https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=awI_w11Q5nw
Let’s begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. All right, gonna get through chapters 11 and 12 today, but before we get to that Dr. Mislin really got me thinking last week with his question about the use of pharmacia, those things from Revelation 921 that the people of the world didn’t repent of and he had kind of suggested psychedelics and I talked to a friend of mine who’s a classics major and studies Greek says that the word pharmacia could include that and there’s new evidence suggesting that a part of the Greek mystery religions would have include some kind of a psychedelic concoction that would cause a psychedelic experience. So apparently St. John says we’re not supposed to do that so in case any of you were tempted. Oh that puts a lot of things into perspective. All right, just to relocate ourselves, we’re still in the seven trumpets. So we’ve got these three cycles, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls and in between the seven trumpets we’re gonna have kind of this talking about these different figures and we’ll get there after we get through the seventh trumpets. Just let you know we’re still there, we’re still waiting on that seventh trumpet to blow. So all right, Revelation chapter 11. This is immediately after John has been recommissioned by the angel to continue his prophetic ministry. Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and I was told come and measure the temple of God and the altar and count those who are worshiping in it but exclude the outer court of the temple. Do not measure it for it has been handed over to the Gentiles who will trample the Holy City for 42 months. So there’s this very long section in the book of the prophet Ezekiel where he has been commanded to measure the temple. The interesting thing about the prophet Ezekiel is at that time the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed, but completely wiped out by Nebuchadnezzar and he was doing all of his prophecies in exile from the land of Babylon and so obviously this measurement of the temple that’s happening to him in a vision is supposed to be a prophetic word about this new temple that is supposed to be coming forward. So in John’s time, you know we look at John’s time and we don’t know exactly when he would have written this. If he’s writing it in the kind of the late 60s AD then the temple in Jerusalem is about to be destroyed, something that Jesus prophesied and if he’s writing after the temple has been destroyed well the temple is gone already right. So we’re obviously you know in this vision he’s obviously not in the temple in Jerusalem measuring it and you know we can recall all this action in the book of Revelation that’s happening in the heavenly temple right. This worship is going on continuously kind of in the background and so this is kind of a prophecy about God’s temple which is now the church right. Jesus says in John’s gospel, you will not worship on this mountain or in the temple but you will worship in spirit and in truth and then in the book of the prophet Malachi it says, from the rising of the sun to the setting a pure sacrifice will be offered in my name. So this is you know the church is the fulfillment of the temple and so what are the three parts of the church? Anybody remember this? I’m sorry I’m talking about the church universal not the not the church building. We use the same word for both so that could be that could be confusing. What’s in between two? Church suffering. Church suffering right so this idea that you know Christ is the head of the whole church right not the Pope. Christ is the head. Pope’s just the vicar on earth here and you know the church the church in heaven is still a part of the church. There’s still members of this church and the church of purgatory is still members of the church. They’ve made it so what a lot of what this this outer court is is those places that haven’t been fully brought into the church triumphant right and God’s kingdom is always is always coming right it’s still still being built it’s still being built up in this period of time that we have so yeah the temple the temple of God and our time is still under construction and we’re kind of in that outer court of the temple right we haven’t entered into the holy of Holies we haven’t entered into the kingdom in all its glory yet we’re still in that outer temple and it has been handed over to the Gentiles who will trample the holy city for 42 months if we’ve got a new Israel right a new Israel that’s being formed out of Jewish and Gentile converts then the word Gentile here has a different kind of connotation it’s not talking about what I imagine is probably most if not all of us who’ve not come with from Jewish ancestry but it’s talking about those you know the Gentiles are now those who do not accept Christ who do not follow the Lamb 42 months so three and a half years 42 months 1260 days if you’re doing 30 day months which is which is what I believe how their calendars worked at that time this is from this point on going to come up over and over again and it’s going to be referenced in these different ways you’ll have three and a half years it’ll say it’ll say a year two years and half a year or it’ll say 42 months it’ll say 1260 days and so this comes to us from the book of the Maccabees right and if you remember the book of the Maccabees the it starts off with Alexander the Great conquering his huge towns it’s just huge territories including the land of Israel and then when he dies it gets handed over to his generals who kind of divide up his empire among them and in 167 BC Antiochus the fourth Epiphanus decided that he was going to make one religious observance for his whole territory which included Palestine and I think you know most people probably went along with it right because they weren’t that picky but he messed with God’s chosen people and God’s chosen people had really learned this message during the exiles that we’re not going to have any idols whatsoever and so