Eschatology : Events of the Tribulation No.13

The Destruction of the False Church by the Hands of the Antichrist.

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

Rev 17:17  For God gave into their hearts to do His mind, and to act with one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast until the Words of God will be fulfilled.

JFB’s Commentary

Rev 17:18  And the woman whom you saw is the great city which has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.

upon the beast — But A, B, Vulgate, and Syriac read, “and the beast.”

shall make her desolate — having first dismounted her from her seat on the beast (Rev_17:3).

naked — stripped of all her gaud (Rev_17:4). As Jerusalem used the world power to crucify her Savior, and then was destroyed by that very power, Rome; so the Church, having apostatized to the world, shall have judgment executed on her first by the world power, the beast and his allies; and these afterwards shall have judgment executed on them by Christ Himself in person. 

So Israel leaning on Egypt, a broken reed, is pierced by it; and then Egypt itself is punished. So Israel’s whoredom with Assyria and Babylon was punished by the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. 

So the Church when it goes a-whoring after the world as if it were the reality, instead of witnessing against its apostasy from God, is false to its profession. Being no longer a reality itself, but a sham, the Church is rightly judged by that world which for a time had used the Church to further its own ends, while all the while “hating” Christ’s unworldly religion, but which now no longer wants the Church’s aid.

eat her flesh — Greek plural, “masses of flesh,” that is, “carnal possessions”; implying the fullness of carnality into which the Church is sunk. The judgment on the harlot is again and again described (Rev_18:1; Rev_19:5); first by an “angel having great power” (Rev_18:1), then by “another voice from heaven” (Rev_18:4-20), then by “a mighty angel” (Rev_18:21-24). Compare Eze_16:37-44, originally said of Israel, but further applicable to the New Testament Church when fallen into spiritual fornication. On the phrase, “eat ... flesh” for prey upon one’s property, and injure the character and person, compare Psa_14:4; Psa_27:2; Jer_10:25; Mic_3:3.

The Harlot represents the unfaithful church that has entered into an illicit relationship with the political rulers of the world, “the kings of the earth” (17:2).  That is why she is able to persecute all dissenters (She is drunk with the blood of the saints).

The prostitute imagery of Revelation 17 is dependent on Ezekiel 16; 20; 23.  Ezekiel portrayed Israel (including Judah and Jerusalem) as the unfaithful covenant partner of Yahweh, a bloodthirsty, self-glorifying prostitute.  Both Ezekiel and John use the harlot symbol to indict God’s unfaithful covenant partner for:  sexual immorality or idolatry, and oppression and murder OF HER OWN CHILDREN! Lorraine Day, M.D.