“And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire” (Revelation 17:15-16).

“And he saith unto me,” (vs 15)

The angel now leaves his discourse about the beast and describes how the harlot will come to her end. This little phrase transitions from one theme to
another.

“The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth,” (vs 15)

Water in this book can be literal (21:6, 22:1, 22:17) or symbolic (12:15, 16:12). Here, it is obviously symbolic because the whore was sitting or ruling over it in verse 1. The imagery of waters came from Babylon in Jeremiah 51:13 as the city is pictured on many waters – a literal reference to the Euphrates River. Also, in Isaiah 17:12-13 “many waters” represents “many nations.”[1]

This portrayal is another evil parody against the Lord who sits enthroned over the flood (Psalm 29:10). Jehovah directed the great deluge in Noah’s day. He governs nature and the earth, and does whatsoever He wills. Here, the harlot is trying to assume that role. This introduces amazing information germane to our grasp of the harlot and the beast!

The ten horns gave it (the Roman Catholic Vatican state – by implication, the Holy See) its world power. Now the Bible says that its church is over the people and nations of the world! As a vendor of deceit, the mingling of church craft and state craft blurs her intentions. Ultimately, the woman (the Catholic Church) is on top. At the end, the imagery will focus on the beast (Revelation 13), but we now know that that church is its controlling force.

Like a harlot, her clients are “recruited” (cf. Ezekiel 16:15, 25, 31). Her success:

“are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” (vs 15)

This grouping expresses universality of the human race.[2] This articulation is noted elsewhere in Revelation, related to what the saints have come out of (5:9, 7:9). It also describes the rebellious population (10:11, 11:9, 13:7, 14:6) as “earth dwellers.”

She who dominates the people of the world will be judged. John was initially told he would see how this happened – but immediately was given the fearful insights of her immoral reign with the beast. Now he comes back to the rest of the story. This will not be complete until chapter 18. But – she is destined to hell.

“And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast,” (vs 16)

The ten horns had conveyed their servitude power to the Roman Catholic Church in verse 12. This began when the kingdom structure of a final “world order” had not yet materialized. Yet – the prophecy said that they would unite for a short time in supreme governance. What now follows appears to occur towards the end of that infatuating union (also towards the final period of Revelation 13’s coalition).

This alliance of kings follows a unique prophetic path:

Papal Alliance Forms (17:2-3, 12)
Ten Kings
Fierce loyalty to the papacy (17:12; 13)
	Collectively
War against the Lamb (17:17)
	Bitterness develops
Desolating hatred towards the papacy (17:16)
Alliance destroyed (6:15-16, 16:19)

“these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” (vs 16)

This may be one of the most graphic illustrations of the self-destructive nature of evil. The hatred these heinous powers of depravity have for each other was revealed in the fifth and sixth Trumpets. There, torture and death are effigies of their wicked hearts toward each other.

Jesus said of this specific time: “And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another” (Matthew 24:10). This characterizes the driving need to kill and torture by those who are demon possessed (Mark 5:1-20, 9:14-29).

This eschatological war was depicted as Armageddon in chapter 16, where everyone’s sword is against his brother (Ezekiel 38:21). That prophecy draws on the country of Gog, typifying the wicked world. This hatred against Rome is a final event that just precedes Christ’s second coming. Here are a few prophetic phrases regarding his end:

1.     “They shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end” (Daniel 7:26).

2.     “He shall be broken without a hand (Daniel 8:25).

3.     “He shall come to his end, and none shall help him” (Daniel 11:45).

4.     “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity” (Revelation 13:10a).

5.     “These both [beast and false prophet] were cast alive into a lake of fire
 burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:20).

Part of this harlot’s terminus appears to be the result of a cause and effect
response to the hatred of world leaders.

“and shall make her desolate” (vs 16)

This desolation is seen again for Babylon the Great in 18:17 and 19, depicting God’s judicial response “in one hour.” There is a remarkable parallel to a directive Jesus gave: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place … flee” (Matthew 24:15-16).

In Daniel this desolation is presented in these ways:

1. “An host was given him against the daily … by reason of the transgression” … “transgression of desolation” (Daniel 8:12-13) associated with the second rise of the “little horn.”

2. “For the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate” (Daniel 9:27) – associated with the second rise of the little horn papacy of Daniel.

3. “Shall take away the daily … and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate” (Daniel 11:31) – also associated with the second rise of the vile person
(papacy) called the “king of the north.”

 4. “And from the time that the daily … shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days” (Daniel 12:11).

“and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire” (vs 16)

Intriguing is the gruesome language that is portrayed, bringing an end to the Roman Catholic Church! They “strip her naked and consume her with fire” (latter built on Ezekiel 23:25-29, 47; 16:37-41 in which the apostate Jerusalem/Israel is destroyed). “Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria. Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 23:31-34). John’s addition of “eat her flesh” is a Jewish expression of “total annihilation.”[3]

Here, the “kings of the east” (Revelation 16:12-16), who had joined her in a parody of delivering the world, turn their forces against her. This is the only reference where Babylon the Great, the harlot, the papacy, the Roman Catholic Church, is destroyed by her allies. Elsewhere, we see it occurring by pestilence and plagues (18:8) and from the coming rider on the horse (19:13-15). All symbols “are part of the same sovereign plan of God by which he will bring world history with its depravity to an end.”[4]

Another dramatic symbol is presented with the drying up of the Euphrates’ waters in 16:2. This amplifies how the religious and economic loyalists throughout the world (17:15) become disenfranchised and cease supporting Lady Babylon. The apostate leaders in another metaphor of Jerusalem are even called harlots (Nahum 3:4-5). Engaging is the portrayal of Israel as a harlot in Jeremiah 2:20-4:30. At the end, her lovers despise her and try to kill her (Jeremiah 4:30).

