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9 “This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. 10 They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while. 11 The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction. 12 “The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. 13 They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. 14 They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.” 15 Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. 16 The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. 17 For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to hand over to the beast their royal authority, until God’s words are fulfilled. 18 The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.” ~ Revelation 17:9-18
Revelation 17 makes it very clear there will be a final formation of a one world religion during the Tribulation. This one world religion will be Satan’s final attempt to capture the minds and the souls of people. All the diverse ideologies of this world will blend together into one.
The term "mystery" means "hidden as for now." The name “Babylon the Great” has always been the source of all false religions. It all began at the Tower of Babel, when man deliberately refused to follow the command of God. They carried their false religious systems all over the world. It all started in one place, and all those prostituted children will come home in the end, and it’ll be the same form of religion that mothered all the prostitutes and all the abominations of religion throughout the world.
In v.9 of our text we read, "This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits."
Literally, God is saying to us here: "I invite you to more closely inspect this. Look more deeply into what I am saying." And, only those with spiritual minds and wisdom are going to understand the revelation that is about to follow. The seven heads are seven small mountains on which the prostitute sits, according to v.3. This will be Rome, the city built on seven hills. Throughout history, Rome has been described as the city of seven hills. But, there is something much deeper here. It will be much more than just the city Rome; this false religious system will be worldwide.
In v.10-11 we read, "10 They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while. 11 The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction."
This kingdom will be vastly more than one city. The beast's or the antichrist's kingdom will be the false world religious system which will cover the world. And, the heads are on the beast, not on the religious system. The religious system is one world unified religion. But the heads are on the beast, and the beast is the political figure, not the religious one. So, Rome is referenced here, but not for its religious component, because the seven heads are on the beast.
In Daniel 2:36-43 we read, "39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay."
This passage corresponds with our text today. Daniel, here, tells us who these five empires were: They were Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. The descending weakness in Daniel's description depicted by the changing metals. These five empires have come and gone. And, one is, which was a reference to the Roman Empire of the Apostle John's day. And as John writes, there is one yet to come. This one will be the revived Roman Empire. The seventh empire is the kingdom which is to come, the kingdom of antichrist during the Tribulation. And, although he will be set back, he will bounce back as the eighth kingdom in the later part of the Tribulation.
In v.12-13 we read, "12 “The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. 13 They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast."
The ten horns represent ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom. During the Tribulation or the time of antichrist’s reign, there will be ten kings that help him rule the world. Their reign will be brief as indicated by the reference to one hour in v.12.
These ten kings will be devoted to the Antichrist who will take control of the world. These kings will rule in one of the beast's divided ten sections of the world. To these kings, the beast will be God. His purpose will be to destroy Christ, Christians, Israel, so that his kingdom will prevail.
In v.14 we read, "They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers."
The Lamb or the Lord Jesus will overcome the beast and his supporters. That is the repeated theme of the book of the Revelation: the Lamb will be unveiled, He will be revealed, and He will triumph over Satan. This will be the final battle of Armageddon. The church will look on as the Lord Jesus will single-handedly defeat the greatest human force ever amassed against God.
In v.15-18 we read, "15 Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. 16 The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. 17 For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to hand over to the beast their royal authority, until God’s words are fulfilled. 18 The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth."
This massive army of the antichrist which will come from all over the world, will be defeated. The irony will be, according to v.16, the antichrist will hate the prostitute or his world religion. And, he will "bring her to ruin and leave her naked." It will be just like Satan to oppose even his own. And, the antichrist will rob the prostitute's wealth, leaving her absolutely bankrupt. The antichrist will eat up all of the resources of his one world religion.
In the end, according to v.17, the purposes of God will come to pass. Oddly, according to v.17, sometimes Satan accomplishes God’s will. God will use the evil desires of Satan to totally destroy all wickedness on the earth.
And so, Revelation 17 gives us a picture of the final destruction of all false religion. All that will be left will be the beast and his world empire which Christ will eventually destroy. To better understand the beast and his empire, we will have to go through Revelation 18. And we will begin to do that tomorrow.
In the end, God will have His way. And, as we have seen, there will always be times when we will be left scratching our heads. But, at the end of it all, we will look back and we will see the great tapestry that God always weaves in and through our lives. This is always amazing to me. In the end, we will have enough information to marvel at God for all of eternity. We can truly trust an unknown future to this known God!
