Revelation 17:5 Commentary and Bible Study

There is a name on her forehead for all to see. It is a name which describes her true character. The Lord wants all to know what she is, so that none are unnecessarily taken in by her. Her name is a warning, so that the people of God realise how dangerous she is. She herself would like her name to be hidden because she wants to present herself in an altogether different light so as to maximise her opportunity to deceive.‘And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY [comma]’. Mystery is one of her names. Mystery in the New Testament has a rather special meaning. It simply means, it has previously been misunderstood, or not understood; it has been a mystery up until now. The apostle Paul uses the term in connection with the calling of the Gentiles: that the New Testament church consists of saved Jews and save Gentiles, both under the same roof, both in the one church of Christ, no wall of partition between them, no difference, and he calls it a mystery. ‘How can it be a mystery Paul? You've just explained it.’ Yes, but that's the point. It’s a mystery until the New Testament, then it becomes clear what God's purpose is. This is the sense in which the word is used here: what has been hitherto a mystery, is now revealed. The believer is given light on the harlot to understand what she is and how she works. But to the ungodly, she is a mystery still. It is of her essence to be mysterious, because it is important for her to hide her true nature from those she intends to deceive. ‘The mystery of iniquity doth already work’ (1 Thessalonians 2:7). She is a product of the deep working of the devil, a result of his skill and cunning to entrap men and women in sin. She is one of his agents by which vast numbers have been led away from God. They have willingly entangled themselves with her, believing that they have gained by doing so, convinced that the pleasures that she offers are real. ‘Babylon the great.’ Babylon, the city, was a great world centre of show, glamour, wealth, exhibitionism, self-indulgence, and gross immorality – everything to serve human lust and the fallen human heart. And she was destroyed. She is a picture of the world order today: the culture of the times. She is the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth’, the source of these, the engine behind them. This is the side of Satan's campaign that works by seduction. The title Babylon the great points to how extensive an influence she has over the people of this world. None who are born into the world escape her influence or are free of her corruption. All are born into her bosom, and as fallen human beings are unable to resist her. In Babel Satan first attempted to establish his kingdom on earth, and Nimrod must be seen as one of the early types of the antichrist. In order to stop the world prematurely reaching its evil conclusion, God slowed down the process of the development of the kingdom of antichrist by confusing men’s language and scattering them across the face of the world. Their intention, even then, had been to gather all mankind together into a single empire that controlled the thinking and behaviour of every human being. It was an anti-God confederacy of a religious nature that would ultimately lead to the worship of the devil himself through his antichrist. The devil’s ultimate intention is to steal that worship which belongs to God alone, and he even dared to try to get the Lord Jesus Christ to bow down before him.