By its own interpretation, the text tells us the waters
are symbolic. They are symbolic in that they refer to the
vast majority of the people of the earth.
For centuries, the kings and the harlot have appeared as
lovers, but there has been no real love between them. They
simply used each other to further their own ends. Now the
religious system will have served its purpose, so the ten
kings and the beast banish and destroy the harlot. Her
wealth, buildings, property will be confiscated, her leaders
killed, and everything else destroyed.
Verse 17 states the principle that God uses the blasphemous
actions of world religions and governments to fulfill His
own purposes. Scripture shows that God permits the
increasing evil and wickedness until the cup of iniquity
overflows, and then judgment comes.
In the declaration “God has put it into their hearts to
accomplish his purpose,” there is another indication of
God’s use of the forces of evil as instruments of his own
purposes of judgment (Jeremiah 25:9-14; Luke 20:18). Nothing
will distract them from their united effort to destroy the
prostitute until God’s purposes given through the prophets
are fulfilled.
