Thursday, July 31, 2008

Revelation 18:20-24

20Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.' "

21Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:

"With such violence

the great city of Babylon will be thrown down,

never to be found again.

22The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters,

will never be heard in you again.

No workman of any trade

will ever be found in you again.

The sound of a millstone

will never be heard in you again.

23The light of a lamp will never shine in you again.

The voice of bridegroom and bride

will never be heard in you again.

Your merchants were the world's great men.

By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.

24In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints,

and of all who have been killed on the earth."



Dig Deeper

After a short period of what was termed "shock and awe," as the United States reigned down a technologically advanced attack on Iraq, the sort that the world had never before seen, ground troops were sent in to secure the country and take down then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. When the job was finished, there were many who had benefited from Hussein’s policies and feared that they might be next in the United State’s war against those who supported terror. At the same time that they were mourning, however, there were many that rejoicing. People that had suffered under Hussein and were glad to see him go, flooded the streets of Baghdad, rejoicing that their persecutor and despised dictator had been defeated. This was hardly a day of mourning for them. For them it was a day to rejoice.


The fall of Jerusalem would be the source of much mourning and fear, but God clearly does not see this as a day of mourning for His people. Jesus had already shed tears at Israel’s lack of repentance (Luke 19:41-48), but that time was over. This was not a time for sadness but of rejoicing and praise, for God had finally vindicated His people in righteous judgment.


18:20 - As we saw yesterday, the mourners over the fate of Jerusalem were split into three groups. There is, however, a fourth response. The Saints, and apostles and prophets are told to rejoice over her. The Church, tabernacling in heaven had prayed for the destruction of the apostate city that led the world in rebellion of God and persecution of His children. Jesus had promised that the Holy Mountain would be thrown into the Sea if they had enough faith and now it was on the verge of taking place (Matt. 21:21; Mark 11:23). They have prayed and God has judged her for the way she treated you. Their destruction and removal as the Covenant people of God was the just retribution for the way that Israel had rebelled against God, rejected Christ, and persecuted His Church.


18:21 - As mentioned previously, Jesus had told his disciples to pray for the mountain of Jerusalem to be cast into the sea. He had also warned that it would be better for one who hindered the little ones from the gospel to be thrown into the sea with a millstone around their neck. Using similar language, we are told symbolically that a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea. The millstone was a common symbol in the ancient world for productivity. Jerusalem’s labor has been in vain, in contrast to the Church (1 Cor. 15:58). The image here also comes from Old Testament descriptions of the Red Sea (Ex. 15:3-5, 10; Neh. 9:9-11). Perhaps the primary source of the symbol, though, comes from Jer. 51:61-64). Jeremiah’s messenger reads the prophecy of Babylon’s destruction, then ties it to a stone and throws it into the Euphrates declaring that it will sink and not rise again. Applying those words to the great prostitute, the angel says with such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again.


The obvious question is how was this fulfilled in 70 AD? Jerusalem appears to be alive and well to this day. Prophecy is covenantally and ethically oriented. Jerusalem was not destroyed forever in a physical sense any more than Babylon, Edom, or Egypt were destroyed forever, even though that was prophesied. Consider Isaiah’s prophecy against Edom in Isa. 34:9-10 as an example: "Edom's streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again." Of course, in literal terms this did not happen, but the prophecy was fulfilled in terms of its actual meaning and intent. The territory of Edom still has tree, flowers, crops, and rivers, but Edom was to be stricken primarily as a people, not as a land. From this perspective, the prophecy has come true. Edom, as an enemy of God and His people, has vanished forever. This ‘forever’ destruction of Jerusalem, then, means that they will forever cease to be the Covenant people of God. The old, apostate Jerusalem has been replaced by the Bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem. There will be no salvation and no Covenant outside of the Church.


18:22-23 - Israel’s covenantal status has been removed and so has the blessing of the Covenant. These will be taken away forever, alluding to both Jeremiah’s prophecies against the rebellious Jerusalem of his time (Jer. 7:34; 16:9; 25:10; cf. Isa. 24:7-12) and to Ezekiel’s prophecy against the king of Tyre (Ezek. 28:11-19). The doom is pronounced in five parts: 1) The loss of the music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpets. There will be no more joy or celebration in the city. 2) The productivity of the land will be gone symbolized by the workman of any trade. 3) It would be the end of prosperity, which was symbolized in the ancient world by the millstone. There was a second meaning for the mill for Jews. The mill was the threshing floor, which is what the Temple land was before the structure was built there. Therefore, both prosperity and the Temple would be gone from Israel. 4) The light of a lamp will be gone. Israel would suffer the loss of God’s word and the wisdom that comes from it, as well as they would no longer be the light of the world. 5) The final symbol is the most encompassing and devastating: the prostitute had been cast out as the Bride and replaced by another so the voice of bridegroom and bride would never be heard again. Israel has been judged on two accounts. The first is that her merchants were the world’s great men, but had taken to trading men’s souls, leading them into apostasy. The second is that all the nations were led astray by their magic spell.


18:24 - As if we needed any other clues to the identity of the prostitute, the great city, John gives us the final piece. In her was found the blood of the prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth. This is an obvious allusion to Christ’s words in his denunciation of Jerusalem in Matt. 23:34-37. This language could not be used of Rome or any city other than Jerusalem, as this was a constant charge against Jerusalem (Acts 7:51-52; Luke 13:33-34.



Devotional Thought

The early church was told to pray for the destruction of the enemies of God and His Church, and they were commanded to rejoice when that judgment finally happened. Do you ever pray for the destruction and downfall of the enemies of God that are being used Satan? Spend some time today praying for the downfall (and that may involve their conversion) of those who would choose to disobey God and His Church.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Revelation 18:9-19

9"When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. 10Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:

" 'Woe! Woe, O great city,

O Babylon, city of power!

In one hour your doom has come!'

11"The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more— 12cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; 13cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men.

14"They will say, 'The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.' 15The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn 16and cry out:

" 'Woe! Woe, O great city,

dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet,

and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls!

17In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!'

"Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. 18When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, 'Was there ever a city like this great city?' 19They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out: " 'Woe! Woe, O great city,

where all who had ships on the sea

became rich through her wealth!

In one hour she has been brought to ruin!



Dig Deeper

I remember one morning while I was teaching at an inner-city high school in which there was quite a stir through the halls. The night before there had been a big arrest in the neighborhood in which most of the kids lived. Five gang leaders from the dominant gang in that neighborhood, as well as at least twenty other members had been arrested in one night as the result of a long government investigation and subsequent sting. You would think that the response to such a group of criminals being taken off the streets would be jubilation but that was not the case. Many of the kids had known these people, tolerated or even participated in certain aspects of their activities, and profited in different ways from their control of the area. To see all of these young men go down in one night was not only a shock but it also elicited responses of fear among some who thought they might be next and mourning among others who knew that they would no longer profit from this gang.


In the same way, the kings of the earth, John says, will not look at God’s judgment on apostate Israel with praise for God, but rather with fear that they might be next and sadness that the party has come to an end. Rather than allowing this judgment to serve as a strong warning to them to change their behavior, they can only lament over what has been lost. As we will see in the next passage, this response is in sharp contrast to the response of the righteous who actually are told to rejoice over the destruction of Jerusalem.


18:9 - We will be told of three groups of people that will mourn the destruction of Jerusalem. The first is that of the kings of the earth, these are the same people that joined in with the Covenant people in their apostasy, and their destruction is a fearful sign to them of God’s judgment. They see the smoke of her burning, a symbol borrowed from the description of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:28) and the fall of Edom (Isa. 34:10), and are reminded that a similar fate for them might not be long in coming. And well they should as God had told Jeremiah that the nations of the earth would taste from His cup of wrath (Jer. 25:28-29). The lament of each group ends with the words woe, woe, O great city. This may have taken special significance for readers familiar with Jerusalem before her destruction. Josephus, in The Jewish Wars, wrote of a man called the son of Ananias who stood in the Temple courts beginning in 62 AD (when all was still prosperous and well) preaching and crying "woe, woe to Jerusalem."


18:11-17a - The second groups of mourners is that of the merchants. The wealth of Jerusalem was a direct result of the blessings that were part of the Covenant (Lev. 26; Deut. 28). God had blessed her with great wealth to demonstrate that they were His people, but she had abused that gift. A great deal could be said about the list of items (which are similar to a list in Ezek. 27:12-24 in a prophecy against Tyre), but suffice it to say that the list probably reflects the Temple and the commerce that surrounded it. Ancient sources confirm that Jerusalem had become a major hub in importing and exporting goods to and from the Roman world. What is perhaps the most shocking is the last line of this list: and souls of men. This phrase is borrowed from the description of Tyre’s slave traffic in Ezek. 27:13, but is applied to Jerusalem’s spiritual corruption of men’s souls. Paul used a similar allusion in contrasting the earthly, apostate Jerusalem with the heavenly City of God: "The present city of Jerusalem . . . . is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother" (Gal. 4:25-26). Rather than being the light of the world, Jerusalem had prostituted herself and led them into bondage to the Dragon.


