Revelation 17 The System of Evil

The Purpose of Scripture and the Need for Wisdom in Revelation

You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church.

In Matawan, Michigan.

This week, Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation.

Let's listen in.

Welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here, and I just wanna thank you for taking time out of your busy week, and particularly a beautiful summer day to gather together as God's people.

I recognize that there's all kinds of things that could have been calling your name this morning, and I'm glad that you chose to come together as God's people, and not that you are the most spiritual, but I think we're showing something about ourselves by being here, and that is just simply that we recognize our need for God, and we recognize our need for each other.

And so, thank you for taking that time. Like normal, we're gonna be digging into the pages of scripture to see what God desires to communicate with each of us this morning. And I wanna point out to you something that I, you know, it's something that I think about regularly and routinely, is what is the purpose of scripture?

Why do we dig in? Why do I recommend that you read it each day, or that you go to it as the fountains of living water as you turn to it to know? And a lot of people, or what do you turn to it to know?

You know, why open God's word? Why do we open it together, read it in this gathering, and then talk about it? And I think there's an acronym that I've heard people use before, and it's kinda cutesy and fun.

I don't know if any of you have ever heard of it, basic instructions before leaving earth. Raise your hand if you've heard that before. Bible kinda makes an acronym, it's kinda cutesy and stuff. But the problem with that acronym is that it makes the Bible out to be a behavioral manual.

About just kinda like, oh, I'll turn to it and I'll know how to act. I'll turn to it and I'll know what to act like, or I'll turn to it and know what to do. But the Bible is more than a collection of history and poetry that has some truth in it, or just a nice nugget to put on a calendar, or just some kinda quip to put on a coffee mug.

But the Bible claims to be a message to us about the very self-disclosure, self-disclosure of God, to show us who he is, what he desired to communicate to you and I about his nature, about how he rolls, about the things that he values and the things that he loves.

Our creator shows us himself in the pages of the word of God. So do you open it to know him, or do you open it to just do, well, what am I supposed to do in this situation, or what am I supposed to do in that situation?

Is that the sum total of it? Or do we approach it with a perspective of who is God? That's life-changing. That'll transform the way you live your life when you come to know God and who he is and how he rolls and the things that he values.

That's where life transformation begins to happen. So we read it to know him and to adopt his perspective on the world around us. We read it even to understand ourselves, how we fit into his great big plan, but it's still all about him.

And this morning, our text in the book of Revelation could be pretty confusing when we first sit down and read it. We're gonna be in Revelation 17, give you a little heads up so you can kind of start turning there if you want to while you're listening to me introduce it, but Revelation 17 is what we're gonna read and discuss.

And if you just were to sit down and read it, I'm convinced that the majority of us would be confused and kind of move on, maybe look up a couple words or maybe try to figure a couple things out. But it takes quite a bit of study to get down to the bottom of what these things that we see in the text are symbolic of.

It offers a lot of details in this text that are difficult for us to interpret. Yeah, I've had to work hard at it this week. It talks about things both past and future that require some discernment. Even right smack dab in the middle of this text, John says, as revealed by the Holy Spirit, that these things call for wisdom.

He basically tells you and I, he says, when you come to chapter 17, you're gonna need your thinking caps on to figure some of this stuff out. So I'm gonna ask all of us to put our thinking caps on this morning as we dig through this text and as we work our way through it and walk verse by verse through it to really figure out what we're looking at.

The World System Opposed to the Almighty

In our text, we're gonna get a shallow introduction to the world system that opposes the Almighty. Not comprehensive, but certainly a deeper look into what the world system out there is really like and the world system that really seeks to entice and grab our own hearts.

How many of you would recognize that maybe at least once or twice this week, you were enticed to do something that you knew wasn't gonna be beneficial or helpful to you or others around you? Okay, five of us, really?

Man, you guys are riding above it. That is awesome. I'm glad you're here, so you're rubbing off on me. But no, I think all of us, at some point this week, we're enticed, we're drawn in, where there's some kind of temptation put in front of us that we knew would result in either harm to others or harm to ourselves, something that would not be beneficial or even just something that's clearly opposed to God.

There is this world system. There is a way of thinking. There is a pattern, not just the one-off sins, because I think a lot of times we can think about our temptation, our problem, our particular issues, and we should, but how often do we contemplate and consider that there's an entire system of human thought that is fairly consistent?

You know, we're looking at the Olympics. How many of you watched a little Olympic coverage? And we're seeing different cultures and nations come together to play sports on the same rules, the same playing field.

Basketball is played the same on the court, no matter which team you're a part of, right? And there's a commonality of rules surrounding these sports. And yet, we didn't get together and discuss the commonality of lying.

We didn't have to come to a conclusion about how to lie. But that's a consistency. Did you know that in Japan, people lie? They tell untruths. Nobody had to teach them how to do that. They know how to do that, and we know how to do that here in America and in China and in South Africa and all around the world.

People know how to lie. There's a system of rebellion against God that is consistent worldwide. And this is gonna be giving us an image, a picture of what that is all about. Well, it comes in a really strange symbol to us.

We get a strange vision of a prostitute riding a hideous beast. She is described, and we'll talk about that. The beast is described, we'll talk about that. But I believe that God is giving all of us an image of the evil system that is one day finally going to be done away with.

It's gonna be done away with by Christ in the end. By the end of next week, we will see the complete and utter decimation of the world system we're introduced to this week. One that's not too foreign to us.

As we meet this woman riding on this beast, she becomes familiar, and we're like, I think I've met her before. I think I know who she is. No, not by name.

Somebody's laughing.

Not by name, but you're gonna recognize her. And God could easily summarize this chapter by just saying something simple. If he chooses not to, he gives us more detail. He could just say, sin will be judged.

Well, that's a fairly good summary to a lot of the book of Revelation, right? And we're kind of like, well, why didn't he just simplify? But when we use the word sin, like when you contemplate and consider what is the problem with the world today?

What is the problem with you? What is the problem with those around you? What is the problem globally? I think we could summarize it. How many of you would say it's fair to summarize that with one word?

Sin. Would you agree with me on that? Sin is a pretty apt summary word for the problems that are around us. But how many of you recognize that sin covers a lot of nuanced details? Like embezzlement. Like sexual immorality.

Like lying, as I mentioned earlier. There's a lot of things that are involved in sin that it wouldn't be quite sufficient for us to just say, well, sin will be judged and that's it. When we use the word sin, we can easily miss the point that there's a deeper system at work in the world.

It's a system of enticement. A system of seduction, temptation, false religion, pride, deception, materialism, violence, and so many other nuances that define the problems that we face as people in a broken and fallen world.

And problems that we're a part of. We have both been victims as well as perpetrators of sin, right? So as we take in the image of the woman on the beast, know that she stands for all that is opposed to God and his kingdom in Christ.

She stands for all that is in opposition to God. She stands for all that humans do to attempt to assert their self-dependence and their self-reliance, and we're gonna talk about that throughout the text, but it's important to have that in your mind as we read this text up front.

All that it means for us to be self-reliant apart from God. And as we read, let's be careful to consider our own lives in light of the image of this woman and this beast. So if you're not already there, some of you just got here, Revelation chapter 17.

You can turn over there, navigate over there in your app or whatever you use to access the Bible. If you don't have a Bible in your lap, again, I'm gonna be reading this. I would love for you to just be able to follow along, so please raise your hand.

Mark and Mike have Bibles back here. Relieve them of the load that they're carrying there. If you don't have a Bible on your lap, just raise your hand. We want everybody to be able to follow along throughout this service this morning in the word of God.

Recast, Revelation chapter 17 is what God desires for you and I to hear this morning. It's what he desires for us to understand, to wrestle with, and so let's dig in. Revelation 17, then 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 prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.

And he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and it had seven heads and 10 horns. The woman was arrayed 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 sexual immorality.

And on her forehead was written a name of mystery, Babylon the Great, mother of prostitutes and of the earth's abominations. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

And when I saw her, I marveled greatly, but the angel said to me, why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with seven heads and 10 horns that carries her. The beast that you saw was and is not and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction.

