Revelation 17:1-18
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. (v. 8) This triad, …was, and is not, andis about to rise…, didn’t make much sense to me until my Study Bible suggested evil that was, but is not now apparent, but will become so in the future. An interesting point about this triad is how it compared to Jesus, “who was, who is, and who is to come”. The beast triad is repeated at the end of verse 8.
A bit of today’s reading is the most confusing of anything yet that we’ve read in Revelation: And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire… (v. 16) This prostitute/harlot is evil herself, having been described as …holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality… (v. 4b), with a label on her forehead, “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” (v.5b), and described further as …drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. (v. 6b) Yet she is made desolate and naked, eaten and burned by others seemingly as evil as herself. Evil battling evil…?? Stalin/Russia doing battle with Hitler in WWII? There is no “winner” in a battle of this sort – Earth is the loser!
Fred, my Bible study says that those turning on the woman reflect how evil operates. Evil discards its own adherents when they cease to serve its purpose. Each evil partner in an evil alliance puts it’s own interests first. No loyalty there!