when he goes to try and suppress their Jewish observances there’s this huge revolt right and it’s like it’s like one of the most encouraging books of the Bible to read because it’s actually successful right usually you’re reading the books of the Bible and and he was worse than his father’s and did more and more sins you know and this one it’s like Judas Maccabeus and his brothers were just righteous and holy and they were able to fight this back at this period of time where the where the the temple had been desolate and handed over to evil religions was three and a half years and Daniel’s prophecies relate to this time and so and so it got really linked into their minds this three and a half years is is this time of persecution is this time of tribulation of trial it’s also you know kind of half of seven three and a half so it’s like it’s like you’re taking this wholeness and you’re breaking it apart you know this fullness it’s not whole anymore you’re you’re you’re shattering things around and you know various commentators have looked at these three and a half years that the the outer courts going to be trampled at is that the lifetime of the whole church or is that like a span of time just in that final tribulation and again it can kind of be both there’s no reason why it couldn’t be both right that this you know the whole history of the church has been this struggle against evil of this trying to just give this witness coming from within coming from without persecutions all sorts of things that’s the life of every Christian is picking up your cross and following after Jesus giving witness the same way he did and so again it doesn’t it doesn’t really matter so much to try and nail everything down perfectly into one thing there’s multiple layers to all of these different things I will commission my two witnesses to prophesy for those 1,260 days wearing sackcloth these are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands that stand before the Lord of the earth if anyone wants to harm them fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies in this way anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain they have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying they also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish so the identity of these two prophets a lot of these two witnesses a lot of a lot of ink has been spilled over this so one theory of dating back to the fathers of the church are Enoch and Elijah you guys remember Elijah right right how did he die so he was brought straight up that to heaven right in a fiery chariot you guys remember Enoch yeah he’s a little more obscure because we’ve got all of three verses telling us about Enoch he comes from the Genesis times he’s between Adam and Noah Enoch lived 300 years after the birth of Methuselah his son and he had other sons and daughters the whole lifetime of Enoch was 365 years then Enoch walked with God and he was no longer here for God took him that’s all we know about Enoch apparently he was great but we don’t get to know why he was so great he’s just God’s like I’m taking this one for myself and so the fathers of the church looked at these two witnesses and said boy at these end times Enoch and Elijah are going to come they’re going to return to the earth and they’re going to finally die and witness to Christ whom they believed in in shadow in prophecy so that’s a theory others look at these various plagues that these two witnesses are going to inflict on the inhabitants of the world Elijah called down fire from heaven to to death for that prophecy for the sacrifice in a confrontation with the prophets of Baal and he closed up the sky for three years during the reign of the wicked King Ahab and then Moses obviously turned the Nile into blood and caused all these other plagues so was it actually Moses and Elijah and then you know there’s a lot of a lot of people who just say that these two witnesses are just the church right we talked about how 1260 days could just be the lifespan of this whole church which exists under this continual continual persecution and always given this witness and I think that’s actually most probable interpretation but I could send Enoch and Elijah back I’m not going to tell him he can’t but really you know this is kind of the whole the whole the whole purpose of the church is to give witness to Christ now these olives olive trees and lampstands right that’s actually a reference to the book of the Zechariah was doing his ministry at the time after they’ve come back from the Babylonian exile and are rebuilding the temple and that was that was very difficult times for them coming back so let’s take a look at what it says there Zechariah chapter 4 so what are these two olive tufts was freely pour out fresh oil through the two golden channels do you not know what these are the angels said to me no my lord I answered he said these are the two anointed who stand by the Lord of the whole earth right and so there’s a lot more context that helps explain what’s going on in that passage but Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah at the time right so he’s kind of that that civil authority and then Joshua was the high priest at that time they were kind of the ones who were you know getting together and rebuilding the temple and the Lord describes those as his anointed right and so when we look at these two witnesses the olive trees you know all of trees are very important to the people of the Mediterranean they provided food in the olives and then they would also get their lamp oil from the olive trees they would burn oil lamps if you wanted any light at night that was kind of the way you would do it inside and then of course the lamp stands you know calls to us Matthew chapter 5 nobody lights a lamp and places it under a bushel basket let your light shine so that the world can see and so there’s various people have identified these two witness to olive trees two lamp stands these two witnesses with different things is it the Old and the New Testaments is it the Jews and the Gentiles out of whom the church is formed it’s at Scripture and tradition it’s yeah could be any of those things any of it Peter and Paul you could look at them as the two witnesses a lot of times you remember Jesus sent his Apostles out two by two to go preach the word there’s something about that something about that yeah also in Jewish law whenever you wanted to have testimony in a court to something that’s being disputed you would want to have the testimony of two witnesses not just one and so it’s definitely recalling that that there now these plagues and punishments you know the the the battle between truth and lies between good and evil is is is a dramatic battle and you’ve probably faced it in in your lives ways that maybe don’t look all that dramatic but they really are right I mean these are these are important things if you’re if you’re really fighting for the truth if you’re really fighting for something that’s quite the thing and so so it’s really you know sometimes it’s kind of life and death when you’re somebody close to you is falling into a bad situation when there’s a serious crisis that you have to face it’s a really a rather dramatic thing and I I think this confrontation between the church and the world which is shown us in this allegory of the two witnesses you know that’s what we’re going for here is how dramatic it is it’s like we need to have this fight just like God sent the plagues on Egypt but we when we look at the way that Jesus did his ministry you know even though what he was doing was the most dramatic portion of human history the way he went around doing things wasn’t in kind of a confrontational fiery violent power game kind of way he went around went about you know I mean listen to what he says about himself here come to me all you who labor in our burden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart and you will find rest for yourselves for my yoke is easy and my burden light like that’s not much of a brag right there he’s not really talking himself up much so even though what the church is doing is the most important thing that can be done and has incredibly powerful consequences for people’s lives we don’t go around you know with this warlike attitude with this conquering attitude otherwise we’re not going to be very effective because we won’t be imitating Christ well the fire comes out of their mouths that’s in verse 5 there I think that’s very you know coming out of the mouth that’s speaking the truth and it burns up kind of the lies in the world so these two witnesses when they had finished their testimony the beasts that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them their corpses of the great city which has the symbolic names Sodom and Egypt where indeed their Lord was crucified those from every people tribe tongue and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days and they will not allow their corpses to be buried the inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth so this is the first mention of the beast in the book of Revelation is somebody somebody that’s going to figure that’s going to come up again and again and it recalls prophecy from Daniel chapter 7 like Daniel chapter 7 comes up over and over again it’s a major source for the book of Revelation after the this the visions of the night I saw the fourth beast different from all the others terrifying horrible and of extraordinary strength it had great iron teeth which devoured and crushed and what was left it trampled in its feet right so verse 2 sorry verse 2 of Daniel chapter 7 notes that these four beasts rise out of the sea and this beast rises out of the abyss and then when we get to verse 23 we can read about prophecy of the beast about the beast the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth different from all the others it shall devour the whole earth beat it down and crush it ten horns shall be ten kings rising out of that kingdom another shall rise up after them different from those before him who lay low three kings he shall speak against the Holy One speak against the Most High and oppress the Holy Ones of the Most High thinking to change the feast days and the law they shall be handed over to him for a year two years and a half year and so this in the context of Daniel it’s once again that Maccabean period Antiochus Epiphanes the fourth this kingdom that covers up the whole earth so the beast comes wages war against these two witnesses where does this happen it’s got the symbolic names Sodom and Egypt where indeed their Lord was crucified so apparently also Jerusalem now if you remember Sodom was known as the city of great wickedness and great evil it was smote with fire from heaven in Genesis chapter 19 and then Egypt of course being that place of slavery where the ten plagues were executed against them in order to in order to free the Israelites and so what are we to make of this symbolic name spiritual names literally in the Greek well if you think about it the church is the body of Christ right Saint Paul says in the first chapter to the in the letter to the Colossians I make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ in my own body for your sakes this idea that we can unite our sufferings to Christ and it can become fruitful there so I think this symbolic city where the the witnesses are murdered by the beast is anywhere in the world where Christians are persecuted right there’s no reason to persecute Christians normally right it’s always an evil act it’s only an evil act to try and try and crush crush this religion because if you’re doing it properly then you’re being a perfectly good citizen and what I think is really interesting is is you know if we’re gonna take this interpretation of these two witnesses as the church as a whole they end up being completely crushed right they lie dead in the streets for three days everybody’s partying because this witness that the church gave striking their conscience stinging their conscience is finally done we don’t have to listen to them anymore recalls to me the the book of wisdom let us