The lectionary takes one through Revelations once a year. I have avoided it. I find parts of it difficult to understand, and though I have read commentaries, I have concerns. THeir models are too definite, and that reminds me of the Pharisees: They yearned for a Messiah and still do, but the Messiah came, did not fit their model and was rejected.
There are two parts to this. The first is that the woman is a symbol for the church, and the dragon that great deceiver, Satan. The second part is that there is such a thing as spiritual warfare.
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.
(Revelation 12:7-17 ESV)
What should we now do? Well, we should live life. We should follow the structure that Christ has for us: to live in families, families meet together in congregations, and encourage all to do their duty. We should be realistic about this: Love is as much a choice as a feeling, and one of the duties of older women is to teach younger women how to be graceful and love their husbands and care for their children, even when they are in pain, irritated, and close to tears, or nauseous every morning.
For those who are not called to marriage (and it is difficult, a challenge) and find the single life more appealing we need communities: we need the man’s hall, the woman’s house and projects that challenge these. These monkish men are the shock troops and intellectuals of the church. These women are often the network that protects the frail from the ravages of the state.
For Satan does rage, and the spirit of this age belongs to him. His time is short. The lies that will be fed to us will look pretty. But so does the poor, broken spokeswomen for this spirit: From Miley Cyrus through Angelina Jolie to Oprah they are miserable, and their craziness means that wise men avoid them.
We need to embrace the contempt of those who deem themselves cultured, who boast on their reading of fools such as Foucault and Lacan, and queue to read the latest degenerate post structuralist novel. We will be called oppressive, sexist, racist, homophobic, and un natural. We will be told that to be a patriot is to align and converge with the progressive necrophiliac structure they call the narrative and others the cathedral or Babylon.
For it will fall.
Let us pray that we. our families and neighbours and even our enemies repent, and are spared.
My home group finished a Matthias Media study on Revelation a couple of years ago (we are lead by a retired Anglican minister who takes his time so we crawl through stuff at about a page a night) but it gradually became clearer while losing nothing of the wonder. I formed a view that the Bible really completed a circle with us back in a more complete and enduring Garden of Eden of some sort – without the temptations to spoil our relationship with God. I suspect the book wasn’t a mystery to those to whom it was written and provided we can get inside the culture and symbolism it shouldn’t be for us. The problem as I see it is literalists translating Greek into modern English and seeing a world of revelation while actually seeing nothing and missing the point as well because they lose sight of Christ as they look to events in man’s world rather than the two edged sword that is the Gospel.
The message is simple really – Christianity is often a hard road to walk if you actually stand for what it expects but it is all under control and victory is already ours so be of good cheer.
Nice paintings as well – quality never goes out of style.
Thanks. I’m using Wrath of Gnon’s Tumblr feed for illustrations. They have good taste.
On revelations, agree with you.
An observation from my early walk with Christ; I read the bible and looked forward to it… new stuff all the time. But two topics started to constantly recur. One was baptism, the second was a fascination in the book of Revelation. I’ve observed the same pattern in other new beleivers.
Its hard to argue that the Holy Spirit was not leading me to the first, and the second was just coincidence.
The woman seems to be an allusion to both Israel and the Church, to me. Three separate entities that Paul often spoke of: The Jews, Gentiles, and the Church. The Mystery Church seems to be the natural offshoot of Israel, but the Church does not replace Israel in any way. The Church is merely the ridiculously brilliant tactical move by God to establish an order—One which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against. This mystery Church remained hidden until Paul revealed it–when the Holy Spirit indwells the believers, seals them, and allows so much of Judaism to remain blind until the ‘fullness’ of the Gentiles is complete.
But I encounter too much eschatology that takes too much pride in the Mystery Church, alluding to the fact that Israel, by dint of her myriad mistakes and rejections of Yeshua, has forgone her birthright, and that the church picked up that birthright by default. But if that were the case, then Paul’s hammering out of the fact that Yeshua is not done with Israel, to me, makes this notion of ‘replacement’ theology not only moot, but makes God to be something of a liar.
So much eschatology also seems to cause a complacency within the believer. An idea that, if the harpazo will indeed happen for the church, then we’re fine to just kick back and wait. But man, what a shame! Every day that we are here, that the LORD tarries, that’s a day where we can be better than we were. I really have days where the thought of walking into the Kingdom now just flat embarrasses me to think of; not that my ability to enter the Kingdom is based on works, but the crowns are, are they not? It’s easy to say, “Well, hey, heaven will be enough!” but I don’t want to step into the Kingdom and find out how much I could have accomplished, if I hadn’t kicked back and thought, “Meh, Yeshua’s comin’ for me any day now! So i’ll just hang here and do nothing.”
When the Mashiach Nagid shows up, if the harpazo does happen for the church, I’d rather be at least somewhat prepared.
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Num 23:19.
The promises for Israel remain. They apply to those who keep the Law and fulfil it: for those who keep the law will live.
But as Peter said (before Paul) none of can.
The gates of hell will not prevatl against the church, true. But we should not take pride, or assume at this time we will win. We need to do our duty today.