Introduction: Flick your eyes downwards as if to read the scripture passage for the day. Note the tense of the verb. The first sentence makes me wonder if we are not going back to the beginning of chapter fifteen. I suspect that before the first bowl was poured out and after the great outburst of heavenly praise one of the angels somehow fitted in chapter seventeen, so that as the bowls were emptied onto the earth John already had the information which we are about to get! The explanation of the vision which John was given will have to wait until tomorrow for us to read – unless of course you are so interested that you take your Bible and read for yourself! Please come back tomorrow even if you read ahead!
1 Then one of the seven angels who had (NOT ‘had had’) the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” 3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. 5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” 6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
When I saw her, I marveled greatly. 7 But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.
Comment: John says, ‘I marveled greatly‘, Sounds as if in modern palance he said ‘It absolutely staggered me!’ The angel comes to his rescues saying ‘ I will tell you the mystery‘. We’ve already been told a bit of what ‘Babylon’ was accused – murder and sexual perversions – but you can’t help wondering what other charges are being held against her as well!
Proverbs 18:28-29:1 – When the wicked rise, people hide themselves, but when they perish, the righteous increase. He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.
Prayer: Thank You, Father God, that I shelter in the protection of the Rock, Jesus.