Transcript

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

It's hard for us to transpose ourselves back into the first century to feel the urgency and the immediacy of this prophecy, but I would argue that even if there are present-day, ongoing fulfillments of the Book of Revelation, and I believe there are, nevertheless, we ought to anchor those speculative applications to a first century literal, historical fulfillment because from beginning to end, Revelation has that tone of imme- of, of, of immediacy, of imminency.

So we've been considering the first nine chapters, and we've been bringing in a lot of the historical data concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, but backing up a few years, the Jewish war against Rome, beginning around 66 AD and ending with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD; it was around a three and a half year war.

This brings us now into Chapter 10, but remember that as we were considering chapters seven and eight and nine, we were looking at the seven trumpets that were being sounded by the seven angels.

We've now already heard the sixth trumpet blast, but there's an interlude in chapter 11 um, chapter 10 and in chapter 11, there's an interlude before the seventh trumpet is, is sounded.

Now, how do we explain those seven trumpets?

I would suggest to you, as I contended before, that the primary backdrop for this is the conquest of Jericho.

There you had seven days, the Israelites encircling the city, and then on the seventh day, they go round it seven times, and on the seventh time they blast the trumpet, seven trumpets seven times.

And so the city collapses, and the way it is attacked, it's obvious that the collapse of the city is the work of God; it isn't the work of, of Joshua or the Israelites.

And so it's fitting for this vision to show that the collapse of the old covenant, the city of Jerusalem, and the temple is not going to be primarily the work of Titus and the Roman legions, it's gonna be the work of God.

And so the seven trumpets that are in the process of being sounded now all point forward to the new Jericho collapsing.

The old Jericho was the stronghold that kept God's people from their inheritance, the promised land.

The new Jericho is Jerusalem, the center of the old covenant, which now impedes God's people from their inheritance, which is the new covenant, the new Jerusalem.

So, let's take a look at chapter 10.

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven.

He was robed in a cloud with a rainbow above his head.

His face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars.

Some people suggest that this mighty angel may be Christ, and there is some reason to eh, there's some reason for that.

For instance, being robed in a cloud, back in Psalm 104, Yahweh is robed in a cloud.

With a rainbow up- above his head, we can recall from Revelation 4 that the throne of God had a rainbow over top of it.

And his face was like the sun; back in Revelation 1, Jesus, the son of man is described as having the face that was shining like the sun, just as he had back in Matthew 17 on the Mount of Transfiguration.

So this mighty angel might be our Lord himself.

There's no need to insist upon it, but there's no need to insist against it either.

In any case, he was holding a little scroll which lay open in his hand.

What is that little scroll?

We're gonna look at that in just a few verses when we, when it, when we pick up again in verse 8 on that scroll.

He was holding a little scroll which lay open in his hand.

He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.

The land is probably the land of Israel.

The sea is a symbol for the nations, the Gentiles.

And he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion, which reminds us of Revelation 5, where Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah.

It also reminds us of Amos 1:2-3, where our Lord sounds this prophetic threat against his people, and He roars like a lion.

When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke.

The, the voice of God is that of l- it's, it's like thunder.

An entire psalm, Psalm 29, is devoted to what the sound of God's voice is like.

And it splits the, it splits the cedar trees of Lebanon.

It's the sound of the thunderous waters.

It's this thunderous, shattering roar that just strips the forest bare, according to Psalm 29.

So, when you hear this shout, you're hearing, you're, you're hearing an incredible roar.

And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven say, 'Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.' This verse, verse 4, is unique in all ye- the apocalypse, because everything else that the seer, the visionary beholds, he's allowed to write down.

This suggests to us that whatever is happening in Revelation, by and large, is being fulfilled in the lifetime of the visionary, except this verse suggests that there is more that is yet to come.

This is one of those verses that gives us good reason to contend for not only the preterist view, that is, a past fulfillment, but a historicist view, that is, throughout history, throughout Christian history there's an ongoing fulfillment.

And in fact, the fulfillments can be multiple, and they can be ever-increasing.

They can be escalating and enlarging.

And so it could also be futurists, and seeing that some point in the future there will be an even more magnificent fulfillment of all this than there was back in 70 AD.

At any rate, these seven thunders say things which are not written down, presumably because they don't apply to the immediate situation.

Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven, and he swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, 'There will be no more delay.' Now, what is this a reference to?

Most likely, the primary background for our explanation has to go back to Daniel 12:7.

Turn with me to, to Daniel 12, just for a minute.

In Daniel 12, we have a very interesting picture of the end of the tribulation and of the resurrection of the dead.

Beginning in verse one: At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who is charge of your people Keep that verse in mind, Daniel 12:1, because we're gonna see Michael again in Revelation 12.

And there shall be a time of trouble such as never been since there was a nation until that time.

But at that time, your people shall be delivered, every one whose name shall be found written in the book.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.

Notice that Daniel has prophecies that are to be shut up because the time isn't yet.

And so they're only meant to be unsealed when they're meant to be fulfilled, which gives special significance to Revelation 11, uh, Revelation 10:6, There will be no more delay.

With regard to what?

With regard to the delay that Daniel was told about back in Daniel 12.

Because look at verse five and following: Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream.

And I said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, 'How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?' The man clothed in linen Remember that our Lord wears linen.

It's the garment of the high priest.

Who was above the waters of the stream raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, two times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things would be accomplished.

Now, we could spend an entire evening just delving into Daniel 12.

It's sufficient, I think, to say that here we have a man who isn't identified.

It could be our l- our Lord, it could be a mighty angel, we're not sure.

But He's raising His hands in the gesture of oath-swearing, which is highly significant, as we'll see in a minute.

And He is swearing about He's swearing an oath concerning the times that it will take for all of this to reach fulfillment.

A time, two times, and half a time.

In other words, three and a half times.

Keep that in mind, because three and a half years, or 42 months, will loom large in the next two or three chapters, throughout Revelation.

And most likely, this is where it's drawn from.

This isn't the only place, though, where we learn about oath-swearing.

We discover that God swears oaths, and I discovered in my, uh, study here that a few commentators reject the idea that this mighty angel who swears an oath could be our Lord, because it doesn't seem fitting for God to swear an oath.

That, I think, is, is wrongheaded.

Because, uh, for instance, in Turn to, uh, Hebrews 6.

Hebrews 6.

We're gonna look just at a few verses that underscore the real significance of oath-swearing in general, but specifically when God swears an oath.

In Hebrews 6:13, we read, For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself, saying, 'Surely I will bless you and multiply you.' This refers back to Genesis 22:16 and 18, where God rewards Abraham for offering up his son, Isaac, not with a earthly reward, not with an earthly treasure, but with a divine oath.

God says, I swear by myself that through your seed, Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

In Galatians 3, Paul sees that oath as the Gospel in a nutshell.

The Gospel, the good news, the mystery of Christ is that not just the family of Israel, but all the families of the earth will be blessed through the seed of Abraham.

And who is the seed of Abraham?

Well, it's Isaac, but ultimately, Isaac prefigures Christ, because Christ is described as the seed of Abraham in the very first verse of the New Testament.

Matthew 1:1 describes the genealogy of Jesus, the Christ, the seed of Abraham and the seed of David.

And Isaac prefigures Christ not only in that he's the seed of Abraham, but that he's being offered up as a holocaust, as a sacrifice.

