Revelation 16:1-11 – It's Time to Get Your Vaccine

Everyone’s talking about vaccines for the H1N1 or “swine” flu. This is the latest pandemic that our world is facing. Widespread diseases like this are so frightening that they’re sometimes called the plague. Plagues are horrible and devastating afflictions that terrify us. So if you could get a vaccine to protect you from such a plague, wouldn’t that be great? This passage describes the worst kinds of plagues that the world will ever face. But the good news is that the vaccine for them is already out.

If the effects of the first four bowls sounds familiar, it should. In Chapter 8, when the first four angels blew their trumpets, it led to the ruin of a third of the land, sea, fresh water, and sky. Now, we see all four major elements of creation affected by what happenes, but this time it is complete. There’s no preservation of part of the earth this time. The calamity in Chapter 8 was to lead people to repentance. By now, the chance for repentance is gone. The trumpets sounded out the message for people to come to God. The bowls wipe the earth clean.

It’s worth noting, by the way, that these bowls do not lead to the destruction of creation. We’ll see that in Chapter 20. These bowls remove the goodness of creation and turn it into an agent of God’s retribution against the wicked. The story of creation in Genesis describes creation as good, and as a source of blessing for God’s beloved people. That goodness became tarnished as part of God’s punishment in Genesis 3, as people would endure toil to survive and pain in childbirth. That which was good became a source of chastisement. That conditions reaches an extreme here, as creation loses all of its goodness and becomes an instrument of agony.

The effect of the bowls upon the earth evoke the memory of other plagues that God brought upon the earth, when he worked against the Egyptians for holding the Israelites as slaves. The order is somewhat different, but the connection is still pretty strong. When the first bowl is poured out upon the earth, it causes painful and disfiguring sores. This is the same thing that happened to the Egyptians during the sixth plague (Exodus 9:8-12). It’s a bit different from the devastation from the first trumpet, which burned up a third of the earth. We’ll see that sort of havoc with the fourth bowl.

When the second and third bowls are poured out upon the sea and fresh water respectively, the water turns to blood, just like what happened in Egypt with the first plague (Exodus 7:14-21). Again, this is slightly different from the trumpets, when only the sea was turned to blood and the fresh water became bitter. Here, the association of the bowl-plagues and the Egypt-plagues becomes stronger. The song of the third angel helps us understand more fully what is symbolized by the water turning to blood. (Just a quick note: calling things “symbols” doesn’t mean that they’re not real. In language theory, a symbol isn’t a pretend feature, or a simple representative of what is real. Technically, that’s a sign. A symbol is something which is real and has importance of its own, but which also focuses our attention upon a deeper reality. Maybe two examples will help: the US flag, and our military. The flag is a sign; in and of itself, it’s nothing much. Just some cloth. But it is a sign, or represents, our nation and what our nation stands for. The US military, however, can be a symbol. As a symbol instead of a sign, it is real and significant. Just ask anyone on the receiving end of what our military can do! But the military is also a symbol of the United States’ power and dominance of the world. OK, so maybe this note wasn’t all that short.) The blood-water symbolizes the blood of God’s servants who suffered and died at the hands of the wicked. They shed blood, so now they have to drink blood. Think of it as a logical consequence of their violence and rejection of God. The angel’s song receives an “amen” from the altar, which agrees that God’s actions upon the wicked are just. In Revelation 6:9-11, we heard from the souls of the martyrs who had been killed for the faith. They were under the altar (the same one that we’re talking about here), and they demanded God’s vengeance upon those who shed their blood. And it’s not just them. When Cain killed his brother Abel in Genesis 4, God told him “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” God’s justice demands that murderers pay for the blood that they shed. I don’t know about you, but I’m sure glad that Jesus shed his blood on my behalf so that I don’t have to face the business end of God’s justice!

