Revelation 17:8-11

Revelation chapter 17, our focus this morning is going to be on verses 8 through 11, but let me read verses 1 through 11 for the background information. And there came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, come hither, and I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have made themselves drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, all of the names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple, and scarlet color, decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a gold cup in her hand, full of abominations, and filthiness of her fornication. Upon her forehead was a name-written mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, with the blood of the martyrs, Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carryeth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that thou saw us was, and is not, shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. They that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation, from the foundation of the world, when they beheld the beast that was and is not and yet is. Here is the mind which have wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth, and there are seven kings. Five are fallen. One is, and the other is not yet come. When he cometh. he must continue a short space. The beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and he is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. God blessed to us his sacred and holy word this morning. Now, we said that the first seven verses of this chapter provide us with the vision here of the harlot, the great harlot. We talked. about the fact that apostate Israel is the one that has played the harlot. Throughout the Old Testament, you find that kind of language being used. But in particular, Jerusalem is being portrayed by this harlot. As verse 18 indicates to us, the woman which thou saw us is that great city. And we referenced chapter 11, a book of Revelation, and verse 18. eight, or it talks about the great city being called Sodom and Egypt. It’s where our Lord was crucified, and therefore it’s identified for us pretty clearly as Jerusalem. The city, of course, is where the temple worship was located, and that had been corrupted by the Jews. We also talked about in verses one and two, the spiritual, influence of Jerusalem over the waters, or as we find in this passage of Scripture, verse 15 indicates to us that the waters are many peoples and multitudes and so forth. And here we have the idea that many of the nations within the Roman Empire had corrupted worship because the Jews were scattered throughout all these nations. Remember Acts chapter 2, at least 15 nations had people there at Jerusalem worshipping. There are synagogues in every city, as we read in Acts chapter 15, where they taught the things that the temple, of course, and the leaders of the temple were promoting. So this corruption spread over all these people. They also committed fornication with the king. kings of the earth, or the kings of the land. And here that phrase we took from Psalm 2 and Acts chapter 4, where Peter says it refers to Herod and to Pilate and to Pilate and so forth, so that the Jews used the Roman leadership, the governors, and so forth, in their pursuit of the persecution of the church and to putting the death of Christ and so forth. And then, of course, the people, the inhabitants of the land, were also swayed by the religious leaders to worship the beast, to worship Caesar. We have no king but Caesar. And, of course, they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they corrupted those around them. The spiritual state of Jerusalem was likened to a wilderness. We read in verse 3 in the first point. heart. This, we could refer to from various passage in the Old Testament. We looked at Josea chapter 2, verses 2 and 3, where the harlot, Gomer, of course, Josea’s wife plays the harlot, and of course that portrays Israel, playing the harlot against Jehovah God, unfaithful worship. And he says, if you don’t repent, I’m going to make you a wilderness. Well, a wilderness is a barren place where there’s hardly any life. And that’s what Jerusalem is like. This is what the nation is like at this point. We also saw that Jerusalem is supported and maintained by the beast in the second part of verse 3. The woman rides. She sits on the beast. She rides it. She uses the beast for her purposes. You recall that we looked at Romans 13, and we studied the beast as being the Roman Empire in sometimes in particular the head of the Roman Empire, the Caesar, who was over the empire. And so what happens is Jerusalem used the Roman Empire to fulfill her purposes. And for a period of time, she rides the beast. The attire of the harlot, we said, was like that of the sacred office of the priesthood. Some of the same colors and so forth. Exodus 3rd. The decking out with the various gems and the gold and so forth remind us of the breastplate of the priest, the golden cup, the golden vessels of the temple and so forth. And here, so we show that this is a corrupted worship that’s going on, and this is sort of a way to portray that. We also mentioned their hypocrisy because in the Golden Cup, of course, it’s full of murder and iniquity and hypocrisy, false