Babylon and the Beast (Revelation 17-18)

Big Idea: We are meant for relationship with Jesus, not with a seductress who’s trying to draw us away and is doomed for judgment.

There’s something about certain cities that I really like.

I love London, England. I love the history. I love visiting Metropolitan Tabernacle where Spurgeon preached. I love visiting Bunhill Fields, where John Bunyan and Susanna Wesley are buried. The British Museum, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey — I could go on and on.

I love New York City: its restaurants, its shows, its history, its energy. I love Washington, D.C.: its iconic monuments, memorials, museums, and history. When you stand in the Rotunda of the Capitol Building and look up, it’s simply breathtaking.

Cities like London, New York, and Washington, D.C., feel permanent and embody the best of human culture. They're built to endure for generations to come. Long after you and I are gone, people will walk the streets of these cities and admire the same things that we do.

So it’s not hard to imagine what it may have felt like to walk the streets of Rome almost two thousand years ago. You step through the gate into a city that overwhelms your senses. Over a million people crowd this city. Gleaming marble temples stretch skyward, and the colossal Colosseum dominates the horizon.

The streets surge with people—merchants in tunics, soldiers in leather and brass, and visitors from every corner of the empire. Various languages mix with the sounds of hammers, creaking wagon wheels on stone streets, and vendors calling out their goods. The scents of wood smoke, incense, fresh bread, and exotic spices mix with less pleasant urban odors.

Imagine visiting the Forum with speakers delivering speeches and merchants trading, or watching chariot races at Circus Maximus in front of large crowds. Imagine admiring the city's impressive engineering: advanced hydraulics, heated floors, glass windows, and innovative concrete construction that enables massive domed buildings.

Rome showcased ancient accomplishments through its engineering, culture, and ambition, characterized by stark wealth and poverty, remaining unmatched for over a thousand years.

But the passage we just read states that Rome, along with London, New York, Washington, D.C., Toronto, and other human cultures that oppose God, will ultimately fall.

Setting the Scene

We’ve been in Revelation since September. I know we could say this every week, but we’re in a really difficult part. It’s rich. It’s deep. It can be puzzling at parts. It’s why so many people avoid the book of Revelation. We’re not used to apocalyptic literature and all the symbolism. It can be confusing, but that’s not even the hardest part. Wait until you understand what it’s saying.

Today’s text is a good example. Last week, we looked at the seven bowls of earth from Revelation 16. We saw that God's judgment against sin is certain, but those who trust in Jesus need not fear it — their sins were already judged when Christ died on the cross. Revelation 16 is terrifying because we see how serious God is about judging evil in this world. It’s awful.

But now we come to chapter 17. Chapter 17 amplifies the sixth and seventh bowls of chapter 16. So these chapters are a continuation of God pouring out his wrath on a wicked world.

Here’s what this passage will teach us: We are meant for relationship with Jesus, not with a seductress who’s trying to draw us away and is doomed for judgment.

Let’s see if we can work our way through the message of the text.

Understanding Revelation 17-18

Revelation 17 to 18 tells us three things we need to know.

First, we face a seductress.

Revelation is leading up to a wedding in chapter 19. I can’t wait. But before the wedding, we face a temptation. We meet this temptation in 17:1-2:

Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.

You have this prostitute. She’s seated on many waters. Verse 15 explains what this means: “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.” She has a lot of power over a lot of people.

When you read her description, it’s grotesque. According to verse 2, she’s been able to seduce the kings of the earth. She’s dressed in designer clothes with real gold and jewels and pearls. She’s holding a golden cup. She must be rich. She’s holding a cup, but instead of that cup holding fine wine, it’s full of the blood of those who have refused her. Also inside the cup is the evidence of the disgusting and degrading things she’s done. She’s had way too much to drink from this cup, and she’s intoxicated.

In verse 3, she is seen alongside the first beast from chapter 13, representing Satan's power that opposes and persecutes God's people.

Who is this woman? We don’t have to guess:

And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. (Revelation 17:5-6)

Babylon has a long history in the Bible. It first appears in Genesis in the story of the Tower of Babel, humanity's initial organized rebellion against God. Later on, Babylon emerged as a physical kingdom that conquered and exiled Israel. Still later, Babylon became code for worldly opposition to God. It represents any system or society that stands against divine authority, leading people away from true worship and toward destruction.

Babylon symbolizes organized human defiance against God, appearing in various forms throughout history.

There is a strong and seductive force in the world that seeks to distract us from our intended partner.

Here’s a warning to the church: culture is a seductress, and she’s better at it than most of us think… John warned us, “Watch out for her. She’s prettier than you think she is. Watch out for her. She’ll seduce you. Be careful. (Matt Chandler)

Revelation is flashing warning lights. Others have fallen for her, but don’t let her draw you away from Christ. As one preacher (C.J. Mahaney) said, “Today, the greatest challenge facing American evangelicals is not persecution from the world, but seduction by the world.”

