John hears the instruction to judge given "...from the temple...." We are to understand that this is the voice of God. But more meaning is inherent in this picture. God speaks from His temple to unleash judgment on that which is not the temple. Mankind had been created to be a dwelling of God in the Spirit.¹⁵⁶ The great city "...has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit..." (18:2). The true temple judges the corrupted temple.

The bowls are to be poured out "...into the earth." The term "earth" is used here in the general sense which designates the whole creation, that which is worshipped instead of the Creator. Wrath is to fall on the entire creation ("earth" in the first sense, v. 1), and specifically upon areas of the creation: earth (specific sense), sea, fresh water..." (16:2-21). The world view of the great city, which set forth inanimate matter as the source of life, and evolution as the mechanism for producing life, is judged. Each area of the created realm, by design, had pointed to God as the source of life, and His sacrificial Spirit as the mechanism for producing life.¹⁵⁷ Now, as the Creator's wrath is poured out, every area of creation becomes only a source of suffering and pain, powerless to give relief or produce life in the presence of the judging Creator. Father God is eradicating the fable of "mother nature."

Bowl One.

Those who worshipped the beast had taken his mark so they could live, and function in the economy (13:15-17). Their mark made a statement that mankind, who came "up out of the earth," was supreme, worthy of worship. Paradoxically their "god" now becomes on them only "...a loathsome and malignant sore...."¹⁵⁸

Bowl Two.

The oceans become blood. With the pouring out of the second bowl the sea becomes "...blood like that of a dead man...." Every living thing in the sea dies. We are supposed to notice here that blood kills the creatures in the sea. This simple fact is a foundation to the further judgment and message coming at the third bowl.

Bowl Three.

Just as in the previous judgment, the third bowl, poured into the fresh waters, turns them to blood. This is followed by approving comments from the angel of the waters, and then from the altar.

The judgments of the second and third bowls are to be viewed as comments about the killing nature or blood-thirst of the entire creation in its fallen state. The whole living creation, including creatures in the sea and on the land (including mankind), had rebelled against the nature¹⁵⁹ of the life-giving God; they had become those who survived and lived by life-taking, blood-shedding. Murder, instead of sacrifice, was Cain's solution to the problem presented by his brother Abel. Now the living beings who are firmly committed to blood-shed are given blood to drink. They could have been saved by the blood of the Lamb, but instead are condemned by the blood of creation. God is in a fashion saying 'you like blood, I'll give you blood!' As the Lord Jesus prepared to give his life, He warned sword-wielding Peter, "...all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword..." (Matt. 26:52).

Bowl Four.

The fourth judgment is now upon the sun. The sun had provided light for vision, and energy for growth. It was given by God as an illustration of God's own glory.¹⁶⁰ The psalmist wrote, "...In Thy light we see light" (Psalm 36:9); everything makes sense in the light of who God is. But to the great city the created sun had become the offspring of some pre-existing energy of an uncreated universe. No longer a reminder of God's glory, the sun had become an explanation, the source of man's glory, "proof" of no God.

The intensity of the sun is now increased by the pouring out of the fourth bowl. Those who denied the message of the sun,¹⁶¹ "...blaspheme the name of God." This is not a statement that says these men acknowledge the God of Creation as responsible for the calamity. Instead we are being notified that the truth about who God is continues to be obscured while men find "natural" reasons for the calamity. The glory of the sun's increased radiance fails to drive lying men any closer to the truth of God's glory.

Bowl Five.

The fifth bowl is poured out on the throne (rule) of the beast. This is not a destructive event directed at the beast himself.¹⁶² Rather, as in the fifth trumpet, we are seeing judgment fall upon those who rely on the rule of the beast. This judgment is in the form of darkness that results in sores and pain.¹⁶³ Although the pain is unbearable ("gnawed their tongues"), they fail to see the connection between the king of their lives and the condition of their lives. As in the fourth trumpet, the fact that they "...blaspheme the God of heaven..." is not an acknowledgment of His sovereignty or responsibility for the plague. Their blasphemy is the continuing denial of His existence. Their suffering is a direct result of their deeds and failure to repent; but they choose to see their suffering as proof that God does not exist. We have heard the argument, "how can a good God allow all this suffering, specifically my suffering!"

Bowl Six.

The sixth bowl is poured out on the Euphrates. As we saw in the sixth trumpet, the Euphrates is a picture of the power of Babylon, brute force. Thus the fact that the Euphrates is "dried up" is a comment that this judgment falls upon the military "heart" of the great city. Verse 12 is a summary comment describing the judgment (Euphrates...dried up), while verses 13 through 16 show the mechanism through which the armies will be "dried up."

