Closing out the prostitute
15 And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. 16 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, 17 for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. 18 And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:15-18–ESV)
Here we come to a separate part of this chapter which is a prophecy within a prophecy, a subplot if you will. I like to think of Babylon as a city gone rogue. Not rogue from God for it was never a God oriented place, but rather gone rogue from Satan. Babylon was the center of Satan’s evil kingdom and has symbolized such throughout the scriptures.
The city of Babylon became drunk on the deeds of serving themselves. This is a Satan fostered philosophy and it does not lead to long term allegiance. So the ways of Satan as infused into what we know as the world ruling center turned sour on Satan. The rulers of that foul city did not want to give their worship to the Father of Foul.
So when the beast rises from the Abyss and the ten rulers ally their forces with the beast one of their first tasks is to destroy all that she held dear. Humiliation and destruction they bring on that rogue city.
What aggravated Satan?
He wanted worship and honor. Recall that the anti-Christ as part of his bargain had made an image of Beast 1 and sort of breathed life into it. The Dragon, Satan, wanted the world to worship HIM! It seemed that in Babylon many end up giving but lip service to Satan, the real father of Babylon. Sort of like lip service in the Christian church to draw parallels we are more familiar with. The people the world over would give their token worship to the idol of Beast 1, but their allegiance, their interest, their hunger was for the things of Babylon. They grew fond of her and what she had to offer.
As far as Satan was concerned the world was to honor him for all that he did for Beast 2 and Babylon itself. It did not work out that way, though, and the things found in Babylon were not offered back as thankfulness to the Devil, but the Devil was bypassed. In a way the great prostitute sought neither God the Father nor Satan the Counterfeiter, the Usurper.
This should come as no surprise for humanity loves itself and typically does what it needs in order to gain what it wants. Even Beast 2 was only giving lip service. He wanted world domination and was willing to give something to get it. He lived up to his bargain, but the larger group of people in Babylon where the culture and the human energies resided were under no such bargain. Obey their leader is something they did for without such obedience they would be destroyed, but love their leader? Not so much.
That is how I think Satan was fooled, aggravated.
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