Revelation Now :
Daily Devotional Bible Studies in Revelation
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The Beast hates the Prostitute : Day 63 
Then the angel said to me, "The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to give the beast their power to rule, until God's words are fulfilled. The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth." (Revelation 17.15-18)
The Prostitute
Verse 16 gives a picture of the ten horns rising violently against the prostitute who had been their mistress. They will devour her flesh. In the Old Testament that is the action of a most savage and powerful enemy. It is the complaint of the Psalmist that the wicked ate up his flesh (1). The wicked in Israel, with their grasping oppression, eat the flesh of the people of God (2). This is a picture of terrible vengeance. They will burn her in the fire. This is the punishment for the most heinous sin (3), and above all the punishment for the daughter of a priest who has been guilty of sexual immorality (4).It is to be noted that the harlot's previous lovers turned against her. Evil has in it a divisive power.
The Beast with Ten Horns
In verses 12 and 13 we read of the ten kings making common purpose with the beast; and in verse 17 we read that God put this into their hearts that his purposes might be carried out and his words fulfilled. Here is a strange thing. These evil powers thought they were working out their own purposes but they were, in fact, working out the purposes of God. "Even the wrath of men is made to praise God." (5) The truth behind this is that God never loses control of human affairs. In the last analysis God is always working things together for good.
Rome is to be destroyed by the invasion of the ten kings. It foretells the destruction of Rome by the rising against her of her subject nations. It is as if to say that the great prostitute will in the end be destroyed by her lovers turning against her.
Words to meditate on
What is the best thing you will take across the Great Divide?
Words to pray
When we all get to Heaven,
Notes
(1) Psalm 27:2 (2) Micah 3:3 (3) Leviticus 20:14 (4) Leviticus 21:9 (5) R. H. Charles
"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place."