The power of the great city is being judged to make way for "...the kings from the rising of the sun...." The kings in view are from the "rising of the sun,"¹⁶⁴ a symbol of the new day of the Lamb's reign. The coming kings are those who reign with the Lamb. The power of the great city is judged to make way for the Lamb's kings who live by a different power, the power of sacrifice.

The demonic, unclean spirits of the dragon, beast and false prophet perform signs to gather the kings of the world together "...for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty...." This war, for which the kings of the earth are gathered together, is mankind's attempt to destroy the now-present Lord and His army.¹⁶⁵ The gathering of the kings to Armageddon is the military stand of the beast against the Lord and His resurrected saints, not simply a war of nations against a nation.^166,167 (The scene depicting the outcome of this confrontation against the Lord is narrated in chapter 19, verse 19.)

Bowl Seven.

The seventh angel pours his bowl into the "air." Our understanding of what this means depends on three other passages, Ephesians 2:2, Genesis 1:6-8 and Genesis 2:7. We see in the Ephesian letter that Paul describes Satan as "...the prince of the power of the air of the spirit...." "Air" enables men to breathe and have life. The air for the breath of man is portrayed as the means for the Spirit to give life (Gen. 2:7). When mankind fell, Satan became the "life" for the spirit within man,¹⁶⁸ "...the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." Men who should have lived and breathed by the Spirit of God became controlled by the spirit of Satan. In Genesis, when the expanse (air, atmosphere, "heaven") is created, it is not called "good," as with all the other areas of creation.¹⁶⁹ This suggests that the good or bad condition of the "air" awaited the response of Adam to his test. When Adam failed, Satan became the prince of man's living environment. Here, at the seventh bowl of the seventh trumpet, Satan's domain, the place where sinful man draws breath for his rebel life, is judged.

Thus, the great city, the "air" by which Satan breathed "life" to the spirit of his rebel subjects, is judged. The bowl poured into the air becomes lightning, thunder and the greatest earthquake ever known to man. This destruction of the cities of the nations destroys the institution of the great city (Is. 14:21-22).

After the seventh bowl is poured out on the institution and apparatus of the great city, one of the angels involved in the judgment shows John what he needs to know to understand the judgment he just witnessed. Recorded in chapter 17 is an introduction to the great city (17:1-2), an instructive picture of the great city (17:3-6), and then the angel’s explanation of the picture (17:7-18). The visual experience to which John is summoned is a multifaceted exposure of the great city, explaining its character, relationship to saints, relationship to political institutions, relationship to the nations of the world, and final destruction.

This chapter is a crucial key to our understanding of Revelation. Here, as in chapter 1, an angel tells John plainly the meaning of otherwise mysterious symbols. Here we learn the identity and relationships of the great city, the beast, the seven heads of the beast and the ten horns of the beast. In this angel’s explanation we learn about the beast’s vain war effort against the Lamb (17:14) and his successful destruction of the great city (17:16). Here we are reminded that God’s sovereign plans are unwittingly carried out even by His enemies (17:17).

Before showing John the instructive scene (17:3-6), the angel gives John a summary introduction to the great city (17:1-2). The angel characterizes the great city as a great harlot.¹⁷⁰ The great city is a harlot, and presents an antitype in stark contrast to the holy city which is a bride (19:7 cf. 21:2). In the Old Testament, the Lord referred to those who were unfaithful to Him as harlots.¹⁷¹ Their prostitution was established by their dependence upon other nations, or the gods of other nations, rather than upon God.

The extent and nature of the great city’s harlotry is summarized by her relationship with three groups. She sits on many waters, commits immorality with the kings of the earth, and makes drunk those who dwell on the earth. To sit upon is a picture of depending upon. The many waters upon which the harlot sits is defined by the angel as peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues (17:15). Thus the great city’s harlotry is common and widespread, consisting in dependence upon the people and nations of the world, not God. Her relationship with the kings of the earth, the rulers of the nations, is portrayed as intimate and immoral.¹⁷² Her immorality consists in subjecting herself to, and finding security under, the authority of the kings of the earth, rather than the God of heaven. To make drunk is a picture of making happy by impairing the senses. Thus she uses her godless immorality to deceive those who are earth-dependent into a false sense of security and well-being.

