Revelation 17 (Con't C)

I've seen car haulers turned over on the side and the cars might go nowhere.

Really? Still on the truck. Still on there. Okay.

I don't know. I don't know if I want to get hit by one car or the whole. Andy, you'll open us up with a word of prayer? Father, again, we're thankful that you can come and gather in your name. We pray, Lord, that as we open your word, that you would bless it.

That you would give us understanding. That you would give us grace. That you would allow us to become more and more like the one who so loved us that he gave himself for us. So be a brother, Mike, and help us to hear the words that you would have him speak in Christ's name.

Amen.

Reading and Interpreting Revelation 17–18

Open your Bibles up to Revelation chapter 17. We will read verse, I mean chapter 17 and 18. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came and spoke with me, saying, Come here and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.

And he carried me away into the spirit, into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, having the seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, and having in her hand a gold cup full of the abominations of the unclean things of her immorality.

And on her head, I'm sorry, on her forehead, the name was written, A mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

And when I saw her, I wondered greatly. And the angel said to me, Why do you wonder? And I will tell you the mystery of the woman and the beast that carries her, which was the seven heads and the ten horns.

And the beast that you saw was and is not and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth whose name has not been written in the book of life for the foundation of the world will wander when they see the beast.

And he was and is not and will come. Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads, the seven mountains on which the woman sits, and there are seven kings. Five have fallen. One is. Another has not yet come.

And when he comes, he must remain a little while. And the beast which was and is not is himself also an ape and is one of the seven. And he goes to destruction. The ten horns which you saw are the ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast from one hour.

These have one purpose. They give their power and authority to the beast. These will wage war against the lamb. The lamb will overcome them because he is lord of lords and king of kings. And those who are with him are the called, the chosen, and the faithful.

And he said to me, the waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw and the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate, naked.

They will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put into their hearts to execute his purpose, but having in a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled.

And the woman whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. And after these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority. And the earth was illuminated with his glory.

And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fall and fall on this Babylon the great. She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of unclean spirit and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.

For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality. And the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her. And the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.

I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues. For her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds in the cup which she has mixed, and mix twice as much for her. To the degree which she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning.

For she says in her heart, I sit as a queen, and I am not a widow, and I will never see mourning for this reason. And one day her plagues will become pestilence, mourning, famine, and she will be burned with fire, for the Lord God who judges her is strong.

And the kings of the earth who committed acts of immorality live sensuously with her, will weep and they will lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city, for one hour your judgment has come.

And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargos anymore, cargos of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every article of ivory, every article made of very costly wood, bronze, iron, marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, and sheep, cargos of horses, chariots, slaves, and human lives.

The fruit you long for has gone from you, and all these things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you, and men no longer find them. The merchants of these things who became rich from her will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, for one hour such great wealth has been laid waste, and every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor and as many as make their living by the sea stood at a distance and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like the great city?

And they threw dust on their heads, and they were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she had been laid waste.

Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her. Then a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and he threw it into the sea, saying, So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence and will no longer be found, and the sound of the harpist and the musicians and the flute players and the trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer, and no craftsman or any craft will be found in you any longer, and the sound of the mill will not be heard in you any longer, and the light of the lamp will not shine in you any longer, and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride will not be heard for you any longer, for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery, and in her was found the blood of the prophets and the saints and all who had been slain on the earth.

Apostate Jerusalem as the Old Testament Harlot

Well, last week, as we actually begin to walk through verse 1, beginning in chapter 17, we got to verse 2, but we didn't make any comments. We started saying, okay, we did a number of weeks of leading up to how we understood whoredom, the theology of whoredom through Scripture, even beginning, obviously, in the Old Testament, and what did God do to whores in the Old Testament?

Executed them, yes. Sometimes they were burned, sometimes they were stoned to death. Under the Mosaic legislation, they were stoned to death. And we saw continually how, beginning even in Exodus, how the nation of Israel began to play the harlot as they went into the land, and God judged them.

In 586, He judged them for their whoredom with the nations, which then makes a mirror of what is taking a place here. I think it was Brian last week, he said, well, you know, what about they were no longer under the Mosaic legislation?

