Plumbing the Depths of Revelation 40

Following the seven bowl judgements in chapters 15 and 16, John is visited by one of the angels who had poured out his assigned bowl. This is not sequential to the final bowl judgement, but a side-bar that reveals how Yahweh-God looks at the fallen nature of the earth. John is invited, "Come, and I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute" and is then transported "in the Spirit into a wilderness". There John sees "a woman sitting on a scarlet beast" that is clearly the same beast from the sea, introduced in Revelation 13. The vision gives John some context into what the Lord considers to be adultery, prostitution and abominations to His revealed word. The identity of the woman is "Babylon the great the Mother of prostitution and of the Abominations of the Earth".