By engaging in this apostasy, the fruit that Jerusalem had longed for is gone. The blessings of the Covenant that they had long desired had been forfeited by listening to the Serpent. Israel, like Adam and Eve, had failed as the representative of mankind and would now be barred from the Tree of Life; they would also forfeit their physical riches and splendor.


The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from Jerusalem are powerless to do anything more than stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will realize that the source of their great wealth will never be the same. They will weep and mourn and cry out for their partner in apostasy, the woman who was so seductive and beautiful in her fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. The description of the clothes confirm the identity of the city as Jerusalem, dressed in the glory of the Temple and the linen of the Bride (Rev. 19:8). Those who had partnered and profited from the prostitute city, will be amazed at the suddenness of her fall: In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin! This destruction that is being described is the promised desolation of Jerusalem (Matt. 23:38; 24:15, etc.). Like the previous use of day, the term hour is not a literal reference, but describes the unexpected suddenness of the destruction. John also uses the term hour quite often when referring to a particularly critical time (John 2:4; 5:25, 28; 7:30; 8:20; 12:23; 17:1; 1 John 2:18).


17b- 19 - The third group of mourner is the sea captains, those who travel by ship, sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea. John has already stressed the economic ruin brought by Jerusalem’s destruction, so although this class of people emphasizes that aspect, it likely also points to the nations of the world, symbolized by the people of the sea (He has already said that the many waters represents all the people of the earth). This also alludes to Ps. 107:23-32, where those in the ships are instructed in the ways of the Lord and give thanks to Him for His "unfailing love." Proclaiming God’s unfailing love was to be the purpose of Israel, but she had abandoned that vocation.



Devotional Thought

Israel’s vocation had been to proclaim God’s unfailing love to the world, but they had instead led the world into continued apostasy. What can you learn from that to apply to your own life? Do you more often proclaim God’s unfailing love to the lost souls around you, or do you quietly approve of their behavior by not saying anything? How can you proclaim God’s unfailing love to the lost souls in your life today?

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Revelation 18:1-8

1After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. 2With a mighty voice he shouted:

"Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!

She has become a home for demons

and a haunt for every evil spirit,

a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.

3For all the nations have drunk

the maddening wine of her adulteries.

The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,

and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries."

4Then I heard another voice from heaven say:

"Come out of her, my people,

so that you will not share in her sins,

so that you will not receive any of her plagues;

5for her sins are piled up to heaven,

and God has remembered her crimes.

6Give back to her as she has given;

pay her back double for what she has done.

Mix her a double portion from her own cup.

7Give her as much torture and grief

as the glory and luxury she gave herself.

In her heart she boasts,

'I sit as queen; I am not a widow,

and I will never mourn.'

8Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her:

death, mourning and famine.

She will be consumed by fire,

for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.



Dig Deeper

Policemen have a very specific job in our society. They are, in a few simple words, to serve and protect. To truly be able to do that they have to be reliable, trustworthy, honest, and full of integrity. A dishonest policeman can get away with quite a bit of evil because of the trust put in him. A few years ago in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a groups of off-duty police officers were drunk at a party and became engaged in a fight with two other men. The policemen nearly killed one of the men and then tried to cover-up their responsibility and role in the fracas by claiming that the two men had gone berserk and they were simply trying to do their job and arrest the men. As a result of this breech of trust, though, the community in Milwaukee gave a loud public outcry against these policemen and wanted them to go to jail. It is a real shame to think about those that were supposed to protect and preserve peace being locked away with the same criminals that they were supposed to protect society from.


Israel had clearly been given the great responsibility of being the people of God. This demanded much of them and they had failed to represent God. They had broken the trust and faith that God had placed on them and now, rather than being a light to the world, they would feel the same wrath of judgment that was intended for the pagan nations that rejected God.


18:1 - John sees another angel coming down from heaven, but the description indicates that we should view this messenger (the literal meaning of the word translated ‘angel’) as Jesus, Himself, (or at least His direct messenger) as it so closely parallels John’s descriptions of Jesus in other places. He comes down from heaven (John 3:13, 31; 6:38, 58), has great authority (John 5:27; 10:18; 17:2), and the earth was illuminated by His splendor (John 1:4-5, 9, 14; 8:12; 9:5; 11:9; 12:46).


18:2 - The message given here is consistent (Rev. 14:8) and echoes the funeral dirge given by Amos against Israel in Amos 5:2. Jerusalem has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. These are both ways of saying that she had become unclean, as the word translated ‘evil’ is literally ‘unclean’. We shall see that this is in contrast to the New Jerusalem in 21:27, in which nothing unclean will ever enter into it.


18:3 - Israel was to have been the light to the world, but had become a perversion of the calling as the teacher-priest of the world. This was the reason for her destruction (cf. Rev. 14:8; 17:2, 4). All the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries that she had committed with the kings and the merchants of the world. The emphasis given to merchants is probably related to the commercial activities that had come to surround the Temple, whose corruption affected the spiritual life of the entire nation. The Temple was the core of life for Israel and if the core is rotten, the fruit is worthless.


18:4-5 - Another voice calls to come out of her my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues (cf. Heb. 10:19-39; 12:15-29; 13:10-14); for her sins are piled up to heaven (cf. Gen. 19:13; 2 Chron. 28:9; Ezra 9:6; Jer. 51:9; Jon 1:2). This was a large part of the message to the early church, the call to separate from the old, corrupt ways and align themselves with the genuine life of Christ (cf. Acts 2:37-40; 3:19-26; 4:8-12; 5:27-32). The Jews had tasted of the age to come but had fallen away. It would be impossible to turn back to the old ways and still receive forgiveness (Heb. 6:4-8). Salvation could only come through Christ and the Church. The sins of this generation had piled up and filled the measure of guilt, as Jesus had said (Matt. 23:32-35). The persecutors were about to suffer destruction at God’s hands, the Church’s redemption was almost at hand (Luke 21:28, 31), and the new Temple was about to be fully established.


18:6-8 - Christ, as the righteous judge, demands full restitution: Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup (cf. Jer. 50:15, 29; Ps. 137:8; Isa. 40:2). Restitution of double was the normal biblical standard (Ex. 22:4, 7).


This torture and grief will equal the amount of glory and luxury she gave herself. The reason is her pride and self-exaltation: In her heart she boasts, I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn. This text is based on God’s judgment against Babylon (Isa. 47:6-11) for her treatment of the Covenant people. Israel had committed the same crime that Eve had in consorting with the Dragon and contradicting God’s words that He "is the Lord; and there is no Savior besides Me" (Isa. 43:11). Because of this, therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her; death, mourning, and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her. The Day of the Lord would come upon Israel, bringing her destruction quickly (1 Thess. 5:2-3). The term ‘day" does not indicate a specific duration of time, but rather, indicates the relative suddenness of the judgment.




Devotioinal Thought

Despite the fact that the Old Covenant had been rejected by God, many Jewish Christians were tempted to return to what they knew when things got tough. What are you tempted to turn to when your Christian walk becomes a struggle or you face opposition? How can you keep from turning to other things and hold fast to your faith in Christ?

Monday, July 28, 2008

Revelation 17:15-18

15Then the angel said to me, "The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. 16The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. 17For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to give the beast their power to rule, until God's words are fulfilled. 18The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth."



Dig Deeper

If you grew up in America in the 1980’s then you’re probably at least familiar with the classic ‘80’s movie, Can’t Buy Me Love. The movie depicts a young nerd who desperately wants to be part of the cool crowd. He does everything in his power to accomplish that, eventually paying a popular cheerleader to pretend to date him. This finally got him into the popular crowd, but in the process he abandoned his friends, his morals, and everything else that was important to him. What he didn’t realize though was that the popular crowd that he desired so desperately to be a part of, didn’t really like him. Once he was exposed as not really being cool, they quickly turned on him and were more than happy to ignore and even persecute him.


As silly as that example is, it does help us to understand the dynamic that we being described between Israel, the great prostitute, and the beast of the Roman Empire. On the surface, the two were never very friendly and didn’t seem to be allies, but Israel had desired to be like Rome in so many ways, that she lost her true identity in pursuit of being like Rome. Rome put up with Israel for a while but never embraced her as a friend, so when situations changed, Rome was more than ready to turn on Israel and destroy her. The very country that Jewish leadership had crawled into bed with and wanted so badly to be like, would now be the agent of God’s judgment on them for their rebellion against Him.


17:15 - Now the angel explains the primary significance to the symbolism of the woman sitting on the waters. The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, in multitudes, nations, and languages. It is put in terms of a fourfold description, thus signifying the entire world. Identifying the pagan, ungodly nations with the waters or that sea is a familiar concept in the Bible. (See Isa. 17:12-13; Isa. 57:20-21; Rev. 13:1 for a few examples). Jerusalem could be described as sitting on "many waters" because of the great influence that Jews had in all parts of the Roman Empire before 70 AD. The spread of Jews can be seen at the day of Pentecost when Jews from every nation came back to Jerusalem (Acts 2:5). By 70 AD their was a synagogue in nearly every city in the Roman Empire.


17:16 - In their war against God, the enraged nations will turn against Jerusalem because of her self-proclaimed connections with Him. The description of their hatred toward the Prostitute is, again, in a fourfold description: The Beast and her allies will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire (cf. Jer. 13:26; Lam. 1:8-9; nah. 3:5). Bring her to ruin is actually a word that means ‘desolation’ and is the same word Jesus used in Matt. 24:15, Mark 13:14, and Luke 21:20, connecting it to Daniel’s abomination of desolation in Dan. 9:26-27. One of the common punishments for a convicted adulteress in the ancient world was to be stripped naked (cf. Isa. 47:2-3; Jer. 13:26; Lam. 1:8; Ezek. 16:37, 39; 23:29; Hos. 2:10; Nah. 3:5). Another connection is made with Jezebel as it is said that the Empire will eat her flesh, just as the dogs had eaten the flesh of the original Jezebel (1 Ki. 21:23-24; 2 Ki. 9:30-37). Just as the Old Testament called for a priest’s daughter that became a prostitute to be burned (Lev. 21:9), so would God’s kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:6) turned prostitute would be burned to the ground (Jer. 4:11-13, 30-31; Ezek. 16:37-41; 23:22, 25-30). In The Parousia, J. Stuart Russell notes, "Tacitus speaks of the bitter animosity with which the Arab auxiliaries of Titus were filled against the Jews, and we have a fearful proof of the intense hatred towards the Jews by the neighbouring nations in the wholesale massacres of that unhappy people perpetrated in many great cities just before the outbreak of the war. The whole Jewish population of Caesarea were massacred in one day. In Syria every city was divided into two camps, Jews and Syrians. In Scythopolis upwards of thirteen thousand Jews were butchered; in Ascalon, Ptolemais, and Tyre, similar atrocities took place,. But in Alexandria the carnage of the Jewish inhabitants exceeded all the other massacres. . . Fifty thousand corpses lay in ghastly heaps in the streets." Truly the Beast and the ten horns. . . . will hate the prostitute.


We should realize that the Beast destroyed Jerusalem as part of the war against Christ. They not only wanted to end the Jewish rebellion but to put an end to Christianity. Sulpitius Severus writes that the Roman General "Titus himself thought that the temple ought specially to be overthrown, in order that the religion of the Jews and of the Christians might more thoroughly be subverted; for that these religions, although contrary to each other, had nevertheless proceeded from the same authors; that the Christians had sprung up from among the Jews; and that, if the root were extirpated, the offshoot would speedily perish." The Beast, inspired by the Dragon, thought it could get rid of the prostitute and the Bride of Christ in one fell swoop. Instead, Jerusalem would lay in ruins and the Church was revealed as the new and glorious Temple of God.


17:17 - For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by giving the Beast power to rule, until God’s words are fulfilled. These nations thought they were acting on their own behalf, but the reality of the situation was they were merely the instruments that God used to enact the curses of the Covenant (Deut.) on the Covenant-breakers.


17:18 - The angel now confirms that the woman, the prostitute, is the great city, a term that John has already used for Jerusalem, the city where Jesus was crucified. This is the city that rules over the kings of the earth. This verse has confused many into supposing that the woman is Rome (this of course doesn’t make much sense of verses like v. 16). How can it be said that Jerusalem held such worldwide political power? The answer is simple. Revelation is not about political power, but about Covenant. Jerusalem did reign over the nations covenantally; she was to be the Kingdom above all kingdoms, the Kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:6) that interceded on behalf of the world. The destruction of the prostitute was the final sign that this Kingdom had been transferred to God’s new people, the Church (Matt. 21:43; 1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 11:19; 15:5; 21:3).



Devotional Thought

Israel had failed to be the Kingdom of priests that God had called them to be. Now it is the Church that is called to that function. Do you act like you are part of a Kingdom of priests that should be transforming and influencing the world, or do you act more like you are ashamed of your Christianity, keeping it quiet most of the time? What does Romans 1:16 mean to you personally?

Friday, July 25, 2008

Revelation 17:8-14

8The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. 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.
9"This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. 10They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while. 11The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.

12"The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. 13They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. 14They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers."

Dig Deeper
I recently saw a movie, Ironman, in which the hero was going through great difficulty fighting an unidentified bad guy and all of his plots. The hero was receiving help from an older and seemingly wiser mentor against the nemesis, who had not yet been revealed. The movie carefully gave small clues as to the agenda and identity of the villain but never fully revealed him. That is until about three-fourths of the way through the movie when a conversation took place that made it more than obvious that the mentor was actually the bad guy. His identity had been revealed and suddenly most of the mysteries in the movie fell into place with only the final showdown yet to be depicted.

This is something of the case in this passage of the Revelation. We have been given certain clues as to the identity and operations of the Beast without being clearly given its identity. In this passage, though, the identity is described so clearly that one would almost have to try not to understand that John is describing the Roman Empire, personified by the emperor of Rome. The identity of the great Beast has been revealed, surely the final showdown must be coming soon.

17:8 - The Beast that is described, is now a composite between the Sea Beast and the Dragon. Milton Terry, in Biblical Apocalyptics, says that the differing descriptions are due to the "different and successive manifestations of Satan himself. . . . Hence we understand by the beast that was and is not an enigmatical portraiture of the great red dragon of 12:3. He is the king of the Abyss in 9:11, and the beast that killed the witnesses in 11:7. He appears for a time in the person of some great persecutor, or in the form of some huge iniquity, but is after a while cast out. Then he again finds some other organ for his operations and enters it. . . . " The Dragon is constantly on the prowl looking for an open conduit to work though. The angel says that the Beast once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss. This is a clear parody of "Him who is, who was, and who is to come" (Rev. 1:4). Christians looked to Christ's resurrection as their hope, but those who follow the Beast will look to him rising up from the Abyss for their security.

It is likely that the specific human manifestation of the Beast at this point is Vespasian, who became Caesar after the chaos that followed the death of Nero. Vespasian 'was' in favor with Nero, and 'is not' (he fell from favor and power), and 'will come up out of the Abyss' (he was restored and came to be Caesar). In a sense Rome passed through the same stages, as it was with Nero, was not, as they suffered chaos and four emperors in one year, and came up out of the Abyss with Vespasian at the helm. Although the Christians needed to be awake because the Beast would be strong again for a time, they could be assured that he would ultimately go to his destruction. But before that happens, the Beast will be successful in carrying off Israel with him. They are the inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life. They have forfeited their status as the people of God and have been replaced by the New Covenant children of God.

17:9-10 - To fully understand the wiles and identity of the Beast calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. This clearly identifies Rome as the Beast, famous for its "seven hills," but there is also a correspondence to the line of Caesars, because they are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come. The first five Caesars were Julius (who was not technically the first emperor but was for all practical and theological purposes), Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. One is: Nero was the sixth Caesar and was on the throne, presumably as John was writing this. Galba, the seventh Caesar, was in power for less than seven months.

17:11 - The chaos that will follow Nero should not be interpreted by Christians as the end of the Empire and the cessation of their troubles. The real enemy is the Beast who will rise in the Empire again through other willing conduits. He is also an eighth king. He belongs to the seven. This is significant because eight is the biblical number of resurrection. John is warning his readers that even Rome might seem to be crumbling after the rule of seven kings, it will be 'resurrected' again to continue its persecution of the Church. Despite this 'resurrection', though, even the eighth king, Vespasian will go to his destruction, as will all enemies of God.

17:12 - Now the angel says clearly that the ten horns you saw are ten kings. The number ten in the Bible is associated with numerical fullness, or the concept of many. These ten kings are associated with the Beast and will receive authority as kings along with the Beast. Although the thrust of the symbol is to represent the totality of those allied and subject to Rome in its wars on both Judaism and Christianity, it is also true that Rome actually had ten imperial provinces at the time. The primary point here is that these kings, with whom the prostitute has laid down, will be the cause of her eventual destruction.

17:13-14 - These ten kings have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the Beast. That one purpose will be to make war against the Lamb Making war with God is always the ultimate goal of rebellious mankind, that will manifest itself in many different ways (cf. Ps. 2:2; Acts 2:26). Just as the Pharisees and the Herodians joined together against Christ, and Pilate and Herod became friends in their work against Jesus, so the enemies of God will often come together to do war against Him. No matter, however, for their ultimate fate is sealed: The Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.

Devotioinal Thought
What a wonderful thing for us to remember! No matter how bleak things may seem some time, we must remember that the ultimate result is already determined. The Church will overcome, Christ will be victorious. How differently might you approach challenging situations in your spiritual walk if you could remember this truth? The next time you are really struggling, try going to God and praising Him for the fact that you know He will be victorious in the end. Focusing on the result just might help you in the present.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Revelation 17:1-7

The Woman and the Beast

1One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. 2With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries."

3Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. 5This title was written on her forehead:

MYSTERY

BABYLON THE GREAT

THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES

AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

6I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.

When I saw her, I was greatly astonished. 7Then the angel said to me: "Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns.



Dig Deeper

When I was a high school teacher I had one young student who was living in difficult circumstances. She had been kicked out of her house by her mother, despite the fact that she was only 16 years old. She already had one child and had another one on the way. With little other choice, in her mind, she moved in with her 24 year-old boyfriend, a man who was heavily involved in gangs and drugs and was no sort of role model for a young child. When we became aware of all of this, we went about securing her a new place to live. She agreed that she wanted out and away from her dangerous boyfriend. We were able to get her into a shelter in a whole other part of town, one with a private location so that her very possessive boyfriend couldn’t find her. We were all relieved. That is, until about two weeks later when she said she was bored and decided to call her old boyfriend, have him come and get her and moved right back in with him.


There is an old saying that talks of the "dog returning to his vomit." I don’t know why this is so often the case, but John seems very aware of that tendency as he describes the great prostitute in this passage. The prostitute had, at one time, come from noble circumstances but now seems determined time and again to return the practices that took her from her once privileged position. This is sadly such a part of human nature that it should not be all that surprising to us. In fact, perhaps the only thing that might surprise a reader for the first time is the identity of the great prostitute.


17:1-2 - The vision of the seven angels continues in chapter 17. One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came to John and shows him the fall of the great prostitute. John has already told his readers about a harlot-city named Babylon the great (Rev. 14:8; 16:19). The resemblance of the prostitute to the original Babylon is emphasized by the fact that she is sitting on many waters, an image borrowed from Jeremiah’s description of Babylon in his declaration of judgment against the nation (Jer. 51:13). The term ultimately refers to the many blessings that God had given to Babylon, which she had prostituted for her own glory. John will give us further symbolic meaning to this phrase later in verse 15. The prostitute city has committed adultery with the inhabitants of the earth. This wording is taken from Isaiah’s prophecy against Tyre, where it primarily refers to her international commerce (Isa. 23:15-17). There are a few other examples of a pagan nation being accused of prostitution, most often, however, it is a charge leveled against Israel (Isa. 1:21; Jer. 2:20-24, 30-33; 3:1-3; Hos. 9:1).


This theme of harlotry is even more prominent in Ezekiel where Israel is charged with religious-political alliances with powerful Gentile kingdoms (Ezek. 16:26-29). God, through Ezekiel, charges Israel of adultery using language so graphic and shocking that most 21st century pastors wouldn’t dare to preach from these passages. Ezekiel accuses Israel of spreading her legs to ever passerby (Ezek. 16:25). He says that Israel lusts after the Egyptians, whose sex organs are the size of a donkey and who have the ability to produce semen in amounts that rivals horses (Ezek. 16:26; 23:30). She is so eager, says Ezekiel to commit adultery, that she is willing to pay strangers rather than the other way around (Ezek. 16:33-34). This same attitude of adultery was still evident in first-century Israel. The apostasy of Jerusalem led the whole nation into religious and political fornication as the inhabitants of the earth (Israel; see 3:10) were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.


17:3 - Earlier, the woman that represented the Church went into the wilderness, but that was out of necessity and for a short time. In contrast, this woman is sitting in the desert, apparently in her element, as the wilderness is usually a sign of the curse, symbolically the habitation of demons (Matt. 12:43). She would prefer to stay in the wilderness rather than follow the Spirit into the promised land. The wilderness is her destiny (cf. Num. 13-14; Zech. 5:5-11). She is sitting on a scarlet beast that has characteristics of both the Sea Beast, as it is full of blasphemous names (13:1), and the Dragon, as it has seven heads and ten horns (12:3). The most likely solution to this combined imagery is that John meant to depict Israel’s harlotry with both Satan and the Roman Empire. This is further support that the woman, the great harlot-city, is not Rome, because she is seen distinct here from the Beast that represents Rome.


17:4 - The woman is dressed in purple and scarlet, like royalty (Jud. 8:26; 2 Sam. 1:24; Dan. 5:7, 16, 29); She was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls like the glorious city of God (Isa. 54:11-12; 60:5-11; Rev. 21:18-21) and the garments of the high priest (Ex. 28:9-29) and the Throne of God (Rev. 4:3-4). These are not the clothes of a prostitute, these are originally the clothes of a righteous woman who was arrayed in glorious dress (cf. Ex. 3:22; Ezek. 16:11-14; Prov. 31:21-22). She is wearing the clothes of the people of God but has denigrated them with her adulterous behavior. She even takes a communion of sorts from a cup filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.


17:5 - In a familiar fashion in this book, The prostitute also has a name written on her forehead. She was called to be the true Babylon the Great, the gate of God, but has instead rejected God and become the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth. That her title begins with Mystery, demonstrates further evidence that she is Jerusalem, the city which formed an integral party of the mystery of salvation which brought together Jews with the Gentiles.


17:6-7 - John tells us what the woman had in the cup: she was drunk with the blood of the saints. This is the ultimate unclean food (Lev. 17:10-14). While Rome did become a great persecutor of the church, we must remember that this came about only at the instigation of the Jews. Jerusalem’s whole history was engaged in persecution of the godly, especially the prophets (Matt. 21:33-44; 23:29-35; Acts 7:51-53). The word "astonished" actually means "wondered with great admiration." The point John is making that is lost in the NIV translation is that John sees that the prostitute is extremely attractive as most prostitutes are. The angel wonders why John, and his readers might be so attracted to this whore. In order that they will not be fooled by her, John will now reveal the true nature of the prostitute and the Beast.



Devotional Thought

John describes the personification of rejection of God as a prostitute that strangely attracts even the apostle John. What is it about the world (the rejection of God) that most attracts you? What are you drawn to that is rebellion against God? What can you do to realize the true nature of the things that tempt you?

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Revelation 16:15-21

15"Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed."

16Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

17The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, "It is done!" 18Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. 19The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. 21From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.



Dig Deeper

One weekend while I was in college, the student council had arranged a campus-wide game of capture the flag for whoever wanted to participate. The event took place on a Friday night and several hundred people showed up and split into two teams. I was part of a particular unit of combatants who had made it our job to attack deep into enemy territory and cause havoc so that another unit of our teammates could find, capture, and return with the flag, thus winning the game. We were deep behind enemy lines when things suddenly went badly very quickly. We realized that we had gotten sloppy and were now pinned against the stone wall that ran all the way around the campus and were surrounded and outnumbered 2 to 1 by the enemy. As we realized the situation we were in, one of my friends pointed out that we had left our campus and walked straight into the Alamo. The Alamo, of course, was the site of the famous last stand of those fighting for the cause of Texas in their battle for independence from Mexico.


The imagery of the Alamo is one that stands out quite prominently in American folklore. It has become an image of making a last stand against superior numbers before falling heroically. Nearly every American knows immediately the history and symbolism that are attached to an Alamo reference. John uses an image here, Armageddon, that sounds mysterious to us but would most likely have been as understandable to his original readers as the Alamo is to most Americans. The primary point of talking about Meggido (Armageddon) wasn’t to point to some fantastical event that still lies in the future for us, but was rather to associate the soon-to-come events of the near-future with past events that would have been familiar to John’s readers.


16:15 - The account of the seven bowls is suddenly interrupted with a declaration of the central theme of the book of Revelation: Behold, I come like a thief! It is really the summation of Christ’s message to the seven Churches. The coming of the Roman empire will be, in truth, Christ’s coming in his wrath against his enemies. The specific wording here is based on the words from the letter to the Church in Sardis as well as other words of Jesus (Rev. 3:3; Matt. 24:42-44; Luke 12:35-40; cf. 1 Thess. 5:1-11). That letter also praises those who have not soiled their clothes but promises that the one who overcomes will wear white clothes. In a similar vein, we are told: Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that they may not go naked and be shamefully exposed. The imagery here comes from the Temple. There was an officer whose duty was to see that the watchmen stayed awake. If he found them asleep once, he beat them; if he found them asleep a second time, he burnt their clothes. This, then, means that it is the time for those who are guarding the Temple to keep awake. The whole symbolism of the Sixth Bowl, of which this is a part, has to do with an attack on the Temple. The time has come and the churches must be awake.


