Overall Question:  What happens to Babylon?

Memory Text: Revelation 18:4-5 New International Version 4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “‘Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; 5 for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.

 

Sunday – The Harlot Babylon

Revelation 17:1 New International Reader’s Version One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came to me. He said, “Come. I will show you how the great prostitute will be punished. She is the one who sits by many waters.

Jeremiah 51:13 God’s Word Translation Babylon, you live beside many rivers and are rich with treasures, but your end has come. The thread of your life has been cut off.

Revelation 17:15 Common English Bible Then he said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples, crowds, nations, and languages.

Revelation 17:2 Christian Standard Bible The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those who live on the earth became drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality… With the wine. That is, by drinking the wine. This “wine” is Satan’s deceptive policy of uniting all the world under his control, together with the falsehoods and “miracles” by which he advances his policy.

Revelation 17:2 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Committed fornication. Used figuratively, as here, it refers to an illicit alliance of professed Christians with some master other than Christ, in this instance to a religio-political compact between an apostate church and the nations of earth.

Revelation 14:8 English Standard Version Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passiond of her sexual immorality.”

Revelation 18:2-3 Easy-to-Read Version 2 The angel shouted with a powerful voice, “She is destroyed! The great city of Babylon is destroyed!

She has become a home for demons. That city has become a place for every unclean spirit to live. She is a city filled with all kinds of unclean birds.    She is a place where every unclean and hated animal lives.3 All the peoples of the earth have drunk the wine of her sexual sin and of God’s anger. The rulers of the earth sinned sexually with her, and the merchants of the world grew rich from the great wealth of her luxury.”

 

Monday - The Harlot Riding on the Scarlet Beast

Revelation 17:3 New English Translation So he carried me away in the Spirit to a wilderness, and there I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

Revelation 17:3 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Beast. In Bible prophecy beasts commonly represent political. The color of this beast may intimate that it is the epitome of evil, as the names of blasphemy with which it is covered indicate that it stands in opposition to God. Accordingly, the beast itself may be identified as Satan working through those political agencies, in all ages, that have submitted to his control.

 

Tuesday – The Identification of the Scarlet Beast

Revelation 17:8 New Century Version The beast you saw was once alive but is not alive now. But soon it will come up out of the bottomless pit and go away to be destroyed. There are people who live on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life since the beginning of the world. They will be amazed when they see the beast, because he was once alive, is not alive now, but will come again.

Revelation 17:8 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Was, and is not. At some time in the past the beast had been active, but then disappeared. This expression is repeated at the close of v. 8 and again in v. 11. Some identify the “was” period of the beast with that of pagan Rome, the “is not” period with the brief interval between the end of pagan persecution and the beginning of papal persecution and the “yet is” period with that of papal Rome. Others equate the “was” period with that represented by the beast and its seven heads, the “is not” period with the interval between the wounding of the seventh head and the revival of the beast as “the eighth,” and the “yet is” period with the revival of the beast when it becomes “the eighth.” Those who hold the former view thus equate the “was” period of the beast with that of the dragon of ch. 12, whereas those who hold the latter view would include also the leopardlike beast of ch. 13. The present tense, “is not,” stresses time sequence.

Revelation 13:8 New Living Translation And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.

Revelation 13:3 Tree of Life Version One of his heads seemed to have been slain, but the fatal wound was healed. The whole earth was amazed and followed the beast.

 

Wednesday – The Seven Heads of the Beast

Revelation 17:9-11 Contemporary English Version 9 Anyone with wisdom can figure this out. The seven heads that the woman is sitting on stand for seven hills. These heads are also seven kings. 10 Five of the kings are dead. One is ruling now, and the other one has not yet come. But when he does, he will rule for only a little while. 11 You also saw a beast that used to be and no longer is. That beast is one of the seven kings who will return as the eighth king, but only to be destroyed.

Revelation 17:9 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Seven heads. These apparently represent seven major political powers through which Satan has sought to destroy the people and work of God on earth… some have understood the seven heads to represent all political opposition to the people and cause of God on earth throughout history, without specifying seven particular nations… Others assume that the powers represented by the seven heads must be seven specific nations already referred to in the various prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation… the powers represented by the first five heads would be Babylon, Persia, Greece, the Roman Empire, and the papacy. The sixth and seventh heads might be revolutionary France and the United States, or the United States and a world organization, or the United States and a restored papacy… Still others consider that the seven heads represent major persecuting powers since God first had a chosen people and an organized work on earth, and accordingly specify Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, the Roman Empire, and the papacy. Those who follow this pattern of interpretation call attention to the important role of Egypt and Assyria with respect to Israel in OT history and prophecy. Also, they point to the following circumstances when each of these seven powers, in turn, attempted either to annihilate God’s people, or to subjugate them, or to obliterate their distinctive religious character.

Revelation 13:18 Holman Christian Standard Bible Here is wisdom: The one who has understanding must calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a man. His number is 666.

 

Thursday – The Judgment of Babylon

Revelation 17:12-15 Common English Bible 12 The ten horns that you saw are ten kings, who haven’t yet received royal power. But they will receive royal authority for an hour, along with the beast. 13 These kings will be of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. 14 They will make war on the Lamb, but the Lamb will emerge victorious, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings. Those with him are called, chosen, and faithful.” 15 Then he said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples, crowds, nations, and languages.

Revelation 17:12 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Others consider “ten” to be a round number, and as such to refer to all the powers of the category spoken of as “horns,” irrespective of their precise arithmetical number… Some take these ten horns to represent the same ten powers specified in Daniel and earlier in the Revelation. Others, on the basis that these ten “receive power as kings one hour with the beast,” consider that they cannot, therefore, be identified with the various nations that arose during the breakup of the Roman Empire.

Revelation 16:14-16 English Standard Version 14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) 16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

Revelation 17:16-18 New International Reader’s Version 16 The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will destroy her and leave her naked. They will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. 17 God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose. So they agreed to give the beast their royal authority. They will give him this authority until God’s words come true. 18 The woman you saw stands for the great city of Babylon. That city rules over the kings of the earth.

Revelation 17:18 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Literal Babylon was the “great city” of ancient times. From the days of Babel the city of Babylon has been representative of organized opposition to the purposes of God on earth. A city is a highly organized and integrated association of human beings. Hence, how appropriate is “Babylon the great” as a prophetic symbol for the organized, universal, apostate religious organization.

Revelation 16:2-12 New Century Version 2 The first angel left and poured out his bowl on the land. Then ugly and painful sores came upon all those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his idol. 3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died. 4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. 5 Then I heard the angel of the waters saying: “Holy One, you are the One who is and who was. You are right to decide to punish these evil people. 6 They have poured out the blood of your holy people and your prophets. So now you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.” 7 And I heard a voice coming from the altar saying: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, the way you punish evil people is right and fair.” 8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and he was given power to burn the people with fire. 9 They were burned by the great heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these disasters. But the people refused to change their hearts and lives and give glory to God. 10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and darkness covered its kingdom. People gnawed their tongues because of the pain. 11 They also cursed the God of heaven because of their pain and the sores they had, but they refused to change their hearts and turn away from the evil things they did. 12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates so that the water in the river was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east to come.

Revelation 17:14 Good News Translation They will fight against the Lamb; but the Lamb, together with his called, chosen, and faithful followers, will defeat them, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings.

Revelation 17:14 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY God’s faithful people, who have suffered so long at the hands of their enemies, are delivered when He who is “Lord of lords, and King of kings” lays bare His mighty arm and comes forth to champion their cause.