We’ve got our last installment of revisiting the end this week! We’ll do a bit of a recap of what we’ve gone over so far which will hopefully provide the opportunity for you to make some connections that might not have been obvious by going through it over the course of a few weeks. It should also make it a little easier to put together a complete picture of what John’s vision actually represented. At the end, we’ll cover what I haven’t been able to completely figure out in terms of if portions of the end of John's vision have been fulfilled already.
As you may have figured out through your own studies of Revelation, there are many different ways you can go through it. You can go from beginning to end, you can pick key characters and connect their actions and descriptions, you can focus on each of the three sevens (seals, trumpets, bowls) individually, etc. In an effort to make it easier to follow and connect with John’s writing, we’re going to go through sequentially, from beginning to end, summarizing the key points we’ve covered over the weeks. It’s important not to lose sight of the “foundational rocks” talked about the very first week of our study though, so as we come across those, the parts that we can use to sort of "cement in" what the things of Revelation represent, we’ll make sure to note them.
Revelation starts with an address and a background of what the book was all about. From this, and by including a couple other details, we already start with a foundational rock: John had his vision and wrote this book prior to 70AD. The seven churches are given specific messages (Revelation 2-3), including warnings about things that would happen to them soon (Revelation 1:1, 2:10, 13, 16, 22, 25, 3:10-11), and John himself wrote that Yeshua would come at a time when those who crucified him were still alive (Revelation 1:7). Why would they be given these warnings, even this whole prophetic book, if they would be unaffected by their fulfillment. These churches no longer exist today, and after the events of 70AD there were none as devastating while those churches existed. A potential future fulfillment just doesn’t make sense. In order to come to that interpretation, you have to start with the assumption that John’s book covers events that have not yet occurred rather than letting the text speak for itself.
Something else we went over, that had a key point in the letter to Philadelphia (Revelation 3:10), is what the word “earth” means in the New Testament, but especially in Revelation. The Greek word translated to earth is ges, and while it can be used to refer to the earth as a whole, many times in scripture it means an area of land, and sometimes specifically the land of Israel. We can see this distinction clearly in the letter to the church of Philadelphia since the idea of the inhabited world and the idea of a portion of land was written into the same verse. The “hour of trial” was something that occurred to the Roman Empire as a whole, as the entire empire went into turmoil and civil war at the same time as the Jewish revolt, and for this John used the word oikoumene. In contrast, he used the word ges when referring to the testing that would occur to those living in the land of Israel as a result of the Roman response to the revolt. When you see the word “earth” in Revelation, in particular, it’s worth taking a moment to think about whether it’s referring to the whole world or just the land of Israel.
John continued Revelation by describing his trip to heaven in spirit, starting with the awe-inspiring things he saw when he got there (Revelation 4). While we didn’t really get into this chapter during our revisit, it’s probably a good time to remind ourselves of another topic we did look into. John mentions specifically that how he viewed these events in heaven was “in spirit,” and as we saw during our revisit, there are clearly two different aspects of certain major events we will experience: a spiritual one and a physical one.
Not only did we find out that we experience spiritual death and physical death, as well as a spiritual resurrection and a physical one, this theme of spiritual and physical is key to understanding the imagery in Revelation. John saw everything in spirit, so he was able to view what was to occur from that spiritual side. However, everything that occurs on the spiritual side affects the physical side. You have probably experienced this at some point when you felt tired physically as a result of either fighting spiritually against evil or being spiritually depressed for one reason or another.
Again, we did not cover this during our revisit, but we can see this spiritual versus physical comparison in the next chapter of John’s book (Revelation 5). John is moved to tears because it seems there is no one in all of creation worthy enough to open a scroll or look inside it. Then, we come to find out that there is this crazy looking Lamb in heaven and He is the only one able to do it. He had seven horns and seven eyes and looked like He had been killed. It must have been a sight to see! Obviously, this is the spiritual representation of our Savior Yeshua, our Passover Lamb sacrificed on the cross to atone for the sins of all mankind. However, He clearly did not look like the physical form John would have been well acquainted with, since he was the disciple whom Yeshua loved (John 13:23).
With that backdrop, we can continue with the rest of what we learned during our revisit. We found out that there was a Jewish writer by the name of Josephus that was intimately involved in the Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire which occurred from about 66AD to about 73AD. He wrote a detailed account of what occurred, and many of the events line up with what could be considered a physical fulfillment of what John saw spiritually.
Josephus recorded examples of Jews in the land of Israel killing those who didn’t go along with the revolt (Revelation 6:4). He also recorded cities and towns across the land running out of essential supplies, which would have driven prices for those things up (Revelation 6:6). As the Roman Empire came to each city, he recorded many of the leaders in the cities and towns running to caves and mountains to escape their imminent destruction (Revelation 6:15). Some even recognized many of the events as judgments from YHWH (Revelation 6:16-17).
In this same chapter, John records seeing the martyrs under the altar. As we looked into it, we determined that this is likely a symbolic event that helps us figure out the purpose of all the things John saw and will see. It’s a judgment on all those who rejected Yeshua and subsequently sought to destroy all His followers. It wasn’t necessarily intended to represent the actual martyrs being alive and speaking and then being told to “rest a little while.”
We didn’t really cover anything in the next chapter (Revelation 7), but we did touch on the fact that the seals and marks mentioned in this book are likely spiritual rather than actual physical marks on a person (Revelation 7:3). The seals and marks are used to identify those following YHWH and those following Satan (Revelation 13:16-17). It’s not that they are physically marked, but by their actions and their thoughts they are marked spiritually. It’s the same way as when Ezekiel saw that spiritual marks were given to spare certain individuals from destruction (Ezekiel 9).
