Note from Nick:

The following is quite a long journey and may require a couple different sittings. It is an excerpt from my book The Song of the Ages III: Eden’s Return…

At the blazing climax of the Song of Songs, love is revealed as the unstoppable force that shapes the destiny of the universe. This chapter sweeps you from Solomon’s ancient poetry to the prophets’ visions, from the flood of Noah to the fire of Pentecost, and from the veiled temple to the Mount of Transfiguration. Along the way, you’ll discover how the “flame of the Lord” is not the fire of destruction, but the fire of transformation—burning away false identities, immature thinking, and the “elementary principles” that kept humanity bound.

One quick thing you need to know before proceeding; something that gets unpacked in an earlier chapter: I reference the Greek word “nepiōs.” This is the word the New Testament writers use to describe a baby or child and it is used by New Testament to describe someone who is immature or who has not yet come to Christ. 

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Put me like a seal over your heart,

Like a seal on your arm.

For love is as strong as death,

Jealousy is as severe as Sheol;

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

The very flame of the Lord.

Many waters cannot quench love,

Nor will rivers overflow it;

If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love,

It would be utterly despised

(Song 8:6-7)

 

Going through the Song of Solomon is like ascending a spiral staircase that encircles a pillar of billowing fire. As we travel through its lyrics, we come around the same burning revelations, but with different vantage points and ever-increasing perspectives. Now we are nearing the pinnacle of this staircase where a singularity of glory converges at the top. We are approaching the white-hot tip of its flame, the essence of the entire Song. This is wrapped up in the revelation of divine love, which is all found in the Holy Spirit Himself. He is the gift and treasure we are called to receive and embrace. He is the wedding ring and the seal of God’s greatest purposes for man.

When God breathed forth the cosmos and all the elements emerged, everything was fine-tuned for this reality to take place. Today, scientists and philosophers are talking more and more about an infinite number of universes—a multiverse—simply because they’re discovering how impossibly perfect our universe’s design is, and how it seems tailormade for our specific kind of DNA to exist. They assume we must be living in the perfect version of an infinite number of imperfect universes. But the truth is, our universe was purposefully bent, shaped, and molded so something very tiny and yet eternally significant could come forth—a living vessel that could host the glorious flame of God’s Spirit. It was so that a Bride and helper could emerge, one who would reign alongside the King of glory. This is the one rising from the wilderness, calling the whole world to this same flame. She sings of it as a seal and says, “Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord! Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it!”

John the Baptist, another one of God’s instruments chosen to play the Song of the Ages, proclaimed the coming of this fire when he spoke of One who would baptize the nations in it. Actually, he spoke of One who would flood the nations with fire (Mk. 1:8). The English word “baptize” was not invented until the days of the King James Bible. It has since turned into a religious term, but before that it was a commonly used word that could be simply translated as “immerse.” John was telling the people of Israel about One who would immersethem in flame. He spoke of this right before Jesus came into the Jordan River and demonstrated once and for all what it means to receive the fiery seal of adoption.

Of course, global immersion of a different kind had happened once before. In the days of Noah, the nations were immersed in water that covered the entire planet, annihilating everybody except for righteous Noah and his family. Yet it turned out Noah’s flood was a prophetic picture, an inverted image of something utterly wonderful to come. It spoke of another flood that would immerse the entire planet in salvation—one involving a different Man of righteousness (who, as an inversion of Noah, would be the One to die in our place). This Messiah would release a love stronger than the floodwaters of judgment. This time around, the flood of many waters would be overcome by a flood of fire. The Holy Spirit and fire, according to John the Immerser.

Some three years after Jesus’s baptism, the Holy Spirit came with tongues of fire upon His disciples, leading to the awakening of 3000 people. This was another inverted image from the Old Testament, for during the time of Moses 3000 people were swept away in judgment, an event that many believe happened on the same exact day as the awakening in Acts—the feast of Pentecost (Ex. 32:28). There are many similar upside-down images throughout the Old Testament pointing to something greater to come. What seems like the fires of retributive judgment in the Old Covenant turn into the fires of restorative grace in the New.

Even so, there are passages in the New Testament that are still immensely intimidating, especially ones that talk about fire. One of the most intense is a prophecy about the heavens and the earth being burned up in flame. That is something much bigger than a worldwide flood of water. That is a universe-wide flood of unparalleled heat. Yet perhaps there’s a way to read this without the old inverted lens of law and fear. Maybe there’s a purer path toward the interpretation of that prophecy; one that involves the “very flame of the Lord” from the end of Solomon’s Song? It’s important we explore this possibility, for it will lead us into the crescendo of the Song’s fiery lyrics.

Burning the Elements

On the day 3000 people received the fires of grace, somebody in particular was preaching. Interestingly, this is the same person who went on to write the prophecy about a cosmic flood of fiery destruction:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up…

(2 Pet. 3:10)

The apostle Peter spoke of an all-consuming fire that will specifically destroy two things: the “elements” of the heavens and the “works” of the earth. As if for emphasis, the word “elements” shows up again two verses later when he reiterates, “The heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat” (2 Pet. 3:12).

Throughout the centuries, many have assumed Peter is speaking of a literal destruction of the universe’s physical elements—those elementary atoms breathed out from the mouth of God. Now we’ll ignore the fact that there are many other Scriptures contradicting the literal interpretation of a scorched universe. We’ll also ignore the bad fruit that has come out of these interpretations, such as a poor stewardship of the earth, or an escapist mentality that longs to leave and go to a far-away heaven instead of staying and bringing heaven to earth (since it’s going to be burned up anyway). Instead, we’ll just jump right into a different way of seeing this passage.

As always, Scripture interprets Scripture. Important biblical truths are confirmed by two or three (or a hundred) other witnesses in the Bible. Using other Scriptures then, we can come to some stunning conclusions about this fiery prophecy. In another part of the New Testament, we learn something very insightful about this particular word “elements.” We actually looked at it in the last chapter when discussing huiothesia. We haven’t departed from that topic just yet. It fits right in with where Peter’s prophecy is taking us.

In the book of Galatians, when Paul speaks about man’s season of immaturity as nēpios, he says, “So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.” This phrase “elemental things” is the same exact word Peter uses when talking about the elements that will be melted away with intense heat. When Paul uses this word, he is speaking about the law. He refers to the law and other external works as the elementary things to which mankind has been in bondage. At its most literal level, this word can be translated as the “first things” or “elementary principles.” In the New Testament, it is a reference to the elementary principles of external rules that were meant to lead us toward the freedom and maturity of sonship.

Like the cocoon for a butterfly or the placenta for an unborn child, these first principles of the law served an important but restrictive purpose. They showed us the futility of our self-effort and independence, and were meant to eventually be cast aside. And this makes sense when you connect more Scriptural dots. The writer of Hebrews brings up this word “elements” as well, and he actually does this after mentioning nēpios—spiritual children! The writer of Hebrews rebukes Jewish believers for going back to the law system and calls them to move beyond “elementary principles” (Heb. 5:12). Again, this is the same word Peter used for the “elements” destined for the flame.

Now remember, Peter said the elements of the heavens will be burned up and the works of the earth will be destroyed as well. Incredibly, the same word Peter used for “works” also shows up in these same passages in Galatians and Hebrews! In both letters, believers are rebuked for going back to the elements and works of the law.

For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse…

(Gal. 3:10)

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works…

(Heb. 6:1)

We can now piece together a few things. It seems quite evident the “elements” and “works” of Peter’s prophecy have to do with man’s elementary season of immaturity; a season where our identity and righteousness were based on performance, effort, and independence. Peter is giving the prophetic imagery of a soon-to-be-complete destruction of these things. Paul, in his epistles, is then unpacking the deeper meaning of what exactly is being destroyed by the fires of grace. On that note, it’s incredible to realize that after the prophecy of destructive fire, Peter specifically mentions Paul. This is one of the only times a writer of the New Testament affirms another writer by name. Peter says the writings of Paul are hard to understand and “the untaught and the unstable distort” them (2 Pet. 3:15-16). Indeed, those who are unstable in the grace of God have distorted many biblical truths. They have focused on literal interpretations of judgment (which often brings us back under fear and performance) and have missed the hope-filled realities of the Gospel.

According to these Scriptures, mankind has been stuck in a type of spiritual immaturity that is centered around the elements of law and fear. But all along, love was “the mark of true maturity” and “the goal of fulfilling all the commandments” (Col. 3:14 & 1 Tim. 1:5 TPT). While the law focused on our external lives, love is about an internal freedom, the likes of which can be entrusted with the very reins of creation. Thankfully, the immature works of fear that run this planet and harmfully affect creation will be quenched by the flame of the Lord. As the nēpios life of our spiritual infancy is burned away, the entire universe will be transformed. According to Paul, the creation will be set free from corruption. According to Peter, there will be a new heavens and a new earth. They are both talking about the same thing—the manifestation of God’s mature sons.

The creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

(Rom. 8:21)

But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

(2 Pet. 3:13)

The burning of the universe is not about the burning of atoms, but Adam! It is the destruction of the nēpios life making way for mature sons and a unified Bride of Christ.

But do not miss this one point. This all-consuming flame has already been released upon mankind. The elements and works are already melting away. As people set the flame of the Spirit upon their hearts, more and more of the heavens and earth will be transformed from a spiritual desert to an awakened rainforest, as we saw earlier. This is our destiny. For according to Peter (and many other biblical prophecies), this glorious fire will soon consume the entire creation. And when it does, love will be the only thing remaining…

When the Perfect Comes

This is something expressed in the Bible’s great “love chapter.” As we close up the Song with its billowing celebrations of love, we would be amiss not to bring 1 Corinthians 13 into the conversation. Besides its focus on love, this famous passage also contains a surprising connection to this issue of adoption and maturity.

Once again, Paul is the one who penned these timeless words about love, describing some of its qualities and then ending his thoughts on how everything else will pass away except for faith, hope, and love (1 Cor. 13:13). Love is truly the crescendo of space and time. It’s where the entire universe is headed. On that note, it’s quite fitting that the word “universe” literally means one song. Though there have been some difficult verses along the way, love is the chorus and finale of creation’s music, planned well before God opened His mouth and sang out it first notes—let there be light!

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul speaks of this “perfect” way of love and explains how this is the destiny of creation. But in the midst of that discussion, he makes an interesting comment about himself. Look carefully at his words:

But when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

(1 Cor. 13:10-11)

Can you guess what word Paul uses to talk about being a “child”?

Nēpios.

This is the same revelation hiding within the famous love chapter of the New Testament! Like the Shulammite, Paul is a first-fruit of this reality. Through a revelation of the Father’s kindness and the finished work of His Son, Paul experienced what it meant to leave behind the wilderness ways of law and fear. It’s in this context he then speaks of all other things passing away except for love. As we know now from Peter and the Song of Solomon, this is because the intense heat of grace—the flame of the Lord—will melt away everything else. The cocoon will shrivel up and the perfect way of love will fill the cosmos. The same stars we see today will shine in the new heavens, but their glow will meet purified eyes that behold the glory of creation anew. And these renewed stargazers will steward the cosmos with unprecedented grace and wonder.

A New Perspective on Judgment

In this swirl of illuminating fire, Solomon throws a penetrating statement into the furnace. He says, “If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised.” We’re going to spend a good amount of time on these words as they are, in many ways, a summarizing statement for the entire Song—as well as the entire Bible. At its simplest essence, this phrase further establishes the truth that love cannot be bought or forced. It is describing more of the fabric of God’s Kingdom, a reality unfolding with greater depth and power as the Song hits its final notes. 

Earlier when we examined Solomon’s repeating chorus—do not awaken My love until she pleases—we saw how buying or forcing love is akin to spiritual prostitution. Prostitutes engage in a form of love, an act of intimate union, through payment. It represents earning union, and as such, it has nothing to do with real love. It is a “form of godliness,” and thankfully, “the form of this world is passing away” (2 Tim 3:5 & 1 Cor. 7:31). At the very end of Scripture, in that climactic dichotomy of two women—the great harlot and the radiant Bride—the latter is established upon the earth like an everlasting city while the former is “burned up with fire” (Rev. 18:18). In Solomon’s terms, her ways are utterly despised.  

Now oftentimes an apocalyptic vision like this is seen as a horrifying judgment against one group of people while salvation comes to another. But what if, like the fires of Peter’s prophecy, there is another way of seeing this passage? What if this vision actually has to do with the transformation of the “city” of humanity? A transformation from law to love…from nēpois children to mature sons…from a spiritual prostitute to a radiant Bride?

This may seem like a controversial perspective, but there’s an Old Testament foundation laid out for this in a book we have come back to many times over. It is found in the book of Hosea. Though he’s not the only prophet to do this, Hosea issues a very clear characterization of God’s people as prostitutes. He also speaks of God’s people like they are one woman. Through the prophet, God tells this woman about the punishing destruction coming upon her due to her spiritual prostitution. His warnings reach a climax halfway through the second chapter:

“I will punish her for the days of the Baals

When she used to offer sacrifices to them

And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,

And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the Lord.

(Hos. 2:13)

The prostituting nation with her earrings and jewelry is not unlike the great harlot in the book of Revelation with her prodigious wealth and fine jewels (Rev. 18:16). But now look at the verse immediately following Hosea’s indictment of the prostituting nation. Watch especially at how Hosea is still speaking to the same nation—the same people who were just condemned: 

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her (the prostitute),

Bring her into the wilderness

And speak kindly to her.

Then I will give her her vineyards from there,

And the valley of Achor as a door of hope.

And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,

As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord,

“That you will call Me Ishi (Husband)

And will no longer call Me Baali (Master).”

(Hos. 2:14-16, parentheses mine)

God judges the prostitute by bringing her into the wilderness and speaking kindly to her. As we saw earlier, these kind words are the Good News. It is the sword of truth cutting through every lie of our estrangement and alienation from God. In the wilderness, the prostitute experiences a fiery transformation of grace. She comes under the divine flame of the Lord. Because of this, she no longer calls God “Master,” a word that speaks to a fear and law-based relationship. This word was also synonymous with one of the worst idols of the time—Baal. Instead, she soon refers to the Lord as her “Husband.” She ends up speaking as a confident bride. And of course, Hosea lived out this entire prophecy by marrying an actual prostitute and showing her a repeated display of mercy until she could finally become the person she already was—a treasured spouse.

Now it’s fascinating to realize that when the apostle John sees the great harlot in Revelation, the encounter happens in a very specific place:

And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast…

(Rev. 17:3)

It’s in the wilderness that the destruction of the prostitute ensues. Her judgment comes with burning fire and soon enough the Bride emerges on the scene. Could it be that this consuming fire is the same flame we’ve been circling around this whole time—the flame of God’s Spirit, which no flood of sin can overwhelm?

And with that in mind, could it also be that the destruction of the prostitute is actually the unveiling of the Bride?

The Story of the Soul

At this point it’s vital we recall something examined in a previous volume regarding the names of the main characters in the Song of Songs—Solomon and the Shulammite. Both names come from the same root word, the first being the masculine version and the second feminine. The feminine Shulammite is the representative for humanity while the masculine King Solomon is a representation of God. We’ve seen this is not so much about gender but rather a display of the likeness and union we share with our Creator. Like Adam with Eve, Jesus is our root and origin while we are His beautiful counterpart.

As it happens, there are different Hebrew words used for the human “soul” throughout Scripture and each one of them is a feminine term as well. This confirms something we have indirectly shown but never plainly stated: That is, the journey of the Shulammite represents the journey of the human soul. The delightful “garden” of the Shulammite is indeed the soul of humanity where God intends to dwell. The human heart, as the centerpiece of the soul, is truly His desired resting place and throne.

Now we bring this up for a very important reason. If you remember, this young woman from Shulam started out her journey by describing herself as one who veils herself. This was a direct allusion to the prostitutes of Solomon’s day who would cover their faces with a veil, making this a firm symbol of the false identity. This is indeed speaking of that immature nēpios life which is enslaved under the “elements” and “works” of human effort. As a representative of humanity, the Shulammite’s journey is then a picture of the maturity of the soul—which, at the same time, is the unveiling of the human soul.

This dynamic of a veiled humanity is mysteriously hidden within the design of Solomon’s temple. We know very well by now that the temple points to human beings, particularly because of its three main sections corresponding to man’s body, soul, and spirit. Curiously, the two inner rooms representing the soul and spirit—the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies—were both covered by a veil. Amongst other realities, this speaks of that same veil of prostitution that has covered over the true identity of humanity! But remember, God’s glory still resided in the Holy of Holies even when it was covered by a veil. This was a sign that the image and glory of God was still resident within a veiled and idolatrous human race!

We saw this when we looked at the young woman Tamar who covered her face with a veil and engaged in an act of prostitution. Even though she committed that act, Tamar was not truly a prostitute. Instead, she was a carrier of the seed of Christ. And so it is with the human race. Humanity is not truly a prostitute. We participated in its deeds—we engaged in the false forms of love and pseudo-godliness and thereby covered ourselves with a guilty veil—but behind it all was still that precious seed of glory. Thank God, that veil of a false life would be violently judged and overthrown, and what was hidden behind it would be redeemed and recovered.

A Great Metamorphosis

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul teaches how this veil has specifically covered the minds of men (2 Cor. 3:15 & 4:3-4). Interestingly enough, the great harlot of Revelation has something over the place of her mind as well:

And on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.”

(Rev. 17:5)

This mysterious name represents something that has impacted all of the world. This is why the woman is referred to as the mother of all prostitution. She’s a symbol pointing to the very thing that produces evil in the first place. It’s no surprise this all comes down to a false name covering the mind. This is the mother-root of our brokenness and it goes all the way back to our first mother in Eden who embraced a lie about herself (a false identity) and sought something she already had through personal effort. That was our first attempt at “buying love.” And that too was utterly despised.

But praise the living God, in the book of Revelation there’s another mother who emerges. But in describing her, John doesn’t use the word “mother.” He mainly refers to her as a city—the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven. Yet it’s illuminating when you connect some more biblical dots and find out what Paul calls this city:

But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.

(Gal. 4:26)

Within the gates of this other symbolic mother, there are a people who have something else on their forehead. Together, they look into the face of the Father and it says, “His name will be on their foreheads” (Rev. 22:4). These are the ones who have been unveiled. They have turned back to the truth, which is the essence of repentance. To reestablish a previous point, this is not about being adopted into a family you never belonged to. It’s about turning back to your true origin—the Father of lights and the mother of the New Jerusalem.

Here then lies a marvelous insight as to why we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. This famous command from Romans 12 comes after eleven other chapters expounding on the wonderful mystery of the Gospel, which is the theme of the entire letter (see Rom. 16:25). This is the true mystery of grace and of our redeemed identity in Christ (as opposed to the identity of Adam that corresponds to the other “mystery” written on the harlot’s forehead). In Romans 12, we’re called to renew our minds to the right mystery. In other words, we’re to set it like a seal upon ourselves. When we do this, we are literally transformed—even in this present life.

Now you may be surprised to find out the word Paul uses for “transformed” is the same exact word the gospel writers use to describe Jesus’s transfiguration. The implications of this are extraordinary because it shows us this defining moment in the life of Christ is something we’re called to experience as well. Moving forward, this will take up a good deal of our focus as we see its association to so many of the things we’re uncovering in our study of the royal seal and the fiery purposes of God. 

This moment in Jesus’s life was when He took Peter, James, and John “up on a high mountain.” There, a burst of transcendent glory came from within Him in full view of His three friends:

Then Jesus’ appearance was dramatically altered. A radiant light as bright as the sun poured from his face. And his clothing became luminescent—dazzling like lightning. He was transfigured before their very eyes.

(Matt. 17:2 TPT)

 It’s important to first recognize Jesus wasn’t actually changing His essence here. Neither was He receiving or gaining some new glory upon Himself. Rather, the disciples were seeing what was inside of Him all along. The true glory hidden within Jesus of Nazareth was being put on display. Some of the ancient church fathers, such as Maximus the Confessor, taught the only thing that changed on the mountain that day was the three men’s perceptions!

This word usually rendered “transformed” in Romans and “transfigured” in the gospels is the Greek word metamorphoō. As you might suspect, this is where we get the word metamorphosis, the strange process in nature where a creature changes its form. We’ve alluded to this process several times throughout our journey, especially in regard to the caterpillar. The emergence of the butterfly is indeed a transfiguration. But it’s important to now recognize this process is really where a creature moves from an immature state into its adult form. It’s a signpost within nature showing our destiny to move from the nēpios life to a state of huiothesia!

So, a butterfly is really just a mature caterpillar. In a way, the butterfly was always within the caterpillar, yet there was a process of transformation that needed to happen for it to manifest. As the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth showed us what was within the sons of men. He was showing us what an adult child of God looked like. In this important moment chronicled by three different gospel writers, Jesus revealed our own destiny of transfiguration, and pointed us back to the eternal plan in the heart of God for having mature sons and daughters.

But again, all of this requires repentance (metanoia), which is literally a transformation of the mind. Or you could say that it is receiving a new name—a true name—upon your forehead. And that brings us back to the grand finale of Scripture and the two women found in a book titled The Unveiling. It seems this is not really about two women but rather one woman being transfigured by fire into something else. Let’s look a little bit deeper into this, for the Lord would have us be fully assured of these realities.

The Hour of Judgment

In John’s description of the great harlot, he makes a clear delineation between people of the world and the prostitute herself:

And he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.”

(Rev. 17:15)

The harlot is sitting over the nations. This is more evidence that she does not represent the wicked people themselves, but rather the distorted forms and systems people have adhered to. On the other hand, the “multitudes and nations and tongues” are those Jesus purchased by blood, their destiny being sealed and announced earlier in Revelation:

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands.

(Rev. 7:9)

Again, Jesus came to restore what was covered over and hidden by our great harlotry. This is where Solomon’s temple is especially insightful. We just learned how the veil blocking the way into the Holy of Holies represented this ancient issue of spiritual prostitution. It spoke to the false name covering and hiding the true glory of God within humanity. Now let’s recall what happened inside of the temple’s innermost room. Within the walls of the Holy of Holies was the Mercy Seat, something we’ve seen as a symbol of the throne of God. More recently, we’ve looked at how God’s throne is also the human heart. This all fits together astoundingly. As the centerpiece of the temple, the Mercy Seat is representative of the center of our souls and spirits—our hearts. And indeed, the Mercy Seat was sprinkled with blood, which is the same thing that would happen to the throne of our hearts!

Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience…

(Heb. 10:22)

To sprinkle the physical Mercy Seat with blood, the High Priest had to first go through the veil that blocked the way to it. This gives us a picture of Jesus coming to speak kindly through the veil of our false identities. With His kind words and shed blood, Jesus proceeded to wash the guilt off our hearts. He sprinkled our hearts clean from an “evil conscience.” One way to translate and understand the Greek word for “conscience” is self-perception. Thus, it was Jesus’s joy to cleanse how we see ourselves! His sacrifice was the judgment against the false self—the harlot who sits over the waters of the nations. This is why the book of Hebrews opens by saying that when Jesus made purification of sins, He sat down (Heb. 1:2). Jesus is the One who was truly meant to sit over the waters of the world! (See Matt. 13:1-2)

This then helps us understand why the book of Revelation depicts a total destruction coming upon the harlot in one hour.

“Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.”

(Rev. 18:8)

Those with a more literal perspective of Revelation believe this is about an actual sixty minutes of plagues, famine, and death that will suddenly break out in the former Babylonian regions of the Middle East. But they miss the fact that this book is primarily a revelation of Jesus Christ. This “one hour” is the same hour He spoke of right before His death:

…But for this purpose I came to this hour… Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

(Jn. 12:27, 31)

If any of this is hard to believe, then take the following into consideration. In his vision, John specifically sees both the harlot and the beast she rode upon clothed in scarlet.

And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast… The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet…

(Rev. 17:3-4)

When Jesus approached His own hour of judgment, He too was clothed in a very specific color…

They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him.

(Matt. 27:28)

This is the same exact “scarlet” adorning the beast and the prostitute. Such a vision makes total sense when you consider how Jesus took our sins upon Himself!

In Revelation, a scarlet-clad woman reigns over the waters of the multitudes, nations, and tongues. But as we just saw, those same multitudes are clothed in white in another part of the book. Yet again, this all speaks to the work of Christ. Before His crucifixion, Jesus was literally stripped of His white rabbinical garments and then given a scarlet robe. Gentile soldiers later divided up His white garments into four pieces—a picture of His righteousness being given to the four corners of the earth (Jn. 19:23). All this was the “hour” Jesus took our spiritual prostitution upon Himself and endured a violent and bloody death on our behalf—a death that was actually the bloody overthrow of the great prostitute! When He died, the veil in the temple was torn and the judgment upon that false “mother” was complete. It was the fiery judgment of love! Thus it is written in the book of Ezekiel:

“As I live,” declares the Lord God, “surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you.”