He willingly consents to becoming a s- an offering for sin, as it were.

And there, he's offered up on Moriah, which 2 Chronicles 3:1 identifies with, uh, the hilly region around Jerusalem where our Lord is later crucified.

So here is where God swears an oath to Abraham.

Verse 15, Hebrews 6:15, And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise.

Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation.

In other words, it's one thing for me to make a promise.

I could say, I give you my word.

But if my word isn't good enough, then I go a step further.

I say, I swear to God.

My word is a promise, and my word would be my name.

But if my name isn't good enough to support my testimony, then I invoke God's name by an oath.

And in that case, God's name is attached to my testimony so that His glory is on the line.

He will assist me in telling the truth and in performing whatever I pledged, but He will judge me if I fail to.

He'll bless me if I'm faithful, but He'll curse me if I'm unfaithful.

All of that is wrapped up with an oath.

When you swear an oath, in effect, you make a covenant.

Throughout the Bible, swearing an oath and making a covenant are two ways of saying the same thing.

You can see this, for instance, in Luke 1.

In Luke chapter 1, the Song of Zechariah, in verse 72 and 73, John the Baptist's father speaks of how, The Lord performs the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father, Abraham.So in Luke 1:72-73, it's clear that the covenant and the oath sworn to Abraham are practically interchangeable terms, two ways of saying the same thing.

Likewise, in Ezekiel 16:59, just listen to this, Yea, thus saith the Lord, 'I will deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant.' And likewise, in Ezekiel 17:13, He took one of the s- the royal seed and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath.

So when we see this mighty angel raising his right hand and swearing an oath, promising, but even more than promising, swearing that there will be no more delay, we realize that now we have a divine witness, the strongest and most sacred form of divine testimony to one essential fact, that all is now going to be fulfilled.

There will be no more delay.

That everything that's been pending is now on the verge of completion.

Just for your own information's sake, the idea of raising your right hand to swear an oath is the actual form that is used in Genesis 14 when Abraham swears an oath.

Likewise, in Numbers 14, when God swears an oath, he raises his right hand.

And likewise, in Deuteronomy 32 and 33, when God swears an oath, He raises his right hand.

If we had more time, we could look to see just how essential those passages are, but we really need to move on.

Let me just summarize, though, my own study of that.

When you look at the instances when God raises his right hand to swear an oath, especially in Numbers, it's a form of judgment.

It's a form of cursing, in effect.

The first time in the Book of Numbers that the Lord does this, it's in response to the people of Israel who decide not to go into the Promised Land after the 12 spies return and 10 of the spies say, If we go in, we'll be slaughtered.

So all the people begin to murmur and rebel.

And in response to their murmuring, God pronounces judgment.

For the 40 days that those spies were spying out the Promised Land, you will all wander the wilderness for 40 years.

Every day, there will be a year of wandering, until all of you perish in the wilderness.

You don't want to go into the Promised Land?

Fine.

You won't go into the Promised Land.

This is not just a, a promise from God, uh, verse 28 of Numbers 14, 'Say to them, 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'What you have said in my hearing, I will do to you.

Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.' And it goes on.

'And all of your number, numbered from 20 years and, uh, old and upward, who have murmured against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb and Joshua,' the two spies who gave faithful testimony.

And so, here is God swearing an oath to bring judgment upon an unfaithful generation of Israelites.

The reason that's worth mentioning is because the same thing is true in the Book of Deuteronomy.

In Deuteronomy 32:40, the Lord says, 'For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, as I live forever.' And he goes on to pronounce an oath concerning the judgment that is to befall unfaithful Israel, and then the eventual deliverance and salvation that will come afterwards.

The same thing is true in spades in the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 20.

There you see over and over again the same language of divine oath swearing used.

And it's, it takes the form, once again, of God raising his right hand.

In Ezekiel 20, it refers back to Numbers 14, and also to Deuteronomy 32.

Let's see here.

I'm gonna look it up in the NIV.

Uh, the reason why this is worth spending just two or three more minutes on is because I'm convinced that this oath represents the end, the fulfillment of the old covenant, and the oath which Christ swears to initiate the new covenant.

In Ezekiel 20, let's see, verse five, this is what the sovereign Lord says.

'On the day I chose Israel, I swore with uplifted hand to the descendants of the house of Jacob and revealed myself to them in Egypt.

With uplifted hand I said to them, 'I am the Lord your God.

On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt.

So when God swears an oath with uplifted hand, He reveals Himself and His salvation.

Not just in blessing, though, because over and over again you see that same language being used in judgment.

In verse 15, 'Also with uplifted hand, I swore to them in the desert that I would not bring them in the land I had given them.' So when God swears an oath with an uplifted hand, He in effect is making a covenant judgment, and He's saying, For those who are faithful, I will bless you, and for those who are unfaithful, I will curse you.

It's interesting that the Hebrew word to swear an oath, which is what's described here in Revelation 10, is literally shava or nishaba, which is based on the Hebrew word for seven.

When I learned my Hebrew vocabulary, to swear an oath, it literally was to seven oneself.

The Hebrew verb to swear an oath is literally to seven oneself.

This, I think, underscores the importance of sevens as we've seen in Revelation.

There are seven seals.

There's seven trumpets.

There's seven, uh, vials or, or bowls of wrath, and seven is just everywhere, seven churches, the seven letters to the seven churches, and so on and so forth.

So, here we have the seven.

I think it goes all the way back to when God formed creation in seven days and he swore a covenant.

He sevened himself when he blessed and hallowed the seventh day.

The old creation, the old covenant, was bound to God.

And now all of a sudden, God is bringing all of this to fulfillment because He's about to inaugurate a new creation and a new covenant and bring it to fullness and fulfillment in Christ.

So let's put, look back at, uh, Revelation 11:6.

He swore by him who lives forever and ever that there will be no more delay.

But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet And remember, that hasn't happened yet.In the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as He announced to His servants, the prophets.

In other words, when the seventh trumpet is sounded, the delay is over, the mystery is accomplished.

All the prophets and all their prophecies will be fulfilled.

Now, we looked in previous weeks at what the meaning of the mystery is.

What is the mystery of God that is spoken of there?

What is it that will be accomplished ultimately?

The mystery is used throughout Scripture, throughout the New Testament to describe how God will fulfill the oath He swore to Abraham.

And through your seed, Abraham, we're gonna have a Catholic Church.

Gentiles and Jews will be my Israel.

There will be a worldwide family that is blessed with your own faith, Abraham, and the blessing I have given you, so through Abraham's seed, all the families of the Earth will be blessed by the Lord.

In Mark 4:11, Jesus comes announcing the mystery of the kingdom of God.

In Romans 16:25, Saint Paul announces, The mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to the obedience of faith.

So it's the obedience of faith not just in Israel, but the obedience of faith in all the nations.

It's the Great Commission.

It's the Gospel.

It's the Catholic Church, that all nations now can be made part of Israel.

Likewise, in Ephesians 1:9-10, The mystery of His will is to sum up all things in Christ.

In Ephesians 3 verses 1 through 11, we have the fullest definition almost of what this mystery is.

Paul says, When you read all that I'm writing, you'll realize just how wise I am.

You'll recognize my insight into the mystery of Christ as it has now been revealed to its holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit, to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.

It goes on to say, This grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things, in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the rulers and the authorities in heavenly places.

We all know we do not appreciate the riches of the Catholic Church.

This really underscores just how I don't know how to say it, but how blind we are, or how negligent or unappreciative.

For Paul, what we all have now, is what the prophets were dying to find out about, what all the people of God were waiting with bated breath to see realized.

And now all of a sudden, everything promised in the Old Testament falls right into our laps, especially in the sacraments, and we yawn.

And we're like, Yeah, let's get onto something more interesting.

You know?

And yet in the sacraments of the new covenant and throughout the Church, we have the power of Christ.

And incidentally, I forgot to mention a moment ago, when I said that the Hebrew word to swear an oath is to

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm

seven oneself, don't forget that the Latin word for oath is what?

Sacramentum.

So when we speak of the, the blessing of the sacraments, we really speak of the blessing of the covenant, which is the oath, or in this case, the various oaths that Christ has sworn to really bless us in the most, in the most awesome and staggering way possible.

There are other passages, too, that speak of these, of this mystery.

Colossians 1:25-27, uh, Colossians 2:1-3, Colossians 4:3, but we need to move along.

Verse eight, Then the voice that I heard from Heaven spoke to me once more, 'Go take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.' So I went to the angel and asked him, I asked him to give me the little scroll.

And he said to me, 'Take it and eat it.

It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.' I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it.

It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I'd eaten it, my stomach turned sour.

Then I was told, You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.

Now, what's going on here?

Again, most scholars recognize the background for this, and it's found in Ezekiel.

Turn to Ezekiel chapter two.

In Ezekiel 2:8, Ezekiel is given a similar command.

And the background in Ezekiel 2 and 3, which we've touched on already, but I want to hi-highlight again because it, the background in Ezekiel 2 and 3 shows us that this occurred in the Old Testament right before Jerusalem was destroyed the first time.

Ezekiel's mission was to proclaim the judgment of God on the city of Jerusalem back in 586 BC when the Babylonians destroyed the first temple.

But you, son of man, hear what I say to you.

Be not rebellious like that rebellious house.

Open your mouth and eat what I give you.

And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and lo, a written scroll was in it.

And he spread it before me and it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

And He said to me, Son of man, eat what is offered you.

Eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel.

And so he does, and it's sweet as honey.

Verse four, And He said to me, 'Son of man, go, get you to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them, for you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel.' Verse seven, But the house of Israel will not listen to you for they are not willing to listen to me, because all the house of Israel are of a hard forehead and of a stubborn heart.

Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces.

And verse, uh, 10, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you, receive in your heart and hear with your ears And it goes on to describe how Ezekiel predicts the captivity of all Israel to Babylon.

If we had more time, we could look at that, but again, all of these things indicate that it's Jerusalem, it's Israel, it's the old covenant, and it's the destruction of Jerusalem that really is what all these Old Testament passages are pointing to.Uh, let's go on now to Revelation 11, where I think this becomes crystal clear.

You might be wondering too, as we, as, as we proceed on, you know, what, what is the reason for stressing this?

You know, uh, first century fulfillment and an Old Testament background, the old covenant, Jerusalem in the temple in 70 AD.

I'm convinced that because most Christians don't really interpret the new in light of the old, because they don't use the principle of the covenant to really control their interpretation, they miss one of the most essential points that should govern our interpretation of Revelation.

And then they go off half-cocked, begins, and they start speculating about all kinds of wild and crazy applications and fulfillments, and it discredits the gospel, and they make people skeptical about ever really understanding the book of Revelation.

It's not easy, but it's possible to get a, a firm grip on these, on these chapters.

Now we come to Revelation 11.

I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, 'Go and measure the temple of God and the altar.' And once again, the background for this, the same experience is had by Ezekiel back in chapter 40.

At the end of Ezekiel's mission, after he's prophesied and experienced the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the dispersion and exile of all the Israelites, he is given a mission to predict a new temple.

From Ezekiel 40 all the way through Ezekiel 48, Ezekiel prophesies the restoration of Jerusalem and a new Jerusalem temple, which Christian interpreters have always taken to mean what?

The church, the new temple, which is Christ and the body of Christ.

So, like Ezekiel had to measure the old temple in Jerusalem, so John has to.

I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, 'Go and measure the temple of God and the altar and count the worshipers there.' This is one of the most important passages that suggests to us that this, this vision was either given before 70 AD, or at least it hearkens back to an experience that John had before the temple was destroyed in 70 AD.

I think this is probably the strongest text to support a pre-70 dating of the book.

You recall that from the very first week.

But in any case, notice what's assumed is that there's still a temple to be measured.

In 96 AD, there would be no temple to be measured.

And likewise, notice that the focal point of concentration here is not on Rome, like the majority of interpreters would suggest the book is dealing with, the n- the downfall and the burning of Rome.

And Rome never really fell.

It was never burned with fire and consumed like this city is.

Instead, the s- the evidence in Revelation 11 verse one suggests Jerusalem and the temple.

Go and measure the temple of God and the altar.

The word for temple there is peculiar, naon or naos.

It literally denotes the inner shrine, the holy of holies.

Not the whole temple, but especially the holy of holies.

Go and measure the temple of God and the altar and count the worshipers there, but exclude the outer court.

In other words, exclude the larger portion of the temple.

And the word for exclude is very strong.

In the Greek, it's ʔəkbalo, which literally mean, means cast out.

It's a juridical term.

In fact, it later, it has the force of excommunicate.

For instance, in Matthew 21 verse 12, when C- Christ cleanses the temple and he casts the traitors out, that's the term used.

Likewise in John 2:15.

In Galatians 4, when it's describing how Abraham banished Hagar and Ishmael, the same term ʔəkbalo is used.

It literally is a juridical term for excommunication, or when somebody's case is cast out of court, it's thrown out of court.

So cast out, excommunicate the outer court.

Don't measure it, because it has been given over to the Gentiles.

Let's turn to Luke 21 verse 24 and see a possible background for this particular reference here.

Luke 21:24.

Go back to verse 20.

Luke 21:20.

When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.

Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Let those who are in the city get out.

Remember, in Matthew 24, it doesn't say when you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies.

It says when you see the abomination of desolation.

Now, Luke changes that language, and he says when you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies.

In other words, the abomination of desolation is closely connected to the surrounding of Jerusalem with armies.

And then those in Judea must flee.

Verse 22.

For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written.

How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and for nursing mothers.

There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people.

They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations.

Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Now, what does it mean, the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled?

That is usually explained in terms of the New Testament age, and that certainly does have application there.

But I would suggest that the time of the Gentiles trampling Jerusalem underfoot was literally a three and a half year period.

For instance, here in this, uh, book by Alan James Begley, this is his, uh, his doctoral thesis, uh, The Zitzim Leben of the Apocalypse with, with Particular Reference to the Role of, uh, the Church's Enemies.

On page 63, he mentions that, uh, John Court suggests that the reference here is to the period of the Flavian War from the spring of AD 67 to August 29th, 70 AD, during which time Jerusalem was profaned.

During that three and a half year period, just coincidentally, it's a 42-month or a three and a half year period, that's how long Jerusalem was being besieged by the Romans, by the Gentile forces.

So the outer court is being given over to the Gentiles.

