Hopefully you noticed that we had chapter 16 down twice.
Great Babylon, Mother of Whores and abominations of the earth. Woman was drunk on the blood of God's holy people, drunk on the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
Physical and spiritual affections have gone astray. Whore represents this image, slanted more toward the spiritual. John has nothing to say about sexual immorality. He's talking all spiritual. His pastoral responsibility is to prevent Christians from abandoning the arduous life of worship in favor of something that appears just as spiritual but looks a lot better and easier. He uses the image of the Great Whore to open their eyes to the differences between the worship of the Lamb and this other worship, which isn't worship at all but keeps us from true worship. Throughout biblical history, worship has always been vulnerable to infidelity. We so quickly go after other gods. We're so easily seduced into idolatry of one kind or another. And that's as much a temptation today as it was back then.
Doom to the city of darkness. Angel floods the earth with brightness.
Interesting read in the shadows of the 2008 economic meltdown.
Great whore is contrast to virgin bride. Judgment is prayed for...passionately. First time hallelujah shows up in Revelation. It protects our gratitude and relief for judgment from degenerating into gloating over the judged. Four hallelujahs snap us out of the temptation to gloat and bring us back to worship, where we are humble and adoring in the presence of God's glory. Hallelujah 1 celebrates the truth and righteousness of God's judgments of the Great Whore-every temptation to abandon God, every trap to betray Christ, every ambush to our endurance, every seduction to our faith. 2 hallelujah: breathed gratitude as the billowing smoke of the whore's incineration disperses in the air. 3rd hallelujah: Amen, Yes, by 24 elders and four creatures gathered around the throne. 4th hallelujah: thundering congregational response to the call to worship that's issued from the throne and called everyone to praise God. It announces the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb. All of human history leads to this crescendo in heaven. All of our history leads there.
The sound of hallelujahs.
White horse and its rider. Faithful and true. Judges and makes war in pure righteousness. Word of God. King of Kings, Lord of Lords. The birds are invited in to feast on the flesh of the kings and captains, champions, horses and riders. The Beast and the False Prophet were thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone. The rest were killed by the sword of the one on the horse, the sword that comes from his mouth. Significance of mouth-listen?
John's salvation vision is a meal and a war. The power of the eucharistic meal is to keep us involved in the essentials of salvation, that our salvation was made available to us by the breaking of Christ's body and the shedding of his blood. The second element is war. The image of Bridegroom married to his Bride is expanded into the Lamb Christ providing himself as the Eucharistic meal. Paradox with the warrior Christ riding into the great war, Armageddon. Salvation as a marriage feast, and as an aggressive battle and decisive defeat of evil. Salvation is neither by itself; it is both the embrace of love and the assault on evil, in polar tension, each defined by the other, each feeding on each other. Both poles must be kept in tension to keep our spiritual lives balanced. If marriage isn't balanced with war, we may be romanticizing the spiritual life. If the war metaphor isn't balanced with the marriage metaphor, we're in danger of depersonalizing the spiritual life. We're a bride embroiled in a battle against the enemies of her beloved groom. Both images are necessary for balance.
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