(Ez. 20:33)

This “outstretched arm” of “wrath poured out” was indeed the stretching out of Jesus’s arms on the cross. This was the passion of the Christ, a fiery act of true love that would eternally win back the hearts of humanity. This was the only way God could become the true King of our hearts. These interlocking truths sprinkled throughout the Bible build an amazing and wonderful picture of what redemption is all about.

And of course, this sprawling network of biblical connections runs even deeper, especially when you look at how the color scarlet shows up in other places. Stunningly, this exact color appears in two stories that just so happen to be about prostitutes! We’ve looked at both of them already. The first is Tamar—the veiled woman who joined herself with the patriarch Judah. She is the one who gave birth to a redemptive child who had a scarlet thread wrapped around his finger. As you now know, that child was a prefigure of our great Sin-Bearer, Christ.

The second is arguably the most famous prostitute in Scripture—Rahab. She was a veiled woman who carried on her business within the sinful city of Jericho. But when a scarlet cord was tied to her window, she was delivered from the destruction that came upon the city. In that hour of judgment, the walls of Jericho were utterly despised. Those walls represented the same ancient system of deception—that Babylonian mother of wickedness. Yet the veiled individual hiding behind those wicked walls was redeemed. Rahab went on to live in a totally new nation and became another ancestor of Christ. She was revealed as someone in the very gene-ologyof Jesus—someone with the DNA of the Lamb on her forehead!

In other words, the prostitute was transfigured.

But like the butterfly in the caterpillar, this DNA was always inside of her. It was simply waiting for its freedom from the cocoon-like walls of Jericho. Those walls are the “elements” and “works” destined for the eternal flame!

Mercy and Destruction

When we continue to look at the book of Revelation and the mother of all harlots, we find another amazing connection to the work of Christ. After saying she was clothed in scarlet, the description continues:

The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality.

(Rev. 17:4)

Not only did Jesus take our scarlet stain upon Himself, He also drank a “cup” on our behalf. This was the same cup He asked to be taken away from Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was in fact referring to the goblet of our own abominations and uncleanness—and the punishment due to it. Therefore, when Jesus surrendered to the Father, He was clothed in scarlet the next morning. This was the proof He had drank the harlot’s cup!

Here’s the fact of the matter. The judgment of the prostitute is a picture of the Gospel. At the cross, all our systems of elementary religion and false love were judged and forgiven at the same time. Severe judgment came upon the veil while mercy and forgiveness came to the people who participated in its false deeds. This is why John notes that the leaders of the earth were separated from the prostitute when her judgment came. Look at this:

And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, “Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.”

(Rev. 18:9-10)

It seems strange that when judgment finally comes, those who are arguably the most to blame for the world’s wickedness are found “standing at a distance.” It even says the same thing about the “merchants of the earth” a few verses later (Rev. 18:15). These are the movers and shakers within the fallen systems of our governments and economies; the seeming producers of the worst evils of humanity. Such a separation doesn’t make sense unless your eyes are open to the Good News hiding within the Apocalypse. This is the Song of the Ages once again playing its powerful notes through a glorious and violent parable.

The prostitute is destroyed while those who were impacted by her predominance stand and watch from afar. The distance between them and the actual destruction is due to the One who took our sins upon Himself. He is that infamous “scapegoat” from the law of Moses; the cursed creature that went into the wilderness and died there on the people’s behalf (Lev. 16:21). It’s the same message over and over and over again. The wilderness is the place of both destruction and mercy, death and resurrection. It is ultimately the place of transfiguration and unveiling.

We have much more to say about these things, but let’s take a moment to pause and meditate upon the immense kindness of our King. With that, let’s also prepare our hearts to bear with a few more words about these prophetic promises. Up and over the lyrics of the Song and through a terrain of many other Scriptures, we have gained a clearer understanding of the apocalyptic flames of love. However, we have not yet finished ascending its burning splendor. To do that, we must go back to the place where Jesus Himself was transfigured, looking more closely at the mountain where this occurred.

The Journey Continues in the next chapter found in The Song of the Ages III: Eden’s Return