Now, how can we make this distinction between the holy of holies, which is being consecrated, and the outer court, which is being allowed, uh, that's being desecrated? it's very difficult for interpreters.

I would suggest to you that the reason why the Holy of Holies is being consecrated Here's the difficulty.

In 70 AD, the entire temple was burned down and completely de- demolished, including the Holy of Holies.

So why, then, is John being called to mark out for protection the Holy of Holies, the Naos, that shrine?

Most likely it's because the reference here is not to the physical Holy of Holies in Jerusalem, but to the reality that it points to, which is what?

The church, the new Jerusalem.

At the end of the Book of Revelation, I think the answer is found.

Because there, John sees the new Jerusalem descending out of heaven as a virgin bride adorned for her husband, only after a harlot city, a whore-ish city, has been burned down with fire on Earth for all of its infidelities.

If the virgin city is the new Jerusalem, then the harlot city is probably the old Jerusalem, and this is how Jeremiah refers to Jerusalem, and Ezekiel and other prophets.

Jerusalem of the old covenant was a harlot city.

Now, when the new Jerusalem comes down, John is told to measure the new Jerusalem.

Guess what its shape is?

It's a perfect cube, 12,000 by 12,000, by 12,000, by 12,000.

Now, for us, that doesn't mean much.

But for a Jewish Christian, what sacred object was a perfect cube?

The Holy of Holies.

So John is told that when the new Jerusalem comes, there will be no temple because God will dwell in the midst of the new Jerusalem.

He won't be cordoned off in some inner sanctum, segregated from the people and the priests.

He will be there in the midst of His people, because the new Jerusalem will be like the Holy of Holies where everybody enjoys totally free and full fellowship, face-to-face fellowship with the Lord God.

And so what John is being told to measure off for consecration is that which God will preserve, and that which God will consecrate, namely the Holy of Holies.

They will trample on the Let's get, let's move on to verse two again, 2B.

It'll be given to the Gentiles.

They will trample on the holy city for 42 months, and I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days.

In other words, 42 months, or three and a half years.

They will be clothed in sackcloths.

Uh, these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the Earth.

Now, I'm gonna suggest to you that these two witnesses are not necessarily to be identified with two individuals, that these two witnesses probably stand for something that is more symbolic.

Why?

Well, let's just take a look.

What do these two witnesses have the power to do?

Well, we see verse five.

If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies.

This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die.

Verse six.

These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying.

Who is ha- who had that power?

Elijah.

Remember had, Elijah had the power, as a prophet, to bring about a drought in the land of Israel.

And how long did that drought last?

Three and a half years.

Let's go on.

And they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.

Who does that sound like?

Moses.

Moses is the one who gives the law, and Elijah is the prophet par excellence.

So the two witnesses that testify against the wickedness of the Jerusalem temple are who?

The law and the prophets, Moses and Elijah.

Just as Jesus says, You search the scriptures for you believe you find eternal life in them, and so you do.

But the scriptures bear witness to me, and if you don't follow me, then they bear witness against you.

The law and the prophets bear witness against those who reject Christ and those who He sends to them.

Verse seven.

Now when they had finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will attack them.

We're gonna, we're gonna completely bracket that, because later on, an entire section, two sections, Revelation 13 and 20, will deal with the beast that comes up from the abyss.

We'll deal with this verse later on.

And overpower and kill them.

Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city.

What is the great city?

Many interpreters want to make it Rome.

But it isn't really possible if you're going to be faithful to the context, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

So the city where the Lord was crucified is the city where the temple is found, and the witnesses are sent, and the witnesses are martyred.

And that's Jerusalem.

I think this is the strongest, by far and away the strongest section of Revelation that suggests to us a first century fulfillment.

But wait, you say.

How can we speak of Jerusalem as Sodom?

Well, get this.

That was common in the Old Testament.

Turn with me real quickly just to a few texts in Isaiah, chapter one.

When Isaiah, one of the greatest prophets, is sent, he is sent first and foremost to the wicked Jews in Jerusalem.

In Isaiah verse, chapter one, verse 10.

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom.

Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah.

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?

says the Lord.

I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts.

I don't delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of he-goats.

In other words, the Lord is saying, All of the animal sacrifices in the Jerusalem temple are not what I desire.

What I desire is something that you don't offer, and you won't offer until the new covenant's established.

And that is total obedience from the heart.

And let's see.

Um, uh, likewise in Isaiah three, verse four, we have the same type of thing.

And in this context, in Isaiah three, verse one.

For behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts, is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah, stay and staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water .

verse nine, Their partiality witnesses against them.

They proclaim their sin like Sodom.

This isn't Isaiah's invention either.

Moses was the first to do this back in Deuteronomy 29 verse 23.

We won't look up these references, but in Deuteronomy twice Moses describes unfaithful Israel like Sodom.

Deuteronomy 29:23 and Deuteronomy 32:32.

Jeremiah does the same thing.

In Jeremiah 23:14, the unfaithful people of Jerusalem are described as being like Sodom.

And likewise, Ezekiel.

Turn with me to Ezekiel 16.

We won't read all of this, but Ezekiel is the one who really drives home the point much more than anybody else.

In Ezekiel 16 verse 46.

In Ezekiel 16 verse 46, Jerusalem and Samaria are being compared to harlots.

Verse 46, And your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you, and your you- and your younger sister who lived to the south of you is Sodom, with her daughters, which is a reference to Jerusalem.

Yet you were not content to walk in their ways or do according to their abominations.

Within a very little time, you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.

'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'Your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister, Sodom.' And it goes on.

Likewise, in verses 53 and following, over and over again, the sin of God's people in the old covenant is likened to the sin of Sodom.

So let's go back to Revelation 11.

The reference here to the city where the Lord was crucified is obviously Jerusalem.

And Jerusalem is frequently referred to in very derogatory terms by the Old Testament prophets as Sodom.

If we had more time, we could also see how it's compared to Egypt over and over again.

And this is something that even Paul suggests in Romans 9.

We won't look up this, but in Romans 9, Paul has a real hard question to answer.

Why are so many Jews not accepting the Messiah?

And Paul goes through a history of salvation, and he shows how frequently the majority of Jews, like the majority of Gentiles in any age, because Paul's not antisemitic, he's a Jew.

John isn't antisemitic, he's a Jew.

This is not, this is not an attack against the Jews.

It's against human beings.

And in a certain sense, human nature is exemplified in the Jews, the best as well as the worst.

They're the firstborn among all the nations according to Exodus 4.

So in Romans 9, Paul actually compares the Jews in his own day to the hard-hearted Pharaoh of Egypt back in Moses' day.

So the comparison is not novel.

Up until now, we've seen Jerusalem compared to Sodom and Egypt.

And from the previous chapters with the seven trumpets, to what other city?

To Jericho.

All right, so three very evil cities, Jericho, Sodom and Egypt, which stood against and persecuted God's people.

Now, there's one other city which is really well known in the Old Testament for standing against the people of God.

What is that city?

Babylon.

Babylon.

Keep that in mind, because that is the only city that has not yet been compared to Jerusalem.

It's the only city that Jerusalem has not been compared to yet.

But I'm gonna contend in the next several chapters that when we describe the harlot city Babylon, we're not describing Rome, which again, the majority of commentators will take Babylon to mean Rome.

