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Context No. 1142 of 4322 · Revelation

Context · Reflection

Revelation 17:1-6: in context

1One 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 prostitute who sits on many waters, 2with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality. Those who dwell on the earth were made drunken with the wine of her sexual immorality.” 3He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. 4The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of the sexual immorality of the earth. 5And on her forehead a name was written, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” 6I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.

An angel shows John a vision of judgment on the great prostitute, called Babylon the Great, who sits on many waters and on a scarlet beast. She is dressed in purple and scarlet, glittering with gold and jewels and pearls, holding a golden cup, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, the peoples made drunk on her wine. But on her forehead is written a name of mystery, and in her hand the cup is full of abominations, and she is drunk with the blood of the saints, the martyrs of Jesus. John says he marveled greatly at the sight.

The vision captures the two faces of the world-system that seduces God's people. From the outside, Babylon is dazzling, robed in purple and scarlet, dripping with gold and gems, holding a golden cup, the very picture of luxury and glamour that the kings of the earth cannot resist. That is how the world's seduction always presents itself, beautiful, rich, intoxicating, everyone drunk on it. But John is shown what is inside the golden cup, and it is abominations and filth, and he sees what the beautiful woman is actually doing, getting drunk on the blood of the saints. The glittering exterior hides a murderous, corrupt interior. This is the disenchantment the vision is meant to work: to see past the glamour of the world-system to what it really is, gorgeous on the outside, foul in the cup, deadly to the faithful. John marveled at her, and the danger is exactly that, being dazzled. The angel shows him her judgment precisely so that he, and we, will not be seduced by the surface but will see the blood in the cup, and refuse to drink.

Do I see the world's glittering seductions for what the golden cup actually holds, or am I, like John, in danger of being dazzled by the surface and drinking what is deadly?

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