Symbolism of Harlotry - Babylon of Revelation
For someone to be a harlot, and adulterous, you need to have a covenant with someone. You cannot "cheat on" a wife or husband without first being married. God declared the Babylon of Revelation to be a harlot city. This could only fit Jerusalem because the Jews were the only nation to have a covenant with God.
Babylon of Revelation was, in fact, Jerusalem of the 1st century.
Matthew 23:30 saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 23:31 Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
Out of their pride, the Pharisees in the temple had been saying that they would not have murdered the prophets as their fathers did. Christ then declares the punishment that belongs to their fathers for those murders, as well as for their guilt, as they were about to kill Him and His saints over the next 37 years!
Read:
23:33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 23:34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 23:35 that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechari'ah the son of Barachi'ah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
Christ has just declared THE ONE AND ONLY TIME OF VENGEANCE upon their heads. Again, He included the blood of the prophets past and the blood of the future martyrs to be counted against them.
23:36 Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this generation. 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 23:38 Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate.
The end of this judgment and the sign that what Christ had determined actually occurred would be that their temple would be desolated.
Christ had just declared the last week of the 70 weeks of Daniel would come against those very Pharisees. For the murders of their fathers, for their murder of the Messiah and for the future murders of the saints.
Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. Dan 9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed. Dan 9:27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator."
There is 1 time of vengeance in scripture, this one in Matthew 23 which decreed the "Day of the Lord and the consummation of the 70 weeks of Daniel on that very generation of Jewish leaders.
In perfect concert with Christ's words, the end of the age would come when the power of the holy people had been shattered.
Dan 12:8 I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, "O my lord, what shall be the issue of these things?" Dan 12:9 He said, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. Dan 12:10 Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but those who are wise shall understand. Dan 12:11 And from the time that the continual burnt offering is taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Dan 12:12 Blessed is he who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. Dan12:13 But go your way till the end; and you shall rest, and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days."
Again, the resurrection, Daniel's own, would be fulfilled at the end of "the time of vengeance." God accomplished all, in some way shape or form, that He wanted to accomplish in the "end of the age" by the time Jerusalem and it's temple fell.
The "time of vengeance" gives us the link for one more key of prophecy. The one and only "end times" decreed "time of vengeance" was to be taken out upon the Babylon, the harlot of Revelation!
No mistake, Jerusalem is the "harlot" (Babylon) of Revelation!
Rev 6:9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne; 10 they cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?" 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
Just as Christ had declared that the future blood of the martyrs would be taken out on their heads, this prophecy shows us that in spite of the cries for vengeance for their righteous blood, the time for "filling up the measure of your fathers" (Matthew 23:32) had to be completed.
Revelation further links "the time of vengeance" with the harlot of Revelation in chapter 17:
Rev 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who is seated upon many waters, Rev 17:2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk…….Rev17:16 And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot; they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, Rev 17:17 for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. "
The time that was to be fulfilled was "the time of vengeance" and the "end of the days" at which time Daniel and all who had died under the Old Covenant would be raised. Ushering in a completed, consummated New Covenant.
The last and most obvious case closing proof that the harlot Babylon was Jerusalem, on whom "the time of vengeance" was to come, is Revelation 19:1-2.
Revelation 19:1 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his judgments are true and just; he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants."
I believe Christ and His Apostle John have laid it out very clear. Two separate entities would not be condemned by Christ in Matthew and Revelation for the same crime. Scripture interprets scripture, and the Harlot (adultress) Babylon of Revelation was the symbolic name in a prophetic vision for the first century nation of Israel for the crime of not only His death, but all martyrdom committed by that wicked generation. There is no future Harlot Babylon, there is no more covenants with nations for anyone else to qualify as the Harlot adulterous woman.
Mixed with Daniel 12:6-7
One of them said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long until the end of these extraordinary things? ” Then I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river. He raised both his hands toward heaven and swore by Him who lives eternally that it would be for a time, times, and half a time. When the power of the holy people is shattered, all these things will be completed. (Daniel 12:6-7 HCSB)
“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that its desolation has come near. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains! Those inside the city must leave it, and those who are in the country must not enter it, because these are days of vengeance to fulfill all the things that are written. (Luke 21:20-22 HCSB)
Where as Israel (read Galatians...Israel is all believers) would be saved, the "holy people" (apostate Jerusalem) would be shattered. Fulfilling the one time of vengeance to complete all that is written. The destruction of Babylon ushers in the realization of the fullness of all in all. The complete work of Christ. the removal of a stubling block or "veil"(the temple which was a stumbling block and obstacle for zealous zionists who rejected a spiritual kigdom). The destruction of Babylon completed all of the physical manifestation of the eternal salvation found from Abraham through us, in the New Covenant.
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