Week 6: Revelation 7 - 11 Flashcards
Sealing God’s Servants: 7:1-3 –> Four Corners of Earth
- They did not believe the earth was flat
- Simply a metaphor for all directions
ch 7 : Holding back “the winds”
that will harm people. Holding back strife on earth.
Vegetation language (cf. Psalm 1:3, Jer 17:8)
- Don’t harm the earth the sea of the trees
- Trees do matter.
- Used for the very people of God. First psalm “keeps his law = be like a tree”
- Don’t harm the people of God until we seal them!!
Hearing vs. Seeing in Rev 7
- They are sealed with the seal of the living god
- What is a seal? A marker of identity. A sign of ownership that he puts on people.
- What is that seal? Compared between the new and old testament.
“I want you to seal up my law on your foreheads” is an identifying mark of the people of God.
- Ancient seals = had name, title, and territory they ruled
- It is exactly this case with God.
- Also bind it on your arms
- Law only matters if its lived out. It has to be part of your life.
New testament seal (ch 7)
- you are sealed by the holy spirit
- The holy spirit will write the law on your hearts
- Forehead = where rational and moral decisions are made
- Seal of God is internal
144,000 from every tribe – 12,000 from each: 7:4-8
- Number 12 X 1,000
- But there were 14 tribes…
- There are two tribes missing ….
The Missing Tribes from the 144,000
- Tribe of Dan
- And Ephriam
- These two set up their own places of worship.
- Dan = canaanites
- Ephraim = golden ram
- People who turned away from yahweh
Israel: Ethnic vs. Faithful
- 144,000 may not be literal jews
- Northern ten tribes = were wiped out in ancient times
- John’s book = excludes Israel being ethnic
- A jew is one who is one inwardly. Circumsized inwardly. Heart is new and fresh and clean.
If you are Christ’s you are a descendant of Abraham
- It was always intended to be people who believe in the Messiah
- Matthew’s genealogy: several women are non-Jews. People whose lives are filled with scandal.
Great Multitude: 7:9-17
Saw a great multitude that no one could number
Great Multitude: 7:9-17: Clothing
- White robes
- Ties us back to the 5th seal
Great Multitude: 7:9-17: Spatial Setting
- Standing
- On mount zion
- Where God’s temple was. His throne seat.
- End of ch. 6 who is able to stand = 144,000. Then this multitude is standing before God.
Great Multitude: 7:9-17 - Props
Palm branches = triumphant entry in Gospels, praise to God
Great Multitude: 7:9-17 - Actions
Praising & Overjoyed
Great Multitude: 7:9-17 - Great Tribulation (cf. Matt 24:21, Mark 13:19)
- Futurist = 7 years
- Appears in Matthew 24.
- Fits historically in the fall of the christian church. Millions who died to an apostate church.
Great Multitude: 7:9-17 - Relation to Chs. 4-5
- Throne room
- Seals broken
- God is in the process of sealing people
Great Multitude: 7:9-17 - Relationship to the 5th seal
- “I saw the souls at the altar”
- This group appears to be those who lost their lives for God.
- Spiritual Jews. Not literal Jews.
ch 8 - Seventh seal & Silence & 1/2 hour
- Silence = Everyone is waiting to hear what’s on the scroll
- 1/2 hour = may not be symbolic of anything
Seventh Trumpets
- Trumpets are not apart of the 7 seals
- Chapter divisions in the bible are absolutely arbitrary. Added much later.
- Brant argues that the 7th seal could be in chapter 8
- Table of show bread = throne of God
New vision w/ the trumpets = new piece of furniture talked about (ch 8)
- We’re “following” a high priest through a temple throughout Revelation
- Priest was always hidden from Israelites
- Suggests that when you talk to God = He smells a beautiful smell
(ch 8) Coronation
Trumpets were blown at the coronation of the King
Jewish new year festival and Judgment (ch 8)
- Rosh Hashanah
- New years festival that starts in the fall
- Trumpets were blown as a call that the judgments of God were about to start
Fall of Jericho
- Trumpets were blown to signify the fall of Jericho
- Trumpets = primarily blown to signify judgment
Angel at the altar - Which altar is it? (8:3-5)
The altar of incense
Prayers of the saints
Incense = prayers of saints
Censer thrown to earth
- On earth there are judgments
- Judgments = trumpets
1st Trumpet
- Ch’s 8 & 9 are the most difficult of any apocalyptic literature.
- We’re given general interpretation.
- Each judgment is tied to the last plagues
- These are small (⅓) ok not worldwide. Not complete.
