Copyright © 2024 Michael A. Brown
A tale of two women
IN THE book
of Proverbs, we are presented with a contrast between two women. These are often referred to as Lady Wisdom
and Dame Folly. As their names suggest,
they represent the difference between the ways of righteousness and the ways of
foolishness.
Young
men are exhorted to heed Lady Wisdom’s call, to learn wisdom in life and to
resist the temptations of the flesh. By
doing this, they will not only please the Lord, they will also save themselves
from the serious and destructive practical consequences of moral sin.
By contrast, other young men, those who have no discernment or moral compass,
yield themselves blindly and mindlessly to the deceptive and seductive
temptations served up to them by Dame Folly, going like oxen to the
slaughter. These young men inevitably
reap what they sow, eventually paying the full and dreadful price for their
error in terms of the consequences which follow. Dame Folly’s ways, the ways of the flesh, are
the ways of spiritual and eternal death (Prov. 6:20-35; chs.7,9).
This
simple contrast in Proverbs between these two women and their ways encapsulates
the fuller and much broader contrast between the kingdom of God and the
dominion of Satan in this world, which is expressed throughout the
Scriptures in various ways.
In
Genesis, it is the contrast between the tree of life and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil (i.e. the tree of death). In the Old Testament narrative, it is the
contrast between the pure worship and godly lifestyle of a faithful and
obedient Israel (who, being in covenant union with Yahweh, was seen as his
wife), and the idolatrous and immoral lifestyle of the surrounding
nations. In the New Testament epistles,
it is the contrast between the ways of the Spirit in the life of a Christian,
and the carnal and sinful ways of the flesh.
It reaches its ultimate expression in the last few chapters of the book
of Revelation, in the contrast between the pure bride of Christ and the wanton
prostitute of Babylon, or, seen in another way, between the New Jerusalem and
the end-time city of Babylon.
This
contrast between the pure, clean bride and the wanton prostitute is presented
to us in the parallel ways in which they are introduced in the narrative of
Revelation. It is clear that we are
expected to compare and contrast these two women. In Table 14:1
below, we can see the similarities and differences in this parallelism.
|
Parallelism between the bride and
the prostitute |
|
|
The Bride of Christ |
The Prostitute of Babylon |
|
‘One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven
last plagues came and said to me…’ (21:9) |
‘One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to
me…’ (17:1) |
|
‘Come I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ (21:9) |
‘Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute…’
(17:1) |
|
‘And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high…’ (21:10) |
‘Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert.’ (17:3) |
|
‘And showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem…’ (21:10) |
‘There I saw a woman… This title was written on her forehead:
“Mystery – Babylon the Great – The Mother of Prostitutes and of the
Abominations of the Earth”… The woman you saw is the great city that rules
over the kings of the earth.’ (17:3,5,18) |
Table 14.1 Parallelism
between the bride and the prostitute
A brief tale of two cities
This tale of two women is also
expressed as a tale of two cities. The cities of Jerusalem and Babylon are seen in Scripture as
the capitals of two opposite and mutually exclusive spiritual kingdoms, one of
light and the other of darkness.
Jerusalem was Yahweh’s own city, where he had placed his name
and where he was worshipped, whereas Babylon was the antithesis of faith in and
love for Yahweh. The building of the
ancient tower of Babel demonstrated practically the defiance and rebellion of
people’s hearts against God. It led to
the separation and dis-uniting of the peoples of the world, bringing mistrust
and hatred between them. This area of
Mesopotamia later became the cradle of the empire of Babylon, which grew and
expanded out of the city-state of the same name. Giving unrestrained expression to fallen and
sinful human nature, it became a byword for everything that was carnal,
immoral, occult and idolatrous.
God expected faithfulness and obedience from his own ancient
covenant people, the Israelites. But
when they wilfully and intransigently disobeyed him, insisting on being and
living like the surrounding nations, they were given over for a time to the
very spirit they craved to serve and to be like. So it was to Babylon that they were exiled,
that they might taste the full and bitter fruit of their rebellion and
disobedience towards God, in the hope that their children and grandchildren
might learn the lesson, and so determine to be faithful to God.
