Tag: prostitute
The prostitute? Or the Bride?
Scripture reading for December 28: Revelation 17-19
Would you rather be part of the prostitute or part of the bridal company? The analogy in these next chapters is between the promiscuous prostitute or the purity of a long term covenant relationship of love, respect and intimacy. The prostitute ends in woe, smoke, and eternal torment. The Bride enjoys a great wedding banquet and eternal honeymoon, living happily ever after!
John next visited with one of the seven angels who poured out the judgments. This angel showed him the punishment of the great prostitute who sat on the many waters. This prostitute had committed adultery with the kings of the earth and the earth’s inhabitants were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries. (Revelation 17:1-2) John saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, dressed like a prostitute with a golden cup in her hand. This cup was filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY– BABYLON THE GREAT–THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” (Revelation 17:5) This prostitute was drunk with the blood of the saints, those who bore the testimony of Jesus! (Revelation 12:11)
Right before the judgment of this prostitute, angels announce the fall and warn God’s people to come out of her! (Jeremiah 51:6, 45) (Revelation 18:4) The ruin of this prostitute comes quickly–in one hour! The kings, merchants, sea captains and sailors all mourn her destruction. A final angel pronounces the judgment with the hurling of a large boulder into the sea mirroring the words of Jeremiah 51:62-64. (Revelation 18:21)
All heaven erupts with shouting! “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are His judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” (Revelation 19:1-2) Three more “Hallelujah’s” resound through heaven, the final one announcing the wedding of the Lamb!
John listened as the angel spoke to him again. “Then the angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” and he added, “These are the true Words of God.”” (Revelation 19:9) “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns. . . .He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19:11-12, 15b
God sends an ‘X-rated’ prophetic warning!
Scripture reading for August 21: Ezekiel 16-19
How many of you are reading this just to find out what was “x-rated” in the Bible? Ezekiel 16 should contain an “x-rated” warning for graphic and explicit sexual content and violence. God knows how to use the street language of the day to get the attention of the people. If you really want the street language in today’s vernacular, you should read this passage in the Message Bible by Eugene Peterson. I read it to my adult Bible class and many were blushing!
God explained how He saw the nation of Israel and how they were given life by Him. They had been born in sin and were covered with iniquity but God had mercy on them. God Himself had given the command “Live” and they received life! (Ezekiel 16:6-7) They grew up to become His beautiful Bride and He clothed them in fine linen clothes and gave them fine jewelry. They were given ear rings and nose rings and even a crown for their head. They were to be a Bride of royalty! (Ezekiel 16:10-14)
Then a strange thing happened: God’s Queen decided to become a prostitute. God stated that she had become proud and trusted in her beauty and fame! She went up to the high places and spread her beautiful garments and offered sexual favors to all who passed by. She took some of her expensive jewelry and made cheap idols and engaged in prostitution with them! (Ezekiel 16:15-18) She worshiped her idols by offering the food God provided to them in idolatrous worship! She even offered her sons and daughters to the idols by sacrificing them in the fires!
On top of all that, instead of being paid by her lovers, she paid them to come to her! It was a strange kind of prostitution! (Ezekiel 16:32-34) She had paid for favors from the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and even the Philistines! All of this behavior would bring God’s wrath upon His people! (Ezekiel 16:37-40) She would reap the fruit of her illicit activities by being handed over to her lovers. Those lovers would strip her and leave her naked and bring destruction on the land and houses. God’s hope was to turn His Queen back to Him again.
Many in the church today are compromising their devotion to Christ and His holy Word. They are justifying their illicit sexual idolatry and claiming to belong to Christ. They throw their children into the fire by using abortion. They claim God’s favor and blessing when they are really under His wrath because they have never truly repented. (Romans 1:18-20) Maybe it’s time to re-read this prophetic warning!
