Christ Church

Grace & Peace: Revelation 98

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” (Rev. 17:1–6).

After the last bowl had been poured out, one of the angels who had had one of the bowls came to John and talked to him. He said that he would show him the judgment of the great whore, the woman who sat upon many waters.

To help us keep things straight, I will begin with how I identify the figures in this passage. I take the harlot as the apostate city of Jerusalem, the one under judgment. This has been the great theme of the book of Revelation, and it would be odd to change the subject at this late point. I take the beast that she is sitting on as the beast from the sea, introduced to us in chapter 13. So I believe we are talking about both Rome and Jerusalem, but Jerusalem as riding upon, dependent upon, the imperial city.

Some reasons for identifying this harlot as Jerusalem can be quickly summarized. The central point of Revelation deals with things that will “shortly” take place (Rev. 1:1). The fall of Jerusalem fits this description, while the fall of Rome occurs centuries later. In terms of literary structure, we are being introduced to the contrast between the harlot and the bride. Because the bride, descending out of Heaven, is the New Jerusalem, it stands to reason that the harlot is the Old Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called that “great city” earlier (Rev. 11:8), which is how “Babylon” is described in this section. The use of the word harlot fits with the Old Testament usage by the prophets. Harlotry presupposes a covenant relationship with God that was violated by spiritual adulteries (see Is. 1:21; 57:8; Jer. 2:2, 20). And the central charge made against her was that she was guilty of the blood of the prophets, saints, and apostles ((Rev. 17:6; 18:20, 24). This was not yet true of Rome, but it had been true of Jerusalem for generations (Matt. 23:35-36).

This said, what are we told in this passage? Instead of being a light to the Gentiles, Jerusalem had led the kings of the earth astray, not to mention the inhabitants of the earth. They all had been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. The angel then led John into the wilderness, a fitting place for a revelation of this nature. It was not a heavenly vision, but rather a vision given in a place of owls and jackals. The woman was sitting on a scarlet colored beast. The color given is new, but in every other respect, the beast is same as before (seven heads, ten horns). The woman riding on the beast is distinct from it, and she was arrayed in scarlet and purple. She was decked out with gold, gems, and pearls, clearly given over to ostentatious and luxurious living. She had a golden cup in her hand, exquisite on the outside, and full of filth on the inside (Matt. 23:25).

She was a wanton, and her name was emblazoned on her forehead. The first thing about her name is that she was a mystery. How was it that the people of Israel, delivered by Jehovah so many times, had now come to this? This is the vision that Ezekiel had seen. When God had first seen Israel, she was nothing, polluted in her own blood (Eze. 16:6). But it was not long before she was seduced by her own beauty (Eze. 16:14), which was what led to her becoming seductive to everyone else. She was also identified as Babylon the Great. We have already considered how that epithet readily applied to Jerusalem, in much the same way that the names of other older pagan entities did—e.g. Sodom and Egypt (Rev. 11:8). She is the Mother of Harlots, as well as the Mother of Abominations on the Earth.

When John saw her, he was amazed. The woman was regal, clothed in royal splendor, covered in jewelry, but her behavior was that of a slattern. She was drunk. Not only was she drunk, but what had made her drunk? She was drunk on the blood of the saints, and on the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. A moment before we had been told that her golden cup was filled with abomination and filthiness of her fornication (v. 4), and earlier it had referred to the wine of her fornication (v. 2). Putting all this together, her abominable lusts appeared to focus on the deaths of the saints—which are precious in the sight of the Lord (Ps. 116:15), and prized by this harlot for a completely different reason.

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Bible Challenge #36

Becky Pliego on

¡Hola, hola!  Welcome to week 37 of our Bible Reading Challenge. As I type this, I cannot thank the Lord enough for the many ways in which it has pleased Him to bless this endeavor. He has been so kind to us in drawing us to Him, and in drawing Himself closer to us. Since the very beginning of the BRC, I have mentioned (especially in the webinars) how God wants to be known, and has made Himself known to us. And now as we come close to the end of this challenge, we can attest that by the help of Holy Spirit and after being intentional and diligent in reading the Word of God, we know Him more than when we started. And this, my friends, is a true gift. From His fullness, we have indeed received grace upon grace.

Summer is right around the corner, and we are ready to jump into our summer habits,  we are eager to wear pretty, warm colors every day and put cheerful flowers on our tables to brighten our homes. And in the same way we must start planning our summer bible reading and praying habits. The Ladies Fellowship of Christ Church has been planning a summer reading plan that we trust will be a huge blessing to you.