The fourth bowl affects the sun. But the sun does something different from what happened with the fourth trumpet. Instead of going dark, it blazes to an intense heat and scorches everyone left on earth. The Old Testament often speaks of God’s judgment as fire from heaven (Numbers 11:1-3, 1 Kings 18:38, for example). It also reminds us of the fire reserved for those who reject God (John 15:6, Matthew 13:30, Luke 3:7-9). As we’ve already seen, the time for repentance is over. That doesn’t mean that God no longer allows for repentance to do any good, but he knows that everyone who is going to repent has already done so. I’ve avoided the “Left Behind” series like the plague (no pun intended), partly for Biblical errors like this. As I understand, the series is about a group of people who are left behind after the believers have been taken to heaven. They turn to Christ and have to deal with all the nasty people around them. If my understanding is correct, then the whole “Left Behind” trademark is Biblically inaccurate. God won’t remove his saints from the earth until all of the saints have been identified. If you’re “left behind,” it’s because God knows that you will never repent and turn to him.

By the time the fourth bowl has been poured out, all the major features of creation have been transformed. Their created goodness has become sources of torment for the wicked. The fifth bowl is now poured out on the throne of the beast. This is the sea beast of Chapter 13, who came upon the earth with Satan’s power enabling him to dominate human affairs. God now directs his punishment directly upon the source of the rebellion. The plague of darkness evokes the ninth plague of Egypt (Exodus 10:21-26), the last one before the terrible plague upon the firstborn. There are a few other reasons why darkness is an appropriate plague to come upon the seat of unholy domination of the earth. First, Satan is often referred to as the prince of darkness. As 2 Corinthians 11:14 tells us, he masquerades as an “angel of light.” This bowl strips Satan of his disguise and shows him to be the heart of darkness that he really is. Once people are exposed to Satan’s true identity, he causes them such agony that they “gnaw on their tongues:” there’s a pretty gruesome and painful image! The torture comes now not from the transformation of creation but from the unveiling of the evil in the midst of the world that people accepted and followed. Second, the darkness of this plague stands in direct contrast to the light that Christ brings into the world (John 1:1-14). By the time we reach Chapters 21 and 22 we learn that Christ’s light is so glorious that there’s no need for any other light source. Satan is revealed to be the opposite of that. Finally, this association of darkness with the false worship of the beast is a not-so-subtle dig against some of the pagan practices that John and his flock witnessed. Apollo, the sun god, was one of the favorites to be worshiped. And about the same time that John had this vision, the worship of “Sol Invictus,” or the unconquered sun, was beginning. It was closely associated with emperor worship. John’s vision sends the message “You think your god is the source of light and goodness. Well, God can strip that away from him as easily as a bowl getting spilled.”

Now, about that vaccine for these plagues that I mentioned earlier. Fortunately for us, the time hasn’t come yet. We still have a chance to gain immunity from these plagues. And we have Jesus to thank for that.

Revelation 15:1-8 – Bowled Over

Throughout this study of Revelation I’ve emphasized that John’s vision is not merely about what will happen in the future, at the end times. It is also a description of that the world is like right now, seen from a different point of view. Chapter 12 tells us the Christmas story, and Chapter 5 describes the power of Easter. If we look at the other things and think that they’re only about the end times, we miss out on some powerful lessons to learn about what it means to be a Christian today. The devastation of the four horsemen is happening now. The dragon and the beasts are active today. And on the other hand, God is surrounded with the praise of the heavenly beings, and the saints are already gathering in a festival of praise. I emphasize this because most popular interpretations of Revelation present it as being about something from a world so terrifying and distant in the future that it seems to have nothing to do with Christian life today, other than “Get ready for the horrible future!” The truth is that the world is a terrifying place already, but also that God is in control and that the forces of evil aren’t nearly as powerful as they think they are, and that they try to make us believe.

Having said all that, I don’t want to go too far in the other direction and say that Revelation is only about the present and that it doesn’t tell us anything about the future. It does. It is the Bible’s most detailed description of the hope that we’re waiting for. (It’s not the only one, by the way. Mark 13 and the parallel passages in Matthew and Luke get into as well, as does 1 Thessalonians. Just a few examples.) At this point in Revelation, the focus begins to turn more fully upon what is truly the “end times.” To word it according to what we saw at the end of Chapter 14, we now learn more about what the “harvest of the earth” will be like, as God gathers the faithful and destroys the wicked. In this passage we still find a mixture of “now” and “future,” but the emphasis is shifting. As we continue through to the glorious conclusion of the book, the future focus gets more and more prominent.

