Destruction of the Great City

Reflections on Revelation 17:15-18

As noted earlier, the prostitute Babylon the great is an archetype representing many cities.  She sits on many waters which are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.  She is faithless Jerusalem and vile Babylon in the Old Testament.  She is Rome in John's day, and there will be such a "city" at the end of this age.  The city desires to have a king to lead her in battle and provide her with luxuries and the spoils of war, and the beast provides her with those luxuries by means of his deceptive and violent rule.

In the end, the beast turns against the great city which he has come to despise.  He promises power to ten kings, nations formerly plundered by the military and economic power of the great city exercised by the beast, and they turn on the city because they hate her.

This shocking change of alliances is the undoing of the great city.  She will not enjoy her ill-gotten luxuries forever.  Just as the beast had looted others to provide her with luxury, so she will be looted by the beast and kings allied with him.  Thus, she will meet the end fitting of a prostitute.  Wives have been deprived by the gifts that she received from her lovers, and now her lovers will strip her, make her naked and desolate, and burn her with fire (compare with Ezekiel 16:36-43; Leviticus 21:9). 

We get a clear picture here of how God treads the winepress of his wrath.  He causes Babylon to reap what she has sown.  He causes the beast and the ten kings to do to her as she has done to others just as David writes in Psalms 9:7-12, 15-16 NIV,

         The LORD reigns forever;
            he has established his throne for judgment.
         He will judge the world in righteousness;
            he will govern the peoples with justice.
         The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
            a stronghold in times of trouble.
         Those who know your name will trust in you,
            for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

         Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion;
            proclaim among the nations what he has done.
         For he who avenges blood remembers;
            he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.

         The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug;
            their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.
         The LORD is known by his justice;
            the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands.