Intoxication

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

INTOXICATION

Rev 17:1-2

17:1 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. 2 With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries."

NIV

We have come to this portion of the revelation in which most of the ancient scholars, as they are all dead now, have certainly had a hate relationship with Papal Rome, or the Roman Catholic Church. They all are calling this great prostitute the Vatican power over the nations throughout the world. But they also have seen this power as already displayed prior to the reformation, when it was perhaps in its peak of religious and political power. Yet here it stands today, most likely with more followers then every before and a far greater ability for its leader to communicate its message. But again this was their view of observing something other then what they might be engaged in. It is always easier to point our finger at someone else then to examine our own lives. This great prostitute does not have to be a religious system at all. It can be an ideology which has captured the hearts and minds of a great number of people. World commerce for example is most likely the greatest single system which has engaged nearly, if not all nations. The desire for wealth is most likely the greatest influence on the hearts and minds of a great number of people, no matter what language they speak. Of course we still have many backward remote peoples who still live the traditions of their ancestors and are not a part of world commerce. Yet this is by far the largest widespread system which transcends all religions or spiritual systems. This influence of wealth has the capability of infiltrating the post-modern churches of today. It can capture the hearts and minds of even those who consider themselves spiritual people. Many believers can be intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries. This goes directly to the word of God when he declares we cannot serve two masters. He refers directly to the desire for God or the desire for wealth, we cannot desire both. Yet this is the most intoxicating of all desires. If we allow this wine, this adulterous desire to take root in our being we have lost everything. We can see the transformation which God speaks about through James. When the desire for wealth takes root, it causes us to take actions to obtain it, and when we have engaged fully to possess it, we have engaged in, or have been intoxicated with her wine and committed adultery against God. This ideology of the world is by far the most grievous of sins, which may be exactly what we are seeing here. This attacks at the very core of our being. We have to be on guard against all forms of intoxication, not simply of wine, as many believers swear never touch their lips, but of the wine of this great prostitute. We need to always look to God for all things, everything, every aspect of our lives and not to any other source. No intoxications other than of God.