Revelation Bible Study 10
November 26, 2023
I’ll admit that teaching Revelation has been hard. We could look at every detail and thereby spend weeks and weeks and weeks dissecting it. I have tried to stick to some of the main themes and images within Revelation and leave it up to the students to do more research via some of the resources I mentioned early on in the class if they are interested in pursuing it. This lesson will, in particular, look at the two stories involving women, first the woman in chapter 12 and then the woman of chapters 17 and 18. I don’t know if it was intentional or not but comparing these two women sounds a lot like the contrasting women in the book of Proverbs - lady wisdom who leads to life and the foolish, enticing woman that leads to death.
We will look at chapters 19-22 during the next three Sundays. It is most appropriate to look at these final chapters during Advent as Advent is not just about the coming of the Christ Child but it is also about preparation for the final coming of Jesus as Lord of Lords, establishing a new heaven and a new earth.
We started out this morning with a look at the Tower of Babel Story in Genesis 8:
Genesis 11:1-9 (NRSV) Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the LORD said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
There is a tradition that links the building of cities with evil and the consequences of humankind choosing their own way instead of trusting in God. It is with Cain that we get the sense of the building of “city” because of reference to the making of tools (see 4:22). Some Bibles will have a section heading at verse 17 of chapter 4 entitled “the beginning of civilization.” Anyway, this city grows and becomes more and more evil (this is deduced from the reading as we look in on Cain’s descendant Lamech (4:18-24) and the deduction that Babel (same as Babylon) seems to be “the” one and only city up to the time of the Tower of Babel).
We watched a video on “The City” put out by the BibleProject. (click on “The City” if you want to watch it) that deals with this theme that runs throughout the Bible.
It is important to keep this theme in mind as we go throughout the Bible but especially as we get to Revelation. Much of Revelation is about judgment against the sinful city, the seat of empire. In this case it is Rome (called Babylon in Revelation) but it is representative of all the anti-God empires that have cycled throughout history . There is a tension, even a battle, between the City of anti-God versus the City of God. Another way of saying it would be tension between the anti-God Empire and the Kingdom of God. This will finally be resolved in Revelation when the City of anti-God will be destroyed and the City of God will be established in its fulness forever.
When we looked at the Tower of Babel in particular we watch a tower being built. It is actually a ziggurat which is a tower whose purpose is to support a set of stairs reaching into the skies. At that time (in ancient cultures) the stairs were built, not so humans could climb up into the presence of the gods but so the gods could come down to earth. It was an endeavor to control the gods. In this case the residents of Babel want to control God through this invitation for God to come down to them. God will have none of it and God scatters the people. God will come down when and how God wants to come down such as via the temple in Jerusalem and in Jesus and in the New Heaven and New Earth in Revelation.
This is necessary background insight to help us understand what is going on in Revelation.
We moved on by picking up what we ended with last week - the woman and the dragon in chapter 12. Some insights:
last week we ended by reading chapter 12 and saw how the story of the woman sounds a lot like the story of Jesus and most likely is. Satan, through Herod, tries to destroy the baby Jesus and fails. Then again, through the Jewish leaders and Rome but God rescues Jesus via the resurrection and is brought back to God’s throne in the ascension.
the woman could be the individual Mary, Jesus’ mother, but also could represent the nation of Israel out of which comes the Messiah
in Revelation and in apocalyptic writings elsewhere whenever we see mention of a beast we are more than likely being told about a nation and whenever we see reference to a dragon we are to think of the Satan.
in verses 12+ we read of Satan being defeated in God’s heavenly realm. He is thrown down to earth and now in Revelation we will see him being defeated once and for all.
The dragon and the two beasts are the anti-trinity or the unholy trinity, in comparison to the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
the two beasts are two dimensions of the Roman Empire. The first beast represents Rome’s military might and the second beast represents emperor or empire worship.
The dragon (Satan) is working against God’s plan by using Rome to draw people away from attention to and worship of the one, true God.
We then moved to the woman of chapter 17. The goddess of Rome was Roma and it can be fairly certain that this is who is being referred to especially when we see in 17:9 that she sits on seven hills or mountains. The city of Rome was known for it’s placement on seven hills. Some points of discussion:
the term Babylon is being used. For that day, for the first recipients of the Revelation, Babylon refers to the Roman Empire. From the days of Babel, as referred to above, all of the anti-God empires are given the name of Babylon. This even included Israel at one point when the prophets give the name of Babylon to Israel because of its infidelity to God, its love for power and riches, and its unjust treatment of people.
This woman is dressed in rich and extravagant apparel. This is how Rome saw itself - rich and beautiful and grand. But God shows this woman as she really is - a drunken whore full of decadence and evil.
Fornication between the nations and the whore may involve a sexual dimension but more importantly it stands for unfaithfulness to the one, true God. This imagery is used a lot in the Old Testament by the prophets as they accuse Israel of connecting to false gods, thereby being unfaithful to the one, true God.
Another beast is mentioned. Again this has to do with nations. The whore and the beast will declare war on the Lamb but the Lamb will prevail. The beast will eventually turn on the Great Whore and will devour her.
all of this alludes to the eventuality of Rome’s defeat and demise. The great, opulent, powerful Rome will be judged and destroyed just like all of the other evil empires before and after until finally God’s kingdom will prevail entirely.
In chapter 18 in particular we read about the dependency of nations on Rome and what happens to these nations who have been in bed with Rome when Rome (Babylon) falls.
It is interesting that almost the same language is used in judgment against Tyre found in Isaiah and Ezekiel (see Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 27, 28). Tyre was on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and was a rich nation because of its prominence in the shipping and trade of its day. Just like here in chapter 18 we read of the despair of the nations who have been dependent on Tyre as they watch Tyre being destroyed.
We are reminded again that Revelation is written to the Church to comfort them in knowing that their prayers for justice will be answered and that the evil Empire that is bringing discomfort, even death, to them will be destroyed. This also encourages the Church that no matter how hard it is at the present moment to hang in there because the are on the true, the right, the winning side.
ASSIGNMENT: Read chapters 19-22 where we read about the beginning of the new beginning. This will be our discussion for the next 3 weeks along with a final review of Revelation.