DAY 354

THE SEVENTH TRUMPET

Micah 1, 2 & 3 and Revelation 11:1 – 18

As promised, today I want to speak about Revelation 10 and 11…but only up to 11:18. I mentioned awhile ago that the Chapter and Verse arrangement is not overly helpful for Revelation. I have been using the idea of a dramatic play, we are in Scene 3 which is a Warning for the World, and that scene ends at 11:18.

Beginning at 10:1 we have been “hearing” these warning as trumpets are sounded.  In chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 we had been reading about seals, and how at the seventh seal there was silence. I had earlier commented that as we read the sequence of what St. John saw and wrote, we should not assume it is the chronological order. It seems as if the Seals and the Trumpets are parallel. The seals describe the suffering of church in the midst of all this earthly tragedy, while it is the trumpets that announce these tragedies to the world. Since the 2^nd verse of chapter 8 we have been in the middle of these Warnings for the World announced by trumpets:

·         The first trumpet—the earth is stricken, The second trumpet—the sea is stricken, The third trumpet—the river is stricken, The fourth trumpet—the sky is stricken, The fifth trumpet—announces torment, & The sixth trumpet—announces destruction

In chapter 10:1-7 we see the beginning of the sounding of this seventh trumpet. It begins with seven thunders, and as John was going to write about the thunder he is told not to…for there will be “no more delay.” It is interesting to look at the Greek  of the word in verse 7 which is translated, “announced”—it could easily be translated “preached the gospel.” With trumpet seven that Gospel age will be completed.

From 10:8 to 11:14 we read in very figurative terms of an unrepentant world. This is nothing new from all we have read in the Scriptures. What do you make of the sweet-then-bitter scroll? It is first as sweet as honey, but then turns bitter in the stomach. Consider Good News when a prophet first hears it. It is delicious, wonderful to the ears and sweet to the mouth. Then, as the prophet declares this Good News to an unrepentant world, there is bitterness as the world rejects it.

Much speculation has been made regarding the two witnesses, but some (many?) believe it is Moses and Elijah based on verses 11:5/6. But we must not allow ourselves to go down and interesting path that might cause us to lose focus…for the Seventh Trumpet is about to sound.

The world has been warned (we might say “is” being warned) and when we get to the point in time that there is to be “no more delay” then there will be no more time…for the Seventh Trumpet has sounded. Here is the tough reality that we often want to dilute…when the trumpet sounds, it is over. The fond hope that God will offer one more chance is contrary to Scripture and reason. The truth we find in Revelation is that time will come to an end. 

DAY 353

WHEN YOU GO 180°OPPOSITE GOD

Jonah and Revelation 10

OK, so hold that thought we regards to Revelation 10. I will write about Revelation 10 and 11 tomorrow. Today I want to talk about Jonah. It is a story that I can relate to.

Jonah is told to go to Nineveh. Jonah hates Nineveh and all its inhabitants. Why? Because this is the capital of Assyria, these are the people who captured and dragged off the Israelites. These, you might say, are the sworn enemies of Jonah. He would be happy if God smote them!

God has other plans; he always does. God’s plan is that everyone comes home, even our enemies. It requires that stubborn and proud hearts repent, and the Ninevites did.

Jonah resists his God-given mission. He gets on a ship and heads in the exact opposite direction – literally. So what happens, not just to Jonah, but to those on the ship? They get caught up in the storm of sin. This happens today. When you are around people who sin, you get caught up in it—you literally end up in storms that you had nothing to do with save the people you find yourself in the company of. This is real. We need to pay attention to who we are hanging out with. Yes Jesus hung out with sinners, but Jesus knew he was and he was ready for it. We too should hang out with people who need God, and yes we should be prepared for it. Back to Jonah.

So after a date and a detour with a fish, Jonah goes and proclaims God’s message…and it works! Jonah is not happy, and here is a wonderful interaction between God and Jonah compliments of a small shade tree. How many times are we not happy with God?

