Tuesday, May 22, 2006

Good Morning    

 

For Brad and Ray, here is the Beijing weather report: 

 

Current  Temp:  (at 7P local time)     75 degrees and fair

Tonight:    Clear this evening then becoming mostly cloudy after midnight. Low around 65F.  Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.  Showers expected at the end of the week and into the weekend.  

Today's Reading:    Revelation 12:13-17  Barclay 95 - 98 "The Attack of the Dragon"

-- this section ends Chapter 12.  If I were to paraphrase what I think it means, it would go something like this, which is somewhat simpler.

-- John sees seen in the sky, a giant pagent, a playing out of the history of mankind.  He sees a woman, who represents Mary, who is with child, and he sees a dragon, that represents Satan.  Satan comes to destroy the child after it is born, but he is unable to, and eventually Christ is brought up to heaven. After the child is born, Mary flees and is protected by God. 

-- The attempt on the life of Christ by the dragon/Satan initiates war in Heaven -- and Michael and his angels defeat Satan, and they throw them out of Heaven down to earth (not to Hell), and once on earth, he seeks to attack Mary again -- but she is safe in her hiding place that God has prepared.  Satan tries to drown Mary, but the very earth opens up and swallows up the deluge sent by Satan.  After being frustrated in his attempt to kill Mary, Satan moves on the rest of the family, the church, to make war with the believers on earth.

-- In my view, that interpretation helps us understand Chapter 12 -- it is a sort of a flashback chapter that catches us up with the backstory of one of characters, so that we can understand the rest of the story moving forward.  So, like watching a movie, at the beginning of Chapter 12, the screen dissolves to a flashback and get the story of Satan, how he got here, etc., and then dissolves back to the present time of the story with Satan standing on the sea shore, just after the seventh trumpet has sounded, and we are ready to pickup the rest of the story, which we get in Chapter 13.

-- Now, the problems with my interpretation -- Barclay says that the woman in the scripture is not a particular woman, but is instead symbolic of the community of God, the people of God, from whom Christ came.  Perhaps -- and I'm no theologian -- but to me some of the other elements don't make sense to me in that construction -- for instance, John makes reference to community of believers at the end of the chapter, when he notes that the dragon made war on her family.  I don't know if John would use the woman to be symbolic of the family of God, and then reference that family as family later in the same passage.  Also, another problem with my interpretation is the idea of the dragon hurling water at the woman to kill her -- there isn't any story about Mary being threatened by drowning -- but maybe that story wasn't told.

-- there is the question, in my timeline/interpretation, about Satan being tossed to earth after the birth of Christ -- but Satan, as an angel, could come to earth prior to being tossed out of heaven -- just like any number of angels did during Christ's life -- the angel that spoke to Mary and told her that she was having a child, the angelic choir the shepard's heard, the angel that appeared to Joseph after Jesus's birth and told him to flee to Egypt to protect Christ from Herod, the angels that attended to Jesus after being in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by Satan, the angels that appeared at the tomb.  I think that the war in heaven took away Satan's home - he was no longer allowed to travel back and worth from heaven to earth.

-- so there is my take on Chapter 12 -- a much more literal reading of the chapter than Barclay has, but we'll see how it holds together as we move into Chapter 13.

Today's Scripture   

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves.

 

Romans 8:10

Today's prayer requests:     John Fillebaum's friend and co-worker.

 

John's friend who was in hospital has been released, but doesn't start work until next week.  Need to remember her as she works to get well enough to return to work.

 

Today's class member prayer:

 Brandon Herring     

Jay