And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast because it was and is not and is to come. This calls for a mind with wisdom.

The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. They are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen. One is, the other has not yet come. And when he does come, he must remain only a little while.

As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth, but it also belongs to the seven and it goes to destruction. And the 10 horns that you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour together with the beast.

These are of one mind and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. They will make war on the lamb and the lamb will conquer them for he is Lord of lords and king of kings and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.

And the angel said to me, the waters that you saw where the prostitute is seated are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. And the 10 horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute.

They will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled.

And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us.

In worship this morning.

Father, when we read a text like that, our minds can just kind of be wandering and there's a lot of mystery to it and it could even be maybe some of our conviction that we're coming from difficult, strange weeks.

There's been difficulty, there's been frustration, there's been bad news. For some, there's been really good news and we could read a text like this and just kind of wonder what does it have to do with us?

Father, it is your word. It is powerful. It reveals something of you and also equally reveals something of this world that is broken and needs to be restored back to you. Father, this one thing remains true and that is that all of the kingdoms of power, all of the world's systems that are out there that are in opposition to you and even this evil, wicked, ultimate power that's gonna be opposed to you in the end is not ultimate.

You are the only ultimate. All power comes from you. There are not two sources of power. There is one. And it will all be finished by you because of what your son has done. Redemption is ours only in the blood of Jesus.

And so, Father, even in the darkness, even as we talk about darkness, even as we talk about the world system today and we walk through and explain who this woman is and who this beast is and all the details and nuances of that, Father, I pray that you would help us in our hearts to rejoice in you because of the salvation we have through Jesus.

And in that, may we rejoice and raise our voices that we are not among those condemned, we are not among those judged, not because we're awesome, not because we figured it out, not because we're brightest, smartest, best, most behaved, but strictly because Jesus died for us.

We believe that and we've thrown our hearts wholeheartedly on that hope and that hope alone.

I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Big thanks. I don't take for granted what Dave does. I just am very thankful for the gifts that God has given to him. And just, you know, if something that he does blesses you, don't take for granted that he understands that or knows that.

And so, feel free at any time, if anything that he plays or does or any of his service blesses you, let him know that. So, encourage him to, along the way. Encourage you to get comfortable and remember that at any time during the message, you can get up, get more coffee, juice, or donuts.

You're not gonna distract me. And so, also, if you need to get up and stretch in the back, I recognize that these seats down here on the floor can get pretty uncomfortable. And so, if you need to get up and stretch out.

But really, our focus is to keep our attention on the word of God here for the next half an hour or so. So, let's do everything that we can to do that. And particularly, keeping our Bibles open to Revelation 17 is gonna help you to see that the flow of this text, walking through it, is basically what we're gonna do.

I'm gonna be referencing verses here and there. And so, just having that open and being able to see that what I'm saying is coming from God's word is vital. And it certainly makes me feel great seeing you look down at your Bible from time to time, even if you're just texting and I don't know it.

So, don't do that, guys. To start off and just kind of remember where we're coming from, I know that not everybody's been here during this series, but we wrapped up Revelation 16 last week, now on to 17 a couple weeks.

We're gonna pick up 18. But John, in chapter 16, recognized the angel in this vision here from that previous revelation of the seven bowls of God's wrath that we talked about last week. So, this is an angel that John said, hey, who's one of those that poured out those seven bowls in a previous dream or vision that God had given to him?

But this angel is gonna take John to show him another level of judgment. He watched the seven bowls get poured out on the earth and the ends drawn near. But then, now this is a different vision. This is a separate vision.

Same angel, separate vision. And he's gonna reveal the judgment of a single woman, an individual. And, of course, she's gonna be a symbol for something, just like you might have come to expect in the book of Revelation.

We kind of expect symbols. We expect things to not be quite what they are at face value. And in verse one, she is identified as the, that's the designation, the great prostitute who sits on many waters.

