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

I was not sure where to start writing today.  Then I was struck by part of the description the angel gave of the scarlet beast.  He said, “it once was, now is not, and yet will come.”  I think we should note the similarity and difference with the formula used in Revelation 4:8:  “who was, and is, and is to come.”   This latter formula is used several times to refer to God in the Book of Revelation, and sometimes to refer to Jesus (thus making part of the case for the Trinity) and to indicate His eternal, unchanging existence.  The formula used here to describe the scarlet beast, I believe, is intended to indicate both its desire to be held up as divine and its inferiority to the Real thing.  Which brings me to the woman saw sitting on the beast.  The woman is symbolic of those who strive to control the beast, to control that which holds itself up as being worthy of being worshiped in place of God, in order to accomplish their own selfish desires.  I want to note that the woman here appears to represent a specific organization at a specific time (whether that organization is a government or some other type of organization is not entirely clear), but it may represent worldly society.  The woman will fail to control the beast and will instead be consumed by it.  And all who have tied their well-being to that of the woman will suffer on that day.  We who follow Christ and through Him serve God are called to separate ourselves from the world, from those who seek to replace God with something other than God.  I want to be perfectly clear.  This passage appears to be a prophecy about specific events, presenting them with symbols and metaphors, but there are lessons which apply to our interaction with this world even if we are not at the time being referred to here.

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