‘Day 293

^“6 And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the ^e]saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered ^f]greatly. ⁷ And the angel said to me, “Why ^g]do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.⁸ “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and ^h]go to destruction. And those who live on the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was, and is not, and will ^i]come.” REV 17:6,8 (NASB)

It should be no surprise to us that John is astonished when he sees this woman. The fact that she is in the desert recalls chapter twelve. There, God’s faithful woman fled to the desert to escape the dragon. Here is the next appearance of a woman and she is also in the desert. Her dress, as we saw, is reminiscent of Israel’s High Priest.

Although the woman of Babylon resembles the true woman of Revelation 12 and dresses like Israel’s High Priest, she clearly represents a power that opposes the true people of God. She is the enemy of God’s end-time faithful. This is parallel to the death decree and economic boycott imposed on those who do not worship the beast or his image (Rev 13:15-17). Has the woman of Revelation 12 been transformed? Or is she some sort of new entity? John’s reaction strongly suggests the former. The great end-time opponent of God’s people is a power that at one time was the true people of God. End-time Babylon has a Christian face.

The vision ends with verse six and then a series of interpretations begins with verse seven. Riding on the beast portrays a position of dominance. The woman represents a worldwide union of religion. The beast represents worldwide political union. So Revelation predicts that the world will be more united than ever in its history just before the End. At that time, interestingly, religion will be in control of the political agenda, something that has not been true since medieval times.

Not only was John astonished at the prostitute, the End-time inhabitants of the earth were astonished at the beast. If the events that Revelation describes take place in our lifetimes, we will truly be astonished. In today’s world, the world-wide political union is not a reality. The new world order looks a lot more like the new world disorder. But as we give careful attention to the message of Revelation, we will be prepared for future developments. The storm clouds are gathering. The whole scenario is like an assembled piece of machinery waiting for some event to turn the key. Maybe that event is underway now? Keep awake and watch Jesus said in Matt 24:42 – Matt 25:13