The plan for the summer is to read through the New Testament and focus on a few passages for memorization or meditation each week (“M-Days”). The plan begins on June 4th and runs through August 31. There are two options for reading pace – four or six chapters a day. The four chapters a day will take you through the entire NT and the six chapters will mean reading several epistles three times. There is no assigned reading on Saturday (M-day) so that you can have more time to review the verses you worked on through the week. And on Sunday, we don’t assign any readings because we all go to Church to read the Word with the body of Christ and receive it as our own pastors preach from it.

We hope you will join us and will share this with other women you know! Click here to find more information.

This week we will be reading only Psalms, and I think it is very appropriate to finish these last weeks of the BRC this way. Most of these Psalms are not Psalms of lament, but psalms that celebrate the reign of our Lord.  These psalms exalt God’s character and warm our hearts to praise Him fervently. As you read them, find what they teach us about God’s character and see how knowing His character helps us to pray better and worship Him more.

You can choose to divide this week’s readings in three parts, so that you can read two psalms in the morning, two at midday, and two at night. Read them, pray them, sing them. Our God reigns, let us praise His name!

Note about this week’s webinar: Because I am traveling overseas I will record the webinar for week 37 today, Friday May 18, at 8:00AM PST. I know it is too early for many and maybe you will read this email after that hour, but remember that you will be able to find the webinar ready to be watch at your most convenient time on our website. Thank you for your understanding!

May our prayer this week be, “Our Creator, Redeemer, and King, we ask you to give us soft hearts as we read your Word this week, deliver us from reading your Word and hearing your voice and hardening our hearts in response. May we be humble to receive your Words of encouragement and correction. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen” (Psalm 95:7-9)

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Ladies Fellowship at Christ Church

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Bible Challenge #35

Becky Pliego on

¡HOLA, HOLA! Can someone please explain to me how did we get to week 35 in a breeze? YAY! Maybe, after all, this daily wearing of our habit truly became our daily habit. I hope you feel comfortable in it, and I trust that all those around you can see how well it looks on you. We know that habits cannot be hidden for too long, all become visible at one point or another, and so it is the same with the habit of Bible reading and prayer. Be encouraged, Sister. Every time you read your Bible, the Word of God is at work in you!

I want to share with you something that puzzled me this week. I listened to a Podcast in which a renown author was being interviewed on how he read the Bible. To my surprise, he said that he didn’t necessarily have a plan. In fact his approach was that, if he didn’t feel like he was getting much from, let’s say I Kings, he would happily skip to his favorite passages somewhere else. Now, the question we must ask ourselves is this: do we really need to have a plan to read the Bible? (And I know that this question is an odd question to add when we are almost done with our Bible reading plan! But we always need to be thinking about what we are doing and why we are doing it.) Well, no, not necessarily, but if you choose not to have a plan, you must build some sort of structure (a plan? Ha!) so that you will not only read your favorite passages, but read all the Bible. We need all of God’s Word to feed our soul, edify us, and transform us. We need to read all the Word of God to
begin to understand all the Word of God. This leads us to say that yes, having a plan laid out is a wonderful thing to help us get to our destination on time and without missing anything as we go. And we have already seen this, right? We have been encouraging one another to keep walking, to keep turning pages, because we all want to get to our destination, we all want to stand together at the top of the mountain and be amazed at the wonderful view, to see the whole Story of Redemption laid our before us in all its glory!

So, Friends, get ready: our plan will continue! We are already working on the Summer Bible Reading Challenge, the reading plan is done, and now we are working on the graphics and design. And we can’t wait to start a new journey with you!

This week we will finish reading Zechariah, and then we’ll read 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Philemon, and we will start Revelation and 2 Corinthians along with Psalms 81-84 and Proverbs 31. We have a catch-up day on Thursday in which I recommend you read 2 Peter.

Remember what we said in our last webinar: Read as you pray and pray as you read. Don’t skim over the harder passages. And those things you do understand, take heed and apply in your daily life. God will bless your coming to His Word this week too!

May our prayer this week be, “Lord, direct our way to you and make us increase and abound in love for one another, so that our hearts may be established blameless in holiness before you, our God and Father.” (I Thess. 3:11-12)

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 97

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

“And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great“ (Rev. 16:17-21)

The last of the bowls of wrath is poured into the atmosphere. It is perhaps suggestive that this is described as the realm of the devil (Eph. 2:2). When this happens, a great voice comes out from the heavenly temple, crying out that the judgment is finally complete. As a result there is a stir and a commotion—voice, thundering, lightning, culminating in a massive earthquake. There was a great earthquake, such as had never happened on earth before.