worship, and the embrace of the beast, and so forth. In verse 5, the title on her forehead, if you look at Exodus 39, the breast, the turban, had a golden plate on it, the high priest war. it said holiness under the Lord. Well, in this case, it’s not holiness under the Lord, but it is an indication of their corruption, because it talks about the fact that of mystery Babylon, the Great, the mother of harlots, and the abominations of the earth. This is not someone that’s holy under the Lord. This is someone who’s corrupted. This reflects her corruption. of those cities and towns and synagogues, not only in Judea and in the Galilee area, but throughout the Roman Empire, because they corrupted. They were the Great Harlot. They had daughters. They had, they produced others who followed their way of worship, and thus they corrupted these others. In fact, we looked from Ezekiel. where he talks about the daughters of Jerusalem. The word abominations, we connected from the Old Testament, with heathen worship. And, of course, when they started worshipping Caesar, when they took Caesar over Christ, this was a sign that they were corrupted with the abominations of the heathen worship. Of the Romans worshiped the Caesars. as gods. In verse 6, we see that Jerusalem is responsible for all that we’re slaying upon the earth or the land, as 1824 indicates to us also of Revelation. This includes the prophets, the apostles. It includes the saints of God. And so they’re drunken with the blood of the martyrs. They have slaughtered so many over. the years. Remember what Jesus said that, you know, can it be that a prophet die outside of Jerusalem? John, we see in verse 7, is astonished by this vision. He’s stunned by what he sees here. It’s a very visual picture. And he needs divine illumination. And so one of the angels that brought one of the judgments of the vile judgments in the previous chapter, they were the last plagues on Israel. He is going to explain this, because this is sort of like an expansion of that of further information with regard to the fall of Babylon that’s mentioned in chapter 16. So now we’re looking at the explanation. The mystery of the harlot explained in verses 8 to 18. The recovery of the beast is found in verses 8 through 11. This is the first area of explanation and there’s a lot of detail here and therefore we’re just going to focus on that this morning before we proceed further. It’s quite complex. I’m going to go slowly so that we can understand exactly what the angel here is saying. Bear with me because of the detail. I think it’s necessary for us to understand it and to ponder it. If you have a question, we’ll stop and try to answer it if we can’t given the light that we have knowing that I, you know, I’m not, I don’t have all light, but hopefully I have some light that will be of help to us on this. Now, the recovery of the beast, verses 8 through 11. We have first of all a cause to wonder. In verse 8, the beast which thou sawst, was and is not, shall ascend out of the bottom of this pit and go into perdition, and they that dwell upon the earth or the land. shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is. Those who belong to apostate Israel certainly wondered at the recuperative powers of the beast. What would have destroyed any other nation here failed? to destroy the Roman Empire, but it comes close. It’s amazing to behold. Previously, you recall in chapter 13 in verse 3, we read that one of the heads of the beast was wounded, and it suffered a deadly wound. And yet, the empire was healed, and people were wondering after the beast. We said that that that referred to, Julia, Caesar. Julia Caesar was the first emperor, as I have listed on the war of the Roman Empire. He was assassinated by the Senate because they didn’t really want a dictator. Now, though he didn’t say he was a dictator, he made himself God, and he pretty much had supreme command over everything, and he called, he was a Caesar. And therefore, they assassinated him, and that threw the whole empire into chaos in civil wars for 13 years. You’ll notice there was 13 years between Dilius and Augustus here. So for 13 years, there was a war between the eastern and western parts of the empire. Finally, the empire was stabilized when Augustus, Caesar’s adopted son, defeated all opposing forces, and became the second emperor of the Roman Empire. And then the long peace was established, the Pax Romana. A long period of peace was established in the Roman Empire. And people wondered after the beast because this deadly wound was healed. But now we have a second blow that occurs in the present time to a head. Because you’ll notice that he tells us here, in a verse, you’ll notice that he tells us here, verse 11, the beast that was and is not, he is the eighth and is of the seven and go in perdition. So that indicates to us that he’s talking about a different head than the original one, Julius, that was mentioned in chapter 13. This is the eighth. We’ll come back to that in a moment. So here’s a second blow. Nero commits suicide. And we talked about the throwing of the empire into a chaotic state once again. This time it appeared that the Roman Empire would be torn apart and never recover. It was as good as dead going through