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Revelation 17
5 And on her forehead a name was written, "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." 6 I 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. 7 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.
on her forehead
He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads; and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:16-17)
Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. (Revelation 14:9-10)
I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as didn't worship the beast nor his image, and didn't receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived, and reigned with Christ for the thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)
Then Uzziah was angry; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke forth in his forehead before the priests in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense. Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked on him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from there; yes, himself hurried also to go out, because Yahweh had struck him. (2 Chronicles 26:19-20)
For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh, to provoke the eyes of his glory. The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don't hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves. Tell the righteous "Good!" For they shall eat the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him. As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths. (Isaiah 3:8-12)
Moreover Yahweh said, "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes, walking to trip as they go, jingling ornaments on their feet; therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion, and Yahweh will make their scalps bald." (Isaiah 3:16-17)
Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see; where have you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute's forehead, you refused to be ashamed. (Jeremiah 3:2-3)
We must not miss the contrast here with the opposite as we have seen to be so vividly portrayed by the descriptions of the remnant of the seed of what this woman was originally.
I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea, saying, "Don't harm the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!" I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel: (Revelation 7:2-4)
I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a number, one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads. (Revelation 14:1)
The forehead represents the character formed in a person or group, the likeness developed according to the image of the version of God they embrace which in turn transforms them into that likeness.
Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)
a name was written
and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:17)
The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. Those who dwell on the earth and whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel when they see that the beast was, and is not, and shall be present. (Revelation 17:8)
This name written on her forehead is in clear contrast to the name written on these foreheads.
I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a number, one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads. (Revelation 14:1)
His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. (Revelation 19:12 NKJV)
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT
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. (Revelation 17:7)
For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way. (2 Thessalonians 2:7)
but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as he declared to his servants, the prophets. (Revelation 10:7)
Significantly, history is filled with records of mystery religions. Yet the Bible remains largely silent about them and instead focuses much more on the mystery of godliness. This woman is likely the repository and condensation of all the mystery religions of earth, intent on seizing control over the whole world just as the dragon and beasts are doing. Mysteries often have an enchanting power that seduces the curious or simple-minded into deceptions and darkness that in the end prove deadly.
THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES
However much she glorified herself, and grew wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, 'I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.' (Revelation 18:7)
Note the difference between the descriptive label on her forehead visible from heaven’s perspective, with the description she uses from her own perspective. She sees herself as a queen, not a mother. How does this relate to the differences between the original design of God and the counterfeit system of society relied on in this world?
By claiming she is not a widow, she is also in denial that she has spurned her true Husband. Even more, in actuality she is the cause of the putting to death of her Husband, the death inflicted on the Son of God who offered His life for her that she might be restored to her original design as His wife.
My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God. (Hosea 4:12)
As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. (Ezekiel 16:48)
These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they killed with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her. Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her prostitution which were more than the prostitution of her sister. (Ezekiel 23:10-11)
Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness; For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.' (Hosea 2:4-5)
THE MOTHER OF...THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH
The 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. (Revelation 17:4)
drunken with the blood of the saints
In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth. (Revelation 18:24)
After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation, power, and glory belong to our God: for true and righteous are his judgments. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." (Revelation 19:1-2)
For they poured out the blood of the saints and the prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this. (Revelation 16:6)
Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood; and in you they have eaten on the mountains: in the midst of you they have committed lewdness. (Ezekiel 22:9)
In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me, says the Lord Yahweh. (Ezekiel 22:12)
Her princes in the midst of it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. (Ezekiel 22:27)
I saw, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; (Daniel 7:21)
with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had. They cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6:9-10)
You shall strike the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Yahweh, at the hand of Jezebel. (2 Kings 9:7)
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. (Matthew 23:29-32)
Therefore also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.' Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. (Luke 11:49-51)
When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him. (Acts 22:20)