One Spirit with the Lord
Scripture reading for August 8th: 1st Corinthians 6, Psalm 7, Proverbs 2
1st Corinthians 6: 13-20 “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, Whom you have from God? Your are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Sexual immorality is defined in God’s Word as a very serious matter. Through the sexual union between a man and a woman, God partners with humans to bring forth children made in His image with eternal souls. Two people become one as they join their bodies and God amazingly is at work in creation of that eternal soul. This is why sexual immorality–any sex outside of a marriage covenant between a man and a woman, is wrong. If a person has repented of his sins and received grace through Jesus Christ, past sins are forgiven. Our bodies belong to the Lord and we are joined with Him in ‘one spirit’. It would be very wrong to commit sexual immorality, even using pornography. May it never be! Lord, help us to listen and obey!
Psalm 7:11-13 “God is a righteous Judge, and a God Who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will whet His sword; He has bent and readied His bow; He has prepared for him His deadly weapons, making His arrows fiery shafts.”
Prayer: Father God, help us as Your people and one in spirit with You, to understand the seriousness of our sexuality and Your plan to procreate through our bodies. Deliver us from the evil one and the temptations around us through our culture and old nature. Forgive us our sexual sins and empower us to live as Your Holy Temple, reflecting Your love to our family and world.
Proverbs 2:16-19 “So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house sinks down to death and her paths to the departed; none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.”
The revelation of Babylon
Scripture reading for December 23rd: Job 24-27, Revelation 17
Key Scriptures: Revelation 17:15-18 “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. And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.””
As John’s vision continues to unfold, he sees a great prostitute who is seated on many waters. The nations of the earth and their kings had committed sexual immorality and gotten drunk from fornication with this prostitute. This prostitute was sitting on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns, and holding a golden cup full of abominations and impurities. This woman had a name of mystery “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” She was drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus! An angel explains to John the interpretation of the vision. The prostitute is Babylon, the code-name for the humanistic world system of greed, immorality and false religion. She is seated on the waters, which are the nations and people groups of the world, all seeking selfish ends. Carrying this prostitute is the ancient serpent, the devil.
Faith confession and prayer: Lord Jesus, through Your revelation, I have a whisper of understanding of the spiritual battle raging in the world around me. Thank You for the Kingdom of heaven and Your Kingship! Keep me safe from this beast and the prostitute and use me to free others from their grip. Let the wind of heaven blow,
Job 26:12-14 “By His power He stilled the sea; by His understanding He shattered Rahab. By His wind the heavens were made fair; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Behold, these are but the outskirts of His ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?”
Beware of the drunken woman!
Scripture reading for December 23rd: Revelation 17, Psalm 137-38, Proverbs 8
Key Scriptures: Revelation 17:3-6 “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.”
John’s vision portrayed a great scarlet beast that was carrying a woman decked out as a prostitute with a golden cup full of abominations. Abominations are sinful acts that God detests and are in direct rebellion against His holy Word. This woman had caused the downfall and destruction of many men and women on earth and had also orchestrated the persecution and death of the followers of Jesus. She was drunk with their blood!
Faith Confession: I believe the warnings of Scripture and ask my Lord Jesus to keep me safe from the seductions of this evil world system of Babylon’s false religion and humanism. Give me wisdom and let my mind never stray from You and the holy city of Your habitation.
Psalm 137:4-6 “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!”
Flee sexual immorality!
Scripture reading for July 14th: 1st Corinthians 6
Paul used his letter to the Corinthians to answer questions about how believers should handle different problems. One issue that Paul was concerned about was lawsuits between believers. Paul reminded the church that they should not take their problems before unbelievers, but deal with disputes themselves. “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!” (1st Corinthians 6:2-3) Believers should work things out! Paul stated the incredible responsibility that the Church will enjoy later. We will be involved with the judgment of the world as well as angels!
Paul added a warning concerning immorality. “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, now adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards, nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were.”
Today’s culture in America has now embraced sexual immorality and our Supreme Court made gay marriage legal across the land. Television and movies regularly show immoral sexual behavior as entertainment and some Christians regularly watch it. Pornography is available to most! But God’s Word clearly states that no sexually immoral person will inherit the Kingdom of God! Some of Paul’s recipients were in that lifestyle, but they were delivered through faith in Christ! Christ’s sacrifice of His body and blood can deliver anyone who will repent and give them access to God’s kingdom and family! Share this good news!