16:16 - The narrative is resumed as we are told that the kings will gather at a place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. Much has been made by futurists (that claim the only way to read Revelation is literally) concerning this battle of Armageddon. The problem here for them is that this is literally spelled Har-Magedon, which means Mount Megiddo. Megiddo is a city on a plain, not a mountain. The closest mountain is Mt. Carmel. Why didn’t John just say Mt. Carmel? Apparently he wanted to refer to both Megiddo and Mt. Carmel at the same time. Mt. Carmel was associated with the defeat of Jezebel’s false prophets, and Megiddo was the scene of several important military engagements in Biblical history (Josh. 12:21; Jud. 5:19; 2 Ki. 9:27). Probably the most significant event that took place, in terms of John’s imagery, was the confrontation between Judah’s King Josiah and the Pharaoh Neco. Josiah faced Neco in deliberate disobedience to God, and was mortally wounded (2 Chron. 25:20-25). Judah’s downward spiral into apostasy, destruction, and bondage following Josiah’s death was swift and sure. The Jews continued to mourn Josiah’s death down through the time of Ezra (2 Chron. 35:25). Megiddo was, for John, a symbol of defeat and desolation, a place that held defeat for those who set themselves against God. Austin Farrar says that "Mt. Megiddo stands in [John’s] mind for a place where lying prophecy and its dupes go to meet their doom; where kings and their armies are misled to their destruction; and where all the tribes of the earth mourn to see Him in power, whom in weakness they had pierced."


16:17 - The seventh angel pours out his bowl into the air, accompanied by a loud voice from the throne, saying it is done. Once again the voice comes out of the Temple, signifying God’s control and approval. John said that these plagues were the end (Rev. 15:1), and now the voice proclaims it is done.


16:18 - Once again we have the phenomena, flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake, that accompany the glory cloud of God. This is the seventh mention of earthquakes in Revelation (Rev. 6:12; 8:5; twice in 11:13; 11:19; twice in 16:18), emphasizing the Covenantal aspects. Christ came to bring the definitive earthquake of the New Covenant, one such as no earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth (See Heb. 12:25-29 for similar sentiments).


16:19 - The great city is Jerusalem where the Lord was crucified (Rev. 11:8; cf. 14:8). The city is to be split into three parts. The imagery here comes from Ezekiel 5:1-12, where God has Ezekiel stage a drama (which included shaving his head with a sharp sword) portraying the coming destruction of Jerusalem. There is also a historical correspondent to this prophecy: During the siege of Jerusalem, the city was divided amongst three factions who were fighting within the city for control. This, no doubt, sped up the fall of the city greatly. John gives another indicator that the great city is Jerusalem, as he distinguishes it from the cities of the nations, which are the cities of the Gentiles. It is also very clear in this verse that Jerusalem is Babylon the great, a distinction that will become important as we proceed.


16:20 - Every island fled and the mountains could not be found. In this final judgment, there is no place to hide for the wicked. Every false refuge disappears before the wrath of God.


16:21 - Just as Ezekiel foretold that Jerusalem’s false prophets would bring destruction by a great hailstorm (Ezek. 13:1-16), John tells the same fate as he writes of hailstones that weighed a hundred pounds each. This, as with the other plagues, correlates to the plagues of Egypt. It is interesting to note that Josephus records that the Romans catapulted into Jerusalem "stone missiles" that weighed about a hundred pounds each. The rebellion of these men was so complete that the plagues did not humble them, but rather, they blasphemed God for the destruction that had been brought on by their own actions.



Devotional Thought

Verse 21 tells us that the people cursed God rather than being humbled by the plagues. What is your response when God disciplines you? Do you blame God for the circumstances that come from your own sin or do humble yourself before the Lord and ask for His mercy and grace?

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Revelation 16:8-14

8The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. 9They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.

10The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony 11and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

12The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. 13Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.



Dig Deeper

I watched an amazing show called Lockdown the other night. The show documents life and situations inside the worst prisons in the United States. The episode that I was watching chronicled what is considered to be the toughest and worst women’s prison in the country. The conditions in that prison are so horrible due to the erratic and violent behavior of the women that it is considered by most to be the most dangerous prison in all of the U.S., including the men’s prisons. Yet, rather than be humbled by the horrible circumstances, the women refuse to repent of their violent and anti-social behavior. They have, in fact, become more hardened, more rebellious, and more dangerous.


John continues to describe the covenant curses that will be poured out on Israel through the vehicle of the Roman army, but despite these horrific circumstances, he continues to point out that those rebellious towards God will continue in their refusal to repent. Rather than being humbled by these judgments, however, they seemingly become more hardened and firm in their rebellion towards God.


16:8-9 - The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. The fourth trumpet resulted in darkness as did the ninth Egyptian plague. Now the heat of the sun is intensified so that it would scorch people with fire. This is another reversal of the basic covenantal blessing that Israel would be shielded from the heat of the sun by the glory cloud (Ex. 13:21-22; Ps. 91:1-6; Jer. 17:7-8; Rev. 7:15-17). The fact that the sun was given this power to scorch, emphasizes the sovereignty of God. Those being judged, however, had cursed the name of God, and refused to submit to His authority. They had rebuffed the One who had control over these plagues just as Pharaoh had (Ex. 7:13, 23; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 12, 34-35; 10:20, 27: 11:10; 14:8), and they refused to repent and glorify Him. Israel, in rejecting God, had become like Egypt, and now, would be destroyed just as Egypt had been.


16:10-11 - Most of the judgments of Revelation were poured out on Israel, but the kingdoms who joined Israel against the Church would also come under condemnation. Thus, the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the Beast. At the same time that the sun’s heat is scorching those who worship the Beast; the lights are turned out on his kingdom as it was plunged into darkness, a common Biblical symbol for political turmoil and the fall of rulers (Isa. 13:9-10; Amos 8:9; Ezek. 32:7-8). It is likely that this plague corresponds to the wars, revolutions, riots, and convulsions that ravaged the Roman Empire after Nero committed suicide in June 68 AD. The historian Tacitus wrote that "The whole city presented a frightful caricature of its normal self: fighting and casualties at one point, baths and restaurants at another, here the spilling of blood and the litter of dead bodies." These Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. A unique aspect of the bowl plagues is that all come virtually at once with little "breathing space" between them. They did not come one at a time as they did in Egypt, but the men here are still cursing God on account of the sores they received during the first plague. They are poured out so quickly that the people are still suffering from the plagues that have preceded it. Despite all of this, they refused to repent for what they had done.


16:12 - The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. As we saw in chapter 9, the Euphrates was the river on Israel’s northern front from which invading armies would attack. The image of it drying comes in part from a strategy that Cyrus the Persian used by temporarily turning the river off its course, enabling his army to march up the riverbed into the City of Babylon, capturing it. The primary imagery, though, is that of the drying up of the Red Sea (Ex. 14:21-22) and the Jordan River (Josh. 3:9-17; 4:22-24). There is another instance of tragic irony here in that Israel has become the enemy that must be conquered rather than being delivered by the drying up of the river. Phillip Carrington observes, in The Meaning of the Revelation, that these armies coming from the Euphrates "surely represents nothing but the return of Titus to besiege Jerusalem with further reinforcements." This happened, of course, during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.


16:13-14 - Then John sees three evil spirits that come out of the mouth of the Dragon, out of the mouth of the Beast, and out of the mouth of the False Prophet. This plague is connected with the second of the Egyptian plagues except that these frogs are really evil spirits that perform miraculous signs. David Chilton, says in Days of Vengeance, that "there is a multiple emphasis on the Dragon (imitated by his cohorts) throwing things from his mouth (cf. 12:15-16; 13:5-6; contrast 1:16; 11:5; 19:15, 21) and the triple repetition of mouth here serves also as another point of contact with the sixth trumpet (9:17-19). These evil spirits go out from Satan (Dragon), the Roman government (Beast), and the leaders of Israel (False Prophet), to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle. They have all worked in different ways to incite the armies of the world to join together in war against God. What they don’t realize is that they are really going to be used for God’s purposes, not their own (See 1 Ki. 22:19-22; 2 Thess. 2:7-12 for similar concepts). All of this will happen on the great day of God Almighty, which is a Biblical term for a day of judgment (Isa. 13:6, 9; Joel 2:1-2, 11, 31; Amos 5:18-20; Zeph. 1:14-18). This is the day of execution that Jesus had foretold in one of His parables (Matt. 22:7).