Now, the many waters are identified for us later in the text, so I might as well tell you what they are now if you didn't catch it when we read it before. In verse 15, it's actually declared that the many waters are multitudes, people's multitudes, nations, and languages.

This woman has many multitudes under her sway. She sits upon the waters of the nations, of the peoples, and she has a truly global following. As we progress through this text, we're gonna see just what a big picture this woman really is.

I think the easiest way to work our way through the text would be to identify and describe the woman as the primary focus. To understand who she is and what is said of her is gonna be fundamental, and to identify her requires that we jump ahead real quick to verse five, where we're given her title.

So, that's kind of, when somebody gives a title to someone, that helps you to understand who they are to some degree, right? Like, if they're a teacher, if they're an engineer, if they're a pastor, you know something about them right away, and so if you're given a title, well then, that helps.

And her name is designated to be a mysterious name. Now, when you hear the word mysterious, you know, are you thinking it's a mystery? We need to get out our magnifying glasses and observe the word, or do we need to enlist the help of Sherlock Holmes to figure out this mystery?

It's a little bit of a different way of using that word in Greek. It can be translated mystery, it could even be translated figurative. Her name is, ultimately, I think the Greek is getting at, her name is figurative.

It's gonna require some discernment for you to understand what her name means, what the significance of her name really is. It's not like a mystery to sleuth, it's just kind of like, it's not at face value what you take it to be.

She is not literally Babylon. She is not literally the mother of all prostitutes. She is not literally the mother of every, of Earth's abomination. But she bears these titles as a symbol for these things.

So we know that she is somehow related to all of those things that are designated of her. Now, to understand, I think, fundamentally, what I really wanna mine down deep into is the title Babylon. She's titled Babylon.

This woman represents Babylon. So we should go back to where we first see the mention of Babylon in the text of scripture, and that's way back in Genesis chapter 11. Now, some of you might not recognize that, and it doesn't use the word Babylon, it's the title Babel.

And how many of you have ever read the story of the Tower of Babel? You understand that from Sunday school class or from, maybe you've heard it before. Maybe it's new to you, and that's okay too. But if you go back to Genesis chapter 11, humanity rejected God's way and sought to make a name for themselves in their own united strength.

God told them to disperse across the globe in that story in chapter 11. And so they settled in the same place and began to build. He said, spread out. Go and spread out across the face of the earth. So what's their first act?

Gather together, build a city for their strength, and make a great name for themselves. Now, ask yourself this. If all the peoples after Noah's ark landed and no one in his family got out and then they proceeded to roll and God said, go ahead and spread out, there weren't many people on the planet at this time, right?

It wasn't just gigantic and huge. So who were they trying to make a name for themselves to?

You ever ask yourself that?

Who were they trying to make a, God?

Who are they rejecting?

Who are they, by disobeying God and by building their city and building their tower and exercising their power and their strength together, that's what we're getting at here. Now, if you were raised in a church that had a Sunday school program, you might have received a little bit of a false notion about Babel at the beginning.

Something to the effect of they were building a tower for what reason? To get to God, right? Like somehow this notion, I don't, I think we take them for fools if they thought that they were gonna get to the moon with a tower or if they thought that they were gonna get to the heavens or even heaven itself with a tower.

That's not what the text says. You can read it and I put it up on the screen for you. In Genesis 11, four through six, this is what they're indicted for. This is the indictment against Babel. Verse four, then they said, "'Come, let us build ourselves a city "'and a tower with its top in the heavens.'".

Very visible, very powerful, very mighty. But here's the point. "'Let us make a name for ourselves, "'lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.'". What? Didn't God say he wanted you dispersed over the whole earth?

And now what are you saying? Let's do something for ourselves. Let's be united in our strength. Humanity, let's do this. Let's show God what we're made of. Let's show him what we can do if we would just put our minds to it.

If we would just unite, man. I mean, that's a cry that you might even hear today. Man, if we could get past our petty squabbles, imagine what humanity could do. Imagine what we'd be able to accomplish if we could set aside our differences, set aside our religions, set aside all of these problems, and just unite, man.

What could we do to this world?