Chapter 15 introduces the events of Chapter 16, as God dispatches seven angels to pour out seven bowls upon the earth. We’ll learn more about the bowls in Chapter 16, but for now let’s just say that it’s pretty nasty. This series of seven should remind you of two other similar series that we already considered: the seals of Chapter 6 and the trumpets of Chapter 8 and 9. The bowls are significantly different from the seals and the trumpets, but I’ll leave you in suspense about what the difference is. For now, I draw your attention to how John describes these plagues in v. 1: they are the last plagues which complete God’s wrath upon the wicked.

The vision begins with a description of what they look like from the perspective of heaven. This is an aspect of John’s vision that we’ve seen repeatedly, beginning in Chapter 4. His description of the events of heaven and earth are punctuated regularly with episodes from the throne room of heaven, as God sits encircled by the praise of the four living creatures, the twenty-four elders, and the angels and saints. Each episode reminds us of the first and most complete description, but each time we pick up a few changes in the details. For example, in Chapter 7 the redeemed were able to join in the praise because of the saving work of Christ. Here, we notice that the sea in front of the throne is now mixed with fire. Like other symbols, the sea represents a number of things. It is the view from the top of the waters over the earth (remember that from Genesis 1:6-8?). It is the heavenly version of the “sea” that stood in front of Solomon’s temple. It is the water of baptism that purifies us and enables us to gather in God’s presence without fault and with great joy. Now, the sea is mixed with fire. Again, we can understand this fire to be a number of things. It is the fire that purifies us (Malachi 3:2-4), so that we are able to stand in God’s presence. It is the fires of the trials which the martyrs have endured (sometimes literally). It is the fire of God’s wrath against his enemies.

But God’s wrath is not against everyone. Gathered around the sea are the people who were victorious over the foes on the earth: Satan and his agents. They are the martyrs who were under the altar in Chapter 6, the multitude wearing white robes and waving palm branches in Chapter 7, and the ones singing the unknowable song in Chapter 14. All of this is possible, of course, not because of their own strength and their own merits, but because of the redeeming work of Christ in their lives. Here, John describes them as the victors. Their victory over the beast and its associated image and number/name (Chapter 13) is not a military victory or one in which they “defeat” him (apart from their role in Christ’s conquest of him). They are victorious because they didn’t succumb to the temptations and the deceptions of Satan. Satan killed them, but all that did was bring them closer to God as they take their place in the circle around the throne. I’m reminded of a story that Tony Campollo tells about a Christian who is going to spread the gospel to a godless nation (I think it was in the days of communism). Someone tries to scare him out of his mission by saying, “They’ll take everything you have away from you,” to which the believer replies, “They can’t. I don’t own anything. It all belongs to God.” So the person tries again: “They’ll torture you,” and the Christian responds, “That’s fine. I’m told to rejoice in my suffering.” Finally, the person warns him by saying, “They’ll kill you.” At this the Christian explains, “If they kill me, that means I get to see Jesus face to face in glory.” So what can anyone do against people who don’t own anything, who are happy when they’re tortured, and who look forward to what will happen when they die? The beast can kill the believers, but that certainly doesn’t mean that he wins. We are victorious when we resist the demonic distractions and unmask the Satanic lies.

When John tells us that the victorious redeemed are standing at the side of the sea, he does more than merely describe their location in the throne room. He evokes the image of the Israelites standing on the shores of the Red Sea after they passed through, and the waters collapsed on Pharaoh’s army. It’s the joyful scene that Exodus 15 recounts, as Miriam leads the women in a song of praise and celebration at their escape from slavery and their journey into freedom. That’s the “song of Moses:” when God rescues us from the burdens and chains that we struggle under, just as the Israelites did in Egypt. It’s a song of anticipation and gratitude for the freedom of the Promised Land that we are entering. (Unfortunately for the Israelites, their doubts and fears meant that they had to take a forty-year detour, but that’s another story.) God gives them the harps that they need to worship God. So worship and praise they do!

