Reading for November 19th

Read Revelation 17.1-8
In verses 1-18 is the vision of the woman in purple.
Once again the story moves from summary to detailed narrative, as the destruction of Babylon is acted out.
The mention of the seven angels consciously connects this scene with the previous one (chs 15-16).
The great whore is a new character, but strongly reminiscent of the prophetic charge against God's people: Isa 1.21; Jer 3.1-9; Ezek and throughout Hosea.
At the end of the scene John will explicitly identify her with the great city (Jerusalem at 11.8) that rules over the kings of the earth, which can only mean Rome.
This is also the power of the name Babylon- the city that, like Rome destroyed Jerusalem.
Nevertheless, the violence of the beast against the whore (v.16) is strongly suggestive of the destruction of Jerusalem in the Jewish-Roman war (with imagery drawn from Ezek 16.36-42).
All who sleep with the beast will be devoured.
In verse 3 in the spirit is John's way of signaling the spiritual nature of the vision, see 1.10, 4.2, and 20.10.
The beast was introduced in ch 13.
In verse 4 the purple, scarlet, and gold mark the woman as senatorial class, for only they could wear these colors.
In verse 5 Jeremiah saw Babylon as a golden cup in God's hand, making nations drunk 951.7-8)
Forehead (see 13.16).
In verse 6 being drunk with blood echoes the third bowl, 16.6.
In verse 8 the beast who was , and is not and is to come is often understood with reference to the ancient myth of the return of Nero, but that myth did not involve Nero's death.
Another possibility is that while present Roman government might not seem so bad, both its past (the death of Jesus) and its future (the final battle) show its beastly or demonic underpinnings.
The description satirizes the description of Jesus at 1.17-18.
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Reading for November 18th

Read Revelation 16. 12-21
In verse 12 the Euphrates is marked the eastern border of the Roman empire, beyond which lay Rome's powerful enemy the Parthians.
In verses 15-16 Harmagedon (Hebrew for Mount Magedon) by contrast is not a place on any map; efforts to identify it with Megiddo in Palestine fail because Megiddo is a plain, not a mountain.
This is a spiritual war, as the reference to coming like a thief indicates.
In verse 17 it is done; the forces of evil are defeated but no battle is ever shown.
The saying is reminiscent of Jesus' cry on the cross in John's Gospel: it is finished (Jn 19.30).
Both rest on the conviction that the death of Jesus is the victory over evil.
Traditional signs of divine presence follow (4.5).
In verse 19 the great city is primarily Rome (17.8) but can also be Jerusalem (11.8).
In verse 21 the hundred-pound hailstones are meant to seem impossibly large, even as the other disasters here are of unimaginable proportions.
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Reading for November 17th

Read Revelation 16.1-11
In verses 1-21 is the pouring out.
The effects of of the seven bowls mirror those of the seven trumpets-earth, sea, rivers, sun, abyss/throne of the beast, Euphrates River- only now the destruction seems to be complete (15.3 and 8.9).
In verse 6 it is what they deserved indicates a kind of intrinsic divine justice, evil suffers the inevitable consequences of its actions
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Reading for November 16th

Read Revelation 15. 5-8
In verse 6 the plagues are another reference to the Exodus tradition.
The scene in the temple recalls Isa 6.
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Reading for November 15th

Read Revelation 15.1-4
The Acts of Judgement
In 15.1-16.21 the brief symbolic announcements of judgments now open out into a detailed, sequential portrayal.
In 15. 1-8 the preparation.
This is the third portent, see 12.1,3.
these are the last plagues not because they end the story but because they represent the final outcome of the story.
The sea is the same as in the worship scene, 4.6.
In verse 2 those who had conquered are the 144, 000 or 14.1 and those under the altar of 6.9, who conquered by the death of Christ and by their own deaths (12.11).
In verse 3 the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb is a composite of the Exodus song (Ex 15; Duet 32) with Ps 111.2; 86.8-9; and Jer 10.6-7, 16.19.
The community is committed to both Moses and Jesus (12.17; 14.2).
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Reading for November 14th

Read Revelation 14.14-20
In verse 14 the white cloud is the traditional apocalyptic symbol of the final for judgement (Dan 7.13; Mk 13.26).
For the son of man see 1.13.
In verses 15-18 the harvest is both a traditional symbol for judgment and a metaphor of consequences: the grapes are ripe (Joel 3.13; rev 16.6).
The angel with authority over fire recalls 8.3-5, also a judgment scene.
In 19-20 the wine press is a traditional image of God's wrath (Isa 63.1-4) but here it is trodden outside the city- a place of rejection (1 Kings 21.13) but also connected with the place of the death of Jesus (Heb 13.11-12).
Two hundred miles literally 1, 600 stadia, the 1, 600 being symbolic of the earth (4x4) and wholeness (10x10); thus the whole earth.
Connected as it is with grain and grape- bread and wine- the allusion here is to he blood of Christ that covers the whole earth in the Eucharist.
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Reading for November 13th

Read Revelation 14.6-13
In verses 6-20 is the announcement of the end.
For angel see 2.1.
The eternal gospel is the central message of Revelation, the proper worship of God.
In verse 8 Babylon was the first destroyer of Jerusalem, even as Rome was second (2 Kings 24; Isa 21.9).
In verse 9 for the mark on their foreheads, 13.16.
In verse 10 the wine of God's wrath here launches a series of bitter, violent images of questionable morality if viewed as something separate from the choice to worship the beast.
In verse 11 there is not rest implies that this is the present experience, v. 13, those who die in the Lord will rest.
In verse 12 the call for endurance shows that the real purpose of this section is to admonish the faithful to resistance.
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