‘And he says to me, “The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her utterly with fire”.'
Idolatry and its accompaniments will flourish among the nations, and indeed does so to the present time. Large portions of the earth are idolatrous, and idolatrous Temples are even now rising in so-called ‘Christian' countries. Furthermore large portions of Christendom are idolatrous, for while they theoretically speak of venerating rather than worshipping, in actual fact many of the adherents do worship images and icons. And idolatry can lie as much in veneration of a flag or of famous persons or in riches as in worship of a graven image, when these things take an unhealthy control of a person's life. Science has not disposed of idolatry, it has refined it. Thus the prostitute sits among the nations.
But in the end idolatry will be cast off and replaced directly with a monotheistic religion which consciously or unconsciously is a tool of Satan. He, acting through his Beastly leader and the unholy alliance, will brook no rivals even of his own devising. With the present situation in the Middle East this could well be militant Islam, which is closely associated with the area where Babylon was situated. Thus she who has so maltreated and persecuted others will herself be persecuted. His ‘ten kings' will destroy the prostitute before they too meet their end. Thus they will fulfil the words of Jesus, ‘if Satan rises up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand but has an end' (Mark 3:26).
The language here is reminiscent of Ezekiel 16:39; Ezekiel 23:25-29 where it was spoken of the harlot who represented faithless Jerusalem. Scripture there confirms that ‘eat her flesh and burn her utterly with fire' refers to death and destruction resulting from war (Ezekiel 23:25 see also Isaiah 49:26). Here in Revelation the destruction takes place even as preparations are being made for the final battle with the Lamb. It is deliberate irony that Great Babylon, established by man, is now to be destroyed by man, leaving the final confrontation to take place between God and Satan as in Genesis 3.