a violent revolution, seeing there were three emperors to come to power and murder in one year before Vespasian takes over. That was the year of the four emperors. So with the empire, empire about to disintegrate by Civil War suddenly again, it’s healed. And Vespusian, excuse me, Vespasian, gathered enough support to conquer all those who in opposition, all his rivals, became the new emperor, and his family line then will rule for some time. And so it’s basically the first part here, at least the first six, have to do with Julius Caesar’s line, but from A. On, Vespasian on, as we’ll see, this begins the Vespasian line of the Caesars, similar to the seventh before, but a different head. Thus, the beast, which thou sawst and was, and was, and is not, and was good as dead, that disappeared, it seems like for a time, recovers. however, it shall ascend out of the bottomless pit. Again, Satan is the one instigating a lot of the activities, and he’s behind a lot of the activities of the activities of the Caesars and their evil attacks on the church. Thus, he revives the beast, sends it forth. It continues to attack the people of God, and yet, despite the recovery of the beast, the church is assured, finally, it will go into perdition. It too will be. be destroyed. Destruction is inevitable. In chapter 19, verse 20, touches on that. But all who wonder after the beast, what we find will not have their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. And chapter 20 and verse 15 indicates these are the ones that will perish. So this is a cause to wonder. Here’s the second recovery that we have. Now, in verses 9, to 11, we have laid out for us the heads of the beast. Are there any questions on the first part of this? Yes. Why on the number seven, you don’t go eight, nine, ten, you know, why do you not remember? I’m going to touch on that now. Othello and Vitalius were interlopers. The Bible doesn’t seem to recognize them as genuine Caesar’s. And a lot. Some, people, some of those who did histories on the Caesers leave them out. Some include them and some leave them out. They were, they had like three months each. So they were not really, they sort of usurp power and they didn’t really have the recognition of the position. We’re going to touch on that at this point. Let’s look at verses 9 through 11. Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are the seven mountains in which the woman sit there are seven kings, five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come. When he cometh he must continue a short space. And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth in the perdition. Now, those with spiritual wisdom will be able to discern what God is revealing to us. Actually, it’s easily deduced if you have an understanding of what the basic thrust of the passage is speaking about. This text provides a geographical and a historical identification regarding the beast. The seven mountains, the seven heads are first of all called seven mountains. This refers to the famous hills of Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire. Rome is widely known as the city on seven hills. The ancient word was septimontium in the Latin. I think September, the seventh month, Montium Mountain, the seventh month, the seven mountain city is what it speaks of. The seven mountains are associated with the beast on which the woman sits, but not the harlot itself, herself. So it’s the, the beast is connected with the seven mountains. The woman is just sitting on the beast. The seven heads here are also said to be, according to verse 10, seven kings. Obviously, associated with the city that sits on the seven hills. These kings reign from this location. Now, you’ll notice that the kings don’t reign at the same time. They reign consecutively. Because it speaks about five fallen, one is, one yet to come, and so forth. So that they’re not all reigning at the same time. So we’re talking about consecutive. kings here. And so when we look at this passage of scripture, the first six heads are the the Julian Claudian, if you would, line of the emperors of Rome. We have no king but Caesar. So they are kings. And we recognize in scripture as kings. The emperors are kings. This breaks down in the past, present, and future emperors. Here, I broke it down for you, I put the dates, there that they rain. The first five, of course, are Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Collegylla, and Claudius. The one that is, when John is writing, is Nero. The one that has not yet come is Galba, who will only reign for a short time, just six or seven months here, that he reigns. So short space as a scripture. Now, these seven, and Golba, of course, was the governor near Spain, and he was hailed as emperor by his legions, and he commanded, that he commanded, he was certainly confirmed by the Roman Senate as a Caesar, so he’s recognized as a Caesar legitimately. But he only reigns. a short time. And then Otho had Galba and his heirs and advisors slaughtered and he seized the emperorship. But he only lasts three months when Vitalius likewise had himself proclaimed as emperor by his legions in Germany. He comes in. He knocks off all the guards of Otho and he becomes the new emperor. Of course, he doesn’t last very long