What could we accomplish? Well, I think I have an idea of what we would accomplish. It might not be very pretty. Babel, the founding of ancient Babylon, was the first recorded systematic attempt for humanity to unite, and not just unite, but unite against the creator, to unite against the creator.

That's what this woman is named. She's named after that system. She's named after that concept of the unity of humanity in opposition to God is her name. Not a good title to bear. Would you agree with me on that?

Not something that you want people to say of you. He said, spread out, they chose to stay together. He said, his name is to be exalted, so they sought, set out with the sole purpose to create a name for themselves.

Now, I wanna point out, Babylon is a real entity, but here in chapter 17, it's a metaphor, and a symbol for fallen human religious systems, and systems of thought that seek to set themselves up and make a name for themselves, and there's a seductive aspect to this.

Human religious systems and systems of thought that seduce and seek to unite humanity in opposition to God. So this woman represents Babel, or later, Babylon, and that means she is the human system of mankind doing things in its own way, in its own terms, in opposition to the Almighty, in opposition to the creator.

And so now that we've identified her as that system of thought that pervades humanity, that seeks to oppose him and seeks to unite against him, let's see how the text describes humanity and rebellion against God point by point.

We're gonna see and walk through what are some of the characteristics of the system in opposition to God. And just to clarify, I wanna make sure that you understand, when I'm talking about systems, I'm talking about sinful systems, systems like materialism, consumerism, hedonism, and any false religion that leads people away from Jesus Christ, and greed, pride, nationalism, a sinful nationalism that would say my country is the only thing and would go to the nth degree for it.

Think about all those systems. I mean, I'm sure you could come up with some yourself in false religions. The prostitute is a system that is inherently religious. You realize that. A lot of us think that it's inherently atheistic.

The world system would be inherently atheistic, but one of the fundamental things that it means to be a human is to worship. Did you recognize that? It's one of the fundamental things in our core. So it's an issue of worshiping something, and it's fundamentally religious in that it is opposed to the true and living God by faith, by faith in something, and by primarily faith in humanity.

And so here are 10 observations about false religions and systems of the world in terms of this woman. And the first thing that we identify in verse one, pretty crass, pretty direct, she is for sale. She's for sale.

The woman is called a prostitute all throughout this text. The religious systems of this world, the world systems in opposition to God are for sale. She is for sale to anyone who's in the market.

For a good time.

This analogy to a prostitute cuts two different ways. It shows that she has both a seductive allure and an ever-present economic interest married together. That's what composes the world system to some degree.

I think this first point betrays two fundamental issues in humanity's rebellion against God. We want unfettered entertainment, and money is always an issue. We want unfettered entertainment, and money is always an issue.

We want wealth to get the good life. We wanna make a name for ourselves so that others will serve us and get us nice things or at least treat us well. We want comfort. We're always ready for some fun.

The world system is for sale, and if you have a little cash or a little credit, you can get in on the action. It's part of the world system, isn't it? Do you recognize it in our culture? Do you recognize it in your own heart?

Do you recognize the enticement that is there? Entertainment and money? And I would suggest to you that those two drive each other significantly in our culture.

Do you see it?

The marriage of those two. And the irony is probably everybody in the room struggles on one side of that spectrum. Either you're a workaholic or you're an entertainmentaholic. Everybody here is somewhere on that spectrum.

And some of us, it's working hard to try to balance those two and get the best of both worlds, you know, and that's still not what it's about, is it? Still missing the point. It's not like, a lot of people will tell you, truth is always balancing things.

Well, sometimes the whole bar, the whole spectrum is sin, right? It's not always, the truth isn't always found in the balance. Sometimes it's found by jumping off of that spectrum onto something else.

She is for sale, that's number one. Number two, she has a global following. In verse one, again, she is seated on many waters. I already kind of mentioned that. Her resting place is the entire world. All nations and peoples have been seduced by her.

Now hear me carefully. I would not suggest that every person is currently seduced by her. Some have broken free of her clutches through the power of the Lamb of God. And so, very similarly to the Lamb of God who has a following from all tribes, languages, peoples, and nations, so too does the great prostitute have her following from all tribes, tongues, languages, peoples, and nations.