You know, what about those penalties? And I said, that doesn't mean because they were no longer under the Mosaic legislation, because the new covenant had come, that God had not pronounced judgment on apostate Jerusalem for their breaking the old covenant, and they were now bound to those judgments.

So, why did God destroy the city of Jerusalem in 70 AD? Ultimately, it's because they rejected the full revelation of what all of the Mosaic law, all the law, all the prophets, and all the writings pointed to Christ.

They rejected Him and said, we would not have that man rule over us. And Jesus said, okay, then you want it your way, you'll get it your way. And He was very patient. God was patient with them for roughly that generation, but that generation did not pass, and then God judged them.

Well, in chapter 17, it says, in verse 1, it said that the seven angels who had the seven bowls, He said, come and I'll show you the great harlot who sits on many waters. And that's where we stopped, sits on many waters.

We stopped there, and we went back to Jeremiah. And Jeremiah, if you remember chapter 51, because I screwed up and said 50, and we were reading from the wrong place. It was 51, and you remember what it said about where Babylon sat?

It said Babylon sat on many waters.

Well, let me, where's my thing?

You remember I put some, I said there was a collage in here of Tyre, Egypt, Sodom. These two chapters are a collage. Y 'all remember me saying this last week? They're a collage of Old Testament passages, whether it's Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 27, 28, Isaiah 48, Isaiah 34, Jeremiah 50, Jeremiah 51.

It is a collage of all those different imageries, and they're intertwined in this destruction and lament of this Babylon of Revelation. What did each one of these represent in the Old Testament? Does anybody, what did Babylon ultimately represent?

No, in the Old Testament. Yeah, it was always idolatry. Always idolatry. Remember, where was the first place of organized, we could even say state-run idolatry? It was in Babel. Remember the Tower of Babel?

What were they going to do? They were going to build a tower. So that's why we say Babylon is always associated with idolatry. Now, did Babylon kill the saints? That's a question that has to be answered.

Did Babylon persecute the prophets? They did not. Babylon came in and wiped out apostate Jerusalem in 586. So that tells you right here that this Babylon that kills the prophets has to be someone else other than ancient Babylon who fell 500, almost 600 years earlier.

What was Tyre in the Old Testament always looked at? Because of its beauty. Because of its beauty. It's the one that says, look, I've made my own self. I've made the splendor of the world. I'm the one that has all the goods and all of the products that can supply the world.

And God ultimately judged Tyre for its pride. What was Egypt look like in the Old Testament? Always slavery and oppression. What did they do to the people of God? The covenant people of God. What did they do?

They made them slaves. When they went in, 70, 71 of them, however you understand that. They went in with Joseph and Jacob. Remember? And they went in and they then became enslaved and then they were oppressed for 430 years until Moses comes along.

What about Sodom? Immorality. Always associated with immorality. Why? I mean, come on, let's just be honest. Homosexuality. Yeah, homosexuality. God destroyed Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities.

It wasn't just those two. It was those surrounding cities for sexual immorality, whether it be homosexuality, fornication, whatever you want to say. That's why he destroyed that whole civilization. And Edom.

This might be a little trickier. We don't hear a lot about Edom, but just to let you know, in the Old Testament, there is more condemnation and curses and calls for destruction over Edom than any other national or country or ethnic boundaries in all of the Old Testament.

And you wouldn't think that, but it is. What was the problem with Edom?

Didn't they come up behind and take the kill off the weak and the slow? That's exactly right.

The Edomites, do you remember who the Edomites were? They were descendants of who? Edom means red. Esau, red. Red dude. Furry red guy. They were the descendants of Esau. And it's because they persecuted their brethren.

I'll just put brothers right there. You know that? If you take all of these, apostate Jerusalem does every one of those. Apostate Jerusalem goes off into idolatry because they started wanting Christ. Who did they want?

They wanted their religious system. Therefore, everything that they did was a form of blasphemous idolatry. What about Tyre? How was apostate Israel prideful? Because they felt like they were self-made.

