When I saw her, I marveled greatly, but the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel?” I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with seven heads and 10 horns that carries her.
– Revelation 17:6–7
This is a fascinating passage. Here in Revelation 17, we’re seeing this picture of the world and all of its allurements illustrated by what’s called the woman.
Revelation 17:6–7 reminds us of the alluring temptations of this world.
This is an attractive picture of all this world has to offer. And John, who’s writing this, the Apostle John, the follower of Jesus says, When I saw her, I marveled greatly. In other words, he has this vision of this woman with all the attractiveness of the things of this world. And he says, I was marveling. In other words, he was tempted to want all that this world has to offer. It looked good. And that’s a good reminder to us. We desire the things of this world and the ways of this world, the pleasures and possessions and pursuits of this world. Because they look good to us, even the most holy or righteous of us.
We’re talking about the Apostle John here. He was allured by this world in a way that you and I are daily allured by the ways of this world, the things of this world, the priorities of this world, the possessions of this world. But the angel said to me, John writes in verse seven, Why do you marvel? I’ll tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with seven heads and 10 horns that carries her.
Revelation 17:6–7 teaches us the temptations of this world are deceiving.
All this imagery goes on from this point to show that what looks appealing is actually deadly, and it’s a deception. It looks good. All the things, all the pursuits, all the pleasures this world offers you, they look good. But in the end, and that’s what Revelation 17–18 go on to make clear. In an instant, they’re all going to be gone. And all those who’ve trusted in them will experience the emptiness of all the things they’ve sought after.
And I just want to encourage you today, amidst the allurements of this world around you, don’t buy it. Don’t be allured. Hear God’s saying to you, Why do you marvel? Look at where this world and all its stuff, all of its things, all of its pursuits… All of its ways are headed and an instant, it’s all going to burn up. And what’s going to matter is your relationship with the God over this world and what you have done in your life that matters for all of eternity.
So God, we pray, help us to see differently today and every day. Help us to not be allured God. Please guard me, guard all of us as we are praying right now. Please guard us from being allured by the pleasures and possessions and pursuits of this world, by the ways of this world that seem even right or desirable to us. God, help us to live in accord with your Word, with your ways, with the pleasure we have in you with pursuits that you have outlined in your Word. Knowing that this will last forever, that your pleasure is eternal, that heavenly possessions are everlasting.
Prayer for the Nubi People
God, help us to live, help us to give. Help us to pray. Help us to focus our lives on that which will last forever and not the passing temporary pleasures and pursuits and things and ways of this world. Oh God, as we pray for the Nubi people of Uganda. God, we pray for this people group in Uganda and Kenya. It’s Muslim and unreached by the gospel. God, we pray that someone would spread the gospel to them.
We pray for your blessing on the church and Uganda and Kenya specifically toward that end that the Nubi people might be reached with the good news of your grace, that Ugandan Christians and Kenyan Christians and other Christians from other places, including any one of us, would leave behind other pursuits in this world to give the gospel to people who’ve never heard it, like the Nubi of Uganda. Oh God, we pray all this according to your Word in Revelation 17:6–7. Keep us from being deceived today. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