Devotional Thought

The first reaction to reading sections like these is to become saddened, yet these are very encouraging passages for the Christian. Despite all the terrible tribulations that would soon be coming for the first-century Christians, they could be assured that God was in control and that they would enter the age to come regardless of what might happen in the present age. Do you have the same kind of faith in God that these early Christians were being called to? Despite seemingly stark circumstances, do you believe that God will protect and deliver you?

Monday, July 21, 2008

Revelation 16:1-7

The Seven Bowls of God's Wrath

1Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go, pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth." 2The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.

3The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died.

4The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. 5Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say:

"You are just in these judgments,

you who are and who were, the Holy One,

because you have so judged;

6for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets,

and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve."

7And I heard the altar respond:

"Yes, Lord God Almighty,

true and just are your judgments."



Similarities Between the bowls, the trumpet, and the Exodus plagues:

1a. Bowls

1b. Trumpets

1c. Plagues of Egypt


1a. On the land, becom-ing sores (16:2)

1b. On the land, 1/3 earth, trees, grass burned (8:7)

1c. Boils (6th plague: Ex. 9:8-12)


2a. On the sea, becom-ing blood (16:3)

2b. On the sea (8:8-9)

2c. Water to blood (1st plague: Ex. 7:17-21)


3a. On rivers & springs, becoming blood (16:4-7)

3b. On the rivers and springs (8:10-11)

3c. Water to blood (1st plague: Ex. 7:17-21)


4a. On the sun, causing it to scorch (16:8-9)

4b. 1/3 sun, moon, stars darkened (8:12)

4c. Darkness (9th plague: Ex. 10:21-23


5a. On the throne of the Beast, causing dark-ness (16:10-11)

5b. Demonic locusts (9:1-12)

5c. Locusts (8th plague: Ex. 10:4-20)


6a. On the Euphrates; invasion of frog-de-mons, Armageddon (16:12-16)

6b. Army from Euphra-tes kills 1/3 mankind (9:13-21)

6c. Invasion of frogs (2nd plague: Ex. 8:2-4)


7a. On the air, causing storm, earthquake, and hail (16:17-21)

7b. Voices, storm, earth-quake, hail (11:15-19)

7c. Hail (7th plague: Ex. 9:18-26)


Dig Deeper

Earlier this year, I accompanied my youngest son and his four-year-old kindergarten class on a field trip. The place where we went was full of fun activities and adventures for the kids. There was one area that was inside but it was a sandpit that was probably 25 square feet. The kids were able to go on a treasure hunt by digging in the sand and finding the toy jewels and coins that had been buried there. Of course the kids thought that they were really adventurers, working hard and finding treasure through their own efforts. What they didn’t know was that each jewel and coin had been carefully buried there for them to find. Once they finished, the workers would quickly bury more treasure for the next group to find.


Passages like this one are so full of deep imagery, symbolism, and have so many echoes of and ties to other passages that they are like a treasure field of Scripture. It is easy to go about mining passages like this, going deeper and deeper, finding treasures and jewels each time we return. What we must always remember, though, is that it is the work of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit who leads us to discover these treasures and put them together with other Scriptural jewels that we have learned before. When we read passages like this and find new incredible things that we haven’t seen or previously understood, we must always remember that it is God who put them there and led us to them. God is the one who deserves all of the praise and glory.


16:1 - The loud voice from the Temple commands to pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth. The term ‘pour’ is the same word used in the Hebrew as the priests poured out the blood of the sacrifice around the base of the altar (Lev. 4:7, 12, 18, 25, 30, 34; 8:15; 9:9). In the New Testament this word is used in contexts that parallel the major themes of Revelation: the spilling of wine (Matt. 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37), the shedding of Christ’s blood (Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20), the shedding of martyr’s blood (Matt. 23:35; Luke 11:50; Acts 22:20; Rom. 3:15), and the outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 2:17-18, 33; 10:45; Rom. 5:5; Tit. 3:6; cf. Joel 2:28-29; Zech. 12:10). All these different associations are likely in the background of the imagery of the bowls used here.


16:2 - As a result of the first bowl poured on the land (Israel), people broke out with painful sores. This is reminiscent of the sixth Egyptian plague of boils, as well as the fulfillment of the promised sores of the curse for breaking the Covenant (Deut. 28:27-35). It is also a fitting retribution as a mark for those who who have accepted the mark of the Beast.


16:3 - The second bowl is poured on the sea. It is similar to the first Egyptian plague and the second trumpet. This time, however, the blood doesn’t flow as streams but as the coagulated, putrefying blood of a dead man. Although this is primarily symbolic, there was a corresponding moment in the history of the destruction of Jerusalem as rebels fled to the Sea of Galilee from the massacre of Tarichaeae. The Romans killed so many rebels in the Sea, that Josephus said, "One could see the whole lake stained with blood and crammed with corpses."


16:4-7 - The plague of the third bowl is poured out on the rivers and springs of water and resembles the first Egyptian plague. Water, often a symbol of life, is corrupted here in a reversal of sorts of the paradise of the Garden of Eden. The angel responds to this plague by praising God as just in these judgments. There is no need to be embarrassed by this. Although the concept of the judgment of God is not popular in our culture, it is a common Biblical theme, and we can be assured that God’ judgments are always right. Part of the justification for this judgment is the fact that they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets. One of the characteristic charges against Israel was the murder of the prophets (2 Chron. 36:15-16; Luke 13:33-34); Acts 7:52). In fact, Jesus said this was the specific reason that judgment would come on "this generation" (Matt. 23:31-36). Joining in the praise comes the voice of the altar itself, where the blood of the saints and prophets had been poured out: Yes Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.




Devotional Thought

Do you always view God’s actions as right and just? The assurance of the Bible is that they always are. How can Christians balance the line between sharing about God’s love to those who are lost, while also presenting the truth that He will judge and prosecute those who reject Him? How does that challenge or confirm the way you usually share your faith with people?

Friday, July 18, 2008

Revelation 15:5-8

5After this I looked and in heaven the temple, that is, the tabernacle of the Testimony, was opened. 6Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. 7Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. 8And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.



Dig Deeper

I had a history professor in college that I really liked. He was a great professor and many of us students felt like we had built a great student-teacher relationship with him, even a friendship. His classes were incredibly enlightening as well as fun, but he also had strict rules. At the beginning of the semester, he had told everyone that if we missed three classes throughout the term, it would automatically drop our grade by one letter (that was written on our syllabus but he also had said that he would not remind us of this). No one worried too much about that until the final grades came out and many people had a lower grade than they expected. Suddenly they were irate. Many of my friends tried to appeal to the professor and set up meetings while a couple even went to the President of the University. I also had had my favorite professor lower my grade but I didn’t protest.


The next semester I had him again and while on a field studies trip he asked me why I was the only one in the class who had my grade dropped for missing three classes that didn’t protest. I explained to him that the third class I missed was because I had received an elbow in the temple in a basketball game the night before and was in the emergency room all night with a concussion. I couldn’t wake up on time for the 8:00 AM class. He quickly declared that I should have brought that to his attention. Yet, I went on, I didn’t protest because had given us two free misses, and I skipped class when I didn’t feel like coming. When something did come up and I needed to miss, it was my own fault. He just smiled, patted me on the back and walked away. What I learned that semester was that I am responsible for my own actions and when just punishment is meted out for those actions, I cannot claim that the one administering that judgment is not being fair. In fact my professor was being fair. In the same way, many are tempted to consider God harsh or unfair for pouring out the covenant judgments on Israel, yet we must remember that humans are responsible for their own actions. God had patiently warned Israel for over a thousand years what rebellion against Him would bring, and now it was about to come.


15:5 - The scene changes as John sees the tabernacle of the Testimony which is in heaven. This may seem a bit confusing at first but actually makes a great deal of sense. The Bible tells us in several places that the Tabernacle and Temple on earth were but shadows, patterned after the real item (Heb. 8:2, 5; 9:11-12, 23-24; 10:1; Ex. 25:9, 40; 26:30; Num. 8:4; Acts 7:44). John also takes care to use the correct technical language, calling the document of the Covenant, the Testimony, emphasizing its legal character (Ex. 16:34; 25:16, 21-22; 31:18; 32:15; cf. Ps. 19:7; Isa. 8:16, 20). The Tabernacle where the Testimony was kept was called the Tabernacle of the Testimony (Ex. 38:21; Num. 1:50, 53; 9:15; 10:11; Acts 7:44).


One of the primary themes of Revelation is the coming of the New Covenant and the passing of the Old. In John’s theology, the Church is the new Temple. The Mosaic Tabernacle was a copy of the original heavenly version and a foreshadowing of the Church in the New Covenant (Heb. 8:5; 10:1). John shows that these two, the heavenly pattern and the Church overlap in the New Covenant age. The Church tabernacles in heaven. If the Temple is the Church, then the Testimony is the New Covenant, the Testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1:2, 9: 6:9; 12:11, 17; 19:10; 20:4).


