Revelation 17:17; The Words of God Shall Be Fulfilled

Revelation 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. 

The sovereign purpose of God is behind this internal strife within the kingdom of evil – For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. 

The immediate cause of the devastating friction among former allies is unknown, but the ultimate cause is known. God has put into the hearts and minds of the ten kings and their leader to turn against the religious structure which they feel no longer serves a useful purpose for them. The words “put in their hearts” follow a Hebrew idiom. (Charles)

Nehemiah 7:5  And my God put into mine heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first, and found written therein, 

Jeremiah 32:40  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. 

Hebrews 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 

His sovereign power is behind this breakup of anti-Christian power. Because of the future hold created by the predictions of v16, the verb “hath put” as a single action is proleptic, adopting a perspective after the predictive events take place (Alford, Beckwith).

This is not the only time God uses the forces of evil for His purposes of judgment. He used Babylon to judge Israel (Jeremiah 25:9-11).

Jeremiah 25:9-11  Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 

He also uses the only time enemies to destroy themselves (Judges 7:22; 2 Chronicles 20:23; 1 Samuel 14:20; Ezekiel 38:21; Zechariah 14:14) (Mounce, Hailey).

Judges 7:22  And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Beth-shittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abel-meholah, unto Tabbath. 

2 Chronicles 20:23  For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. 

1 Samuel 14:20  And Saul and all the people that were with him assembled themselves, and they came to the battle: and, behold, every man’s sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great discomfiture. 

Ezekiel 38:21  And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. 

Zechariah 14:14  And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance. 

A divine overruling controls the fate of the world’s political powers, so that at times Satan is an instrument in serving a providential purpose (Moffatt). A case in point is Revelation 16:13-14 where He sends the spirits of demons to assemble a massive army to a battle scene where God wants them to be (Lee).

[Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 – An Exegetical Commentary, Moody, 1995, 305]