Why is that?

Because back in the first century, when you read Jewish apocalypses that often sound like the apocalypse of John, the book of Revelation, in the Jewish apocalypses, Babylon is always referring to what city?

Jerusalem?

Hardly.

What were the Jews hoping to see destroyed?

Rome.

And so if you interpret this apocalypse of the new covenant against the background of Jewish apocalypses in the first century, then you may be tempted to identify Babylon later on with Rome.

But I would suggest that it fits best with Sodom, with Jericho, with Egypt, and thus with Jerusalem.

All right, now, before we move on, I want to, I want to read something to you that'll take about five minutes.

It is really interesting because it gives us, I think, it fills in a bl- a few blank spaces that a lot of us aren't aware of.

What happened around 70 AD?

What happened between 66 AD and 70 AD?

Did God do anything special to show his people what was about to happen, to show the people in Jerusalem what was about to, to transpire?

Listen to this.

I'm gonna be reading from Chilton's commentary on Revelation, beginning around page 253.

What clear warnings had God given them?

Apart from the apostolic preaching, God sent many miraculous signs and wonders to testify of the coming judgment.

At festival seasons of the year 66 This is drawing now from Josephus, who was an eyewitness.

Quote, While the people were assembling for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so bright a light shone round the altar and temple at night around the ninth hour, around 3:00 AM in the morning, so bright a light shone around the altar and the temple that it looked like broad daylight, and this lasted for half an hour.

The inexperienced regard it as a good sign, but it was immediately interpreted by the sacred scribes in conformity with subsequent events.

In other words, as a sign of impending doom.

That was the first sign.

3:00 in the morning, right around the altar, all of a sudden for half an hour, it's bright as day.

A second sign.

During the same feast, another shocking event took place.

Quote, The east gate of the inner sanctuary was a very massive gate made of brass, and so heavy that it could scarcely be moved every evening by 20 men.

It was fastened by iron-bound bars and secured by bolts that were sunk very deep into a threshold that was fashioned from a single stone block.

Yet this gate was seen to open of its own accord at the sixth hour of the night, which is midnight.The temple guards ran and reported the news to the captain, and he came up and by strenuous efforts managed to close it.

To the uninitiated, this also appeared to be the best of signs, as they had assumed that God had opened to them the gate of happiness.

But the wise men realized that the security of the temple was symbolically breaking down of its own accord, and the opening of the gates was a present to the enemy.

And they interpreted this in their own minds as a sign of the coming desolation.

And then Chilton adds, A similar event, you'll recall, happened in A.D.

30, when Christ was crucified in the temple's outer veil, 24 feet wide and over 80 feet high.

That's how big the temple veil was when it was ripped from top to bottom.

The Talmud incidentally records that in A.D.

30, the gates of the temple opened by themselves, apparently due to the collapse of the overhead lintel, a stone weighing about 30 tons.

Around the same time that Christ died, this huge lintel stone weighing 30 tons collapsed, causing the gates of the temple to open by themselves.

Let's see, now a third sign.

Those who were unable to attend the regular Feast of Passover came for the second Passover the next month.

A supernatural sign was seen, too amazing to be believed.

What I am now to relate would, I imagine, be dismissed as imaginary had this sign not been vouched for by eyewitnesses, and then followed by subsequent disasters that deserve to be thus signified.

For before sunset, chariots were seen in the air over the whole country, and armed battalions speeding through the clouds and encircling the cities.

In the air, in the clouds, chariots by the hundreds.

Now, you might think this is a Jewish imagination at work, huh, Josephus?

Interestingly, Tacitus, the Roman historian, says the following.

Quote, In the sky appeared a vision of armies in conflict, of glittering armor.

A sudden lightning flash from the clouds lit up the temple.

The doors of the holy place abruptly closed.

A superhuman voice was heard to declare that the gods were abandoning it, and in the same instant came the rushing tumult of their departure.

Unquote.

That's the Jewish historian Tacitus.

The fourth sign occurred inside the temple on the next great feast day, and was witnessed by 24 priests who were on duty.

Quote, At the feast called Pentecost, when the priests had entered the inner courts of the temple by night to perform their usual ministries, they declared that they were aware, first, of a violent commotion and din, then of a loud voice of a host crying out, 'We are now departing.' We are now departing.

Then a fifth sign appeared in the heavens that year.

So far we've seen the light, the gate opening, the chariots in the sky, a loud voice from the inside the temple, and now the fifth sign.

Quote, A star that looked like a sword stood over the city, and a comet that continued for a whole year.

Let me read that again.

A star that looked like a sword stood, descended over the city, and a comet that continued for a whole year.

It was obvious, as, as Josephus says, that Jerusalem was, quote, No longer the dwelling place of God.

Appealing four years later to the Jewish revolutionaries to surrender, Josephus declared, I believe that the deity has fled from the holy place and stands now on the side of those with whom you are at war.

Why, when an honorable man will fly from a wanton home and abhors in- its inmates, do you think that God still remains with this house is with, uh, this household in iniquity?

And then he describes how nevertheless, Israel did not repent.

There are more signs as well.

I won't get into all of these, but here's how Josephus concludes his testimony.

Describing his own fellow Jews who were trapped in Jerusalem, these Bardans, these thieves, these madmen, these false messiahs who were making disaster of the holy city.

These men, therefore trampled upon all the laws of man and laughed at the laws of God.

And as for the oracles and the prophets, they ridiculed them as the tricks of jugglers.

Yet did these prophets foretell many things concerning the rewards of virtue and punishments of vice, which when these zealots violated, they occasioned the fulfilling of those very prophecies belonging to their own country.

Neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was from the very beginning of the world.

Then he adds, I suppose that had the Romans made any longer delay in coming against these villains, the city would either have been swallowed up by the ground opening upon them or been overflowed by water, or else been destroyed by such thunder as the country of Sodom perished by, for it had brought forth a generation of men much more atheistic than were those that suffered such punishments.

For by their madness, it was that all the people came to be destroyed.

Then he goes on to describe the starvation and the wars and the battles that were fought among the various groups that followed the various false messiahs.

He describes in particular how Jerusalem was divided into thirds, because there were three different false messiahs that got warring bands behind them, and they were all burning each other's food supplies, and they were all attacking each other and assassinating each other's leaders in the temple during worship.

Even the priests, including the high priests.

You see the price we pay for our his- you know, our, our, our ignorance of history, when we don't realize all that God had done back in the first century to prepare His people?

It's staggering, isn't it?

Let's move on.

Let's read some more here.

I wanted to, uh, uh, just, uh, there are a couple other things I wanted to share real quickly here.

I found in a book, uh, by Lloyd Gaston, a top New Testament scholar from our own generation, he says this in his book, No Stone Upon Another, in page 468: For a Christian living in the '60s of the first century, all the signs seemed to point toward an imminent end.

The end had been expected within a generation, and the first generation was coming to an end.

The hope for the nearness of the end was stimulated by persecution, which the church had been experiencing.

And get this, According to the calculations of the best minds in Israel The 490 years of Daniel 9 were at last coming to an end, and according to the perhaps independent tradition of a messianic age which was supposed to last 40 years, it had been just about that long since the beginning of the Christian messianic age.

Here's what L- Gassend is saying.

