The Lamb Shall Overcome Them – Revelation 17

Revelation 17:1-2: “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, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.’”

The seven bowl judgments were poured out by seven angels from the temple in heaven in Revelation 16. Now, one of the seven angels shows John on whom the judgments were poured out. The angel verifies to John that the judgments of God were carried out on the wicked kings of the earth who participated in a type of Jezebel spirit against God’s saints and martyrs.

The mindset of the powerful empires in the last days is characterized as that of a harlot. Like Jezebel, their mind is to persecute God’s people, and forcefully promote false beliefs. They will be a crime syndicate of abusive bullies. They put to death those who dare to stand for Christ.

If you are not familiar with Jezebel, her story begins in 1 Kings 16:31 and ends in 2 Kings 9:37. Jezebel outlawed faith in the One true God, and enforced faith in fake gods.

The evil nature of Jezebel reappears in Athaliah. 2 Kings 8:18 and 2 Chronicles 21:6 identify Athaliah as the daughter of Jezebel. In 2 Kings 11:1-3, when Athaliah’s kingly son died, she killed his siblings and took over his throne. But God hid one of her grandsons from her and later installed him as the rightful king. Athaliah, like her mother Jezebel, died a violent death.

In the days of Jeremiah, the people of Judah were worshipping the “Queen of Heaven.” The “Queen of Heaven” refers to the goddess Ishtar (the Babylonian goddess of love and war) or Astarte/Asherah (the Canaanite consorts of Baal). In Jeremiah 7:18, the Lord describes some of the Queen of Heaven worship practices. In Jeremiah 44:17–19, after Jerusalem fell, the people continued to worship her. They credited the Queen of Heaven with their previous agricultural wealth, comfort, and safety instead of giving glory to God.

In Matthew 14:3-21, Herodias had her daughter seduce King Herod with a dance and afterwards, demand as a reward the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

Catholic Queen Mary of England was blood thirsty! Between 1555-1558, she burned 288 Christians at the stake.

In 1 Kings 21:25, we read, “Surely there was never one like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, incited by his wife Jezebel.” King Ahab sold himself to do evil for the sake of Jezebel his wife. The kings of the earth will be influenced by a harlot mindset in the last days.

When a nation abandons the true God for idols, it commits spiritual fornication. In Isaiah 23:17, the Lord indicts Tyre for committing fornication with all the kingdoms of the world. Immorality does in fact become rampant in a nation where the people in it are not walking with God.

In Nahum 3:1-6, Nineveh is an example of an ungodly city. The Lord called Nineveh “a bloody city, full of lies and robbery.” “They stumble over the corpses – because of the multitude of harlotries...” Nineveh “sells nations through her harlotries, and families through her sorceries. Behold, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts... I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle.”

In Revelation 2:20-22, Jesus warned the church in Thyatira against tolerating a woman named Jezebel to teach and seduce His servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols. The Lord said to them, “Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.”

In 1 Corinthians 6:16, Paul exhorted the Christians of Corinth, saying, “Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh.’”

The great harlot who sits on many waters in Revelation 17 makes the inhabitants of the earth drunk with the wine of her fornication. In Jeremiah 51:7, the Lord identifies Babylon as a golden cup in His hand whose wine made all the earth drunk and deranged.

Revelation 17:3-5: “ 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. 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. And on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth.”

The beast that the woman sits on is scarlet. The word in the Greek text is κοκκίνος. Scarlet sits between red and orange on the color wheel, but is closer to red. In Matthew 27:28, Roman soldiers placed a scarlet robe on Jesus to mock Him. Scarlet garments were worn by Roman military officers and emperors. In Revelation 12:3, 9, the dragon Satan is red in color.

In Revelation 17:4, the woman is arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. In Revelation 18:16, the great city Babylon is clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls! She has the appearance of riches, comfort and security, but her goal is to replace people’s devotion to God with devotion to her. In Ezekiel 28:13, Satan is described as at one time being in Eden, the garden of God, with precious stones as a covering, including gold. Babylon is Satan’s puppet

The beast is full of names of blasphemy meaning names against God. In Exodus 28:36, God’s priests wore the words “Holiness to the Lord” on their turbans not blasphemous names.

Revelation 17:6: “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.”

The goal of this woman is to either seduce or slay God’s holy people.

In Numbers 31:16, Moses indicates that Balaam advised King Balak to send Moabite women into Israel’s camp to seduce the men to sin against the Lord. In Revelation 2:14, Jesus refers to the “teaching of Balaam” saying that he “taught Balak to put a stumbling block before Israel by enticing them to eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.”

Revelation 17:7-11: “The angel said to me, ‘Why did you marvel? 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. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the abyss and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings, five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.’”

