The Book Of RevelationSample

Vision Describing the Punishment: Revelation 17:1-18

According to Revelation 17:1, this entire vision focuses on the punishment of the great prostitute, including the return of Christ, a final battle in which the forces of evil are completely defeated, the reign of those who are loyal to Christ, and the final renewal of the heavens and the earth. John designed this section to draw his audience’s attention to the final blessings for those who were faithful to Christ, and to the ultimate curses that would fall on those who weren’t. This twofold focus should have inspired his readers to seek God’s blessings and to avoid his judgment. 

There are two smaller series of visions within the vision of the punishment of the great prostitute. The first deals with God’s judgment on Babylon, and the second focuses on the reign of the saints.

In Revelation 17:1-6, the city of Babylon is presented as a prostitute. She’s dressed in alluring clothes, and she glitters with gold, precious stones, and pearls. Her appearance and prostitution are symbolic of all the illicit pleasures that seduce God’s people away from true worship and faithful living. But significantly, she appears in the desert, implying that she can’t deliver on her offers of luxury and pleasure. And to confirm this fact, she holds a cup filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.

The prostitute also sits on a scarlet beast that has seven heads and ten horns. This is the beast from the sea described in Revelation chapter 13. It’s covered with blasphemous names, symbolizing its own wickedness and the idolatry of those who follow it.

The significance of the imagery of the prostitute and beast is then revealed in the rest of the series. Like the earlier series of the seals, trumpets, histories and bowls, the structure of this series presents six messages of judgment and lament, followed by an interlude. 

The first message, found in Revelation 17:7-18, interprets the details of the vision of the prostitute and the beast. We can summarize this message by saying that God will completely destroy everyone and everything that opposes him.

The second message, in Revelation 18:1-3, declares the utter defeat of Babylon and all the nations, kings and merchants she has seduced.

The third message, recorded in Revelation 18:4-8, calls God’s people to reject Babylon, and to separate themselves from her immorality.

And the fourth message, reported in Revelation 8:9-20, contains three laments of kings, merchants and sailors who had worshiped the beast and profited from the luxury of Babylon. Sadly, these laments didn’t inspire repentance and faith in Christ. Instead, the kings, merchants and sailors looked back longingly to the earlier time of Babylon’s prosperity.

In each of these messages, Babylon represents every nation and organization that opposes Christ’s rule. The messages encourage Christ’s followers by proclaiming that the Lord will destroy all his enemies, and that the wicked will mourn the loss of their sinful enjoyments. But the messages also warn the church not to commit these same sins, so that we don’t fall under the same judgment.