Babylon The Great - Prophetic Gallery SeriesSample

The Description of the Harlot  

Thoughts on the Passage

I am going through this section a little differently. I am going to cover pictures that deal with similar concepts rather than just going straight through the passage. Today, I am looking at passages that describe who this woman is and what she does. Later I will look at how the Church responds to her and, finally, the judgment that she faces.

This woman is described as a city. She is compared to the city of Babylon and called a city that rules the earth (i.e. Rome – 17:18). This woman is the most powerful city in the world and is described as sitting on the seven mountains; this could be literal (Rome has seven mountains) or it could be symbolic of the major economic drivers (education, the arts, business, etc). She sees herself immune from the things that bring leaders down – they come and go, but she continues. 

This woman is described as an economic system. Merchants in her get rich and abound in luxury. She considers herself to be untouchable by anyone (18:7), and yet within her hidden parts she is full of wickedness, bloodshed, and a prison of every evil and demonic spirit. This hidden evil abuses God’s people, but also all the poor as well (18:24).

This describes many of the great cities of our world today.

It described the city of Rome and the Roman empire perfectly as well. That is why the people would have no trouble Identifying this woman. She is the queen of the system that abused the poor and the people of God. She sits on the beast that represents the antichrist and a system designed to draw all mankind into a religious system that oppressed and attacked the people of God. 

In that time, Rome fit this description to a T  – and yet we also know that there is yet another one coming. It will look just like this.

Prayer

Father, when I look at the world where we live, I see this woman everywhere. The poor are attacked. God’s people face oppression and abuse. The rich get richer at the expense of the poor. Hidden in each of these cities are incredible evils – prostitution, bloodshed, exploitation and the evil spirits that thrive on that. Father, if it stopped with just describing this woman, I would be so discouraged. She just keeps coming up again and again doing the same evil in every city and in every age. It is in the middle of these cities that You call us to be salt and light. In the middle of these evils, You call out to the people to repent – and be forgiven for the evil they have done. Father, I know that the darkness is great, but Your light is so powerful that it can dispel all this darkness – if we shine brightly and boldly. So shine Your light through me – and all of God’s people. Let us work while it is yet day – because night comes when no man can work. That day is coming for this city. In Jesus' Name, Amen.