They could do what they want because they were God's chosen people. God's not going to judge us. I mean, even in Jeremiah, what did they say? Peace, peace. Peace, peace. God won't destroy us. This is the place.

This is where the dwelling place of God is. And it's because of their pride they were humbled. What about slavery and oppression? Did the people of God enslave their own people? They certainly sold them into slavery.

Matter of fact, it mentions that here in one of those. That's odd. The buying and selling of people. And what did it say? The souls of men. I think here it says souls of men, doesn't it? Yeah. It says both.

It says what now? It says both. It does it? Yeah, and the souls of men. Did ancient apostate Jerusalem, did they oppress their own people? Of course they did. I mean, let's just look how Caiaphas at the time of Christ, what was he doing?

He was extorting his own people by bringing in. Remember in the time of the feast, they would bring all of the animals and stuff, get them off of the Temple, off of the Mount of Olives, and they brought them into the court of the Gentiles.

And what could you not do? What money could you not use on the Temple complex? You couldn't use Roman money. So what did Caiaphas do? He made money changers, and he made money changers, and he made extortion.

And then when they brought the animals off of the Mount of Olives and put them in the Temple complex, not only did they charge a higher rate for the animals, because remember, if a guy was traveling for weeks, months, he was not bringing an animal with him because a beast of the field, one, could probably eat it when they would camp at night, and it was easier just to bring the money by the necessary offering that was sufficient.

Remember, it had to be without blemish. So imagine you traveled all this way, and you did bring a goat or a sheep, and you get there, and it's got a broke tooth. Can they take that animal? No. So what do you got to do?

You got to get one. So it was just easier to bring your money. You buy one when you get here. They will be examined without blemish. But then the exchange rate of money was extorted, and he charged an exorbitant amount of money more for the animals.

So they were oppressing and mistreating God's people. What about their immorality? Did apostate Jerusalem have immorality? You better believe they did. Matter of fact, homosexuality was still pretty rampant.

Even on the temple complex at the time in which it was destroyed, you can go read Josephus, there was open, blatant homosexuality, men dressing up like women, having sex on the temple complex. It says they dressed their face up, lubricated themselves with grease, painted their eyes up, and made themselves wantonness and engaged in homosexuality.

But what about persecuting their own brethren? That's a dead ringer. Of course they did. They were killing their own people. We talked about last week, first martyr. Who killed Stephen? Jews. Who killed more prophets?

Jews. Who persecuted more Christians in the first century? It wasn't Rome. It was the Jews. It was the Jews. And the Jews did try to get Rome to come in and help them, but Rome kind of just wanted to stay out of it.

Like I said, there was that one in the Book of Acts. They're beating the brakes off that guy, and the magistrate from Rome just turns the other way. He says, hey, that's a Jewish matter. Let them do it.

You know, let them do it. So that's why you have this collage of different quotes from Scripture all intertwined together, because this is the culmination of apostate Jerusalem at the time right before the destruction in 70 A .D.

Why This Cannot Be Rome

And it says here, and we'll pick up in verse 2, it says, with whom. It said there was one that sat on many waters. That would, in reference to Jeremiah chapter 51 of Babylon. And then it says here, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality.

I'm going to stop right there, because for those that think this is speaking of Rome, which you all know my position. I do not believe this is talking about Rome, and as we walk through this, you will see as we get even to chapter 18, it's very difficult.

One, God never made a covenant with Rome, did he? Oh, he never made a covenant with Rome. He made a covenant with curses with the nation of Israel. Well, it says here, well, the kings of the earth committed immorality.

So, the people that hold to the position that this is Rome, it says, well, who ruled over the kings of the earth? They would say that city would have been Rome. Well, that's if you come to the conclusion that it's already Rome.

If you take and let the apostles interpret what we just read, you can turn your Bible over to Acts chapter 4, and I want you to see who Peter says the kings of the earth are. And we'll begin in verse 23.

Chapter 4 verse 23. This is after Peter and John have been arrested. He goes out and he preaches his second sermon, and it says this in verse 23,. And when they had been released, they went to their companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them, and that they heard this, and they lifted their voices to God and went to court saying, O Lord, it is you who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David, your servant said this.