You go back to Daniel 9, and in Daniel 9 Daniel prophesies that in the next 490 years, that's how long it will take before the anointed one comes, he'll be cut off, he'll put an end to sin, and then this prince shall come bringing destruction upon the holy city of Jerusalem, and the temple will be destroyed, sacrifices will cease, and a strong covenant will be made.

All at the end of a 490-year period.

And this is what's happening when Jesus comes and he's cut off, he makes a strong covenant, and then Jerusalem is besieged and the temple's destroyed and sacrifices cease.

And according to the rabbis, when the Messiah came he was to usher in the messianic age.

There are actually three ages: this age, the messianic age, and the age to come.

This age was the old covenant age.

The messianic age was supposed to last, according to rabbis now, 40 years.

And the age to come was of unlimited duration.

It was a period of great blessing.

So the old covenant ends in 30 AD.

The messianic age begins and lasts 40 years.

Christ comes again on the clouds, seen with the eyes of faith, to bring destruction to the temple and to cause sacrifices and offerings to cease in 70 AD, thus inaugurating the age to come.

Well, you might say, Well, if this is the age to come, where are the blessings?

Well, try right down the road.

What is it, uh, Brother Don?

Is it 100 Bellevue, where our Lord lives?

In the blessed tabernacle there, the blessed sacrament there?

I mean, what blessings do you want?

God lives in our midst.

The holy Eucharist, and all the other sacraments, and all of the countless blessings of the new Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, the Catholic Church.

Are we ungrateful people?

We don't recognize what Christ has ushered in, so we don't thank God for the fulfillment, at least the initial fulfillment, of the apocalypse.

And by the way, there are, uh, so many more things we could, we could say.

I have, I, you know, I, you see I'm surrounded by books.

I won't read 'em all.

One of the most interesting things about this, in, uh, in 62 AD, a poor man that nobody knew, his name was Jesus ben Onanus, was sent by God.

I mean, he just began prophesying.

He went around the city for seven years, from 62 AD to 69 AD, this man went around the city scantily clad.

I mean, it isn't clear if he was really wearing much of anything, and all he did, all day long, was to say, Woe, woe, woe.

Woe to the bride and woe to the bridegroom.

Woe to those who eat and woe to those who sell.

Woe, woe, woe.

Woe to the bride, woe to the bridegroom, woe to those who eat and woe to those who sell.

Over and over again, the same message, for seven years.

He was beaten, he was tortured, he was spit upon, he was thrown out of the city.

He'd come back the next day.

Woe, woe, for seven years.

The people of Jerusalem saw this vagrant prophet going from street to street, from neighborhood to neighborhood, doing nothing but pronouncing woes for seven years until he perished in the city itself.

We underestimate the significance of 70 AD, don't you agree?

In Revelation 11 then, let's- let's move on here.

The inhabitants of the Earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the Earth.

Then it describes how they're resurrected and how they're ascended into heaven.

And verse 13, At that very hour, there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed.

7,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

It's interesting that some estimates suggest that, uh, back around 70 AD, the- the- the population of Jerusalem was around 70,000.

At the time it was destroyed, it had swollen to around 1.2 million pilgrims because they were there to celebrate a festival.

And that's apparently how many were slaughtered.

I mean, the- the estimates ranged between 600,000 and 1.2 million.

That's how swollen it was.

This, uh, verse 14.

The second woe is past, the third woe is coming soon.

Why?

Because the seventh trumpet is now about to sound.

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven which said, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.' In other words, the one thing that stands in the way of the whole world being initiated into God's kingdom, what is the kingdom of God on Earth?

The church.

What is the one thing standing in the way, trying to prevent the apostles from bringing the gentiles in and making them full-fledged family members?

You read the Book of Acts.

From Acts 1 through Acts 28.

It was the Jews in Jerusalem, beginning with the high priest and going all the way down.

It was Jerusalem which was the center of opposition and persecution.

It was the Jews in Jerusalem that made Paul appeal to Caesar in Rome for a just hearing.

How ironic that he couldn't get any justice in the holy city, he had to go to Rome instead for his cause to be heard.

So now at last, with the brought, with the- with the, uh, with the seventh trumpet being sounded, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever.

And the 24 elders who were seated on the thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, 'We give thanks to you Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.

The nations were angry, and your wrath has come.' That's a reference to Psalm 2.

We'll see in a minute how important that Psalm is to become.

The time has come for judging the dead and for rewarding your servants the prophets, and your saints and those who reverence your name, both great and small, and for destroying those who destroy the Earth.

Literally the land.

Whenever you see the word for Earth in Revelation, the word there, Ɣē, is literally the land.And more often than not, it probably ought to be translated the land as opposed to the whole Earth, because that seems to be its immediate reference.

Verse 19: Then God's temple in Heaven was opened You catch the irony?

The temple in the old Jerusalem is being destroyed with an earthquake.

The whole city is now collapsing.

Why?

Because the seventh trumpet has been sounded.

With the blast of the seventh trumpet, the new Jericho, which is the old Jerusalem, begun crumbles down.

And as a result of this temple being destroyed, now at last we have an insight into the real temple — the heavenly Jerusalem and the heavenly temple.

This was, by the way, a common understanding among the ancient Jews and the rabbis that there were always two Jerusalems.

They believed that there was a heavenly Jerusalem and an earthly Jerusalem, a heavenly temple and an earthly temple.

And the earthly temple was supposed to be based upon the pattern, or the blueprint, of the heavenly one.

Moses was a- a- allegedly ushered into the heavenly Jerusalem, as was Abraham and several other prophets so they could see exactly what was to be made and how it was to be manufactured.

Verse 19: Then God's temple in Heaven was opened, and within His temple was seen The Ark of His Covenant?

No way.

If you were a Jewish Christian at this point, you'd have a coronary.

You'd say, Wait a second.

What do you mean, 'The Ark of His Covenant'?

The Ark of the Covenant hadn't been seen in, uh, five centuries.

According to 2 Maccabees, Jeremiah had hid the Ark of the Covenant.

According to some legends, it was taken by God.

I mean, it was the Ark of the Covenant that made the temple in Jerusalem so holy.

It was the Ark of the Covenant dwelling in the inner sanctum that made the inner sanctum the Holy of Holies.

The Ark of the Covenant is what contained the tablets of stone, the Decalogue, the manna, the- the- Aaron's rod that had blossomed.

The Ark of the Covenant, made of acacia wood, covered with gold, and then overshadowed by the cherubim.

On top of it was the Mercy Seat.

The Ark of the Covenant was the holiest object in- in all of the Earth, and it was gone for five centuries.

When the second temple was built, it did not include the Ark of the Covenant.

I mean, you still had a Holy of Holies, but you never had the Shekinah glory cloud, the fire of God, return and descend upon the temple when it was rebuilt and rededicated by Ezra and Nehemiah.

So that second temple always lacked the luster and glory of the first.

Now, all of a sudden, John is telling believers that God's temple has opened in Heaven and we can see the Ark of the Covenant.

Everybody would be clamoring at this point, What does it look like?

Describe it for us.

Wow, I can't believe my ears.

Tell me with your eyes what you see.

And instead he just goes and says, There came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and great hailstorm, which you'll recall from an earlier chapter describes the great judgment at the end of the, uh, seven seals.

Now, wait a second here.