Take a moment and see if you can locate events and episodes in your life that correlate to this story…and remember God loved Jonah and he loves you…the point is to obey Him, it always goes better that way.

DAY 352

SEEING OUR REALITY THROUGH DIFFERENT EYES

Obadiah and Revelation 9

SCENE THREE: WARNING FOR THE WORLD con’t

We did a lot of work yesterday on this scene, its setting and purpose. I pointed out that the first four trumpets were largely external, almost environmental situations…today we move to trumpets five and six, and they are very different. This is one of the sections of this work of Scripture where I believe it is important to remind ourselves that we are not going for a literal interpretation. Let me ask you though, what is your reaction to what you read? Is it dread, or fear, or simply, “Oh my gosh, this is scary and terrible?” I believe what we are seeing described is a glimpse of the supernatural world…possibly hordes of demons (as if the locusts are not frightening enough!). The important question to ask here is not “How”, but “Who, and Why, and What does this mean?”

We have read of locust scenes before; remember Egypt. What we read is that someone opens a pit, i.e. these hordes emerge from the place of death. Who opens it? A fallen star, quite possibly Satan. Their appearance is seemingly indescribable, but their effect is sheer terror. They torment people to the point that death would be desirable. And these torments are endured by those who do not believe. I process this aspect of the scene as something I witness every day. I am with people; some believe and some do not. I am with people who suffer; some who believe and some who do not. The difference is remarkable; for those who do not believe, it is sheer torment, or sheer resignation to an abyss of nothingness. I kid you not, I am not exaggerating. So what I am saying here is this horrific scene is what is taking place at a spiritual and supernatural level every day—we live in a spiritual world where the Evil One seeks to destroy (the meaning of the word Apollyn) humanity—notice how these woes describe the situation for those who do not believe. I conclude this is not a punishment for those who do not believe, but a natural outcome of unbelief when suffering comes.

With the sixth trumpet people have again tried over the years to be literalist’s. Ascribing the imagery to Russia, or China, or the United States—but this is certainly not the case or it would lose its meaning as time passed and new world powers emerged. Nor are the horses’ modern day tanks, etc. But we must take seriously the figurative nature; we must work to understand the full literal force of this drama. And the point is simple—humans’ rebel and there are wars and death. Right now as I am typing this I am watching footage from Damascus, Syria and a father carrying his blood covered almost lifeless body of his child. I don’t mean to be dark, but do we really need more pictures to believe Revelation. And even after there is all this sin and death—people still do not repent. They do not turn to God, and it is God, and not humanity, that can save us. It is sad. Much of humanity is deaf to the voice of bereavement. Much of humanity shakes its fist at a God is claims to not believe in. And God, having sent His Son, painstakingly and patiently waits as he watches his children tear one another pieces. Could he intervene? I believe at one level in the spiritual realm he is. At another level there the free will factor we have spoken about before. The Bible however is clear, God wants his children to come home.

A NOTE ON OBADIAH: Obadiah wrote this shortest book of the Old Testament probably soon after the armies of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem (586 BC). During this conquest, the people of Edom helped capture fleeing Israelites and turn them over to the Babylonians. They even took up residence in some Judean villages. This angered the Lord, for the Edomites, as descendants of Esau, were related to the Israelites (Ge. 25:21-26, 30) and therefore should have helped them. Obadiah prophesied that Edom would be repaid for mistreating God’s people. Obadiah also asserted that God is sovereign over the nations and that the house of Jacob would be restored because of God’s covenant love for his people.

DAY 351

NOT IN CONTROL

Amos 7, 8 & 9 and Revelation 8

SCENE THREE: WARNING FOR THE WORLD

Just to touch briefly back on the idea that you are being swept up in a grand drama. The stage yesterday was filled with all sorts of characters and action, and it does not let up. Today there are angels with trumpets!

·         First trumpet: fire and hail, mixed with blood thrown upon the earth.