conspire against the just man for he styles himself a child of God and the church is just crushed and is and it seems like the lights have gone out that this witness is no longer being given that the forces of the world has triumphed but if we’re going to be of Christ that’s exactly what we should expect is going to happen it’s exactly what happened to our Lord to our Savior that he was utterly crushed and that his disciples abandoned him they run away from him that he is killed by every deception and trickery that they can come up with in the book betrayal and his disciples don’t understand the multiple prophecies that he’s given to him that I am in fact going to rise again and I will be victorious at the end of this we shouldn’t expect anything different from us you know I think it was very wise I think it was Mother Teresa who said we’re not called to be successful but we are called to be faithful exactly exactly the church losing the church seeming to be utterly crushed to be seeming to be utterly without life and having been overtaken by our enemies is the way that we imitate our Savior but it doesn’t end there after the three day three and a half days of breath of life from God entered them when they stood on their feet a great fear fell on those who saw them then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them come up here so they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on at that moment there was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell into ruins seven thousand people were killed during the earthquake the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven right so we’ve spent this whole book of Revelation hearing about how there’s all these plagues all judgments of God all of them being visited upon us precisely so that the inhabitants of the earth will convert onto Christ we’ve gone through all of this and then like over and over again it’s they would not repent they would not give up their idols they would not give up their impurity their sorcery all of that and then finally for the first time in the book of Revelation it mentions that some of the inhabitants of the earth give glory to the God of heaven that they’re finally converted that their hearts are finally changed and the only time that this happens is after the witness of the church has been crushed after it seems like the lights have utterly gone out that there’s no more hope at all for the witness of the church then all of a sudden it all turns around that it’s all completely changed like the church is all of a sudden breathing its life again miracles are manifest and there’s people being converted unto Christ you know kind of reminds me of the 2019-2020 Kansas City Chiefs it’s like okay we’re down by 25 points in the third quarter we got them right where we want them and they just come roaring back and they win the Super Bowl that way and that’s the pattern of the Christ you know got to be killed got to be crushed until the resurrection comes new life comes so you know GK Chesterton said that when hope is founded on on something that you can see something that’s reasonable right like I hope that the Sun’s gonna rise it’s gonna rise tomorrow hasn’t failed yet and it’s not really a virtue anymore it only becomes a true virtue when it’s something that is goes beyond your ability to reason beyond what you can see and then hope is a real Christian virtue it’s like you might not be able to see the end of how all this plays out but you’re hoping in the one who has made these promises and you don’t have to reason it through you don’t have to see how it’s all gonna work out because God’s the one who’s in charge because God’s the one who’s taking care of it the second woe has passed but the third is coming soon then the seventh angel blew his trumpet there was there were loud voices in heaven saying the kingdom of the world now belongs to the Lord and to his anointed and he will reign forever and ever the 24 elders who sat on their thrones before God prostrated themselves and worshiped God and said we give thanks to you Lord God Almighty who are and who were for you have assumed your great power and have established your reign the nations raged but then your wrath has come and the time for the dead to be judged and the reckon to the recompense of your servants the prophets and the holy ones who fear your name the great and the small alike and to destroy those who destroy the earth so this second woe is now passed we’re coming up to this third woe there’s gonna be a big intermission before we get to this third woe it’s coming soon which means you know like three or four chapters down the line so the contents of that third woe that we’re looking forward to that’s going to be chapters 15 through 20 of the book of Revelation we finally get to the seventh trumpet right we haven’t we haven’t heard any of these trumpets blow for a while if you remember the cycle it’s the the first four are kind of grouped together at five and six are kind of different six always seems like the very last limit the very last extreme of everything and then at seven it’s the final triumph the final vindication the coming of Christ again the establishment of the kingdom of this world and so that’s exactly what the voices in heaven say the kingdom of the world now belongs to our Lord and his anointed and he will reign forever and ever and so now the true worship in the world has been finally completed that theme that comes up over and over again false worship versus true worship idolatry versus worshiping the living God and the 24 elders are now worshiping the Lord again and that’s kind of the vision that of the end we’re finally in that right relationship with God we finally reunited heaven and earth and if you want a summary of the whole book of Revelation verse 18 is right there the nations rage but your wrath has come and the time for the dead to be judged and to recompense your servants the prophets you know it’s like the nation’s raged but every principality and power on this earth has come against you they were not successful