After the ascension and exaltation of
Christ, Jerusalem was the city in which the Church of Jesus Christ was born
when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, bringing salvation
and eternal life to the nations of the world, uniting through faith in Christ
into one spiritual family in the kingdom of God those who believe from all
nations. Table 14:2 below gives a summary of the contrast
between Pentecost and Babel:
|
Contrast between Pentecost and Babel |
|
|
Jerusalem |
Babel / Babylon |
|
One in spirit together at Pentecost. |
United in rebellion and defiance of God. |
|
Resulting in the gift of tongues, speaking out the wonders of God and
his salvation in different languages. |
Resulting in judgement and confused languages. |
|
Believers are united in love. |
People are separated and divided. |
|
Bringing the gospel of hope to the nations of the world. |
Bringing mistrust, hatred, and a desire to dominate and conquer. |
|
Filled with the Holy Spirit. |
A haunt for demons and every evil spirit. |
|
Bows to and worships Christ as king. |
Worships the prince of the power of the air (Satan, Baal, Enlil,
Marduk). |
|
Worships / serves the Lamb. |
Rides the Beast. |
Table 14:2 Contrast between Pentecost and Babel
The allegiance of our heart determines how we live
Spiritually, we belong ultimately to either one or the other of
these cities and the kingdoms they represent.
The allegiance of our heart is to one or the other of
them. We either love the kingdom of
light and determine to live for this, or we make our wilful choice to give
ourselves over to the carnality of the flesh, and to the love of life in this
world, and therefore to spiritual darkness.
The Bible reveals and uncovers this ultimate allegiance of our heart
and, together with that, our eternal destiny.
Whereas ancient Babel and Babylon loved the pleasures and human
glory of life in this world, and therefore lived in wilful defiance and
blasphemy against God, the Spirit-filled Christian, because s/he loves God,
lives in willing submission and obedience to him, desiring to please his/her
heavenly Father. The love of the Father
and the love of the things of this world are antithetical to each other (Gen.
11:4-6, 1 John 2:15, Rev. 17:3).
We all live for and follow what is in our heart. Our heart is where our treasure is, or what
we consider to be our treasure. So the
spirit which controls and permeates this fallen world seduces and deceives
people into focusing their desires and consuming their energies on material
gain and self-aggrandisement, on self-centred comfort, and on a life of sin and
fleshly pleasures. In ancient times,
this was called ‘mammon.’ By contrast,
the Spirit of God draws believers from within towards the spiritual riches
which can be found only in Christ, and which are of lasting and eternal value (Rev.
17:4; 18:3,9,12-17; Matt. 6:19-24; Eph. 1:18, 3:8).
The ways of Babylon are the ways of carnal sense, whereas the
Christian lives by the ways of the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God. The spirit of this world lives for and craves
the desires and carnal pleasures of the flesh, which are so often destructive,
but the Christian who walks in the Spirit repents from sin and learns to
crucify the flesh (Gal. 5:24). Babylon
is a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, but the Christian is
filled with the Holy Spirit (Rev. 18:2, Eph. 5:18). Non-believers get drunk on wine (often
habitually so), but a believer loves to be filled instead with the Holy Spirit (Rev.
17:2-4, 18:3; 1 Cor. 6:10, Eph. 5:18-20).
The non-believer lives for the cravings of his/her carnal nature, the
temporary lust of his/her eyes, and the fleeting pride of life, whereas those
who walk by faith look not at what they can see, but at eternal things which
are far more real and which their spirit perceives, but which their eye has not
yet beheld (2 Cor. 4:18, 1 John 2:16).
The spirit of Babylon hates the word of God. This city is filled with abominations and
unclean things, and occult practices are common. She despises God’s servants and prophets,
often persecuting and killing them.
