Why will the Beast destroy Babylon?

There are many things written against how depraved and evil the Babylonian system is. Indeed its correctly mentioned as sinful and blasphemous in its nature and workings. However, I also see how many are wondering how to defeat Babylon and seem scared due to that.  My answer to that is to be brave and look at what the Holy Scriptures says about her downfall by the Beast on which she rides. Let’s first read a description about her by John in the Book of Revelation:

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgement of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. (Revelation 17:1-6)

What we must utterly dislike about Babylon is that she is “the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus”. That shows her murderous nature towards believers in the Lord God. So, such a behavior ought to be punished greatly.

Indeed God has spoken judgement against Babylon and also wants his people out of her ways. The following verses confirm this:

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed. (Revelation 18: 4-6)

And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. 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, 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.  (Revelation 17:15-17)

Because of the sins of Babylon, the Lord God destined it to be that the very Beast on which Babylon rides will become the instrument of her destruction. Don’t think that the Beast is doing anyone any favor. In a bid to be in control and assert its own dominance over the world the Beast along with the ten horns will ensure that the Babylonian system is taken down by brutal violence. So the evil ambitions of the Beast will be used by God to destroy Babylon in the process.

A thing to take note; Babylon though spoken of as a wicked woman is not actually one single person. The Bible makes it specific that Babylon is a city that has remarkable influence over world leaders. The following verses confirm this:

• And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth. (Revelation 17:18)
• Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,“So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more (Revelation 18:21)

Someone might ask what about Matthew 12:26 which says “And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?” in the context of the Beast destroying Babylon?

A simple answer to that would be Babylon is not Satan though she is profoundly wicked which warrants God’s judgment against her. Besides Revelation 17:17 says; 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.

To make it more clear, God can use anyone to fulfill his purposes. That includes using those who are evil to bring God’s judgement upon the wicked. You might like to call them as unwitting accomplices of God. And this is consistent with the Bible. Here are two examples from the Holy Scriptures:

• Sennacherib the king of Assyria, was killed by his owns sons as a result of God’s judgement on him due to his blasphemy against God. (Read 2 Chronicles 32:1-22)
• Ahab the king of Israel who was very wicked and who was also the husband of the evil and idolatrous queen Jezebel, was killed by the a soldier of the king of Syria in a battle with the Syrians. This was due to God’s judgement upon Ahab prophesied by the prophet Micaiah. Now take note the king of Syria didn’t worship the Lord God yet God used him to execute his judgement. (Read 1 Kings 22:1-38)

To conclude, it’s true that God will use anyone (including sinners) to work good for those who love him. He is so great that he will use even the Beast to punish Babylon for her sins against those who believe in the Lord God. This shows a new dimension to Romans 8:28 which one might have not noticed earlier.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.(Romans 8:28)

In prosperity be humble before God

In prosperity, give thanks to God with humility and fear lest by pride you abuse God’s benefits and so offend him (King St. Louis of France)

In adversity, it’s easy to be humble before God as you know that your ability cannot save you. You therefore come in prayer and in deep respect before God for your breakthrough or miracle. One of the reasons why non Christians get miracles when they pray to Jesus Christ is because they know that they have expended the last straw and have nothing left to save them. So acknowledging their helplessness, they usually pray to Jesus saying they don’t have anything to deserve a miracle but come humble appealing to his mercy.

Now contrast this with people who weren’t the best of moral men and had prosperity. How due to their pride in themselves they didn’t give God the honor that he deserves and by this they later fell into great trouble. Let me give you some examples of three kings mentioned in the Bible where their wrong attitude towards God became their undoing.

King Solomon

King Solomon of Israel was abundantly rich. He had loads and loads of gold and precious stones. Yet in his defiant and ungodly ambition to be great, he multiplied horses which was forbidden for a king of Israel. Deuteronomy 17:16 says that, “The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the LORD has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’ Solomon however didn’t get punished for this sin. So taking wrong advantage of this, he multiplied wives, yes and not just getting more one wife.  But that’s not the end of Solomon’s sin. By the evil influence of his wives, he built a multitude of worship centers for false gods of his wives, all over the land of Israel, in defiance of the Lord God’s commandments which is against the worship of false gods.

You can read all of 1 Kings 11 to get details on this. So in the end God judged Solomon and raised multiple adversaries against him. These were Hadad the Edomite and Rezon the son of Eliada who led their armies against Israel during this times of Solomon. That was not all, the Lord divided the kingdom of Israel, such that Jeroboam the son of Nebat got 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel for himself. The glory of Solomon was therefore diminished greatly due to his own pride in his own wisdom instead of respecting what God had told him in the Holy Scriptures.

Sennacherib the king of Assyria

There was a wicked king who was called Sennacherib king of Assyria, who achieved great victories against many kingdoms. His armed forces brutally killed many people in their evil wars. Then he turned his attention towards Israel. The Jews were dismayed when Sennacherib blasphemed against the Lord God of Israel by sending a message to the people “Who among all the gods of those nations that my fathers devoted to destruction was able to deliver his people from my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand? Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you in this fashion, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand!” (2 Chronicles 32:14-15)

Not only Sennacherib but also his servants gave such wicked messages to the Israelite’s. This ultimately led to the great downfall of Sennacherib which you can read as mentioned below:

Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven. And the Lord sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword. (2 Chronicles 32:20-21)

The impious Herod

Herod was a king who was prosperous and wicked. He didn’t give true honor to God (read Acts 12:20-24 to get an idea about this). So an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

Remember that whether you are a king or not you still need to be humble.Just so that no one mistakes that humility is only for kings and leaders to follow, let’s remember the following words of Jesus our Lord:

• For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 14:11)
• Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:12)

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