In order to show John the instructive picture of the beast, John is transported spiritually by the angel "...into a wilderness..." (17:3). This word was also used to describe where God transported the faithful woman on the wings of the eagle (12:6:14). The wilderness in both cases describes the arena of conflict between God’s faithful ones and Satan’s followers, the place where Satan is defeated.

The woman, described earlier as sitting on many waters (a word that described people and nations), is now pictured as sitting on "a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns" (17:3). We are first impressed here with the fact that we are witnessing a picture of relationship between the institution of the city (economic apparatus), and national power (political apparatus). This understanding becomes apparent in the angel’s explanation of the beast as a succession of kingdoms (17:9-10), and the detailed description of the harlot as the economic institution of the city that has spanned history (18:1-24), existing in immoral relationship with the kings of the nations. Throughout time an alliance and tension has necessarily existed between those who hold the purse strings and those who control the military. The concerned parties give their consent to this relationship in hope of regaining the glory and security lost in the divorce from God. But this alliance, like a woman sitting on a beast, is a poor alternative to the bride and bridegroom relationship meant to be experienced by God and His people through the Lamb. The succession of kingdoms represented by this beast bears blasphemous names; that which summarily describes them, their names, tells lies about God.

This woman’s clothing is the valuable material things of the world. Her clothing, her glory, is meant to be viewed in contrast to the clothing and glory of Christ’s bride. As we will see in chapter 19, the bride of the Lamb is clothed in her righteous acts (19:8).¹⁷³ The cup in her hand, a picture of that which feeds and gives her ‘life," is "...full of abominations and ...immorality..." (17:4). She feeds on immorality, a picture of sharp contrast to the cup of sacrifice that gives life to the saints.

The woman has a name that is easy for all to see, written on her forehead. She is named, "...Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth" (17:5). Just as the saints, the holy city, bear their Father’s name on their foreheads, so the great city bears their mother’s name. While the saints are those who witness the Name and reproduce the truth of the Lamb, the citizens of the great city carry forward the name and reproduce the immorality and abominations of the ancient great city, Babylon.

The woman is drunk with the blood of Jesus’ witnesses. A false sense of well-being exists in the great city because of the successful killing of saints. This blood of the saints shed by the great city to sustain her drunken deception has marked the conduct of the great city throughout history (18:24).

The scene of the woman and the beast creates in John a great need for further explanation from the angel.

The angel begins his explanation with the notification that he will explain "...the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her..." (17:7). But the order of his subjects is beast first and then the woman.

The angel focuses first on the death and resurrection of the beast (that John told us about in chapter 13). Earlier, in the description of the beast’s kingdom, the angel had revealed that one of the heads of the beast had been slain and resurrected to life, resulting in amazement and worship by the earth-dwellers. Here again, in slightly different language, the beast is described as first alive, "was," then dead, "is not," and then alive again, "comes up out of the abyss." And here also we see those who dwell on the earth¹⁷⁴ marveling when they see this resurrection, "...that he was and is not and will come..." (17:8). But, unlike the earlier part of the vision, here the angel adds that after the resurrection, the beast goes to destruction.

Next the angel tells John that the seven heads are seven successive kingdoms with their kings, all bearing a relationship with the same woman. The sense of kingdoms comes from the angel’s use of the word "mountains," a biblical synonym for kingdoms. The woman is the institution of the city (17:18), an apparatus displayed in Babylon (16:19 cf. 17:5), Sodom and Egypt (11:8), and wherever the blood of saints is found (18:24). So the angel is effectively saying that the woman on a beast with seven heads is a picture of the relationship that the institution of the city has with seven successive kingdoms.

But the angel gives further definition to the seven heads of the beast. He reveals that, from John perspective in history, five of the kingdoms are fallen, one presently exists (the kingdom in which John lives), and the other, the seventh, is yet to come in the future, and will exist only for a short time.¹⁷⁵

The angel, having finished a general overview of the beast with seven heads, now returns to focus John’s attention on the final expression of the beast, the end-time confederation of ten kings that wages war with the Lamb and destroys the harlot (17:11-18). His use of the descriptive words, "...the beast that was and is not...," (17:11) brings the final kingdom back into our focus. But now we learn that this end-time version of the beast is also an eighth head. The sense of this appears to arise from the resurrection of the seventh head in the form of a confederation of ten kings. (See diagram.)¹⁷⁶

The ten-king confederation is defeated by the Lamb because of who He is and who follows Him. Since the Lamb is the King of kings, then the authority of these kings is subjected to (defeated by) the Lamb. Their defeat also apparently lies in the fact that they, unlike those who follow the Lamb, are not called and chosen and faithful.