Those who follow her ways crave temporal earthly power, whereas the
bride of Christ lives by the power of God.
The bride loves the word of God, and she honours his servants and heeds
his prophets. When the flesh is unleashed,
a spirit of infidelity, adultery and promiscuity permeates this world, whereas
those who love Jesus resolve that they will remain faithful to him and to the
teachings of his word, and so they forsake what is vile in God’s sight (Rev.
17:2,4-6; 18:3,10,20,23-24; 22:6,11).
The woman riding the beast is a picture of self-centredness. She is impure and morally defiled, and she
glories in her shame. In her arrogance
and spiritual blindness, she worships herself.
Like Lucifer before her, she decks herself out in her earthly gems,
parading around in the scarlet and purple of worldly fashion and ostentation,
for all around to see and adore. In
contrast with this, the bride’s heart is focused on Jesus. She worships and glories in him and, out of
her love for him, she keeps herself pure and clean. She forsakes Babylon and its ways. The Lord dresses her in eternal jewels and
the white robes of his righteousness (Ezek. 28:12-19; Rev. 17:4; 18:3,4,7,16;
19:7-8; 21:10-11,19-21).
Babylon is summed up as a wanton, unfaithful prostitute, always
using and being used. Her ultimate end
on earth is to be destroyed by those who hate her, and, eternally, those who
follow her ways will be shut permanently out of the heavenly city of God and
thrown forever into the lake of fire. By
contrast, the Christian’s intrinsic identity is as the bride of Christ,
betrothed to him and living in faithful covenant relationship with him. Ultimately, she enjoys the freedom and joy of
eternal life with her bridegroom in the heavenly city of God (Rev. 17:16-18;
18:8-24; 19:7-9; 21:8,27; 21:2-4,9-27; 22:1-5,14-15,17).
Tables 14:3 and 14.4 below give
brief summaries of the contrast between the bride and the prostitute, and the
two cities (the way of life and the way of death).
|
The contrast between the bride and
the prostitute |
|
|
The Bride of Christ |
The Prostitute of Babylon |
|
‘It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of
a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal…’ (21:11,18-21) |
‘The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with
gold, precious stones and pearls. She
held a golden cup in her hand…’ (17:4) |
|
‘On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of
Israel… The wall of the city had
twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the
Lamb.’ (21:12b,14) |
‘I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the
blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus…
In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints’ (17:6, 18:24) |
|
‘Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is
shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s
book of life.’ (21:27) |
‘…filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.’
(17:4) ‘The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the
book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see
the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.’ (17:8) |
|
‘The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will
bring their splendour into it… The
glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it.’ (21:24,26) |
‘The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples,
multitudes, nations and languages… The
woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.’
(17:15,18) |
Table 14:3
The contrast between the bride and the prostitute
|
The two cities: the way of life and the way of death |
|
|
The New Jerusalem |
Babylon, the great city |
|
A city with foundations (Heb. 11:10) |
Temporary earthly city / kingdom |
|
Whose builder and maker is God. |
Built according to human materialistic values. |
|
The way of the Spirit and of faith. |
The way of sight, flesh and carnal sense. |
|
Eternal life |
Destruction on earth Eternal death |
|
New heavens and a new earth |
The lake of fire |
Table 14:4 The two
cities: the way of life and the way of death
Inner spiritual covenant union and the bride of Christ
We were redeemed by Christ through his blood shed on the
cross. We have been bought with this
price, and we now belong to God rather than to ourselves or to this world:
‘In him we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins...’ (Eph. 1:7)
‘You are not your own; you were bought with a price...’ (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
Through this redeeming work of Christ, God brings us into covenant union with himself, a covenant which is sealed by the presence of his
Spirit indwelling us. The Holy Spirit is
our arrhabon, our engagement ring which has been given to us as a
guarantee of the wedding union that will one day take place between us as the
bride and Christ our heavenly Bridegroom.[1] So, through his indwelling Spirit, we become
one in spirit with the Lord, united and bound to him deep within, and God
begins to work out in our life his intention of forming us into a bride for his
Son:
‘Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s purchased possession...’ (Eph. 1:13-14)
‘Do you not
know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you
have received from God?’ (1 Cor. 6:19)
‘But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.’ (1 Cor. 6:17)
‘For the
wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her
to wear.’ (Rev. 19:7-8)
As our spirit is increasingly woven into spiritual union with
the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit within us, this leads into a
continuing process in which our heart’s desires and the way in which we live
are transformed, so that they reflect more and more the image of Christ in our
life. We love, adore and worship God,
and we love his word and presence.
