Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #3 of Revelation, chapter 17, and we are going to be reading Revelation 17:3-4:

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:

I will stop reading there.  Last time we saw that the beast is a picture of Satan and the woman is that great city Babylon because Revelation 17:5 tells us that: “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT.”  She is sitting upon the scarlet coloured beast.  Before we discuss why she is sitting upon the beast, which means to rule, let us first discuss the color of the beast.  It is a “scarlet coloured” beast.  We find the color “scarlet” in the Gospel of Matthew when the Lord Jesus is a prisoner and about to go to the cross.  It says in Matthew 27:28-29:

And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

Here, we see that the soldiers put a scarlet robe upon the Lord Jesus, as well as a crown of thorns and a reed in his right hand for a sceptre.  They were clothing Him or dressing Him as a king.  Of course, it was a mockery.  God tells us that.  They mocked Him and they were making light of the fact that Jesus was King of the Jews and that He is, in fact, King of kings.  They were Romans and they thought they had the real king, as they had Caesar.  So this was amusing to them and they mocked Him.  But the scarlet coloured robe identifies with royalty and that which a king would wear.  

So we find that the beast was clothed in scarlet colours and we are not surprised by that because the beast typified Satan and he did rule as a king over the nations of the world throughout the world’s history, since man’s fall in the Garden of Eden.   Man had been given dominion over the entire earth, but once Satan deceived Eve and Adam and they disobeyed God and believed the lie, their sinful action in believing the lie and not the Word of God killed them spiritually and they became servants to Satan.  Satan took dominion over man and, therefore, over the entire world, since Adam and Eve had become subject to Satan, their dominion became his dominion.  Satan said to the Lord Jesus during the 40 days of temptation in the wilderness that if Christ would bow down to him, he would give Him all the kingdoms of the world.  Of course, that did not happen and could never happen, but it indicated that Satan did have authority over the nations of the world.  Of the beast, we read 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. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

By the way, the beast coming up out of the sea is pointing to the beginning of the Great Tribulation.  It indicates the end of the period of Satan’s binding and, therefore, the end of his sixth kingdom (as Revelation, chapter 17 will go on to discuss) and the beginning of the seventh and final kingdom of the rule of Satan.  That is why it is interesting what it says in Revelation 13:2: “and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”  We wonder why the dragon would give the beast “his power, and his seat, and great authority.”  We know it is all a result of God having loosed Satan and allowing this to happen, as Satan would take greater rule over the churches and the world at the time of the end.  But the dragon, who is Satan, is in a sense making way for the final period of kingship or the final kingdom of Satan on the earth, which will be during that “little season.”  It is like one king is acknowledging the entrance of the next king.  Of course, they are all Satan, but it is interesting how God speaks of it here, so the beast is “scarlet coloured” because that is a color that identifies with kings.

We read of the woman’s clothing in Revelation 17:4:

 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls…

The woman is, likewise, arrayed in scarlet.  We know that is royal clothing, as they put that on the Lord Jesus.  But she is also said to be arrayed in “purple.”  When we look up “purple,” we find that this color is also identified with that which a king would wear.  In the Book of Esther we see this in Esther 8:15:

And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel…

Now Mordecai was not a king.  He was lifted up to second in command by King Ahasuerus.  It goes on to say in Esther 8:15:

… of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad.

So purple is what kings also wear and the woman is clothed in scarlet and purple, both types of clothing that royalty would wear, so in trying to identify the woman, we know she is Babylon, but who does Babylon represent?  Due to this clothing she is wearing, we would say it would be representative of a king – the woman is of royal blood.  That we can say for sure and when we search the Bible we find very similar language in Revelation 18, a chapter that describes the fall of Babylon, which we have learned relates to the fall of Satan’s kingdom which he had ruled over after deceiving Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Babylon finally falls at the end of the Great Tribulation, the end of his seventh and final kingdom or period of rule.  Satan is deposed and mankind comes under the judgment of God and that is the fall of Babylon.  When God describes this, He says in Revelation 18:15-16:

The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! This is very similar to what it said in Revelation 17:4:

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls…

So Babylon is clothed in royal clothing and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls.  When we go back to the Old Testament we find a very interesting chapter in Ezekiel 28, where God speaks about the prince or king of Tyrus and He uses some language that identifies with the language God uses in speaking of Babylon in other places.  We read in Ezekiel 28:12-13:

Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold…

There are 10 precious stones which would point to the “completeness” of this beautiful covering that the king of Tyrus enjoyed.  It goes on to say in Ezekiel 28:13:

…the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

Of course, God writes the Bible in a way that hides truth.  Here, He speaks of a created being that was in the Garden of Eden and was perfect; God had created everything perfect, with no sin of any kind.  It says, “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”  When we read the account of the Garden of Eden, we do not find the church in view.   We do not find Israel in view.  This is way before there was any corporate body established by God.  This was man and God.  It was Adam and Eve and the animals and, of course, Satan that were in the garden.  Satan was there as the serpent.

Our options as we attempt to determine who God is referring to in Ezekiel 28 are either mankind (as represented by Adam and Eve) or Satan, the fallen angel, or the animals.  We can rule out the animals because they certainly did not enjoy the covering of all these precious stones; there is no way God would refer to the animals as “the anointed cherub.”  Animals are wonderful creatures, but they do not hold that special place in God’s creation.  They were created to serve mankind.

The fact that God speaks of the king of Tyrus as being in the Garden of Eden and of him as being perfect until he sinned leaves only two options: either mankind or Satan.  But it is mankind that was created in the image of God, after His likeness and God likens Himself to “cherubims.”  In the Holy of holies there were the cherubims that extended their wings above the Ark of the Covenant and they typified God and the fact that mankind must go through the wrath of God in order to experience grace and salvation.  Of course, only God’s elect are able to do that through the Lord Jesus Christ.  So God is typified by “cherubims” (plural) and man, created in the image of God is called “the anointed cherub” (singular).  Why would God refer to Himself in the plural?  It is because He is a Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Mankind is “the anointed cherub” and God speaks of him as being covered with every precious stone.  We see the woman, in Revelation 17:4, was “arrayed in purple and scarlet colour,” and this means she is of royal blood and she is a “king.”  Likewise, mankind created in the image of God, the King of kings, is also of royal descent and God even speaks of the unsaved people (especially those in the churches) as “kings of the earth.”  God recognizes their royal nature because they are human beings that were created after His likeness.  So Babylon, who pictures the kingdom of Satan from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, is clothed in “purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls.”  They are “the anointed cherub” that had all these things as their covering, but that still does not answer the question of why the “woman” is sitting upon the scarlet coloured beast who is Satan.  We know that Satan had ruled over man since mankind’s fall into sin.  Satan was the man of sin that took his seat in the temple, ruling over the churches.  Why is the woman sitting upon the scarlet coloured beast?  Why does it say, in verse 9, that “The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth”?  It really can be perplexing until we look at Revelation 17:7:

And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

So now this is a different matter – the reason she is upon the beast is because the beast is carrying her along.  The Greek word that is translated as “carrieth” is very helpful to us and it shows us exactly what is in view.  If we turn to Acts 21, we will see that this same Greek word is translated as “borne.”  The Apostle John is speaking to the Jews and they are furious with him because they think he brought a Gentile into the temple and the Roman soldiers had to come and rescue him.  It says in Acts 21:33-35:

Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done. And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle. And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people.

Now let us get this image clear in our minds.  First of all, the chief captain bound Paul with two chains.  Then he was carried into the castle “borne” of the soldiers, so the soldiers had him on their shoulders (or however they were carrying him), but they were lifting Paul above the crowds.  He was above the soldiers and could have been seated upon them, but this was not a voluntary thing for Paul.  He is being forced to be “borne” along.  They chained him and forcibly lifted him up to carry him into the castle – whether he wanted to go, or not.  He was a captive of the Romans until they could figure out what the tumult was about.  That is the answer for the “woman” or for mankind, because what does the Bible tell us regarding man’s relationship to Satan?  We read in 2Timothy 2:25-26:

In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Here is the true condition of unsaved mankind – captives to sin and to Satan and “borne” along by Satan, according to the will of Satan.  Satan takes man and man goes along because he has no choice; he is a prisoner.  Since he fell into sin, God gave up mankind at that point and ended the relationship between Him and mankind and man died, spiritually.  It is only through salvation that the individual could be reconnected to God.  I hope this helps explain why the woman is sitting upon the scarlet coloured beast.  The “woman,” the unsaved people of the earth, are “borne” or carried along forcibly by Satan.