Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Revelation 17:1-14.

 

“¹ Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, ² 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.”  ³ And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness;  and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.  ⁴ The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, ⁵ and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”  ⁶ And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.  When I saw her, I wondered greatly.  ⁷ And the angel said to me, “Why do you wonder?  I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.

 

⁸ “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 from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come.  ⁹ Here is the mind which has wisdom.  The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits,  ¹⁰ and they are seven kings;  five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come;  and when he comes, he must remain a little while.  ¹¹ The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction.  ¹² The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.  ¹³ These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast.

 

¹⁴ These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”  Revelation 17:1-14

 

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At first reading of today’s Scripture, we think we may be disturbed.  We think we may wonder.

 

But, we read it again, and we pick up certain things that we did not notice before. 

 

The bookends of today’s Scripture are comforting.  At the beginning, we read that the summary of today’s Scripture is God’s judgment (which includes punishment) of the harlot of immorality.  (“… “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot …”  Verse 1)  At the end, we read that God’s enemies will wage war against Him (God, the Son, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God) and “… the Lamb will overcome them …”.  Verse 14.

                                         

We also notice in the middle:  “The beast … is about to … go to destruction …” Verse 8.  And, those who wonder are those “… whose name has not been written in the book of life …”  Verse 8.

It is important that we do not get lost in all the figurative language of the Book of Revelation.  The theme of the Book of Revelation was expressed in the title of two book commentaries of Revelation:  Behold He Cometh by Rev. Herman Hoeksema and More than Conquerors by William Hendricksen.