they ultimately Christ wins we’re looking at the prophets the holy ones and those who fear your name and I think there’s there is some meaning here to to breaking it up like that right prophecy was was kind of considered this office in the church you know second to the Apostles but if somebody had this prophetic word speaking on behalf of God in their worship services it was it was an admired kind of thing and we can look around at apologists and evangelists and and holy people in our world and say that guy’s got a prophetic voice you know there’s his seeing through things and is able to speak on behalf of God so we still you know we don’t really have it as like an office in the church but it’s still you know it’s still going on it’s obviously not going to be recorded into Scripture the canon has been closed so this prophecy that kind of being the first group now holy ones literally you could also translate that as Saints it’s a very common way to refer to baptized Christians in the New Testament right so to the Saints at the church in Antioch I write this would have been perfectly normal thing to the holy ones didn’t come to mean those who had been officially recognized by the church for several centuries after the New Testament times so it’s very interesting them that John would include this third group those who fear your name now if you were in a Jewish synagogue anywhere in the diaspora right those places outside of Judea you know so it’d be Alexandria or Rome or any of these any of these towns there would be synagogues there and Jews would gather week after week to worship there now you could only fully participate in the synagogue services if you were Jewish but there were plenty of people first off in Judaism to this day they’re not really evangelistic right they don’t go out and try and get converts and not trying to bring people in it’s very much kind of a blood and covenant sort of relationship there if people really are banging on the door and want in they’ll they’ll initiate them but it’s it’s not terribly common and it was the same thing back in those days and so there was this category of Gentile who were fascinated by the God of Israel were fascinated by the worship offered there maybe wanted to study the scriptures they wouldn’t come fully into the covenant but they were allowed to kind of sit in on these synagogue services listen to the preaching listen to the explanation of the word they were called God fearers right they weren’t fully integrated into the covenant but there was still this relationship they had with the people of God now it’s a source of great tension and has been for centuries that there are so many people who never got an opportunity to hear the good news right you could think of everybody who lived on this continent and in South America before the arrival of Christopher Columbus right none of them would have ever had an opportunity to hear the preaching of the gospel we’ll talk about you know the necessity of baptism for salvation the necessity of faith for salvation that could really upset people what the church teaches is that God has bound himself to the church that God has bound himself to the sacraments but he himself is not bound by the church is not bound by the sacraments he has the ability to reach through and and to give that saving faith to people even if they’ve never had the opportunity to hear the gospel now we don’t know if God has done it we don’t know if he has done it to what degree he has welcomed people into this but I think this this this passage of those who fear your name you know not the holy ones not the ones who have been baptized Christians but but these other ones who fear God’s name Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 talks about faith is believing in God’s existence and that he rewards those who seek and maybe that’s just the very tiny kernel of faith which God will give to people and that makes them just and acceptable in his sight even if they’ve never heard of the saving work of Christ all of this is kind of possible but it’s not something that God is explicitly revealed to us so and we can’t order him around we can’t say you have to go save all these people because because I want you to he’s the one who’s in charge here so anyway just an interesting interesting possibility in the text there all right so where did the chapters and the Bible come from did it come from the biblical authors no it did not come from the biblical authors I think those were added in like the ninth or tenth century in the Latin manuscripts just the chapters and the verses were added much later and so every division of chapter and verse is an interpretation it is somebody’s idea of where the natural breaks in the text should go but they’re not infallible right they’re not inspired and so especially if you look at Isaiah chapter 52 if you look at that in a modern Bible they’ll start kind of this section about the suffering servant at the very end of 52 and go through into 53 even though obviously whoever created these first divisions thought that it should go to different place right like the modern consensus is shifted so that’s going to be important for this next sequence here then God’s temple in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple there were flashes of lightning rumblings and peals of thunder earth an earthquake and a violent hailstorm a great sign appeared in the sky a woman clothed with the Sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars she was with child and well-deluded pain as she labored to give birth all right so I think these passages even though there’s a chapter break in the middle of them that it goes kind of smoothly from one into the other and that God’s temple opening up and seeing the ark and seeing the woman it’s like it’s all kind of the same action there so at this point we’ve gotten done with the seventh trumpet and now we’re in this this place where John’s going to introduce all these different figures kind of these actors in the in the church in the world stage so that’s very so it’s going