That’s the first thing we see in this passage. We face a seductress. But here’s the second thing we learn in this passage.

We need to see what’s really going on behind the seduction.

Verses 7 to 18 unmask this seductress for who she is. Don’t fall for her seduction. Recognize her so you can resist her and stand against her designs.

So who is she? These verses are among the most complex and confusing in Revelation and possibly in the entire New Testament. But let's give it a try. The beast has seven heads and ten horns. These seven heads are obviously a reference to Rome, which was built on seven hills. But in verse 10, they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, and another who has not yet come. The beast is the eighth king who belongs to the seventh. And then you have 10 more kings who rule simultaneously in verse 12. Are you confused yet? There are a lot of interpretations of this. Thousands of pages have been written on it. Nobody agrees.

Instead of focusing on specific Roman emperors or historical figures, which often leads to confusion, we should see these symbols as reflections of common patterns of worldly power.

The symbolism of seven heads, mountains, and kings represents complete or total authority. While Rome provided the immediate context for the original audience, the imagery extends beyond Rome itself. Mountains and hills often represent power in prophetic literature, such as in Daniel 2 and Jeremiah 51, where Babylon is referred to as a "destroying mountain."

For the original readers, Rome (the "city on seven hills") was the clear example of this worldly power. However, the message extends beyond Rome to show a pattern that would continue throughout church history. The beast, with its seven heads, represents complete political power that opposes God's people.

The mention of five fallen kings, one present, and one to come highlights the ongoing conflict between worldly power and God's kingdom. This helped the early church understand their struggles and prepare them, along with future readers, for ongoing opposition until Christ’s final victory.

And what about the woman? We discover who the seductress is in verse 18: “And the woman you saw is the great city that has royal power over the kings of the earth.” This woman symbolizes Babylon, representing its essence across history—Rome at its height, as well as London, New York, and Toronto. It represents all the cities of the world. It represents fallen human culture in all its glory that is opposed to God and his values.

We face a seductress. What’s going to help us resist being seduced by this temptress? To see what’s really going on. Behind the seductive powers of this world is a system that’s opposed by God. There’s a lot of evil going on, so don’t be seduced. See what’s really going on and the seduction will become ugly to you. It will lose all of its power.

Okay. We face a seductress. But we need to see what’s really going on behind the seduction. There’s one more thing this passage wants us to know.

That seductress is going down so stay as far away as possible.

Revelation 17:16 is shocking: “The ten horns you saw, and the beast, will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, devour her flesh, and burn her up with fire.”

That seductress who looks really good right now? She’s going down at the hands of evil itself. This is the thing about evil. It always turns in on itself. Tom Schreiner says: “Evil finally implodes and destroys itself from within.” It’s the beast and the then kings who destroy the seductress, but God is behind it. He always carries out his purposes in the world. The seductress will be destroyed. Evil always turns on itself.

And chapter 18 is all about the destruction of this seductress. Here’s a sample:

Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
She has become a dwelling place for demons,
a haunt for every unclean spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
(18:2)
And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. (18:9)

Chapter 18 is about one thing: the total, complete destruction of the seductress. Those who built their lives, wealth, and identity in Babylon will lose everything. Kings and merchants who partnered with her will weep as they watch her burn, knowing their own doom approaches. Those who profited from exploitation will see their luxuries vanish. All their wealth, possessions, and securities will become worthless in a single day, leaving them in mourning.

And so here’s the message to us in Revelation 18:4:

Come out of her, my people,
lest you take part in her sins,
lest you share in her plagues…

She’s going down, so stay as far away as possible. Don’t get seduced by her. You’re already betrothed to another. Don’t fall for her deceptive attractions.

I look around at the world. It's hard to look at Rome or Washington or New York and see anything but human culture at its best. That's where the real power is. That's what's going to satisfy.

But there are two cities: Babylon and The New Jerusalem. We're not meant to be satisfied by Babylon in any of its forms. We can either have a relationship with the One who died to save us or engage in a dangerous fling with an evil seductress who will lead us astray. As Nancy Guthrie warns, "We can't allow ourselves to be seduced by a love that won't last."

This world system is seductive. It draws people away from God through cultural achievement, luxury, and temporal power. It offers fulfillment apart from God, but it never delivers. The New Jerusalem, in contrast, represents those who have chosen to love and worship God above all else.

No matter how grand human achievements seem, from ancient Rome to modern cities like New York and London, any system rooted in pride and opposition to God will ultimately fail. So come out of her. Don't be captivated by earthly glory and temporary pleasures. Empires that oppose God will eventually fail, while those who stay faithful will inherit eternal life.

Keep waiting for the marriage that's coming. Live for a city that will never be destroyed. You were made for more than Babylon can offer. Don't get pulled away by anything less than God himself.