·         Second trumpet: something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and some terrible things happened to the sea and all that was in it.

·         Third trumpet: great star fell from heaven on the rivers and on the springs of water, and the water was made bitter.

·         Fourth trumpet: a third of the sun, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars…were struck so that day and night were altered.

Then I heard and eagle crying, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels were about to blow.

You might be wondering, “Now what is going on?” Good question. Yesterday I wrote about “time and size.” Beyond the text, my goal was to get you to think about drama. How, in a drama, might you get your audience’s attention? How might you communicate the magnitude of a point you were trying to make? Might you repeat it?

If I have learned anything from the prophets, it is the God repeats his message – over and over and over. No one can say, “Gee, I had never heard that before.” I imagine as you have read the Bible in a Year, you might even be getting tired of the repetition…that is probably good so long as you do not forget the message.

And so we come to Revelation 8. Now as a word of explanation, not everyone agrees with what I typed in the last post, and therefore those who did not agree with me yesterday, will not agree with me today. I see that Revelation 8 is a parallel to Revelation 6-7. I will unpack that in a moment, but I do not see chapter 8 taking place chronologically after chapter 6-7. You might ask, “Why do you say that?”

Here is where our chapter and verse notation is not helpful (we are the ones who invented the chapter/verse, not God). I could have had you read through to 8:1 yesterday, but I did not do so to make a point. What if yesterday you read 8:1 as the last sentence of Scene 2? Imagine the scene: the sixth seal is opened, the entire sky goes black, kings are hiding in caves and angels are holding back destruction until the chosen of the Lord are marked. They are marked, complete cataclysm takes place and then the seventh seal is open and there is silence—and the curtain falls on scene two.

Seal six covers the end of history, and I want to suggest seal seven covers what comes after that, and it is another world to come, the curtain falls, we know there is more but we are left in suspense. The Revelation of St. John will deal with it, but it will deal with it later. To me it makes sense that the seventh seal was opened “yesterday,” there was silence, and the curtain fell.

Which brings me back to the beginning of Scene 3: if when seal six was opened the cataclysmic coming of Christ took place and in which the light of the heavenly bodies will be put out completely (Rev. 6:12-17), then how is it that trumpet four puts out one third of them—they would already be out. I could also take you through some other ideas about this, but my point is that by my way of thinking the trumpets and the seals parallel on another—and we could go through that but I do not have the room (see The Bible Speaks Today, Revelation by Michael Wilcock.)

So I come back to the question: “Now what is going on?” The answer is drama. And it is repetitive. The curtain fell and when it next arose the scene is of angels and trumpets! It is trying to your attention. It is trying to communicate the magnitude of a point. It is the same point as was just made. What is the point?

The trumpets are a warning, a warning to the world. The first four are all rather environmental; external things happening around and to people. In the section on the “seals” it was all rather cosmic, these disasters are all rather natural, and you might even be able to picture them. They should shake us. I am not a person that says things such as “God caused the tsunami” but I do believe they ought to shake us. We think we have it all under control. Sometimes we not only think it, but we act like it—and we act as if we do not need God. We are fools when we do (see Luke 12:13-21). Even the casual observer knows we live on this “island planet.” We are hurtling through space at an astronomical speed. One meteor strike, one volcanic eruption, one…and it is over. We are not in control and we should turn and seek God. Not out of fear, but out of humble respect that we are his spiritual creatures on this amazing physical world…and all living with a purpose for Him.

DAY 350

TIME AND SIZE

Amos 4, 5 & 6 and Revelation 7

“After this…” after the events of chapter 6 come the events of chapter 7. Or do they? We need to be careful to assume a linear progression of events in Revelation. In chapter 6 we see the earth harmed, yet in chapter 7 we see that the earth is not yet harmed. Seal 6 in chapter 6 speaks of the return of Christ, yet the marking of the Lord’s followers in 7 would seem to more naturally come before the Seal 6 is opened. What John literally says is, “After this I saw…” In other words John saw one “scene” which he described in chapter 6 and then another scene which he described in chapter 7. We should be able to relate to this situation, after all there are TV shows and movies that in the middle of the story have a “flashback” or “flash-forward” moment where the main character takes us to another time and place, only to return to the original time after a brief interlude.

