The Whore Devoured

Rev. 17:15-18 (ESV)
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."

A whore with whom the people whore as Israel of old did with their idols. It is an apt illustration. God’s relationship to the church is that of a marriage. Marriage is supposed to be a sacred bond where man and woman come together to be of one flesh remaining faithful to each other. Our marriage to God is one of faith, or fear, love and trust. But God who seems so intangible is often put on the back burner as people are taught to fear love and trust in government over God’s word. Government it is the great whore, and she looks so beautiful, so promising.
There is a sense in which government is a great gift, a servant a handmaid that God has given to his people. But this handmaid like Hagar then tries to rise above her rightful place and take that which doesn’t belong to her, our fidelity. She promises so much and it is so much easier despite millennia of government caused misery to trust in government more than God. We hand over our soup kitchens, our orphanages, our freedoms, our hospitals to the government and teach the people to lover her more than God.
But in the end the discontent grows and finally the harlot is devoured, and we go to live in heaven in perfect faith, in perfect love, in perfect trust, where ultimately is not needed the red tape of bureaucracy.