either. A lot of this information I got from Michael Grant, a brief history of Rome. But the key point here that I want to make is that John is presently living during the reign of the Sixth Emperor Nero. This fixes with absolute certainty the timeframe of when John is writing. The Beast is contemporary with John. The Beast is not a thousand years into the third. future. It’s not 2,000 years in the future. It’s a present reality. And this, I think, is proof of the early date of one of the proofs of Revelation that it was written before June 68, A.D. Verse 11 is somewhat complicated. Let’s look at this carefully. The beast that was and is not. Now this refers back to verse 8, of course. He is the 8th, and is of the 7, and goeth into perdition. Now, there’s an important point of grammar that we will mention here. That should not be missed. The definite article is found in verse 11 repeatedly, where the word the word the beast, the seven, but before the eighth, there is no article. It is an eighth, actually, in the Greek. Indicating to it. us that the 5, the one, the one that come, they all vanish before the 8th, and the article disappears. So that what we have here literally is, he, even he, 8th is, is what it says. Now, the reason for this, it seems, is that Vespascian was the true successor of the 7th. And as a result, was not the 8th, but an n-8th, indicating to us that the Bible does seem to recognize that there were these two interlopers, Otho and Vitalius, but they’re not going to recognize them as true Caesar’s. The Bible is not going to. So he was not numerically or sequentially the 8th, but he was an 8th. And he was like, or like, similar to the 7 before him. Literally, Otho was the 8th head, and Vitalius was the 9th, but they intruded. And they only lasted actually eight months. They were usurpers. The beast did not rise from ruin under them. In fact, civil war and chaos took place under them and persisted. Thus, they were very. limited rank. The year of the four emperors almost brought about the destruction of the empire, and it looked like the beast was actually dead. And then an eighth comes. Vespasian, and he is of the seven in the sense that he is the true successor, and he’s legitimately recognized as the Caesar. He establishes his line of the Caesars. So when we compare this, verse 11 with verse eight, we see he’s the one that restores the empire to its former glory. Once again, this passion offers a new beginning. And this family line will now stabilize the main rule over the empire. It comes back from the dead a second time. It revives. But it will not continue for too much longer as the persecutor of the church. And so John, again, is assured that the beast will finally come to an end and go into perdition. I’m going to stop there this morning. Is there any questions about this more complex session? The indifference article in verse 11, King James is using a definite article. Yes, but if you look at the Greek, you’ll see that it’s, I don’t know why it’s not an italics here. It should be in italics, but I looked at Greens inner lininger, which is a King James majority text version. It doesn’t have it. In fact, you know, he transplates it underneath as as I said, even he ate this. So it’s not the end of the world. It’s not the end of the world. It’s you know, if we want to put the article there, but it seems like he’s indicating to us that there is a at least a reference to the idea that these two interlopers were there and we’re going to recognize this passion. That’s all I don’t know to say. Yes. And just, maybe this will want to help too with maybe why they did that. Greek doesn’t have an indefinite article. He’s saying that the article, Greek only has an article, not a definite article. It just adds definite mess, and it’s lacking there. So sometimes, in some texts, depending on the grammar, you do need to supply in English. The definite article. Yeah. Yeah. You could have been translated in eight because the article wasn’t there. And it might have been maybe a little bit better as far as helping us if they had done that. But it’s not, this is the, the eighth one here’s the one that revives it. the only one that I can see that came after the seven that revived it was best passion and so he must be the eight anything else yes so were these kings related by the one the first from julius all way through Niro yes this is all the jillian line here gulva was he was a governor in spain and i can’t i can’t connection I looked up the line of Julian line I couldn’t find if where he was connected with the Julian line at first I thought he was but I evidently he was not or at least I can’t I haven’t found him these two were interlopers as we mentioned then Vespassian Titus of course is the son of this fashion and so the Vespassian line starts here so there’s just two main lines the Julian line and the Vespasian line. When we look at the Roman history, you’ll see those two with regard to the emperorship in particular. Is Augustus sexually related by blood to Julius? He’s adopted and I don’t know, I don’t know exactly it. I’d have to look that up. He was his nephew. He’s a nephew, okay. He was related then. Was a sister’s son? Yeah, that’s right. sister son. Anything else? Well, we’ll stop here then.