Why did the Gentiles rage? Why did the peoples devise futile things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and Christ. Okay, let's stop right there.

He's saying right here the kings of the earth took a stand and were gathered against the Lord and his Christ. That's what he said. Now he's fixing to tell us in the next verse who those people are. For truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus Christ, whom you anointed.

Listen to this. Here's where the rulers of the earth, Herod, Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. So that tells us that this city is not Rome. In the Greek, it's the same exact construction.

And when you go back to Revelation, the kings that ruled over the earth and the ones that committed immorality would have been those of the city of Jerusalem, not Rome. Look, if you're going to commit immorality, you're going to commit whoredom, you're going to commit adultery, you have to be in a covenant relationship with the husband to do so.

Rome was never that person. Rome as a city. And it says,. And those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine, this is back in chapter 17, were drunk with the wine of her immorality. And then it says here in verse 3,.

The Woman in the Wilderness and the Scarlet Beast

And he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. I find it very ironic in verse 3, it says, He carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and he saw a woman.

Do you remember back in chapter 12, there was another woman that was carried off into the wilderness. Do you remember that? It says that, and it was speaking of the covenant people of God, they were carried off into the wilderness to be, actually to be preserved in the wilderness.

That's what it says, for 1260 days, times, times, half of times, 42 months. Remember, those were the time frame. Well, here it's saying, Now I'm going to take you to the wilderness, and there's another woman in the wilderness.

Remember, there's always been these, you've got two women, you've got the harlot and the bride, you've got two cities, Old Jerusalem, New Jerusalem. Remember, last week we wrote on here, multiply all these, these, these antithesis of one another.

Well here, now we've got, once again, we're back to the two women. Who was the first woman that went into the wilderness, back in chapter 12? It was going to be the bride. Now we're seeing a woman that's going into the wilderness, and it's a harlot.

And it's interesting that this wilderness, for the bride in chapter 12, was a place of what? Refuge. Yeah, comfort, I think, yeah. A place of refuge. Hey, but if you remember, I made the statement, back when we were doing chapter 12, that it is interesting that as you look through the Old Testament, was the wilderness ever a good place?

No, it was a place where jackals and where beasts of the field could eat you. Matter of fact, it's usually a place of judgment. Why did the nation of Israel wander around in the wilderness for 40 years?

Because of disobedience. So what was the wilderness a place of? It was God's judgment. Now did He take care of them? Yeah, but they wandered in the wilderness because of disobedience. That was not their goal.

What was their goal? To get to Canaan. Their goal was to get to Canaan. Remember, when they left Egypt, they didn't have just a few month journey, and they would have been in a promised land. But because of disobedience, God made them wander around in the place of judgment, the place that was of unbelief for 40 years.

So the wilderness was never looked at as a good place. But it becomes the place for the bride in chapter 12 of refuge. God protected them in the wilderness. Well, when you get this harlot in chapter 17, she's in the wilderness.

The wilderness is not a good place for the whore. Okay? The wilderness is a bad place. And here it is. It says that the woman that was sitting was sitting on a scarlet beast. We've seen the beast before.

It's the one that come up back in the little book. You know, it's got the seven heads and the ten horns. And it didn't give us a color. It's interesting now it gives us a color. It says this woman that was sitting on it was sitting on this scarlet beast.

And it had full of blasphemous names, which is the same thing we heard back in the little book section between 11 and 13. It says in the woman... I'm sorry. It said the blasphemous names having seven heads and ten horns.

Anybody remember how I understood the seven heads and ten horns of the beast? Other than the little statue we had here. Anybody remember? Seven and ten represent total, complete authority and oppression.

Remember, this is not a real beast, like Godzilla-type figure that come up out of the ocean with all these heads, alright? That's not what we're... It is representative of something. And it was total and complete oppression and power.

And who, at this particular time, would this beast have been? Under my understanding. Everybody that's been here should know. Who was the beast at the time? It would have been Rome. Rome. What did the beast represent?