Recall, these descriptive messages come exactly as the Vial angel promised (17:1). This would be the story of how the end of the harlot occurs.

Three Destruction Metaphors

“Make her naked” comes from a Laodicean warning where God’s apostate people need to buy of Him white garments to “cover their shameful nakedness” (3:18). He warned believers before Babylon’s end: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame” (16:15).

Nakedness refers, in desolating language, to exposure of sinful deeds. It also conveys terminal judgment (Hosea 2:3; Jeremiah 10:25; 41:22 (LXX); Micah 3:3; Nahum 3:4-5, 15).

“Shall eat her flesh” builds on Jezebel being eaten by dogs (II Kings 9:36-37) and looks ahead to the end of the wicked (Revelation 19:17-18, 21). It parallels the finality of terrible judgments noted in Ezekiel 23:22-25 as God turns harlot Jerusalem over to Babylonian destruction. The irony is that then it is Babylon that does the destroying, while here Babylon is the destroyed.[5]

“Burn her with fire” reflects the fate of a prostitute in ancient Israel. She was to be “burned in the fire” (Leviticus 20:14, 21:9; Joshua 7:15, 25). This anticipates the lake of fire (20:10).

Harlot Imagery

The fate of unfaithfulness is characterized in the depiction of a prostitute, a harlot. This is so descriptive. God was in love with His people so much and craved to be so intimately a part of them that He said: “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion” (Jeremiah 3:14). Thus, infidelity would be a terrible sin and ultimately lead to divine consequences.

There are other parallels to the harlot chicanery in the Old Testament and the Thyatira church![6]

1.   Before Jezebel’s death, she “colored her eyes and adorned her head” like the harlot of Revelation 17.

2.   They were queens (I Kings 16:31; Revelation 17:1-2, 18; 18:7).

3.    They seduced people (I Kings 21:25, Revelation 17:2; cf. Revelation 2:20, 22).

4.   They were guilty of fornication – symbolizing sinful unfaithfulness
(II Kings 9:22; II Chronicles 21:13; Revelation 17:1-2, 5; cf. Revelation 2:20-22).

5.   They deceived people by sorceries (mysticism – spiritualism) (II Kings 9:22, Revelation 18:23).

6.   They sought greedily for economic prosperity (I Kings 21, Revelation 18:11-19).

7.    hey persecuted and killed saints
(I Kings 18:4, 19:2; Revelation 17:6).

8.   A remnant refuses to participate in the harlot’s sins (I Kings 18:18a, 19:18; II Kings 9:22; Revelation 17:14b).

9.  Destruction occurs quickly (II Kings 9:33-35; Revelation 18:10, 17, 19).

10.  God judges her followers (I Kings 18:40, II Kings 10:19, Revelation 18:9-11; cf. Revelation 2:23).

Many pictures are painted in the Old Testament of judgment against a prostitute (II Chronicles 21:11-15; Isaiah 1:21-25, 57:3; Jeremiah 2:20, 3:1, 13:27; Hosea 2:2-5, 4:12-18, 5:4, 9:1; Micah 1:7). Disloyalty to God at the end continues in the same descriptive motif. It draws on the most intimate of relationships. They are “prophetic notices” and warnings against supreme apostasy.

What causes the “charm” and allurement of the papacy to end?  Changes from love to bitter hatred are recorded elsewhere (II Samuel 13:15). In the end Satan’s kingdom will be divided against itself (Mark 3:23-26). The details of the early seductive attraction appear to be:

1.   Religious (Revelation 13:13-17) with apparent demonstration of mystical acts when seen as a moral leader

2.   She is filled with words of alluring power (13:2), apparently not recognized by the world as wrong.

3.   Obviously charismatic (13:3b)

4.   Apparent economic control will be given to her (Daniel 11:43) – monetarily and in trade (Revelation 18:11-19).

5.   She persecutes the saints (17:6, 18:24), which apparently
assuages her conscience.

Her end comes; and by the world’s reaction in Revelation 18:11-19, we especially get insight as to what she controls or influences. The terminus appears to be fear from asset and economic loss.

In contrast is the “outcome of allegiance” to God. In beautiful language as newness, restoration and recreation unfold, when the eradication of sin occurs, there comes the exciting message of “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (21:9). God has been courting humanity for 6000 years. Time and again He has been engaged to be married, but the woman has gone after other “husbands.” We are given in Revelation amazing news that an eternal bride is found: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready” (19:7).

Then in stunning language there is to be a “marriage supper of the Lamb”! (19:9). Those who become saints, a remnant of the “called,” will be guests at that mighty event. The harlot loses her “husband.” The Lamb gains a bride!

References:
  

Franklin S. Fowler Jr., M.D.; Prophecy Research Initiative © 2009