John has just told us that the heavenly temple's been opened and the Ark of the Covenant's been seen, and as soon as he tells us this, he- he goes on to describe the sound effects.

Wonderful, John.

But let's get back to the ark.

All right.

A great wondrous sign appeared in Heaven: a woman clothed with the sun and the moon John, let's get, let's get back to the ark.

A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

She was pregnant and she cried out John, let's get back to the Ark of the Covenant.

You just saw the Ark of the Covenant, and you just mention it in passing?

And you don't go back and describe what- what it is, where it is, what it means?

I would suggest to you that here we have a typological insight on John's part that really highlights the reality of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Because I'm convinced that John hasn't skipped the Ark of the Covenant.

What he's doing now is he's describing the Ark of the Covenant.

What is it that made the Ark of the Covenant so holy?

Special wood?

Nah.

Gold?

Lots of things had gold back then.

It was the fact that within the Ark of the Covenant you had the Ten Commandments on te- on tablets of stone.

You had the very word of God inscribed with the finger of God.

You had the manna, the mira- the miracle bread that God provided to His people to feed them during their wilderness pilgrimage.

And you had the priestly rod that budded.

Well, what is it that makes Mary holy?

I would suggest to you that whatever made the Ark of the Covenant holy in the Old Testament is precisely the same principle that makes Mary even holier, and even more truly the real Ark of the Covenant.

Because if it's the word of God on s- in stone that made the Ark of the Covenant holy, then Mary is the container of the word of God enfleshed.

If- if it was, if it was the manna, the miracle bread that God provided His people during their- their wilderness pilgrimage that made the Ark of the Covenant holy in the Old Testament, then how much more is it the eucharistic flesh provided by the Blessed Virgin Mary through the incarnate Logos, who came to her within her virginal womb?

That's what sanctifies her, that's what consecrates her as the real Ark of the Covenant.

And likewise, is he- he's- he's priest as well as king, so Aaron's rod that budded also points forward to the priest who the Christ is to exercise as a result of His own sacrifice, and eucharistic sacrifice at that.

So, in other words, what John does in 12:1 is what we all were clamoring for Him to do in 11:19, describe for us this Ark of the Covenant.

Now, I've just mentioned that the Ark of the Covenant is a box made of acacia wood, covered with gold, and with these two huge cherubim overshadowing it.

I've also mentioned that you had the Mercy Seat, which was the throne, which was really an- an empty throne on top of the ark .

it was a rather strange configuration because here's a seat which, for centuries and centuries, was vacant.

Why do you have a throne, a mercy seat of the throne of grace, vacant for so long?

Well, because in effect it's not, it's not there's nobody there.

It's vacant.

That's why it's empty.

I did some study of this several years ago, and there's one book in particular by a great German scholar by- by the name of Othmar Keel.

His book is entitled Symbolism of the Biblical World, published by Seabury.

On page 170, he describes that this configuration, this architectural marvel, was actually not that unusual in the ancient world.

Uh, he, he refers this as the great cherubim thrones, and you find cherubim thrones all around the ancient Near East, where you have this box which is like a footstool, and then you have a, a throne, and ove- overshadowing the throne you have the cherubim.

Here's what he says.

The great popularity of cherubim thrones is demonstrated in Canaan and Phoenicia during the late Bronze and early Iron Ages.

Excavators describe it as a female figure sitting in a square armchair.

Odd, isn't it?

But here we have a female figure, almost like a queen figure, enthroned in this seat, and that was the commonplace among all the cherubim thrones back then.

Now, we're not suggesting for a second that Jesus is not there at the mercy seat.

In fact, I think we can make a good case that the Arc of the Covenant is also a sign or a type of Christ, the wood being His humanity, the gold being His divinity, and so on and so forth, that the early church fathers in fact apply the Arc of the Covenant more to Jesus than they did to Mary, although I do have evidence that the early fathers applied this to Mary.

I was just, I just came across this reference, uh Uh, a lot of times Protestants will say, you know, Thi- what kind of newfangled you know, uh, anti-Catholics I should say, 'cause many Protestants will acknowledge this, but many anti-Catholics would say, 'Arc of the Coven being Mary,' that's crazy.

That's lunatic exegesis.

And yet nobody questions the orthodoxy or the, uh, the sobriety of Saint Athanasius.

Right?

And in this book, uh, by Kilian Healey, The Assumption of Mary, on page 158, Hence, we are not surprised that Saint Athanasius greeted Mary with the title Arc of the New Covenant.

In 348, on his return to Egypt from exile, he preached a sermon that in part says this of Mary.

To what shall I liken thee among all creatures, oh Arc of the New Covenant, clad on all sides with purity in place of gold?

The one in whom is found the golden vase with its true manna, that is the flesh in which lies the Godhead.

If I say that heaven is high, it is not thy equal, for it is written heaven is my throne, while thou art the resting place of God.

And then 900 years later, one of the doctors of the church, Saint Anthony of Padua, the evangelical doctor, preaching the assumption used the symbol of the arc and, and others to illustrate the assumption of Mary.

In the constitution or the definition of the dogma of the assumption of Mary, Pope Pius XII refers to this and adds the comment, And he, that is Saint Anthony of Padua, asserts that just as Jesus Christ has risen from the dead over which He triumphed and has ascended to the right hand of the Father, so likewise the arc of his sanctification has risen up, since on this day the Virgin Mother has been taken up to her heavenly dwelling.

I- it's beautiful th- this, this book is full of all kinds of, of, of, of images that show us Mary as the Arc of the Covenant, as well as Mary as this woman clothed with the sun.

Now, uh, we only have about 15 minutes left, and I want to spend more time on Revelation 12, so here's what I propose.

I'd like to spend the remaining time looking at Revelation 12 and considering its literal historical fulfillment and its, its application to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as its application to the church.

But if we don't really exhaust this chapter, and I guarantee you we won't- we will begin next week with this as well and then traverse chapters 13 and 14 and really pick up again.

Now, let's go through this slowly.

A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven.

A woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head.

Now, if you're interested, by the way, in pursuing this idea of the Arc of the Covenant further, because I don't plan on spending much more time on it tonight, I would suggest to you this book here by Father Rene Laurentin, The Truth of Christmas: Beyond the Myths.

It's in print and it's published by Saint Bede's in Petersham, Massachusetts.

On page 55 and following, uh, Laurentin draws about 10 different parallels between the Arc of the Covenant in the Old Testament and Mary in the New Covenant, not just in Revelation 12, but also in Luke's gospel.

He compares two episodes, one that occurred in 2 Samuel 6 when David brought the Arc of the Covenant up to Jerusalem, and the other one in Luke 1, verse 39 through 43, where Mary takes Jesus up into the hill country of Judah to Elizabeth's house.

And he shows how several of the same Greek words are coincidentally used in both places.

In 2 Samuel 6:2, David arose and went.

In Luke 1:39, In those days, Mary arose and went.

And where did David go?

From Baal up to Judah, and then Mary also went to the hill country to a city of Judah.

And then Laurentin says, Mary, like, uh, David, sets out on her journey.

Uh, David is afraid like Mary in Luke 1:30, and this fear inspires these words which Elizabeth takes up.

In 2 Samuel 6:9, David says, How can the arc of the Lord come to me or enter my house?

