Lord of Lords

One of the angels who had the seven bowls says to John, Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters. In the Old Testament, the prophets often described unfaithfulness to God as spiritual adultery. Here the woman represents the great city that reigns over the kings of the earth, a symbol of a corrupt world system built on wealth, pleasure, and power. Her cup is golden, but it is full of wickedness, and she is drunk with the blood of the saints and of the witnesses of Jesus.

John is amazed, and the angel explains the mystery of the woman and the beast that carries her. The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. It is a dark imitation of God, who is and who was and who is to come. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits and also seven kings. The ten horns are ten kings who receive authority for one hour with the beast. Revelation does not give a simple key for every symbol, and Christians have interpreted these details in different ways.

What is clear is the outcome. These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings. They also will overcome who are with him, called, chosen, and faithful. Strikingly, evil destroys itself: the ten horns and the beast come to hate the woman and ruin her. John explains, God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, until the words of God should be accomplished.