world, as He goes on to say: Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith JEHOVAH of hosts. Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, JEHOVAH shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

Twice God indicated that at the time of the transition of the “cup” that He had given first to the people called by His name, Jerusalem (which typified the churches), He would then look at the nations and He says, “And should ye be utterly punished?”  He had judged the churches throughout the Great Tribulation for 23 years and the nations had not been judged during that entire 8,400 days, so then He repeats, “For I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth.”  That is the focus of the remaining judgment.  It is now on all the unsaved and no one escapes the judgment of God.  Babylon is who He is talking to in Revelation 17:2, when He says: “With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”  It has seemed that way, has it not?  God had loosed Satan and drew back His Spirit from restraining sins in the hearts of the people of the earth and mankind has gone “wild.”  They have gone crazy, as they go lustily after the fornication of Babylon and the rebellious nature of the kingdom of Satan and its darkness.  Man loves the “freedom” of open rebellion against God, as they go against the commandments of God and they go “full force” in the direction away from God.

Just look at the Sunday Sabbath.  It is no more.  It would be a joke even to try to bring this up to the people of the earth.  They would never go back to shutting their stores on Sundays, as certain nations used to have Laws that commanded this.  They will never go back to the sanctity of marriage and respect for the marriage relationship and refuse to divorce.  They love to have it this way.  They will also never go back to protecting human life in the womb and protecting the newly created child which God forms in a mother.  No – they want to be able to kill at their will.  They will never go back to marriage between a man and a woman, now that gay marriage has come to fruition and the world is crazy about it – it is the “newest thing” and it is something you must be for or it means you are evil if you are against gay marriage.  It is the time of calling “evil good” and “good evil,” just as the Bible predicted.  In all these things, the world is drinking the wine of the fornication of Babylon, which brought upon Babylon’s judgment and every unsaved individual in the world.

Then it goes on to say in Revelation 17:3:

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

This is a very interesting verse and, right away, we are reminded of the woman that was taken away into the wilderness, in Relation 12, and it said in Revelation 12:5:

And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

The woman is a picture of the body of believers.  As Christ came through the line of Judah, it is as though He came through the line of believers.  Then He came into the world and lived life on earth and then He was “caught up” or resurrected after the 40-day period of showing Himself alive.  He went back to heaven and it says, in Revelation 12:6:

And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.”

The woman is a picture of the people of God in the churches and congregations throughout the entire church age.  Here, in Revelation 17:3, it says, “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness.”  In Revelation 12, once the woman fled into the wilderness, we saw that the dragon that had been cast out of heaven pursued the woman into the wilderness.  And in Revelation 17:3, John said, “and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”  The woman is sitting upon the scarlet coloured beast, and it is the beast that has the names of “blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”  Remember what we read in Revelation 13.  The Book of Revelation builds upon itself as we continue on in the Book.  We can go back and be reminded of things we have learned earlier.  It had said in Revelation 13:1:

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

This is very similar to what it says in our verse: “And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”  Here, the horns are not crowned.  When the horns are crowned, it points in particular to the Great Tribulation period, but, here, it is just the beast.  Remember the woman is “Babylon” and the beast is Satan and that is what makes this so interesting and unusual.  Let us read it again: 

And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

The woman is sitting upon the beast, but what is so unusual about that?  It is a dynamic image God is giving us, but what is unusual is that the beast is Satan and the woman is Babylon and, in the Bible, “to sit” means “to rule.”  If we follow that understanding, we know that when kings “sit” upon their thrones they are exercising their dominion and they rule.  Remember, we find it speaks of the “son of perdition,” in 2 Thessalonians, where it says in 2Thessalonians 2:3-4:

… and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Here, Satan, the man of sin, is seated in the temple, which is what we would expect, as God had loosed Satan to enter into the corporate churches and he took his seat as the man of sin and he ruled over the churches.  He is “seated.” 

And, yet, that is not the picture we have in Revelation, chapter 17.  In Revelation 17, it is the woman (Babylon) that is seated upon the beast, but in 2Thessalonians 2, we could say it is the beast that is seated over the churches, but in Revelation 17, it is Babylon seated upon the beast Satan.  It is not just saying it here, but let us go down to Revelation 17:8-10:

The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

We have discussed this before.  The “mountains” in the Bible talks about kingdoms, so we are not surprised that in verse 10 God speaks of seven kings.  First, seven heads are seven mountains and then there are seven kings which represent seven kingdoms.  They represent the kingships of Satan throughout the course of this world; five had already fallen in the Old Testament; one was which represented the church age; and one was yet to come during the “little season” of the Great Tribulation.  But notice, again, verse 9: “The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.”  The woman Babylon sits on the mountains or the kingdoms of Satan.  Satan is typified as the king of Babylon and this woman is the one that is seated and not the beast?  Why is Satan not the one that is seated upon great harlot?  Why is it the other way around?