This “song of Moses and of the Lamb” is a composite of many different parts of the Old Testament, especially the Psalms, which proclaim God’s goodness and greatness. It relies a lot on Deuteronomy 32 and of course on Exodus 15. There are two aspects of the song in particular to notice. First, it describes the wonderful acts of God, and his glory. But by now, we know what those acts are. This isn’t just touchy-feely stuff “He made rainbows and flowers and the warm summer rain.’ Sure, God does all of that that. But when you remember what just happened (the bloody harvest of the earth) and what’s coming next (the bowls which bring about utter destruction), God’s great and marvelous deeds are fierce and mighty. He is the God who saves his beloved by destroying the destroyers. Second, we see that people from all nations will come to join in the worship of God. That’s a reminder of the “people from every nation, tribe, people, and language” that we met in Chapter 8. God’s love is universal, and we are anticipating a worldwide worship of God. This is a dramatic change from the original “song of Moses,” which celebrated the destruction of Egypt so that Israel could be set free. There’s no more nationalism included in our worship of God. When we ask God to bless America, we should also be asking him to bless every other nation on the face of the earth.

Unfortunately, however, this doesn’t mean that every individual will be saved: what is typically called “universalism.” Everyone is eligible, and everyone is given a chance. People from everywhere will respond with faith. But others will reject God’s invitation and fight against him. That’s why God dispatches the angels from his tabernacle (or temple), carrying the bowls of destruction to be poured out on everyone who isn’t already standing by the sea. The angels are dressed like the priests of the Old Testament because they are acting on God’s behalf. We may wonder, by the way, if these are the same bowls that were used in Chapter 5:8 to scoop up our prayers. God’s wrath that is poured out upon the earth is his response to our calls for justice.

Revelation 14:14-20 – Sour Grapes

When people become members at our church, I emphasize one truth above every other Christian belief or principle: God loves us. Our entire relationship with God, and our entire existence, develops from this essential truth. God loves us. He always has. He always will. And nothing we can do can stop him from loving us. So what are we supposed to make of this passage? God dispatches an angel to slaughter the people of the earth as an expression of his wrath against them. Even Hollywood horror flicks and shoot ‘em up action movies don’t convey the level of carnage that we find in this passage: the blood flows deep and wide for miles and miles, like juice from a massive winepress. How can the God of love be the source of such angry vengeance?

This question would be impossible to answer if we looked at this particular passage completely on its own, without taking into account what’s brought us to this point. Taken out of context, this passage is a wonderfully gruesome example for people to use if they want to “put the fear of God” into you. Do what God wants, or you’ll have your own Nightmare on Elm Street! But, when we keep in mind the images that came earlier in John’s vision, it all makes sense. So let’s review briefly. Ever since Chapter 6, we’ve seen the devastation and calamity that is pervasive in our world. All of this suffering comes from many sources. At times it’s the result of our sinfully motivated actions. Our greed, pride, selfishness, willfulness, and ignorance damage creation, other people, and even ourselves. At other times, we suffer because of God’s discipline. If the “carrot” of his love doesn’t move us in the direction that he desires, sometimes he uses the “stick.” And the more we resist God’s discipline, the tougher it gets. As Hebrews tells us, no one likes to be disciplined, and while it’s happening it seems awful. But it’s for our own good, even when we can’t understand that it is. At still other times, however, we suffer because of the demonic forces at work on the earth, twisting and corrupting God’s good intentions toward their own ends. As Satan rails against God, he frequently directs his nastiness upon the people of God.

So what should a loving God do in a situation like this? Just sit back and wish the best for his people? That doesn’t sound like a God we can trust and rely upon. Good wishes will only get you so far. As Revelation portrays it, God does everything he can to save people from the suffering we endure. When we engage in activities that harm ourselves, releases us from their power through the redeeming work of Christ, and he sends his Holy Spirit to transform us. Do we stupidly resist his goodness to be at work in us? He coaxes us along, at first gently and then with more urgency and insistence. Are we under attack by his enemies? He wages war against them and he marks us with his seal of protection. What more could we ask a loving God to do for us than that? I suppose we could ask him to change the rules of logic or the way the world operates, so that we all have no choice but to do what is good for us and each other. Even if that were possible (and some philosophers of religion argue that it isn’t), I don’t feel like being turned into a robot who has not choice but to do God’s bidding. God doesn’t want Stepford wives in heaven.