Christ becomes increasingly the life of our life, and, as his life grows
and blossoms within us, it transforms our inward character which then reflects
the fruit of the Spirit:
‘...the
glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.’ (Col.
1:27)
‘For
you died, and your life is now hidden in Christ with God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then
you also will appear with him in glory.’ (Col. 3:3-4)
‘Do not lie
to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and
have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the image of its Creator.’ (Col.
3:9-10)
‘But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’ (Gal. 5:22-23)
Within this mutual covenant commitment, Christ our Bridegroom
has given himself unreservedly to us as his bride, the believing Church. So he has promised to protect us, to care for
us, and to never leave us or forsake us, just as any loving spouse would. He has promised to provide for us in terms of
having a home and sufficient food and clothing, as we walk with him in love and
obedience. He is even now preparing a
place in heaven for us, and he will soon return to take us to this new home:
‘...just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.’ (Eph. 5:25-27)
‘But seek
first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to
you as well.’ (Matt. 6:33)
‘God has
said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”’ (Heb. 13:5)
‘In my
Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am
going there to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you
to be with me that you also may be with me where I am.’ (John
14:2-3)
Those who give themselves in unreserved heart commitment to
Jesus, reciprocating his own unreserved heart commitment to them (as the
concept of covenant union suggests and demands), are the ones who enter into a
fuller and deeper understanding of what it means to be his bride. They experience the free joy, deep peace and
ongoing love of this relationship. But
for as long as a believer’s heart is divided between the love of life in this
world, and love for Christ, they cannot really enter into this joy:
‘Do not
love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.’ (1 John
2:15)
‘...offer
your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your
spiritual act of worship. Do not conform
any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.’ (Rom.
12:1-2)
So how then should we live?
It is crucial for us to understand
our identity as the bride of Christ, and to know this teaching about inner
spiritual union which underpins it.
If we do not know this, and if we have never been taught that God wants
to work out this wonderful spiritual truth in our life, then we will not be
able to live and walk according to it.
We will at best be confused or deceived on this point. Many of the believers in Corinth had not
understood their identity as the bride of Christ, and this is one of the main
reasons why they did not live up to the moral standards which the apostle Paul
expected of them as Christians:
‘I am
jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I
promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure
virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s
cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure
devotion to Christ. For if someone comes
to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached... you put up with
it easily enough.’ (2 Cor. 11:2-4)
‘I am
afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be
grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the
impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have engaged.’ (2 Cor.
12:21)
The motif of the bride of Christ is
given to us in Scripture to teach us about who we are and how we should live in
the here and now. The
committed covenant relationship between a bride-to-be and her betrothed is and
should be recognised and honoured by themselves, by their respective families,
and by their social networks. Being
betrothed gives personal identity, family identity and social identity to a
couple. It determines how they live and
relate not just to each other, but also to other people and to society around
them. They are expected to
live as people who are betrothed to each other. Lack of faithfulness to this identity and to
this covenant relationship can bring deep pain and shame onto both themselves
and their respective families (cf. Jas. 4:4).
The predominant characteristics of a bride-to-be are purity,
single-eyed devotion and faithfulness to her betrothed, and preparing herself
in joyful anticipation of her special day.