An angel explains a “mystery” to John. In 2 Thessalonians 2:7, the Lord speaks of the mystery of lawlessness. The union of Christ and the Church is a “great mystery” according to Ephesians 5:31-32. People joining with the beast and harlot against God is also a “mystery.”

In Revelation 17:9-10, the beast has seven heads which are interpreted by an angel to John as being seven mountains and seven kings. The beast has ten horns which are interpreted by an angel to John as being ten kings. In Daniel 7:17, 23-24, the Lord explained to Daniel that his visions of great beasts were about present and future kings and kingdoms of the earth.

As the head is the prominent part of the body, so the mountain is a prominent part of the land. A king is a prominent person in a kingdom. Mountains represent seats of power. Physically, Babylon stood in a plain, but spiritually it was called a destroying mountain.

In Revelation 17:8, the beast ascends out of the abyss. In Revelation 9:1-2, the key to the abyss is given to an angel and he opens it, and smoke comes out from it that darkens the sun. In Revelation 9:11, the king of the abyss is an angel whose name is destroyer. In Revelation 11:7, the beast that ascends out of the abyss makes war against the two witnesses of God and kills them. In Revelation 20:1-3, an angel from heaven binds Satan with a chain and locks him up in the abyss for a thousand years. After the thousand years, he is released again for a little while.

In Revelation 17:8, the beast “was, and is not, and will ascend out of the abyss.” In Revelation 17:11, “the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth.” In Revelation 13:3, one of the heads of the beast “seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.” In Revelation 20:1-3, Satan is bound in an abyss for a thousand years, but then is released. He uses his disappearance and reappearance to claim that he is resurrected from the dead. And what do the people whose names are not written in the Book of Life do in Revelation 17:8? They do just as the people in Revelation 13:3 did, they marvel at the beast.

In Revelation 17:11, it is prophesied that the beast will go to perdition. In John 17:12, Jesus referred to Judas Iscariot as the son of perdition. Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. 30 pieces of silver was the going price for a slave at that time. Judas believed money could do more for him than Jesus the King of kings and Lord of lords could do.

In Revelation 19:19-20, the beast, his false prophet and their followers are cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. In Revelation 20:10, the devil is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. “They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” This is perdition.

The good news of Revelation is that the devil and his accomplices have an expiration date. After a certain moment in time, they will never torment and kill people again.

Revelation 17:12-13: “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.”

The kings of the ruling empire during the end times are of one mind to render unto the beast their power and authority. Kings who propagate death to unborn babies and destroy the lives of the born through trafficking in sex trades, drug trades and wars, do beastly work.

Revelation 17:14: “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”

The antichrist sets himself up to be King of kings, but scarcely has he put forth his claim when the true KING OF KINGS appears and dashes him down in a moment to destruction.

Those who appeared to be the losers when the spirit of the antichrist ruled the world, turn out to be the winners when Jesus Christ returns. They are called chosen and faithful.

Revelation 17:15: “Then he said to me, ‘The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.’”

Harlot Babylon rules the nations. Like Jezebel in the Old Testament, she has convinced the people under her that it is better to obey her than to be put to death by her.

Revelation 17:16: “And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire.”

Babylon made the ten kings exceedingly wealthy. They enjoyed a monopoly on commerce. People had to receive the mark of the beast to buy or sell. But when they are convinced that they no longer need her, they hate her, strip her and burn her.

Revelation 17:17-18: “For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the Words of God are fulfilled. And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.’”

According to Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water, He turns it whithersoever He will.” The Lord turns the hearts of the kings against Babylon.

Concerning the seven heads of the beast, they represents the seven kings of seven great earthly empires who opposed God’s people: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. Satan’s antichrist empire during the last days is the seventh kingdom.

The seventh kingdom has ten kings who rule the world. The ten kings probably allude to a ten-nation confederation personified as ten toes of a great image in Daniel 2:24-45. Whatever their exact identity, their actions are clear. They join with the antichrist in his war against Christ.

We can see aspects of the antichrist already at work as governments pass laws that favor those who defy the Bible and punish those who live by it.

As happened so often in the Scriptures, God causes those who oppose Him to turn against each other and destroy one another. The battle belongs to the Lord!

Revelation 17:14 is the key verse for us who believe in Jesus to remember. The Lord promises us, “The Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”

Don’t marvel at and follow the beast? So many people are marveling and following Marvel comic book heroes nowadays. They are not gods. They are empty imaginations. The true and only Savior and Lord of the world is Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to pay our sin debt, and resurrected from the dead to guarantee a place for us with God when we die.

What’s at stake? Eternal salvation! Heaven or hell! Life with God or eternal suffering with the devil. The greatest loss is to lose one’s soul. The greatest gain is to be with God forever.