Hail and fire mixed with blood
- Would happen on the lords day
- Fall on God’s people
- John’s day = were Gods people judged? Yes
- Jesus announced that god’s people would be lost (70 AD)
- Some argue 1st is the fall of the temple
2nd Trumpet
- Maybe = the fall of pagan Rome.
- Like Pompeii But on a bigger scale
- Sea = populated centers of the earth
3rd Trumpet
- Burning star falling from heaven = fall of lucifer, brought corruption
- Burning star makes water bitter
- Springs of water = related to God’s providence for his people, “living water”
- Suggesting apostasy of God’s people. Fall of christian church.
- This parallels the 7 churches
- Hist: parallels the dark ages
4th Trumpet
- Clear parallels with the fall of the papal roman church
- Parallels 7 churches
Overall message and impression of the Trumpets
- Prayers of the saints
- These are judgments in response to prayers of the saints
- God does step in, but in small ways
Three woes as the last three trumpets (8:13)
Recipient of these trumpets: those who dwell on the earth
Fifth trumpet (9:1 - 11) - Abyss
The abyss = the bottomless ocean depths. Chaotic world.
Fallen star
- Satan
- Gets key to the abyss
- Out come locusts
Locusts
- Locusts can decimate crops
- These Locusts can harm people (not crops) and they have a stinger in their tail
- Look like horses
Locusts - Limits of power
- Only can hurt people for 5 months. Limited power.
- Locust swarms eat all the food = death
Joel’s prophecy (Joel 1 & 2)
- Talks about locusts that also look like horses. And they destroy basically everything.
- “Day of the lord is great and terrible”
1. Locust plague
2. Army of the Lord - We don’t know if Joel is talking about a literal bug army or a human army
Locusts - Description
- Revelation: doesn’t appear to be bugs.
- Lead by: Satan for sure
Locusts - Interpretation
- An army of actual people
- SDA = divided on the interpretation
- March of the turks against europe or various things
- Brant: doesn’t know
- It’s a godless place
- Something to do with the rise of atheism in the west
Pause (9:12)
One woe is past, still there are two more
Sixth Trumpet (9:13-21)
- Number of armed people heard by John is larger than anything that exists rn
- So its symbolic for sure
- Note that John HEARS the 2 million armed people
Sixth Trumpet (9:13-21) - Golden altar
- Where the voice comes from that says 2 million
- Four angels tied to Euphrates river → set free to kill people
Euphrates
Runs under Babylon
Sixth Trumpet (9:13-21) - Interpretation
- Hasn’t happened yet
- An end time picture
- Brant thinks people still have time to decide
- This happens during a time when everyone has decided
Purpose of the judgments (9:20 - 21)
- To help people turn their life around
- Sorcery = pharmakeia
- In the ancient world pharmakeia was used to describe speaking to the dead and casting spells. Wicca, etc.
- A list of sins/vices
Intercalation between 6th and 7th trumpets
All happen in chapter 10 now !
Strong angel (10:1-3) - Descriptors
- Face like sun
- Rainbow around his face
- Feet like pillar
- One foot on either sides of a river → Daniel + seal up the book!
Strong angel (10:1-3) - Identity
- Sounds like ch 1 pic of Jesus → doesn’t say who this is exactly.
- A divine messenger
Seven thunders (10:3-4)
see psalm 29, job 37:5
“Seal up”
- A tie to Daniel 12
- Seal it up and don’t write it down
Actions of the angel (10:4-7) → see Dan 12:1-9 “Raising right hand”
- Tie to dan 12
- The messenger does this
Actions of the angel (10:4-7) - swearing
- Tie to Dan 12
- Not to write it down
- “By the one who lives forever”
“No more delay” (ch. 10)
- There will be time no longer
- That prophecy in Daniel has come to an end
A little book (10:8-11) → See Ezekiel 2:1 - 3:11
John takes the little book and eats it
Same book as 5:1?
- Some believe this little scroll is the same one that Jesus unsealed in chapter 7
- Brant: doesn’t think its the same one because it is given a different name in the Greek
- This greek word is meant to denote a small book specifically
Ch 7 book was likely a will
What book does a person eat??
- An analogy: Ezekiel 2 - 3
- Ezekiel gets sent to Israel. God says his people are stubborn. God says Ezekiel you are gonna butt heads with these people.
- Good luck!
What book does a person eat?? (Cont.)
- God says: Here’s a little book, eat it. Sweet in your mouth.
- Revelation is drawing on Ezekiel
- Ezekiel says it was written on the front and back, and it was filled with prophecies against Israel and about their wickedness and their repentance.
(Ezekiel story continued) BUT it never says it will be bitter in his stomach
- Every time he tried to speak this message, he was persecuted for it.