Governmental powers. Governmental powers. And it is Rome at this moment. So, if my understanding is correct and the harlot is old Jerusalem, the harlot's riding Rome. The harlot's riding Rome. And she's only gonna ride Rome as long as Rome lets her.

We was talking last week, or the week before, Trinity, she rides horses. She does the barrel riding and the hopping, whatever that stuff is, where they run around that crazy on horse. And that horse only lets Trinity ride him as long as he wants to.

When he's done, he gets fed up with her. What's gonna happen? He said, I'll let you out. Well, same thing here. The beast is letting the harlot ride as long as they want. But when Rome gets tired, she's getting bucked off.

And it's coming to that point. It's coming to that point in the book of Revelation. How was the harlot riding the beast? Anybody have any understanding of how? Remember how? How was old Jerusalem riding Rome?

She was riding Rome because Rome was funding all of the replenishment of the temple and its complex. How did Herod? We've said this multiple times. How did Herod get put in place? Rome. Rome put Herod in power.

How did Herod put Rome in power? Because Rome needed some cavalry and Mark Anthony and Julius Caesar were able to come to Herod before he became Herod. And he says, I will give you the cavalry you need if you'll remember me.

Well, Octavian and Mark Anthony remembered what Herod did and says we're going to make you basically a governor over Judea. That's how. And they gave him all the money that he wanted to do whatever he wanted at the temple complex.

Well, Rome was very kind to the Jewish people. Out of all of the multi-ethnic nations that encompassed the Roman Empire, how many ethnic groups got a religious exemption? One. One. You know, the nation of Israel and its boundaries was the only place that a temple to another god could not be built.

Do you see how God in His providence made Rome very kind to the Jewish people? Very kind. Even though they were being oppressed by the powers to be, the nation, God used that providentially so there would no idolatry be in the land.

They said, look, we're going to let you basically enforce your own Mosaic laws when it comes to worship. That's why they were able to have synagogues. You wouldn't have a synagogue and then have a temple to Ares or some ridiculous thing in the nation of Israel.

You wouldn't have it because they, Rome says, hey, we're going to let you police this. You do what you want. And they said, we won't have it because it's a violation of the Mosaic law. So, that's how the harlot was riding the beast.

They gave her leeway to do what she wanted. Gave, let them govern themselves in many ways with the exception of some execution powers and some taxing powers. They were able to do whatever they wanted.

So, it says that she was taken out into the wilderness. They saw this woman, this scarlet, this harlot riding the scarlet beast. And then in verse 4 it says,. And the woman was clothed with purple scarlet, adorned with gold, precious stones, pearls, and having in her hand a golden cup full of the abominations of the uncleanness of her immorality.

And when you get to verse 5 it says,. And written on her forehead was written a mystery. So, here it is, this woman, this harlot, riding this beast. And she is adorned with all of these fancy clothes.

And it's a pure bride. What are they dressed in? White. What is this? She's a little on the trashy side. She's got purple. She's adorned. Hey, it's kind of like the adulterous woman back in the Proverbs who made herself gaudy.

You read through the early parts of Proverbs where Solomon's talking to his son Rehoboam about, hey, beware of the harlot. Beware of the whoreish woman. She makes herself look good. Oh, she's fancy and hot.

She's got lips that are sweet. And they're beglossy. And she bats her eyes. She talks about how strong and muscles you are. And then once she gets what she wants, what does she do? It says, That's what's going to happen here.

That's what's going to happen. So they have this woman, this harlot, dressed in all these fancy clothes. Hey, what was purple? Was purple expensive clothing? Yeah, what about Lydia? Yeah, I mean, she made her whole industry on selling purple clothes, cloth, dye, all of those.

And it was very expensive to do because the way you had to do it, the way you had to crush up this certain type of snail to extract the purex out of it and then to make the purple clothing. It's interesting.

I think it was in, it wound up being in the beginning of the second century, Rome wound up outlawing anybody wearing purple but Rome. If you weren't part of the Roman Empire, like the imperial, you couldn't wear it.

And it was to make sure that people knew who the guards were. If you look historically, you start seeing even old drawings and even in their writings of Tacitus and Placibia, all those guys, the Roman soldiers began to wear more purplish scarlet clothing.