Might it be that the point of chapter 7 is that God’s people are safe amid the trials of this life; the trials that we read about in the last chapter? This does not mean we are isolated from trouble, indeed Seal 5 showed that the church would suffer. The point is that we have an inner security amid the external strife…we are marked as Christ’s own forever…we know how the story ends!

Beyond this discussion of “timing” what do you make of the reading? I am encouraged by the sheer magnitude of those present at God’s throne. In a special post I will deal with the “numbers” of Revelation, but for now I am enjoying the size of this scene. Size—the “size” of the scenes—has been something that Revelation has inviting us into. Sometimes the scenes are large with descriptions of creatures that are mind boggling. Sometimes the scenes are large with descriptions of the Son of Man that lead you to fall on your face. Today the scene is large by the number of people at God’s throne. I think the point is less the absolute number and more the sense that many, many, many, are at the throne. If you were producing a Broadway play and wanted to make that point clear you would have your set overflowing with people.

DAY 349

THE FOUR HORSEMEN

Amos 1, 2 & 3 and Revelation 6

I will provide an overview of Amos tomorrow, for today I think it best to focus on chapter 6 of Revelation; chapters 4 and 5 have been building to this point.

Today we read of the Four Horsemen. Their power and the sheer magnitude of the destruction they wreak have led others to take their name, the four horsemen. However, what you read today…these are the original. Four horsemen, six seals and more, let’s turn into this text.

First some have seen the first white horse as representing Christ, but I (and others) do not think this is the case. Taken in total these four represent evil. Note however that evil does not operate as some equal and opposite power that is against God. No God is supreme. In fact, this evil cannot even begin until the One who can open the seals, does so. I see this chapter as remarkably parallel to Matthew 24 and I am not surprised as this text comes from the same author—God. I also do not think this text represents the “end of the world.” Jesus in Matthew 24 specifically said that when we here of wars and rumors of wars do NOT think the end is near…it is not…it is merely the beginning of birth pangs (Mth 24:8).

Notice how Matthew’s text lines up with the Seals of this chapter. Matthew 24:6 corresponds to the first seal. Matthew 24:7-8 correspond with seals 2, 3, and 4. Matthew 24:9-12 describes the suffering church…is this not seal number 5? Continuing in Matthew we skip the fall of Jerusalem because by the time of John’s vision this had taken place and that brings us to Matthew 24: 29-30—seal 6.

In light of Matthew 24 we begin to see the overall meaning of the drama of chapter 6. What does the future hold? Conquest and strife, scarcity and death—but this is the beginning of the birth pangs. Many read this part of Revelation and believe it predicts the end, but in light of Matthew 24 this is exactly what Jesus warns against. The terrifying acts of the first four seals, which many take as signs of the end, are in reality all too commonplace in our world. The four horsemen have been riding all over the earth for quite some time…and if we pause and think about it we know this is true.

This may also explain the cry of the four living when the seals are broken. You might ask why are they yelling, “Come!” John is already there, they are not talking to him. They certainly are not inviting the Four Horsemen to come, who would invite evil? [And in point of fact, three of the horsemen do not really come as much as they are revealed.] So who is their cry to? In Revelation 1:6-8 we read there is One who is coming, and again in Revelation 22:20 we will read, “Surely I am coming soon.” The word that is used in chapters 1 and 22 is the same word used here in chapter 6, it is the word Maranatha. That word is most used as a call to our Lord to come. In chapter 6 even the souls from under the Altar cry, “how long.” We yearn for Christ’s coming. (Romans 8:19-22). And God’s church is not spared that is the point from seal 5—and we know when he comes Seal 6 will be opened.