The power and sway of the human system against God is global. And I mentioned how you can see that in reality. You can see that we have, we're not, it's not like we're inventing new sins. The sins that are committed in America are the same sins that are committed in China are the same sins.

Now we've got our own localized flavors and flares and things like that, but when it really comes down to it, human sin looks like human sin. The system is global and widespread in its corruption. And the third thing.

She has dulled the senses of the people. You see the word drunk even applied here in verse two. We see in verse two that the kings of the earth have been seduced by her and they are regular clients. The specific sins of sexual immorality are used here as the indictment in verse two.

But I find it quite likely that John here and God in revealing this is just kind of going with the analogy of her as a prostitute, but I find it likely that she peddles much more than just this. Verse two is using the analogy of a prostitute.

But I hope you can see like I can that this text is more than just about prostitution. It's more than just, well, you know, if you've never struggled with prostitution or soliciting prostitution, then you're okay.

That's kind of more than that. The peoples of the world are desensitized by the systems that they live under. If we're not careful, I think what we're getting at here by the dulling of the senses, by the drunkenness with her immorality, all of us are at risk.

If we're not careful, we will live out our days drunk with the promises of pride, drunk with the promises of materialism, drunk with the promises of sexual freedom, drunk with the promises of all manner of idolatries that the evil one would desire to foist over on us.

And even especially here, drunk with the American dream, drunk with the American dream. I think everybody in this room can define that, right? We hold something to be of utmost value in our founding documents of our country.

The pursuit of happiness. I don't think at the hill called Skull, Jesus, that that value resonated with Christ. Now, he did say for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame. He knew what was coming, but I'm telling you what, the cross was not a happy place.

He endured suffering for you and I. Well, I understand the difference, though. I mean, it's done unconstitutional here. I get the concept of the pursuit, the freedom. How many of you value the freedom to be able to pursue the things, even if it means that the things that you can pursue are Christ and his suffering?

You have the freedom to do that, right? Isn't that a beautiful thing? So I'm not disparaging that. But the point is, I believe that we swim in a culture drunk with this woman's immorality. I increasingly, and I am sure that many of you can relate to this, feel like I'm swimming upstream and the current is getting stronger.

Any of you relate to that? You feel to some degree like that? And I would suggest to you that we still have a battle daily to stick with the kingdom of his son. Where the values, think about these values in our culture.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Do you sense any war with the world at large against those things in you? Do you sense the temptation to pull away from those things?

Do you sense the frenetic craziness that fights against patience? Or the have-it-now mentality that wars against gentleness? Or the live-for-yourself that wars against self-control? Or the serve-yourself-first that wars against love?

Or just the byproduct of sin that makes us miserable.

And fights against joy?

You could see the things in our culture that war against that set of kingdom values that we are to live by. And if we're not careful, our senses will be dulled. If we give ourselves so much over to this world, we have to be cautious about these things.

The woman is, this prostitute is calling. She's calling and calling. The pull against these things are strong. The fourth thing is she's been bought by many rulers. She seems to have a pretty mutual relationship with political powers.

She gets something from them, and they get something from her. And I wanna make sure you don't get lost in the analogy. You might be thinking, well, isn't she the political powers? And you could easily start to get things confused.

Well, she rides on those things. She is a system of thinking, a way of uniting, a concept that humanity can grab ahold of and kind of live together with. And it's this opposition to God where she is a friend of many political governments and institutions, real institutions, real governments.

Many political rulers have adopted her way of thinking about the world around us. Any political power that sees itself independent from God, any political power that will not glorify him is buying into the great prostitute, is moving away from God and towards self.

And that leads to number five, which is really the longest of the points, and that is that she rides on evil, doomed political powers. Now, in verse three, we see that mentioned, she's riding this beast, but the beast is described in detail in verses seven through 14.

She is not synonymous with political power, but she finds good friends in it. The beast she rides is a symbol for Rome, pure and simple. It's abundantly clear that this beast that she rides on is Rome.