By this time in Revelation, the people of the earth have all been identified as belonging to two different groups. The first group are the people of God, who have received his seal of protection. Chapter 7 gives us the best description of this, but we saw it again at the beginning of this chapter. The other group of people are the ones who follow the “beast,” a demonic presence at work on the world to oppose God. They also have the mark of the one they follow; we read about it first in Chapter 13 and again in the middle part of this chapter. Certain privileges come with the different marks, according to the power of the one who gives it. God’s seal opens the way to eternal blessedness, and the beast’s mark gives you the ability to buy and sell. This isn’t to say that economic activity is inherently demonic. But we’re all bracing ourselves for the swarms of people who will descend upon the G20 summit in Pittsburgh to protest the injustices and evils of world finance. Even if we abhor their practices, some of them will have a point. Every form of financial or economic system causes hardship and suffering for at least some people, even when the system operates with the best of intentions. But unfortunately, economics are often used as a way to push down some people while elevating others. If you don’t believe me, listen to the political arguments about taxes and entitlement programs. But I digress….

Eventually the time will come when God has to act definitively, once and for all. In his time and according to his infinite wisdom, he will recognize that there is no longer any point to hope for repentance and for more people to turn to him. Everyone will have picked their sides. God’s love for those who call upon him is utter and complete and without any qualification. And for those who have rejected him and refuse to change their ways? God takes no delight in attacking or destroying them. He has demonstrated his love by seeking for them to accept his blessings. But if he would just let them keep going along in their destructive patterns, he would watch them undermine and ruin all the good that he has planned. The European leaders of the 1930’s have been castigated for “appeasement:” be nice to the evil guy and maybe we can all get along. It just doesn’t work. So God rouses his powers to destroy evil and all associated with it.

And yes, God gets angry about it. That anger isn’t a contradiction of his loving nature, but flows directly from it. If you love someone, and you find out that someone is hurting the one you love, you’re going to furious with them. If you abuse one of my family members, I’m going to want to take a baseball bat to you. If your family, like mine, has fallen under the scourge of cancer, your reaction to that cancer will be fury. It’s an anger that comes from directly from your love. What kind of love would God have for us if, when he sees us under attack, he just smiles and says, “Here. Let me give you a hug.” His anger stirs him up to act to save and protect the ones he loves.

To understand this passage in Revelation, it’s good to recall the parable of the weeds (sometimes called the parable of the wheat and tares) of Matthew 13. Jesus tells the story of a farmer who plants his crop, but one night his enemy scatters weed seed across the field. As the plants start to grow, everyone sees that there are thistles among the corn. The field hands go up to the farmer and ask him if he wants them to pull out the weeds. The farmer tells them not to, because they might damage some of the corn in the process. He tells them to wait until harvest time, and they can sort out the good crop from the bad weeds then. The disciples asked Jesus to explain the story, so he told them that the corn stood for the people of God, and the weeds were the people who followed Satan. We’re all on this earth together. God allows the nasty folks to continue in their lives untouched because any attempt to get rid of them would also hurt the people he loves. Wait until the end, he says. That’s when good and evil will be sorted out from each other.

This passage tells the story of what happens when its finally time for the harvest. It begins with John seeing “one like a son of man” coming out with a sharp sickle to harvest the earth. There’s no doubt that the “son of man” is Jesus Christ. It’s time for harvest, so Jesus brings in the good crop. It’s like Mark 13:27, telling us how he will send the angels out to gather in the elect from the ends of the earth. Jesus begins by bringing his beloved people into his home. If you believe in the rapture, this the point where the believers are taken up in to heaven and the only ones left on the earth are the unrepentant: the thistles ready to be burned (as the parable puts it). I hate to break it to Kirk Cameron and the whole “Left Behind” trademark, but this only happens after the time for repentance has passed. God won’t take in the harvest until he’s sure that every last ear of corn is ready. I don’t get the sense that a lot of time passes until the weeds are also harvested for their own miserable doom.

A second harvest takes place as an angel is dispatched from heaven with a terrible sickle of his own. The popular image of the “Grim Reaper” comes from this angel. By the way, this passage is also the inspiration for the first verse of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It’s a nice piece of Northern propaganda to associate themselves with the harvest of the redeemed, while those horrid Southerners embody the evil of this second harvest. The Union army is an agent of God, bringing about the bloody harvest of God’s enemies. That’s an easy error for us to slip into: assuming that we are the holy people of God and our enemies are God’s enemies. History is full of people who acted in this self-deceptive attitude of righteousness. We can avoid the error if we remember the words of the farmer in the parable: don’t start pulling out the weeds until the very end. There may be some good corn in the midst of it. Don’t assume that you know better than God who is “weed” and who is “wheat.” Appearances deceive.