This all flows out of the heart love and longing which she has for him,
and out of the unreserved covenant commitment she has made with him. These two things determine the way in which
she lives her life.
So too for us. When he
comes, our heavenly Bridegroom wants to find a bride who loves him, and who has
long been preparing herself in joyful expectation of his return. A bride who knows that her bridegroom is one
day going to come for her, does not hang around passively without preparing
herself, like the five foolish virgins did.
No, she proactively prepares herself like the five wise one did, so that
she will be ready for when he comes:
‘For the
wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her
to wear.’ (Rev. 19:7-8, cf. Matt. 25:1-13)
As the bride of Christ, we love Jesus above everyone and
everything else. Our challenge in the
incessant demands and busyness of everyday life, is to keep our love for him
warm and fresh. We can do this, as every
married couple can, by determining to protect and nurture our times of intimacy
with him. It is mutual
commitment to regular intimacy which keeps love alive, fresh and warm:
‘Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your
first love. Remember the height from
which you have fallen! Repent and do the
things you did at first...’ (Rev. 2:4-5)
‘…I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go…’ (Song 3:4)
‘My lover is mine and I am his.’ (Song 2:16, 6:3)
The understanding of dynamic, inward and unreserved spiritual
covenant union which is described above, together with the contrast between the
bride and the prostitute that I drew out in the preceding sections, are a call
to co-work with the Holy Spirit within us in the here and now as he transforms
our life. It is a call to live in
ever-increasing measure for the eternal things of God and his kingdom, rather
than for the things of this world, and to do this out of genuine and growing
heart love for God.
In tandem with this, it is also a call to live in obedience to
God by putting to death sinful desires in our life, by the power of the Holy
Spirit within us, and thereby to not live for the carnal and temporary things
of this world, and certainly not for the pleasures of sin. The biggest battle in our life will always be
the ongoing battle between the life of the Spirit within us and the deceitful
desires of our carnal nature. If our life is to truly reflect what it means to be becoming
the bride of Christ, then this is a battle that we must learn how to win:
‘So I say,
live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful
nature. For the sinful nature desires
what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful
nature. They are in conflict with each
other, so that you do not do what you want...
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious... Those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in
step with the Spirit.’ (Gal. 5:16-25)
‘Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your
earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, …
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger,
rage, malice... You have taken off your
old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being
renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.’
(Col.
3:5-10)
Holiness means ‘to be separated unto,’ and so, because our
heart commitment is to Jesus and to him alone, we honour our relationship with
him openly before other people. We belong to him.
We remain faithful to him with single-eyed devotion, and we avoid moral
impurity. We separate ourselves from the
sin of this world, so that we can then live freely unto him:
‘I promised
you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to
him.’ (2 Cor. 11:2)
‘…what kind
of people ought you to be? You ought to
live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its
coming.’ (2 Peter 3:11-12)
Similarly, we obey God’s word because we love him, and we
freely choose to live our life in a way which we know will please him. Loving my spouse means wanting her/him to be
happy and pleased with me. And how do we
know what is pleasing to God? Through
knowing his word, which reveals his will.
So we wash ourselves daily with his word, through reading and meditating
on it, and allowing it to permeate and cleanse our heart and mind. As we do this, and live in obedience to it,
we become increasingly radiant and gorgeous as Christ’s bride:
‘Whoever has my commands and
obeys them, he is the one who loves me.
He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and
show myself to him... If anyone loves me,
he will obey my teaching. My Father will
love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’ (John
14:21,23)
‘Live as children of light
(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
and find out what pleases the Lord.’ (Eph. 5:8-10)
‘So
we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away
from it.’ (2 Cor. 5:9)
‘Christ loved the church and
gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing of water
by the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain
or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.’ (Eph.
5:26-27).
[1]The Greek word arrhabon is
translated as ‘deposit’ in Ephesians 1:14. However, one of its common forms
meant an engagement ring in everyday life.
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