to be a while before we get to back to a group of seven things so here we are and so he’s talking about the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple a great sign appeared in the sky a woman clothed with the Sun the Sun the moon and the stars is a is an image of great power that comes to us from the Joseph cycle in the book of Genesis where he had a dream that the Sun the moon and all the stars were bowing down before his star as prophecy about how when he was the Pharaoh’s right-hand man in Egypt his father and all his brothers were bowing down before him begging for food and so this this this kind of cosmic imagery of this heavenly power it’s being associated this woman so this woman in the sky is it Mary or is it the church right that’s kind of the debate that can spring up right what do you guys think the answer is come on how many times have we done this multiple layers of imagery both it’s both so what really binds this idea of Ark and Mary and church together right so what was if we were to have an art the ark of the covenant in here what would it basically be right if you had to reduce it to its most simple category it’s a box right it’s a box that contains something more precious than it is it is a space to hold something sacred to hold something valuable right and so it’s gilded with with gold you know the ark of the covenant was gilded with gold it had the two angels on top it was kind of the most precious item that the ancient Israelites would have had so how does this relationship you know if you read a lot of the church fathers will talk about Mary as the new ark of the covenant right because she was the one who provided the space in the universe provided you know Jesus with his body out of her own body for this precious valuable holy thing to come into the world the church is also this space right the space carved out of the world where God’s Word can be preached where the Eucharist is celebrated where we offer up this appropriate worship to God and so so this idea of the of the feminine right of the mother as that space where new life can come to be that’s what every mother does is provide that space you know in her womb for this new life to come into fruition also when we look at Mary right Mary was over overshadowed by the Holy Spirit right and was perfectly obedient to God’s Word right let this be done unto me according to your word that’s what Mary says to Gabriel right so she’s this image this icon of the perfect disciple of the one who hears God’s Word and literally in a very very vivid and perfect way with her literally bears it around with her as the mother of God as the one who bears Christ that’s what the whole church and each and every single one of us is called to do that we you know we obviously can’t imitate her in the exact same kind but we can imitate her to our own in our own way where the Word can become flesh can become manifest in the witness that we give to Christ in the way that we live our lives in the faith that we profess right and so when we’re looking at Mary and we’re looking at the church you know there’s a reason why the image the the symbolism why the images all stack up together because she is that perfect icon of the church right and we are called not only to imitate Christ but also to imitate Mary who hears the Word of God now she’s talking about being with child and wailing alone to pain as she labored to give birth so in kind of the Jewish literature of the time not the Bible but other things that they were writing there was this this very strong sense of these birth pangs of the final days the birth pangs of the Messiah right it was something that came up over and over again in this Jewish they call it intertestamental literature and so in a mysterious way our Lady of Sorrows participates in this these birth pangs right in the birth of every Christian and we see that image most vividly at the foot of the cross right I mean the gospel writers didn’t have to tell us how Mary was responding to seeing her son being crucified right like they didn’t have to say she was sad didn’t have to say great sorrow and anguish because you know it’s assumed it’s implied it’s understood that nobody could have encountered the sufferings of Christ with more sympathy and with more pain in their soul than his own mother right there’s a there’s a theological idea floating around there talking about giving Mary the title of co-redemptrix right hasn’t been a you know come into the Magisterium yet hasn’t been approved by the other sayings but this idea that that she participated you know not only in as bringing life to Christ but participated in the saving mission to a degree that to a greater degree in a unique way from all other Christians right and so you know she being with child wailing allowed to give pain as she labors to give birth she participates in this in this saving mission of the Messiah in a unique way especially if you consider the the patristic theory in some of the church fathers where where Mary wouldn’t have had ordinary birth pangs on account of being preserved from original sin so yeah but it’s not like she was without sorrow in her life that she had to experience the passion with her son and is also the image of the church constantly under these persecutions constantly under this attack by the evil forces of the world and suffering then another sign appeared in the sky it was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and on its heads were seven diadems its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth to devour her child when she gave birth she gave birth to a son a male child destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod her child was caught up to God and his throne the woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God that she might be taken care of for 1,260 days so I want you guys to imagine way back to chapter 5 when we were introduced to the figure of the lamb the lamb has seven eyes seven horns but only one head right so I see this as an image of being able to bring multiplicity into unity right