The final element of the angel’s explanation here concerns the destruction of the harlot (17:16-18).

With no other explanation we are notified that the institution of the great city is destroyed by the beast. Although no specific reason is given for the destruction of the harlot, the lusts born of selfish ambition are apparently at the core of the move. What we see in the relationship of the political beast and economic harlot is an antitype of the relationship between the Lamb and His bride. The Lamb and His bride are married out of love, finding in their permanent relationship the vehicle for giving, sharing and experiencing life. The beast and the harlot have instead an immoral temporary union to gratify their personal lusts, a relationship doomed to failure from the hate that develops from competing agendas.

The angel tells John plainly that the destruction of the great city (harlot) by the beast is used by God to fulfill His words.

In chapter 16 we saw the destruction of the great city through an angel pouring out a bowl of wrath on the "air" (16:17-21).

Therefore, we are led to the conclusion that the destruction of the great city, the institution of the city (cities of the world), comes by the hand of the beast. This destruction appears probably to be a result of the seventh bowl and the conflict of Har-Magedon.

John next encounters the proclamation of a glorious angel (18:1-3), heaven-sent commands and indictments (18:4-20) and a demonstration from a strong angel (18:21-24) as he continues to learn the fate of the great city. The corrupting power of the great city, the reasons for its destruction, the reactions of the ungodly and the benefit to the saints are brought into our view. Overall, our attention is focused on the judgment of an economic entity that enslaved, murdered and threatened to corrupt God’s people.

Again, as in chapter 17, the contents of the chapter are introduced with a short summary. The angel, who has great authority and illumines the earth with his heaven-originated glory, reveals that which has no glory and wields false authority. But this summary, unlike chapter 17, also includes comments on the spiritual corruption of the great city. The practice of drunkenness, immorality and the pursuit of wealth has created a perfect hang-out for evil. The great city, here referred to by its ancient namesake, Babylon the great, is characterized as a dwelling-place of demons and a haunt of unclean spirits and unclean birds.

The angel proclaims that Babylon the great is fallen. That which has glittered with success as defined by greed rather than sacrifice is to be no more. Corrupt merchants are now mentioned with compromised nations and kings as the evidence for the need of judgment (18:3).

Another voice from heaven, representing the Lamb, now calls for the people of God to come out of the great city. Just as certainly as Lot was called to leave Sodom, so the saints are called to come out of the great city. But whereas leaving Sodom involved a physical move, leaving the great city involves a spiritual move.

The picture painted of the great city is of a functioning value system, not a location. Yes, the great cities of the world can be located on a map, but geographical points are not in view here. The great city is located wherever we find the corrupt practices catalogued in this judgment. The great city practices self-glorification instead of glorifying God (18:7). She pursues material wealth, a "strong economy," personal comfort and "good business" through trade in everything, including human lives (18:13). Everything is fair game in the name of "paying the bills." "The one who dies with the most toys wins," is the slogan of the great city. The greatness of the great city lies in her facilitation of world-wide trade and her voracious appetite for goods and services. The grace, love, faith and sacrifice at the heart of God’s economy have no practical place in the great city. The great city has no tolerance for those who interfere with the system. The blood of saints, apostles and prophets who teach and practice the value system of God’s throne is to be found in the stomach of the great city (18:24).

There are no reasons to remain, but multiple reasons to leave. To remain means participating in her sins, and thus receiving of her plagues. We are reminded here of the Son’s warning to the church in Thyatira; those who commit adultery with Jezebel will be cast with her into great tribulation (2:22). To oppose this Jezebel means becoming her enemy, a target of her wrath, but a friend of God (James 4:4) who will reign with Him (2:24-28).

The judgment of the great city is to be sudden and overwhelming. Four times we are told that the judgment will come suddenly in "one day" (18:8) and "one hour" (18:10, 17, 19). Plagues, death, mourning, famine and fire come suddenly upon the great city from the powerful Lord God. The kings and merchants who had benefited from her immoral trade are brought to mourning and a sense of profound loss.

Finally a strong angel throws a great stone into the sea to demonstrate the violence and finality of judgment coming upon the great city. He then lists the things of daily living that will not be found in the great city any longer. The things mentioned by the angel are a means of illustrating the absolute cessation of great city function. They are not necessarily the institutions or vehicles of evil behavior.¹⁷⁷