Continuing with our view that these cascading judgments were washing over the city of Jerusalem, we can see that the cup of wrath she was given to drink corresponds to the cup of her persecuting sins that is described in the next chapter. And so given this, it would seem that this earthquake is the one that was predicted by the prophet Haggai.

“For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, And I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land” (Hagg. 2:6).

The apostle Paul (as I take the author of Hebrews to be) describes Haggai’s prophecy as fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem.

“Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain” (Heb. 12:26–27).

As he says in the next verse, we as Christians are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken in this way (Heb. 12:28), and the kingdom in its previous form was being taken from the Jews in order to be given to a people who would bear the fruit of it (Matt. 21:43). As John Owen observed, the heavens of their Mosaic worship were being thrown down, and the earth of their political arrangements were being toppled. All was complete, and the stage was set for the transition.

The city was divided into three pieces, which likely was foreshadowed by Ezekiel, and fulfilled in the internecine conflicts between the three factions of the Jewish rebels. The prophet Ezekiel had been told to cut off his hair and to divide it into three portions (Eze. 5:1-12). This was to represent Jerusalem—“this is Jerusalem” (Eze. 5:5). A third of the hair was to be burned up, another third was to be slashed with a sword, and the final third was to be thrown to the winds. Ezekiel’s dramatic enacted action referred to the disposal of the inhabitants of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., but it was also a harbinger of the great and final destruction of the city in 70 A.D. And during the siege of Jerusalem (a virtually unconquerable city), the rebels fought against their own interests by fighting with one another—three fierce factions making it possible for the Romans to take the city.

When it comes to the great hailstones, an interesting and suggestive detail is found in Josephus’ Wars (5.6.3). These hailstones are described as weighing about a talent, which translates into our units of measurement at about a hundred pounds. The Tenth Legion had catapults that could throw these massive stones, which were white. They could throw these things two furlongs or more, which is about a quarter of a mile. Josephus says, “Now, the stones that were cast were the weight of a talent . . . of a white color.” Hailstones indeed.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 96

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon (Rev. 16:12-16).

We come now to the great battle of Armageddon, the symbolic name for the ultimate defeat of the enemies of God. Many commentators have pointed out that this word served the same way that the battle of *Waterloo* serves us. It refers indirectly to a location, but in general application it means catastrophic defeat.

So the sixth angel pours out his bowl of wrath on the river Euphrates, which was the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire. On the other side of that river was the Parthian Empire. Josephus tells us that the general Titus brought additional reinforcements to the siege of Jerusalem from the region of the Euphrates.

In this vision the waters of the Euphrates were dried up, which provides us with an important scriptural trope. When Daniel interpreted the famous handwriting on the wall for Belshazzar, it was the night before he was killed. Cyrus conquered Babylon that night through the device of diverting the Euphrates, drying it up, and marching into Babylon on the river bed (536 B.C). In addition, when waters are dried up in Scripture, this indicates a great deliverance for God’s people. We saw this in the Red Sea deliverance (Ex. 14:21-22), and in the initial stages of the attack on Jericho (Josh. 3:9-17; 4:22-24). So here the waters of the Euphrates are dried up, opening the way for the kings of the sunrise to destroy Jerusalem, which has become the new Babylon.

These armies are gathered through the working of an unholy trinity of three demon-like frogs. This brings to mind the plague of frogs that afflicted Egypt (Ex. 8:1-15)and remember that Jerusalem has also become the new Egypt (Rev. 11:8). The fact that the frogs come out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet indicates that the enemies of God who are going to be destroyed are going to be destroyed by the instrumentality of other enemies of God. In other words, the unbelieving Jews were going to be judged through the pagan Roman armies.

The word Armageddon means Mountain of Meggido, and the location referred to is probably Mount Carmel, where Elijah defeated the priests of Baal. This is the nearest mountain to the plain of Meggido. That battlefield was used more than once. Deborah and Barak achieved their great victory there (Judg. 5:19). The godly king Josiah met his Waterloo there, so to speak (2 Chron. 35:20-25). And so the grim reality represented by this convulsive battle is most likely to be understood as the demolition of Jerusalem.

The Lord here announces that He comes as a thief, which need not refer to His Second Coming. The same phrase was used earlier in Revelation to encourage the saints in Sardis to walk circumspectly (Rev. 3:3). The sixth bowl has been poured out. Very little time is left.

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