And some of them was almost so purple, it was black. So it became very important because it showed prestige. And it says scarlet, which was a color of red. And it's also interesting when you think about scarlet, what was used to hang out of Rahab the harlot's window?

Scarlet. Yep. Because scarlet was the color of what? Rust. Ore. It's like, this is a no-brainer. This is a no-brainer. And then it says that then she adorned herself with gold and precious stones and pearls and having in her hand a golden cup of the abominations of the uncleanness of her immorality.

And we read back in Jeremiah the same thing. She had a cup of, Babylon had a cup of immoralities that she was drinking. Why a golden cup? Because she ain't a commoner. What did common people drink out of?

Wooden cup. Average Joe Blow, could he afford a golden cup? No. This ain't a common person. This is speaking of a woman who has been embellished with the money of Rome, who has made herself rich with the nations around her, and we'll read that as we get into this next week, with the nations around her.

And there was nothing wrong with Jerusalem having industry with the nations around. Nothing wrong at all. I mean, they could export and import, but what happened in doing so, they then took on the nature and identity of the nations around them when they were supposed to be separate.

They became looking just like them. They became immoral, idolatry. And then it says here, and on her forehead was written the name of mystery. Now, in the book of Revelation, we've seen mystery several times.

Is mystery mean a whodunit? Is this a Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mystery? No. A mystery is something that you don't know that needs to be revealed. And as we have read so far, this woman that's riding the beast has not been called a harlot yet.

We know that because we've read the narrative. But now that we get to it, it says this is written, and it's written on her forehead. How many times in the book of Revelation have we already seen stuff written on people's foreheads?

At least three. It said that the 144 ,000 had whose name written on their forehead? The name of their God, whether it was Yahweh or however you want to say it, but it was the 144 ,000 had written on their forehead the name of their God.

And it said when you see the separation between the followers of the lamb and the followers of the beast, the followers of the lamb had the name of their father written on their forehead. But who else had the name of who they followed written on their forehead?

It was those who followed the beast. And it says here, the clear distinction in this woman is she's a whore. It says right here, Babylon the Great, the mother of all harlots and the abominations of the earth.

So, a young man comes home. He says, you know what? Mom, I want to introduce my girlfriend to you. Babylon, the harlot. How do you think that's going to go? Yeah, it's not going to go well. Nobody wants their son marrying a hooker.

And in this case, this is obvious. This woman doesn't have a tattoo on her forehead, but what was the identity of seeing things in Revelation written on her forehead? It was an obvious of who their allegiance was to.

Just like the mark of the beast. Did people have the mark of the beast stamped on the hand of their forehead? No, it was an imagery of something that was identifying that this person's allegiance is to who?

To God, if it had the name of the father written on their forehead, or if it was the beast's name or the number of his name. It was the allegiance to the beast. In this case, this woman, her allegiance is to whoever she can have immorality with.

And what did we read in chapters Ezekiel 16 and 23? You remember how many times we read, we read both those chapters where it says, and you made yourself a whore with the nations around you. Constantly made herself a whore with the nations around her.

Whether it was with Samaria in the Ezekiel 23 passage where you did a whore and a whore, where it says one was Samaria and one was Jerusalem, and it says that a whore, you made your immorality with the nations around you, and then God destroyed you, and then Jerusalem comes along and does the same thing, and you didn't learn from your sister, and God says, you've become worse.

Because not only were you worse, you didn't have people pay you to have sex with you. You all remember that? You paid people to have sex with you. Like, you're worse than a whore. You're like the lowest, if you had a whoredom scale, you're at the bottom.

You're the bottom of the barrel hooker. Okay? And that's what this is. She has made herself drunk with the nations around her and the immorality that she gives herself over to. And in verse 6, it says,.

Babylon Drunk with the Blood of the Saints

And then I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly. And we'll stop right there because we've only got a couple of minutes.

So once again, we're back to this harlot woman is a city, and this city was drunk with the blood of the saints. And the witnesses of Jesus. Who was that city in 1st century? Rome or Jerusalem? Jerusalem.