The next events we come to in Revelation are quite dramatic as it transitions from the seals to the first few trumpets (Revelation 8). Some of these things were clearly spiritual, but they include a description of what parts looked like in the physical. As we go through the chronology of events in Josephus’ record, we find that initially, there was an attempt by the local governor to restore order amongst the Jewish towns and cities. This individual, Cestius Gallus, made it all the way to Jerusalem and even into the city, but for some reason became too frightened to finish the work. He took his army contingent and left, creating a reprieve, or silence (Revelation 8:1), in the capital city of Jerusalem. It was after this withdrawal that Nero sent Vespasian and an even larger portion of the Roman army to subdue the Jewish revolt.
Josephus even recorded a storm so violent the Jews identified it as a sign from YHWH (Revelation 8:5). As the Roman army progressed across the land, they used catapults and fire to destroy towns and cities, killing tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Jews (Revelation 8:7). They burned up country-sides and followed and destroyed Jews that were trying to escape across seas (Revelation 8:7-9). The Jews fractured into three groups: those who desired not to fight and stayed loyal to Rome, those who wanted judgment against Rome for what they had done, and those who were so violent and destructive they fought against the Romans as well as the Jews that wished to stay loyal to Rome. Many of the former third of the Jews were murdered by their own people throughout the revolt (Revelation 8:12).
Something else to note here, which we haven’t covered previously, is that the “star” that landed on the third of rivers and springs was called Wormwood (Revelation 8:10-11). When you look throughout scripture you see a connection that wormwood is not only connected with judgment (Amos 5:7), but more specifically that it’s connected with judgment as related to adultery (Proverbs 5), and turning away from YHWH (Deuteronomy 29:18). This is exactly what the non-believing Jews did that rejected Yeshua, and as a result, wormwood is being associated here with their judgment.
The next thing we went through was the representation of the two witnesses, which we found were likely Ananus and Jesus, two of the high priests who were trying to stop the seditious and otherwise rebellious Jews (Revelation 11:3-4). They were in Jerusalem, the city where Yeshua was crucified (Revelation 11:8), trying to bring peace and unity to the Jews there and convince them to stop the rebellion or there would be destruction. They were subsequently murdered by the seditious Jews.
We also covered the woman that gave birth, the dragon, and the woman’s children (Revelation 12). The connection with Joseph’s dream (Genesis 37:9-11) showed us that this woman represents Israel still loyal to YHWH. This led us to understand that her children must represent followers of Yeshua. They were persecuted by people influenced by Satan (Revelation 12:17).
The dragon is clearly Satan (Revelation 12:9), and he then goes on to give power to the sea beast, which we identified as the Roman Empire, starting at the point where it transitioned from republic to empire (Revelation 13:2). That is another foundational rock. It waged war on believers, persecuting them, with the worst of this being under the reign of Nero (Revelation 13:7), and its heads and the beast itself represented the emperors that reigned until Vespasian/Vitellius. At this point, it transitioned to the beast coming out of the earth (Revelation 13:11-12). Vespasian brought the empire to its former glory, going to great lengths to propagandize it and cause people to once again wonder at its power (Revelation 13:8, 15).
We went through some of the events of the bowls, which align with many of the events Josephus recorded (Revelation 16:3, 8, 19). We also noted how the weight and color of the stones thrown by the Roman catapults were identical to the hailstones described by John (Revelation 16:21). Another thing to note that we didn’t cover yet is the location where the kings assembled (Revelation 16:16). Dr. Michael Heiser provided a good explanation of this location, and it’s actually transliterated to Greek from Hebrew. While it’s combined in Greek, the Hebrew location uses two words and it is found in Isaiah (Isaiah 14:13). It is the Mount of Assembly, and this is referring to Jerusalem and the temple, exactly where the final judgment for Jewish rebellion against YHWH occurred.
The last couple things we covered were the woman on the beast (Revelation 17) and the thousand years (Revelation 20). While I lean towards the woman, who is mystery Babylon, being Jerusalem, there is also the possibility of her being Rome. Either way, however, the judgment on both of these cities occurred during the events around 70AD when the Roman Empire was thrown into civil war and much of Rome was destroyed and when Jerusalem and the temple were utterly devastated. Her garments are strikingly similar to those worn by the high priests, but the garments of the Babylonian priests (whose priesthood continued even during the Roman Empire, in case you were wondering) also line up with the harlot’s garments.
We started this revisit with a look at the thousand year reign, finding out that the number is meant to represent a number of completion and not specifically 1,000 years. We also saw that the events described are associated with a spiritual resurrection and reigning based on the power over evil given to us by Yeshua due to our belief in Him. We look forward, in anticipation, to the physical resurrection, which Paul spoke of many times in his writings, along with the final defeat of death, which has to be a still future event as we look at the writings of all the apostles and can’t find a spiritual or physical event that has fulfilled this.
I know this was a slightly longer one this week, but I hope the review and summary can help put together the pieces of the puzzle we looked at over the course of this revisit. While I certainly don’t have an extremely clear picture of what the future holds and if the remainder of Revelation (from Revelation 20:7 on) is the prophecy for it, I am convinced, through my studies, that we don’t have to worry about any seals, trumpets or bowls. We, as Christians, need to take ahold of the power given to us by Yeshua and work His will in this world, but we can’t do that if we’re hiding out in anticipation of a rapture or the events of a world devastating judgment. As the Holy Spirit what your place is in His will and what you should do to get yourself to that place. If we don’t come out of our shell and take an active role to do His will in this world, we’re wasting the time we’ve been given to reign with Yeshua.
Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!
-Rob and Sara Gene
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