Revelation 18:7

How much soever she glorified herself, and waxed wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall in no wise see mourning.

The first extended clause here is merely the reiteration, for emphasis, of what was said in Revelation 18:6.

For she saith in her heart ... Making such a boast to others was bad enough; but, "In her self-glorification, presumptuousness, and boastfulness, she had said it in her heart, which is even worse than saying it to others."[35]

I sit a queen ... Even the coinage of the pagan city proclaimed her as "the eternal city."[36] Lenski noted that we should not pass lightly over "I sit."[37] Where does the sitting take place? In the church of God, no less. See 2 Thessalonians 2:4 and our comments on that passage, also the "Excursus on the Man of Sin," my Commentary on 2Thessalonians, pp. 106-117.

And am no widow ... "It is curious that she should say, no widow."[38] God's entire true church is spiritually "widowed" in the absence of the Bridegroom from the earth; but this whore has picked up another in his stead to be the "head of the church," illegally taking the place of Christ who is the lawful and rightful head.

The meaning of this boast is that the harlot is certainly not looking to be overthrown. An arrogant confidence born of centuries of unjust domination has created within her the delusion that nothing can stop her. She will continue, so she believes, to be stronger and stronger; but there is no fall like that that comes to one who thinks that it cannot happen to him.

Arnold Toynbee's History of the great world civilizations shows that all great civilizations, including Rome, fell at the height of their power.[39]

[35] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 208.

[36] J. W. Roberts, op. cit., p. 150.

[37] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 520.

[38] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 217.

[39] James D. Strauss, op. cit., p. 224.