In John’s vision, the wicked are represented as grapes instead of the weeds of the parable. We shouldn’t let that switch derail us too easily. First, the harvest of grapes can appear much more like bloodshed than cutting down weeds; think of the dark red juice. Second, it helps us to associate this passage with ones like Isaiah 63 and Joel 3, which describe God crushing his enemies like grapes.

So does this mean that God is not loving? Not at all. In fact, the most loving thing God can do is eliminate the danger facing his beloved.

Revelation 14:6-13 – First Time’s a Charm

They say that good things come in threes. Apparently, so do some things that aren’t quite as good. This passage introduces us to three angels and the messages they bring to the world. As their proclamations go on, they get more and more ominous. So it would be great to respond to the first angel and not have to deal with messages of the second two!

These angels appear in John’s vision after he has described the demonic forces at work in the world and God’s glorious and powerful presence in the midst of it. The final conflict between these two forces is shaping up. The angels are like the sports commentators before the big game, telling us all what to expect. Except in this case, we’re not spectators sitting on the sidelines or in our living rooms; we’re out on the field and have some choices to make.

The first angel brings good news. After all, that’s literally what the word “gospel” means (“gospel” is a variant of the Old English “god spell,” or good tale or story. It’s an apt translation of the Greek “evangelion,” which means “good message”). The good news, or gospel, is available for everyone: all the peoples across the entire globe. That was a radical notion for John’s Jewish readers (or Christians with Jewish roots), because Judaism like many other ancient religions was national. Each nation had its own God. The Lord was the god of the Jews. If you weren’t a Jew, tough luck. It was a major change for the early church (which considered itself to be a form of Judaism) to recognize that its message wasn’t limited to any particular nationality but was for all people. This is still a relevant issue for us today, for two reasons. First, as Christians we need to break out of the parochialism of thinking that God’s family only includes people just like us. We sometimes confuse Christianity with our culture or our nationality. That was a big issue for missionaries of the 19th century to deal with, as they confused the gospel with their culture. As they shared the love of Jesus with people of other lands, they also tried to turn them into Europeans or Americans. And even today, we may be tempted to think of Christians from other cultural backgrounds as somehow not being, well, as “normal” of a Christian as we are. That’s one of the important aspects of mission work today: not only to share the love of God in places and to people who haven’t learned it yet, but to experience the trans-national aspect of our faith. We learn more about our faith when we see that it’s not confined to our version of it. There’s a second important aspect of the universal claim of the gospel: God’s love includes “them.” “They” are the people that really don’t deserve any consideration, the ones that we do our best to avoid. And when we actually do have to associate with them, we hold our nose and do our best not to sneer. Sometimes “they” include the monsters of the world: men who kidnap adolescent girls and hold them captive for 18 years, terrorists who devote their lives to killing as many innocent people as possible, and drug bosses who live large and flash lots of bling at the expense of lives ruined by cocaine, heroine, or crystal meth. How can the gospel be available for horrible people like that? At other times, “they” include people that we meet everyday, or that we avoid every day. It may be the loudmouthed and obnoxious co-worker, or the other student in our class who is just plain weird. It may be the neighbor with the junk in the yard and the loud parties night, or the people with different lifestyles or objectionable viewpoints. We want to believe that they have to become like us before the good news of the gospel applies to them. Not true, says the first angel. The message of Christ’s redeeming work is for everyone.