of having this completeness that’s that’s perfect right we talked about also how Christ kind of fills up the whole hierarchy of being right he goes he’s at the very top he’s God himself he was you know through him the whole world was created and he’s at the very bottom he’s outside the city he’s been crucified as a criminal he doesn’t even have any of his own possessions when he dies the lowest of the low I am a worm and despised by man you know right so he fills up everything everything in between right so he’s able to properly bring things in such a way that when Christ is ruling it’s the perfect kingdom it’s the kingdom of God it’s the place that is as best and the most great you know this dragon them in verse 12 it’s gonna straight-up tell us that the dragon Satan right so we’ll just we’ll let that cat out of the bag right away this dragon has seven heads seven diadems ten horns right and so it’s making this attempt at imitating the lambs power at being able to have this completeness about this fullness and this power but it’s unable to bring it all into unity right it’s still scattered among the heads now what does you’ve heard the term diabolical right that refers to Satan right now the literal Greek word diabolus means to throw things around to scatter them to tear them apart and so when this dragon is attempting to take the throne to usurp the throne from the one who rightfully has it he’s grabbing on to all this power but he’s not able to bring it into a perfect harmony to bring it into a unity but it’s just gets scattered around right over these seven heads seven heads and ten horns it’s this false completeness it’s red red is a violent color you know like if you’re really really really mad at somebody what’s your face get red right so that’s a violent violent violent color talks about one third of the stars being coming out of the sky so if you’ve ever heard people casually say well yeah you know like a third of the angels followed Satan into his rebellion well that’s what the reference is here from you know these angelic powers that followed Satan in his rebellion and are cast out of the sky by the tail of the evil one now Christ has been born he’s less than a year old what happens he’s got to fly off to Egypt right they got to get out of there because Herod is trying to kill him right and so you could look at the child being caught up to God in his throne the woman fleeing to the desert right you could look at that as kind of a snapshot of that and Herod you know he was he was operating under a very satanic impulse right that you know he wasn’t the Antichrist himself but but nobody thinks that going to order the slaughtering of a bunch of children is is certainly very holy behavior now the the children of the woman the church is goes out into the desert right now the desert is a place of there’s a place of encountering God right you’re no longer in civilization you no longer have your own power that you’re relying on instead you’re being forced to rely on God to provide for you right and so when the Israelites have to come out of Egypt they go through the desert right this place of purification and most importantly place where God begins to feed them with the manna with the bread from heaven right so this is another image of how the church is out in the desert trying to flee and you know relying on God to provide for our needs and being fed with this bread from heaven then war broke out in heaven Michael and his angels battled against the dragon the dragon and its angels fought back but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven the huge dragon the ancient serpent who was called devil and the devil and Satan who deceived the whole world was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down thrown down with him right so um we can interpret this verse and in multiple ways again you could look at this as that rebellion at the very beginning of the of the creation when Satan would have actually rebelled you know and that mysterious event which is kind of alluded to in Scripture and has brought into us through the tradition but if we look at verse 11 which we haven’t gotten to yet it’s going to say that this victory is accomplished by the blood of the Lamb so the more strong interpretation more powerful interpretation that this is the victory that was accomplished precisely by the sacrifice of Christ precisely by what he accomplished on Calvary heaven we remember it represents that place of ruling of power and of control and you’ll remember that the gospels often speak of Satan as the prince of this world right you know when a strong man guards his house his possessions are safe but when one’s stronger than him attacks him and binds him then he can plunder the possessions right and that’s what Christ did is that he defeats Satan binds him up and is able to bring us out of his control into his kingdom and so this really this war with Michael and his angels is is is much more about the redemption of Christ now you may ask if Christ has already defeated Satan then why does he still have power on this earth and it’s sort of that whole problem of evil that we’re dealing with there right and ultimately Satan is a loser right demons do not sleep they do not get tired they do not get distracted they don’t need to eat they are far more intelligent than any of us here and so if God were not holding demonic powers back from us for a decent portion of the time we’d be completely toast right like you can’t beat that and what are you gonna do you’re gonna shoot him it doesn’t have a body there’s nothing to hit you know and so any temptations that come to us from the devil and any manifestations of demonic activity that you can hear about from all the exorcists all of that is still under God’s sovereign control and he allows the devil’s to tempt us and to and to do other things in order for this you know sometimes it’s a punishment for sins right if you’re engaging in sorcery if you’re engaging in witchcraft and divination Ouija boards any of that any of that garbage you know it’s like okay