15:6-7 - Out of the Temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They have come to apply the curses announced by the trumpets. As priests of the New Covenant, they were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. John then tells us that one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls. We can, perhaps, assume that this is the creature with the man’s face (Rev. 4:7), since the other three have already taken action in the Revelation. The bowls are filled with the wrath of God. The imagery of the bowls is a bit difficult. In one sense, the substance in the bowls is "burning sulfur" (Rev. 14:10) so it seems to be fire, which would make them incense bowls, yet in another sense, the wicked will drink of it, which brings forth the imagery of a wine cup. In The Revelation of St. John the Divine, Austin Farrer says, "The ‘bowls,’ phialae, are libation-bowls. Now the libation, or drink-offering, was poured at the daily sacrifice just after the trumpets had begun to sound, so that by placing bowls in sequence to trumpets St. John maintains the sequence of ritual action that began with the slaughtered Lamb, continued in the incense-offering and passed into the trumpet-blasts. Because the drink-offering had such a position, it was the last ritual act, completing the service of the altar and was proverbial in that connection (Phil. 2:17). The drink-offering, as St. Paul implies, was poured upon the slaughtered victim, burning in the fire. Because there is no bloody sacrifice in heaven, the angels pour their libations upon the terrible holocaust of vengeance which divine justice makes on earth." John’s point is that blood and fire are about to be poured from the bowls onto the land of Israel. This has all been approved by God, as the angels have received their bowls from one of the creatures that carried God’s Throne (Rev. 4:6).


15:8 - The Temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter. This imagery clearly comes from the dedication of both the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon (Ex. 40:34-35; 1 Ki. 8:10-11; 2 Chron. 5:11-14; 7:1-3). This is the phenomenon that happened as the heavenly fire appeared and consumed the sacrifices (Lev. 9:23-24; 2 Chron. 7:1-3)). Thus the filling of the Temple in this manner was both a sign of God’s glorious presence as well as an awesome revelation of His wrath against sinners.


In the New Covenant, the Church was the Temple of God, filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. On that day, however, Peter declared that the final end of the Old Covenant age would be accompanied by "blood and fire, and billows of smoke" (Acts 2:19). For the Church to take full possession of the inheritors of the New Covenant, the corrupt scaffolding of the Old Covenant had to be torn down. This is demonstrated in theological terms, as John says that no one could enter the Temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed in the destruction of the Temple and Old Covenant Israel.



Devotional Thought

Do you see yourself as a part of the Holy Temple of God? Do you act that way in all circumstances? In the Old Covenant, people went to the Temple to encounter the presence of God. In the New Covenant, the Church is the Temple of God, and each member of the Church is part of that Temple. That means that people in the New Covenant should experience the presence of God through every area of your life. Do you try to help people encounter God every time they encounter you?

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Revelation 15:1-4

Seven Angels with Seven Plagues

1I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God's wrath is completed. 2And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. They held harps given them by God 3and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb:

"Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. 4Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."



Dig Deeper

The long season had reached a high point, and the high school basketball team that I coached had made an amazing comeback. Down by 10 points in the conference championship game with just a few minutes to go, they had stormed back and won the game and the conference title. After the game the exuberance of the boys was evident and the only way for them to seem to be able to adequately express the joy they were feeling seemed to be in song. They sang and danced and celebrated, releasing the pure joy that was point up in them.


There is something about the way God made humans that seems to draw us to song and dance when we are jubilant. It is one of the chief ways that we can, not only express, but ultimately release the joy that becomes pent up inside us after something wonderful happens. The scene that John depicts here is no different. The judgment of God on those who have opposed Him and the salvation that has come to the world through the Messiah has been poured out, and the people of the Messiah, who have been vindicated and are victorious, can only do what comes so naturally. They sing and dance and make music. Certainly music can and has been used in ways that are rebellious to God and worldly, but it does not have to be that way. Singing and music that is offered up in genuine praise of God, like the kind depicted here is honoring to God. In fact, a community that cannot break out into song and music in praise of God, like the glorifying kind pictured here, is likely missing out on one of the most God-honoring activities in which they could ever take part.


15:1 - This is the third time that John has emphasized the importance of a sign, calling this one another great and marvelous sign. The emphasis on the conflict between the woman and the Dragon will now transition into the climax of the book: seven last plagues--last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. This doesn’t imply that these are the last plagues of all time, simply the last described in the book of Revelation. This will be the once-for-all abolishing of the Old Covenant.


15:2 - As this vision begins, John sees what looks like a sea of glass. This is the crystal sea before God’s throne (Rev. 4:6), similarly described as the sapphire pavement seen by Moses on the Holy Mountain (Ex. 24:10), the sapphire firmament through which Ezekiel passed (Ezek. 1:26), and which was symbolized by the sea (the laver) in the Temple (1 Ki. 7:23-26). In this vision, however, the sea is no longer blue, but has symbolically turned red. This ties it to images from the end of chapter 14 and the great river of blood running through the whole land, an ominous Red Sea through which the righteous have been delivered. The saints are standing beside the sea, celebrating just as the children of Israel rejoiced after crossing through the Red Sea (Ex. 14:30-31; 15:1-21). They had been victorious, the overcomers by escaping the Beast and his image and over the number of his name. As they rejoice they held harps given them by God. They are a new priestly choir standing at the precipice of their victory. Paul described the Red Sea deliverance as a baptism of sorts of God’s people (1 Cor. 10:1-2). This tribulation was surely the Church’s baptism of the same kind, baptism by fire. When the Israelites were delivered, their persecutors were sent to their destruction. In the same way, destruction will befall the people who have been primarily responsible for persecuting the Church.


15:3-4 - The saints sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb. This song echoes both songs of Moses from Exodus 15 and Deuteronomy 32, although neither are directly quoted here. The song is full of Old Testament references, including: Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty (Ex. 34:10; Deut. 32:3-4; 1 Chron. 16:8-12; Ps. 92:5; 111:2; 139:14; Isa. 47:4; Jer. 10:16; Amos 4:13). Just and true are your ways (Deut. 32:4; Ps. 145:17; Hos. 14:9) King of the ages (Ps. 22:28; 47:2, 7-8; 82:8). Here God is praised for his mighty actions, which are righteous and fair. What are these actions? The dual actions of his salvation of the saints and the destruction of the enemies of His kingdom. Both of these actions demonstrate that he is the true ruler of the world. He moves the armies of the earth to fulfill His purposes in judgment.


Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? (Ex. 15:14-16; Jer. 10:6-7). This is a rhetorical question that could be taken one of two ways. The first possibility is that it is being declared that at some point in history a vast majority of people will be converted to serve God, to worship Him, and obey Him? In other words, that at some point, a majority of all people will come to Jesus Christ for salvation. The second option is that this is a rhetorical question that wonders who could not possibly be converted and bring glory to the Lord based on His mighty acts.


The song goes on to declare, "For you alone are holy" (Ex. 15:11; 1 Sam. 2:2; Ps. 99:3, 5, 9; Isa. 6:3; 57:5, 15; Hos. 11:9). This refers not so much to God’s ethical qualities as it does to His unique majesty and transcendence. For all nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed (1 Chron. 16:28-31; Ps. 2:8; 22:27: 65:2; 66:4; 67:1-7; 86:8-9; 117:1; Isa. 26:9; 66:23; Jer. 16:19). This seems to be implying (bolstering the first option listed above) that conversion of all nations is both the goal and the result of God’s righteous judgment and His holiness. John is apparently reminding us that the fall of Israel will eventually bring about the salvation of the world.


Devotional Thought

John seems to believe that there is a time when people will stream into the Kingdom of God. Do you believe that? Do you work for it to happen in your lifetime? What can you do today to expand God’s Kingdom? Who can share with about God’s immense holiness?

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Revelation 14:17-20

17Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, "Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth's vine, because its grapes are ripe." 19The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God's wrath. 20They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses' bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.



Dig Deeper

I certainly did not grow up anywhere near a farm, nor did I ever go to a farm, but I still learned to recognize, at a very young age, the signs of harvest. For me, though, this was not a joyous time of year. Every year school would let out, the weather would turn warm, the days would get longer, and I knew that the time had come. It was time to load up into the station wagon with my mom, my aunt, my sister and my cousin. We would take what seemed at the time like a long drive to the Strawberry farm. Once we arrived everyone would pile out of the car and we had the privilege of spending a long, hot, dirty morning harvesting the strawberry crop. Once we were finished, the strawberries would be weighed, we would pay for them, and then be off on our way home, if we didn’t find a great rummage sale on the way home first.