Of course, there’s more to the angel’s message than that. The gospel calls for us response from us. We normally consider our response to God’s message of love and redemption as the process of discipleship: opening our lives to the transforming work of the Spirit to turn us into the people that God wants us to be. It is, but the angel’s message focuses on a different aspect of the gospel call. It is a call to worship: to give glory to God. In a utilitarian, practically-oriented society like ours, worship almost seems like a waste of time. To understand this, think not only of the worship of God, but other celebrations that we have. There are plenty of them: birthday parties, holiday gatherings (like the ones we’ll have this weekend), and cheering for sports teams (like we’ll do Thursday night for the Steelers). These are things we enjoy and sometimes put a lot of effort into. But they are the icing on the cake of life. They are fun distractions from what really matters, from what life is all about. We have to get things done, even if what we’re accomplishing is something fun or enjoyable. We have to switch gears in our minds if we want to recognize the power of worship. Bringing glory to God isn’t something that pulls us away from the important things of life; it is the most important thing of all. We acknowledge his place in our lives and we recognize his majestic, sometimes frightening, power. This is the first and foremost call of God in our lives. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism reminds us, the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Unfortunately, however, not all of us listen to the invitation of the first angel. If we did, then things would be so much easier for us, and for the entire world. And even those of us who do fear God and worship him have our moments – or longer – when our devotion is weak and fades away. For those times and those people who ignore the first angel’s message, a second angel brings his proclamation. He predicts the doom of those who oppose God’s good work. If you’re not following God, you’re following something or someone else. So the second angel brings in the bad news of what happens to them. God is glorified, but “Babylon the Great” has fallen. So what or who is “Babylon the Great”? It’s obviously not the Babylonian Empire itself; it had collapsed centuries before John had his vision. However, Babylon continued to evoke the imagination of God’s people as a symbol or representative of those who are opposed to God. So in essence, the second angel’s message is something like this: “Alright, you’ve already heard the call to worship and serve God. If you don’t, then you’re in cahoots with God’s enemies. Those who aren’t with God are against God. And that other leader that you’ve chosen to follow is doomed.”

That still begs the question: what does “Babylon the Great” refer to? It’s an important question, because we meet it again in Chapter 17, a pivotal chapter that describes the evil and corruption of the world. One idea is that “Babylon” is a reference the Roman Empire. The association of Babylon with Rome is one that Peter made in his first letter (5:13), and it makes sense. Like the ancient Babylonian Empire, Rome is a pagan empire that oppresses the people of God and demands an abandonment of true religion. It’s an oppressive power. A second idea builds upon this first one. References to Babylon aren’t just secret code language for Rome, but refer to any human power that functions as Babylon did. We continue to encounter human institutions and forces that demand total allegiance and actively disrupt devotion to God. Take a moment and I’ll bet you can come up with a list of candidates for Babylon today. There’s a third option: “Babylon the Great” refers to the demonic forces at work in the world: the dragon, sea beast, and land beast. But that isn’t really a different option; just a different way of looking at the same one. As we saw in our examination of Chapter 13, Satan works through human social, political, cultural, economic, and military institutions. It is the human as it is influenced by the demonic. The second angel provides a warning. If you’re giving your allegiance to one of these other forces in your life, be prepared to watch it crumble before your eyes. Every mighty human empire that ever ruled over the world has faded away. Institutions that seemed impregnable are mere historical curiosities. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that the institutions or ideals that you’re following now will be any different.

The third angel pounds the final nail in the coffin. The first angel gives a positive call to worship and serve God. The second angel gives a warning: don’t follow or serve Babylon, whatever form it takes today. If you don’t accept the first angel’s invitation, and if you don’t heed the second angel’s warning, you’re left to deal with the doom that the third angel announces. If you’re following Babylon, it apparently means the same thing as worshiping the beast and receiving his mark. Those who receive the mark of the beast will face eternal torment. And John gets pretty gruesomely graphic in his description of that torment. Now, this leads to a serious conundrum. According to Revelation 13:15-16, you need the mark of the beast to buy or sell (this is part of what leads me to believe that the beast needs to be understood primarily as economics). But here, we read that if you have the mark of the beast, you go to eternal torment. On the one hand, that’s a pretty easy choice: do you want to go to heaven for all eternity, or be able to shop at Wal-Mart this afternoon? On the other hand, it is a tough decision. If you can’t buy or sell, how are you going to survive? Life is tough when you live a in a world dominated by demonic powers, and you give your allegiance to God.

And that’s exactly what John tells us. As he puts it, “this calls for patient endurance.” Or, you need to have a long-term perspective. Put up with today’s struggles, as hard as they may be. Don’t give up, or you’ll regret it. There’s blessing waiting for those who hang on to God until the end of their lives.