Revelation 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,
2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”
3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.
5 And on her forehead a name was written:
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.
This scarlet woman is unfaithful and impure, she is a harlot or whore. The beast represents a beastly religious church system arising out of the earth of men’s soulish nature. Babylon, the city, is a corrupt system. The three of these create an unholy trinity. Jesus eluded to the corruptness of the religious church system in Matthew chapter 15:
1 Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying,
2 “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”
3 He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
Jesus exposed the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees who exalted themselves as the authority of the religious system in place. They kept the masses in subjection by establishing outward traditions to appease the carnal nature in man. Jesus explained the issue to Peter:
16 So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding?
17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated?
18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”
“Many waters” represents the voices of all who dwell in the earth realm. The religious system of the earth promotes outward compliance to a set of traditions that has no effect on the inward heart of man. Those who promote and oversee this religious system have been given temporal, derivative power by the masses. Horns represent power and the number 10 represents “law”. The religious leaders have been given power by man’s laws thus allowing the earth dwellers to rationalize and legalize the outward workings of man’s carnal nature. This path of external traditions has brought forth a maturity of the harlot who now rides the beast, denoting control.
Seven heads refers to the alternative counterfeit to the seven Spirits of FATHER. Man’s systems rely on his ability to analyze, assess, judge, manipulate, and reason. He cannot hear or communicate with Our Heavenly Father so he uses his mental faculties to promote his direction. He relies on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil since he has no access to the tree of life. His soul is forever in disarray and turmoil, he is without peace and lives a life of scarcity. He justifies himself by speaking forth words of blasphemy toward Our Heavenly Father in an attempt to exalt himself to a godlike status. Agape Love is not in his vocabulary and he will exploit and use up men to satisfy his agenda.
The harlot is outwardly adorned to cover up the inward impurity found in her heart. She promises satisfaction and unity but cannot deliver either. She is drunk with the blood of those who promoted life through Christ. Her goal is to suck the life and Love out of those who come to minister to her. She has no intention of changing but instead will use her manipulative prowess to cause others to compromise their walk. The life and Love is in the blood. She does what she can to quash the power out of those who are pure in heart. She slanders those who Love Our Heavenly Father in an attempt to exalt her “self”. Her goal is to not allow the gifts and callings to come forth in their full maturity so she does everything possible to keep them in a passive state of compliance to her system.
We must be ever mindful that the spirit of the harlot, the beast, the serpent, and mystery Babylon can be found at a personal level as well as the corporate level. The corporate level is simply a reflection and sum of the individuals. The moment you attempt to view the Spiritual depictions only as external people, ages, events, rulers, etc. you lose the importance of examining the internal. The subtleness of “self” would have you keep your focus on the historical application of the types and shadows found in this chapter. I say to you that each of us must put away the unfaithfulness and impurity found in our own hearts. We must not let this “harlot” remain within us. We must not let a religious system prevail in lieu of a personal relationship with Our Heavenly Father. The beast in us must be slain. Let us not put FATHER in a box and restrict the Spiritual scenes shown to John be reduced to the physical realm of history. Let us see the mysteries contained within these scenes in the realm of the Spirit. IN HIM we have our being, not some outward, carnal system.
Just as Jesus and FATHER are One, we are One with FATHER. Let us put away the carnal mind that wants to externalize, divide, and separate. Let us come into unity with FATHER and as we do, the scarlet woman and scarlet beast will no longer affect us.