Seals 1-5 represent the troubles of this age, and they will not end until seal 6 is opened. Now we can see why chapters 4 and 5 went to so much effort to present the supreme Lamb of God. Chapter 6 could quite frankly be discouraging in isolation, but remember back to chapters 4 and 5. Their settings are to impress upon our mind that God and his angels are not asleep; the forces of evil are not running loose with nothing to stop them. Chapters 4 and 5, the drama is to impress upon our minds where the true power lies…Christ stands at the center, it is He who is in control; throughout this scene God is on the throne.

Chapter 7 will reinforce this, especially because suffering in this world is hard, but for today think back to the grandeur of chapter 5 where myriads upon myriads of angels, and every creature was praising “Worthy is the Lamb”—this scene, and not four horsemen galloping to-and-fro, is what is intended to dominate our consciousness.  

DAY 348

WORTHY IS THE LAMB

Joel and Revelation 5

“Little is known of Joel, although his concern for Judah and Jerusalem suggests he ministered in Judah. Joel told of a locust plague that had struck Israel and which, he said, foreshadowed the “Day of the Lord.” The day of the Lord was a time greatly anticipated by the Israelites because they believed that God would then judge the nations and restore Israel to her former glory. Yet, said Joel, God would punish not only the nations, but unfaithful Israel as well. Joel urged everyone to repent, and told of a day when God would “pour out His Spirit on all flesh (2:28). That day arrived on the first Christian Pentecost (Acts 2:17). While the date of the book is uncertain (ninth to sixth century BC) its message is valid for all times.” [From ESV Bible.]

Chapter 5 today of Revelation is a classic example for how I at times can get so drawn into the figurative language to end up confused. If you stop and think about it for a moment, chapter 5 says that John sees a person sitting upon the throne with a scroll. Yes it is a fancy scroll (sealed with seven stars). He also says no one can open it, and for some reason this causes him to weep loudly, that is, until the Lamb appears. Then notice what happens when the Lamb appears, “…I heard around the throne …the voice of many angels, numbering myriads and myriads, thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain…And I heard every creature in heaven and earth and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that is in them saying…

The point of chapter 5 is to again take your breath away. We got this in chapter 1, and the point of the drama of chapter 1 was for us to understand not just the message of chapters 2 and 3, but just who was offering it to us—God himself and He had/has a message for his “Church in the world.” And yesterday and today we are again drawn into a dramatic scene. I imagine it is as if I am in a theater, with a huge stage, and this dramatic throne…it is both grand and confusing…and then out of nowhere I begin to see angels, and people, and all sorts of creatures…and it is loud…really loud…and it is not just noise…it is praise…amid the confusion one thing is clear…all the created worLd…heaven and earth…are praising the Lamb who is worthy.

The closing chorus, the final piece of music sung in Handel’s Messiah, is this verse from revelation. You can listen to it below through a link. It is magnificent. Our Cathedral just offered this concert three nights ago. There we were, in a grand cathedral, with the High Altar behind the angelic and powerful voices of the choir filling the space. We sing the Messiah in the Cathedral because the Altar area of the Cathedral is in many ways our human attempt to recreate the very throne of God. If you listen to the link below you will notice many things. The piece is seven minutes long and it ends with a long Great Amen. In fact the Great Amen is three and one-half minutes of the seven! The Great Amen is a long series of singing amen, over and over. I was swept up in that moment, praying that the very Spirit of God would fill not only the Cathedral, but fill the hearts of all who were present in this earthly sacred cathedral. For me, while the Halleluiah chorus of Messiah is splendid, it is this chorus, the chorus of Worthy is the Lamb that brings me to tears, and I with the choir add my Amen.

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iOAM_777SY

So we close today with all this action, still wondering about the scroll, it will come soon, but today, take a moment and sense the magnificent grandeur of this throne scene with the Lamb…for Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, Amen.