In Matthew 24, Jesus gives a long and rather apocalyptic response to the question of when and how the Temple would be destroyed. He says in verse 32 that just as people can tell that the summer is at hand due to the signs of the fig tree, so there will be general signs that should alert His people to the fact that the time of the covenant judgment was coming. I used to wake up in the mornings as a boy and know, not just by the seasonal signs, but by what my mother was doing that it was strawberry picking day. John is informing us that all of the signs have been set and that the time of the harvest of judgment is at hand. The sickle is readied, and the judgment on the apostate people of God has come.


14:17-18 - John notes that another angel came out of the Temple in heaven, and he too hard a sharp sickle. In so doing, he returns to the theme of judgment. Although the spreading of the gospel and the overcoming of the saints is the primary focus of this Revelation, running concurrently is the idea of the cutting off of apostate Israel. In Genesis 21 we see how Isaac was recognized as the child of the promise of the covenant. Before that could happen, however, it required the excommunication of Hagar and her son Ishmael. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul compared the Old Covenant and the physical nation of Israel to Hagar, the slave woman, and Ishmael; he also compared the New Covenant and the Church to Sara, the free woman, and Isaac, the child of promise. He wrote: "Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. . . Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son. . . Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman" (Gal. 4:28-31). In that passage, Paul makes clear that old Jerusalem, the capital city of apostasy, had been cast out as the possessors of the Covenant. The Church was now the legitimate heir of the promises of God that had been made to Abraham. Christians are the true children of the heavenly Jerusalem.


At first glance, it may appear that this angel with the sharp sickle has come to do the same work as the previous angel, but it quickly becomes apparent that this is not the case. Here, though, John goes all the way back to Rev. 6:9-11, when the saints were gathered around the golden altar of incense, offering up their prayers for the destruction of their enemies. An angel had taken the bowl containing the prayers of the saints, filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the land (Rev. 8:3-5). Now, John sees that same angel, the one who had charge of the fire. This angel who has the power of the fire burning on the altar, comes from the altar of the saints’ prayers in order to hand down judgment. He is bringing the historical, physical response to the prayers of the saints. This angel also wants a harvest, but it is the harvest of the grapes of wrath. The third angel calls to the second angel, the one with the sickle, and tells him to take his sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe. God’s vineyard is now ripe for judgment. "Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed . . . I will make it a wasteland" (Is. 5:5-6).


14:19-20 - Israel, God’s vineyard, has been judged and found wanting. Judgment is now at hand: The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. This creates the substance that will be poured from the cups in chapter 16. Verses 15-19 make six references to the land (earth). Combined with the imagery of the vine, there is an emphasis that this is a judgment on the land of Israel. When considering the extensive Old Testament references to Israel as the vineyard, it doesn’t seem possible that John would have used this language without meaning to communicate the judgment of Jerusalem and Israel. The imagery for this particular passage comes from Isaiah 63:1-6, in which God is described as a man, whose robe is stained red crushing grapes in a winepress.


They were trampled in the winepress outside the city , and the blood flowed for a distance of 1,600 stadia. The number 1,600 is very symbolic as are most numbers in Revelation. It emphasizes the land: four squared (the land), times ten squared (largeness). 1,600 is slightly larger than the length of Israel. The whole land of Israel, then, is represented as overflowing with the blood of the coming judgment. The flowing blood reaches as high as the horses’ bridle, reminding the reader of the Pharaoh’s horses during the Exodus (Ex. 14:23, 28; 15:19). Old Israel had become apostate like Egypt, and now her horses would be swimming in the blood of judgment. The winepress was outside the city because in the Old Testament sacrificial system, the bodies of the sacrificial animals would be burned outside the camp. The winepress of judgment that would purify the land would be outside the city as well.




Devotional Thought

Ishmael was sent away from Isaac, and the old Israel was excommunicated in favor of the new obedient Israel. In the same way, we must cast out our life and old desires in order to embrace our new life in Christ. What area of your old self do you struggle with the most? Share your struggles and temptations with someone else this week. Make a determination to completely sacrifice to God every area of your life that you have held back.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Revelation 14:12-16

12This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. 13Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."The Harvest of the Earth

14I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one "like a son of man"with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, "Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe." 16So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.



Dig Deeper

During the last winter of the American Revolutionary War, General George Washington had a major problem. His men were suffering through yet another brutal winter with little to no provisions. They had nearly run out of food, their shelter was not sufficient, and to top it off, they were bored. To make matters far worse, they had not been paid in months as the new Continental Congress did not have the power to tax and was out of money. Understandably, talk of mutiny became to bubble up throughout the camp in New Jersey. Then a group of men actually rose up and began a mutiny. Washington dealt with that one patiently, capturing the leaders and bringing the followers back, but soon after another broke out. Washington’s patience had been tried enough and if he didn’t deal with things now it could be disastrous. If the army disintegrated, there would be no revolution. Washington had the leaders of this latest mutiny arrested and then in a shocking move, gathered up the best friends of the leaders and forced them to be the execution firing squad for the mutineers. This judgment seemed harsh but it was not only necessary and just, it had the effect of cementing the confidence of the loyal and brining back into the fold those that were on the fence.


In the middle of a passage in which John is describing the announcement and execution of the judgment upon rebellious Israel, he describes the appearance of the Messiah, seated and enthroned, ruling over affairs. The judgment that he has been describing now becomes more clear. It was not just a necessary and just judgment upon those who had rejected God and His Messiah, it was the means through which those loyal to the Messiah would be vindicated, encouraged, and strengthened. Thus, the judgment on Israel would not only accomplish God’s plan of righteous judgment but also was part of His plan of reconciliation with a world marred by sin.


14:12-13 - The patient endurance, hope and confidence on the part of the saints is in the justice and governance that God exercises over the earth. His judgment is a certainty that can be counted on. The saints can be confident that we do not need to fear or fret evildoers because they will wither like grass and the righteous will eventually inherit the earth (Ps. 37). James told the readers of his letter the same idea, that they should be patient because the Lord is the judge and he was standing at the door ready to judge (James 5:7-9). This hope and perseverance is tied together with obeying God’s commandments and remaining faithful to Jesus. There is no provision in the New Testament for a lawless Christian or a Christian not devoted to the content of the "faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 3). Christians will face opposition and persecution, but faithful obedience is a requirement of the patient endurance of the saints.


As an encouragement, John writes the next words of the voice from heaven, which says, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on . Before Christ, God’s people resided in Paradise or Abraham’s Bosom (Luke 16:22). With the work of Christ, though, heaven has been opened. Abraham’s Bosom was unlocked and its inhabitants freed (1 Pet. 3:19; 4:6). Although Christ promised the thief next to Him on the Cross that he would be with Him in Paradise on that very day (Luke 23:43), he is no longer there and wasn’t there for very long. Christ has ascended on high and led the captives in his train (Eph. 4:8). Even though those in Paradise were God’s children, they could not be in God’s holy presence until their sins had been paid for once-and-for-all by the death of Christ on the Cross.


The early Christians understood that death had been conquered by the Resurrection of Christ. The early church father, Athanasius wrote: "All the disciples of Christ despise death; . . Instead of fearing it [they] trample on it as something dead. Before the divine sojourn of the Savior even the holiest of men were afraid of death. . . But now that the Savior has raised His body, death is no longer terrible, but all those who believe in Christ

tread it underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the resurrection."


14:14-16 - These verses serve as the centerpiece of the section from verses 6-20. Three angels have already been making proclamations to the land of Israel (v. 6-13). Three more are about to come to perform symbolic actions over the land (v. 15, 17-20), and in the middle is a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head. This is the now familiar glory cloud with which Christ was clothed in 10:1. Now it is white and not dark as it was on Sinai (Ex. 19:16-18; Zeph.

1:14-15). In referring to the cloud and the son of man, John is clearly connecting this passage to Daniel 7:13-14, his prophecy of the coming of the Messiah which follows his vision of the Beasts with seven heads and ten horns.


John’s point is that the Beasts can do their worst, but the son of man has already ascended in the clouds and received his eternal dominion over all peoples and nations. This is not a vision of some future event but of Christ’s original ascension in the clouds. The son of man also had a sharp sickle and began to reap, because the time to reap has come. The fourth angel repeats what the first angel had said, namely that the time had come. His emphasis, though, is on blessing, the gathering of the elect, not on judgment. The son of man swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested. This is connected with Jesus’ words that he would send out His angels, His apostolic messengers, to gather in the elect (Matt. 24:30-31). As Christ had said, "the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few" (Luke 10:2). The image of the sickle is connected with the Pentecost, which was celebrated after the grain had been harvested (Deut. 16:9).



Devotional Thought

This passage tells us that those who are faithfully obedient will be part of the harvested gathered by God. What are you doing today because of that? Remember, you don’t have to do things so that you will part of the harvest, you do things for God because you are a part of the harvest. What can you do today to serve God?