- He ingests the word of God
- Ezekiel is told to divide up his hair into 3 pieces. Burns some, cuts with sword, throws into wind → everyone has to watch him do this
- Tell Israel that just as I’ve done this to my hair, an army will come and do this to you
Ezekiel after doing the hair thing and the book thing
- God tells him to build a small scale Israel
- God says make a siege scene in the middle of the street
- This siege will happen to Jerusalem
Poor Ezekiel (after hair + book + and siege thingy)
- Take a backpack
- Climb out a hole in the Jerusalem
- Cause Israel is gonna have to crawl out the holes like this
Oh my god Ezekiel im so sorry (last “actor” thing Ezekiel does)
- Cook ur food over human feces
- Ezekiel says: “Ok thats enough, I’m not gonna do it”
- Gods like alright use cow poo
- Ezekiel does this
- Point: You’ll be in such famine that you’ll be fighting over donkey heads and cannibalism
- God: “I’ve placed you to wake these people up”
John as actor - Prophetic sign-act
- He is actually carrying things out that Ezekiel did
- If you missed all the ties between Rev 10 and Dan 12 → harder to understand
- Daniel is taking that little book, but is now open. And he is now eating it.
- Hes told to prophecy and measure a temple…
Is John symbolic?
- Is he being used as an actor like Ezekiel?
- He’s seeing references to a book that Daniel saw
We think he is kinda a symbol
SDA self-understanding in Revelation 10
- Mid 1800s there was a movement in the western world called the second great awakening “Jesus is coming soon”
- People were studying Daniel and Revelation like no time before
- They studied the book of Daniel and they could make sense of the beasts etc
- They began to preach that Dan and Rev were becoming true
A group of people
- Thought they could announce that Jesus is coming soon at a specific date
- “The sweetest prophetic message they could give”
- Jesus didn’t come = “The great disappointment” in 1800s
SDA church beginning
- People went back to Dan and Rev and asked “what did we miss?”
- Wasn’t the system that we got wrong, it was the event
- 2300 morning prophecy → a cleansing of a temple instead
- “I guess now we have more to do, and there’s a little bit of time left”
- SDA church was born out of this
- “We have to keep prophesying”
- Advent people = people looking forward for Jesus’s coming
John’s measurement of the temple and worshippers (11:1,2)
- “Rise and measure the temple” … “Leave out the court”
- Measurement is tied to judging
- John is called to judge? Its more about giving that message of judgment…
Two witnesses (ch 11)
-Jewish parallel = any law or truth had to be established against two witnesses
- In the Jewish culture it was rare to be alone because of this
Jesus story about the adulterous woman
- They bring the woman there and they accuse her
- They didn’t bring the guy !
- “Let the one without sin cast the first stone”
- Writes in the ground
- Jesus tells her “go and stop sinning”
1260 days
Given in Daniel as well
What descriptions can you find of the two witnesses in REV 11:3-13 –> Two olives trees and two lampstands
Zackariah = represents the prophetic word of God
Fire precedes from their mouths if they are gonna get harmed
alludes to another prophet
No rain (two prophet descriptions)
Elijah
Power over waters, to turn them to blood and to strike plagues (two prophet descriptions)
Moses had this power
“An Elijah” (two prophet descriptions)
- John the baptist was called this by Jesus
- He is “like” Elijah.
- So these prophets are “like” Moses and Elijah
They die → bodies not put in graves → people praise that they’re dead (ch 11)
Basically there are people that don’t wanna hear about prophecy
Fall of Roman church power (and ch 11)
- Napoleon
- French revolution → wanted to live on reason alone
- An atheist society
- So figuratively, this throwing away of faith in God (lying dead in the streets) could be exemplified in this time
- As a result, a very bloody time in French Revolution
Sodom, Egypt, Jerusalem
- All rejected God or Jesus
- Sodom = moral corruption / rejected
- Jerusalem = Rejected Jesus
The two witnesses - How would each interpretive methodology view them today?
- Preterist: John the baptist and jesus
- Historicist: SDA = french revolution and succeeding years
- Futurist: two actual guys who show up in the 7 years of tribulation
- Idealist: God always has a witness in the world. In every era. Sometimes a church or a bible etc.
Announcement of final woe (11:14)
yep thats where it is
Final trumpet (11:15-18)
- Kingdom of god set up to reign
- …but somehow this is not the end of Revelation
- It goes back and retells some stuff in subsequent chapters
Hinge-verse of Revelation (11:18)
Summary of past, and springboard to go on
Temple opened, Ark of the Covenant (11:19)
- A new idea introduced
- Should be in chapter 12
