Finale Revelation and Imagination Daily Devotional- 41

REVELATION 17:1-6, 9-10 | ¹Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters, ² with whom the kings of the earth have
committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk.” ³ So 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 clothed 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 fornication; ⁵ and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations.” ⁶ And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus.

⁹ “This calls for a mind that has wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; also, they are seven kings, ¹⁰ of whom five have fallen, one is living, and the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain only a little while.

Chapters 17 and 18 describe and then celebrate the fall of the great city, Babylon. This is a code word for Rome, as is evident in Chapter 13 and again here. Seven hills is a famous feature of Rome, mentioned in Verse 9 and the seven kings refers to the Roman imperial line; Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius, Nero, Galba, and Otho (seven kings because the line “seems” perfect). Symbols function in dual ways here, they stand for things it would be suicide to directly condemn, and they express a deeper truth about what they represent.

Babylon Rome was metaphorically like a whore, enticing and seductive, but ultimately a soul destroying travesty of genuine love and fidelity. The whore language is a counterpoint to the true destiny of God’s people—to be the bride of the Lamb. This picture captures the danger of idolatry, worshipping the false gods of power and material success and unfettered desire.

The Roman Empire has its’ glories but was also founded on slavery, subjugation, and the exploitation of subject peoples. It seemed to offer security and wealth, but the cost was genuine freedom and complicity in its evils.

The British Chieftan Calgacus labeled the Romans the “robbers of the world” they “plunder, butcher, steal, these things they call empire; they make a desolation and call it peace.” (Quoted by the Roman historian Tacitus in his book Agricola 30.4-5).

Read Chapter 17 as a critique of the nature and danger of an imperial mentality.

Tags: danger, imperial