well that’s a sin and the punishment is you get to face the consequences of that you’ve invited these evil spirits into your life but all of us you know the ordinary course of the Christian life is going to include temptations that come to us from the devil this testing and so the the brilliance of the lamb and his and his power is that everything that the devil does ultimately should redound to the glory of God right like the more and more violence and and fighting that he engages against God’s holy ones simply the more more that God twists that around and uses it for his own glory uses it is for his own purposes you know you could think of you think a Padre Pio we were talking about him earlier and all of the all of the horrible things he and all these manifestations of Satan you know not letting him sleep growling at him you know kind of beating him up kicking him scratching him what did that do to Padre Pio did he like give up no it only made him holier you know and so Satan is a loser right and even when he thinks he’s winning he’s losing even harder and that’s just got to be a really bad place to be I’m the sore loser yeah then I heard a loud voice in heaven say now have salvation and power come the kingdom of our God and the authority of his anointed for the accuser of our brothers is cast out who accuses them before our God day and night they conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony love for life did not deter them from death so rejoice you heavens and you that dwell therein but woe to you earth and sea for the devil has come down to you in great fury for he knows that he has but a short time and so salvation and power have come we are living in the kingdom of God but it’s always this tension of the already right it’s already already here we’re already made it but the not yet it hasn’t come in its fullness God is still constructing his temple right now it talks about the accuser of our brothers if you know Hebrew that Satan is actually just accuser and it originally started off as a legal term right you’re going to court this is the accuser you know and you read the book of Job Satan is standing in the heavenly court and he’s accusing Job of only worshiping God because God has given him all these blessings right and so over time this this this image of the serpent of the accuser they all get lumped in together and then by the time you get to the gospel times God revealing everything in his fullness he’s the one that Jesus does battle with in the desert right and the accuser is shut up by the blood of Christ right man is the one who ought to repay the debt and man is incapable of repaying the debt God is the one who can repay the debt but he’s under no obligation to and so this tension of this imbalance of the universe being resolved by the man who is God being resolved by Jesus Christ himself offering up himself in the perfect pleasing sacrifice to God first on the cross and now eternally showing his wounds to the father interceding for us on our behalf and we are incorporated into the body of Christ right what’s the final sacrament of initiation the Eucharist right receiving the body and blood of Jesus the blood of the Lamb is how we conquer Satan by linking ourselves to Christ by becoming a part of his body and we are in the birth pangs right now of these final times and God is using the devil coming down in great fury knows he has but a short time and really all of human history is going to be a blink compared to the eternity of God’s kingdom he knows his time is short coming to us with great fury but ultimately God has already won and is winning and will finally win with complete justice when the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to the earth it pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child but the woman was given two wings of a great eagle so that she could fly to her place in the desert where far from the serpent she was taken care of for a year two years and a half year the serpent however spewed a torrent of water out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with the current but the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth and swallowed the flood that the dragon spewed out of its mouth then the dragon became angry with the women and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus it took its position on the sand of the sea so the dragon is pursuing the woman didacco is also translated as persecuting right so very strong image this part of it focuses more on the church this image of the great the woman as the church rather than the woman is married you know the image is images definitely kind of mixed up but I have to think you know st. James was probably martyred in the year 42 AD right that’s recorded in the book of Acts and Mary certainly would have known about the persecution of Christians first in Judea and then likely by the by the Roman authorities in Asia Minor so um no reason to believe that you know we don’t have any record of her herself having come under this but that tender heart of a mother going out to all of those who are being persecuted for following her son but this this section definitely seems to apply more to the church so this period of persecution but we’re away in the desert taking care of for a year two years a half year getting that three and a half year period coming up again this flood of water coming out of the serpents mouth so water symbolizes the chaos right something that’s unstable that you can’t step in without changing it place that is destructive this is a destructive flood of chaos coming out of the serpents mouth again so again the devil being the father of lies as Jesus says that he was a liar from the beginning and his destructive power coming out of his mouth and so it’s obvious that that Christ has been raised up to heaven he’s no longer in any danger but the the rest of her offspring are in danger from this the serpent those who keep the commandments and bear witness to God and that’s the end of chapter 12 we’ll pick up next time thank you for your time and attention