# 12 2022 Dev. Rev. 17:17. God in Control! Read all of Rev. 17 first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think and interact with it. This is God’s story. How will it affect your story? All passages are taken from the NIV.
Rev.17:17 “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.”
Intro. These visions that John sees are not actual events but will come to pass at one time or another from the time of John’s writing and will be repeated in increasing intensity until the end. The vision is put into the words of men so that those who believe will understand by the power of the Holy Spirit. What is being described here is from eternity to eternity. God, who is outside of time, operates in the eternal present, represents to us what is about to happen in time, as long as time lasts.
Rev.17 carries on from Rev. 16. “One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me,” Vs. 1-2 “come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute,” she was mentioned in Ch. 14:8 and Ch.16:19 and we are about to see her downfall.
Vs.3-8 “The angel carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast,” The woman is not the woman of Ch.12 who fled into the wilderness but the beast is the beast of Ch.13, it represents the corrupt state. The state is established for our good, Rom.13, Satan has turned the state into an instrument of rebellion to all that is good in God’s world, exploitation, conflict, anti God, anti church and anti justice. We see it in the actions of Russia today, they are committing war crimes. But we have it in our own country, the rejection of all that is normal in a country said to be under God, the government is anti Christian, the church has no influence, no wonder, many leaders pretend to be church goers and Jesus followers in name only, no action. The Woman is dressed to the nines, she holds “a golden cup in her hand filled with abominable things…” Her name: “Babylon The Great the Mother of Prostitutes and of The Abominations of the Earth.” She is secure, arrogant, all powerful, but she falls in a day. Who or what is she?
Vs.9-11 John “was greatly astonished.” The angel explains the vision: “The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.” The seven hills indicate the city of Rome at the time of John, persecuting the followers of Jesus. But “They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has yet to come;” that is the eighth king. “He belongs to the seven…” Rome is not the only city meant here, it includes Babylon of old, Nineveh, Egypt, but it could include Moscow, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, you name the city bogged down in corruption, crime and injustice.
Vs.12-14 “The ten horns you saw are ten kings…” Their reign is short and their purpose is to “give their power and authority to the beast.” They make war ‘against the Lamb,” the Lamb wins, “he is Lord of lords and King of kings – and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.” Praise the Lord!
Vs. 15-18 “The prostitute who sits by many waters,” these waters are the people of the world, “multitudes, nations and languages.” Who are involved with her. The beast and the ten horns turn on the woman, and destroy her. “For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose…” Praise the Lord, God is in control, even in the Russian and Ukraine war.” Help us the rely on you Lord Jesus as we cannot see good right now, Amen and Amen.
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