I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 17-19.

    The beast upon which the woman sits in this passage is the same beast which John saw coming out of the sea in chapter 13. However, this is a separate understanding of that “beast’s” role in the end times from what we looked at yesterday. I am unsure if this portion of John’s vision is a different interpretation of the events we read about yesterday, or if this represents different events involving the same powers. I suspect that it is some hybrid of those two, because at the end of today’s passage there is a reference to those who had accepted the mark of the beast.

    One of the things which make understanding this passage is that the beast and the woman riding the beast are sort of the same thing. In order to explain this, I will work from what appears to have been John’s understanding of their meaning (which, despite the fact that he was the one to whom God gave this vision and wrote it down, I believe was only partially correct). John appears to view the woman as Rome, the seat of the Roman Empire, and the beast as the government of Rome. As with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, to some degree what John is describing in this vision happens again and again throughout history. As I see this, John is saying that those who ruled over Rome hated Rome and destroyed it for their own gain. This fits with the various things I have read about how Rome fell. And it is consistent with what I have seen of other great nations throughout history. At the peak of the Empire’s power those who rule over it stop seeing it as a great nation which they serve and begin to see it as a means to satisfy their own desires. Inevitably, once that starts it is just a matter of time until the nation, which for all intents and purposes rules the world, falls, throwing the world into chaos.

    With the fall of the great nation those who never worshiped it but instead remained faithful to God see new opportunities to preach the Gospel and thus they praise God. Rather than seeing the chaos as a reason to mourn, they see it as an opportunity to praise God and call others to repentance. Those who worship the powers of this world will unite to turn on them, but their attacks on God’s people are thwarted and they are destroyed and a new nation rises to power out of those who worship God. Unfortunately, throughout history such nations quickly become controlled by those who worship the nation rather than God, those who did not learn the lesson of the last fall. However, the day is coming when Christ Himself will take charge over the Earth and the cycle of history will come to an end.