In Luke 1:43, Elizabeth declares, And why is this granted me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

In 2 Samuel 6:12, we find the joy of the people in Jerusalem and of David, and the same word is used in Luke 1:44 to describe the joy of Elizabeth and of John the Baptist .

David danced for joy before the l- before the Arc of the Covenant in 2 Samuel 6:14 and 16, and likewise, John the Baptist leapt for joy in the womb of his mother, and both places use the exact same rare Greek verb to describe the dancing leaping of David and of John the Baptist.

Likewise, the cries of the people accompany the arc in 2 Samuel 6, and the same u- term is used to describe Elizabeth's cry in Luke 1:42.

Uh, the, the Arc of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom for three months, and likewise, Mary remained with Elizabeth for three months.

And there are other parallels as well, from Luke's gospel as well as Revelation 12.

So, I recommend you do that study and, uh, Laurentin has also done a two-volume work on Luke chapters one and two that's only available in French.

I don't know how many of you read French, but I have it downstairs if you want to borrow it.

Anyway, um, so let's get back to this.

A great wondrous sign appeared in heaven.

A woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head.

I would suggest to you Well, we'll look at this later on there.

I'm gonna apply this to the assumption, but not yet.

She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns on his heads.

His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.

The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.

She gave birth to a son, a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter or rod, and her child was snatched up to God and to His throne.

The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

We'll stop there and consider those texts, those verses, and then we'll look later on at, uh, the, the war that breaks out in heaven, uh, between Michael the Archangel and his angels and the great dragon and those that he leads out of the heavens.

Now, in order to understand what's going on with this woman, the dragon, and her son, I think two or three Old Testament texts are really essential.

What would the first one be?

I bet you could guess it.

Genesis 3:15.

In Genesis 3:15, we have the protoevangelium, the first gospel, the initial promise that God gave of a future redeemer.

And the redeemer didn't come in a vacuum.

It was the redeemer as the seed of the woman.

What's so unusual about that language in the Greek Old Testament is that it's the woman's spermatos, which is not typically associated with a woman.

It's the man's sperm or the man's seed.

But here, it's the woman's seed, and the devil will have his head crushed, the dragon, the serpent will have his head crushed by the woman.

So as the first Eve was created immaculate and sinless, but was seduced by the devil, the dragon, Satan, the serpent, so the woman's seed will bring about redemption by crushing the dragon.

And here we have, in effect, the woman being described as a new Eve.

And this is common throughout the early church fathers, that Mary is described as the new Eve.

And as the first Eve was created sinless, so Mary is conceived immaculate.

And so the seed of the new Eve is what conquers the dragon who seduced the first Eve.

A second text that I think is also very important to all of this back, uh, for background would be the Exodus.

Now, it would take us a little bit of time to go back and read all of Exodus, so just remember a few of the things that go on in the Exodus.

We have, uh, we have Israel in Egypt.

And remember what God says to Moses in Exodus 4 at the burning bush.

Go tell Pharaoh Israel's my firstborn son.

Let him go to serve me.

And God delivers Israel, His son, from Egypt, takes him to the wilderness where he is kept for a while.

All right, we're gonna look and later on see in verses six and following how there are some Exodus themes that emerge there that many commentators highlight.

The third text that I think is important is Isaiah 7:14.

Isaiah 7:14, a passage that I think all of us are familiar with.

Let me just read it briefly.

In Isaiah seven Let's see here.

Oh, that's Jeremiah.

Wonder why it looks so strange.

Isaiah seven, let's begin reading verse 10.

Again, the Lord spoke to King Ahaz.

King Ahaz now is the ruler in Judah in the House of David, but he's faithless.

Instead of trusting God for delivering his kingdom, he's about to put his trust in the Assyrians, who end up destroying his kingdom.

Rather a bad deal.

Verse 11.

Isaiah says, 'Ask a sign of the Lord your God.

Let it be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.' But Ahaz said, 'I won't ask.

I wouldn't put the Lord to the test.' Pious Ahaz.

This is all an act.

King Ahaz doesn't want to do what God has suggested through Isaiah.

That is, He's saying, Ahaz, I'll give you a sign.

I know your faith is tottering.

I know it's weak.

I'll shore it up.

I'll give you whatever sign you want so that you'll be sure that I will protect the house of David and your own dynasty.

But Ahaz is saying, Oh, well, I can't put the Lord to the test and demand a sign, because deep down he's already planning on forming an alliance with Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria, which he knows Isaiah has condemned.

And the Assyrians end up with, being the ones who destroy Judah.

And he said, verse 13, Hear then, O House of David: Is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also?

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.

In effect, He's saying, He'll give you a sign anyway.

Ask for one or not.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us.

There, I mean, we, we could spend a whole hour just discussing a lot of the background for this.

There, the sign is this, that a woman, a virgin shall conceive a son .

who, in the worst of times, will ensure that this troubled dynasty, the House of David, which is about to crumble, will nevertheless remain sure and steadfast.

In actual fact, the Davidic kingdom perished in 586, in spite of the fact that God had sworn an oath to David in 2 Samuel 7 that his throne would remain forever and ever.

So as you face the prospect of the Davidic dynasty collapsing and you recall the words of God's own oath saying that Go- David's throne will remain sure and steadfast forever, how in the world can both be true?

Well, ask of me for a sign, and I'll give you a sign, and the sign that this crumbling kingdom, the sign that this unsteady throne will remain sure and steadfast is that a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and He shall be God with us.

And then later on in Isaiah 9, and in Isaiah, Isa- Isaiah 8 and 9 and 11, we discover that this son is seen to be a root, uh, uh, a, a, a, a, a branch that comes up from the stump of Jesse.

David's family tree has been cut down, and yet it still gives growth to this shoot, uh, this branch that w- will be the Messiah.

So, I would suggest to you that in Revelation 12, this woman who gives birth to a male child who's to rule all the nations refers to God ensuring that the kingdom of David will remain forever.

We have even stronger evidence to bring that, to make that certain, because in verse 5, Revelation 12:5, She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron rod, that is a quotation from Psalm 2, verse 9.

Psalm 2, verse 9, everybody agrees deals with the kingdom of David.

In Psalm 2 we read, Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand, and the king the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One.

'Let us break their chains,' they say, 'and throw off their fetters.' But the One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

Then He rebukes them in His anger, and He terrifies them in His wrath, saying: 'I have installed My King on Zion, My holy hill.' So it's obviously the son of David.

And I will proclaim the decree of the Lord.

He said to me This is David now, or a king ruling in the line of David speaking.

He said to me, 'You are My son.

Today I have become your father.

Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession.

You will rule them with an iron scepter, a rod.

You will dash them to pieces like pottery.

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth, et cetera, et cetera.

So, in Revelation 12, we have here the mother of the Messiah in the line of David safeguarding the kingdom of David.

Now, why would that be an important sign back in the first century?

Well, these verses suggest that the kingdom of David is in peril.

From what?

Well, from Satan, of course.

But historically, what is it that imperiled Jesus' coming as the son of David in the city of David, Bethlehem?

What was it that really made it so unsure that the Messiah would come and fulfill the oath of God that the throne of David would remain steadfast?

She was pregnant and about to a- and, and, and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

Then another sign appeared in heaven, an enormous red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns on his head.

Who is this?

Verse 9 tells us.

It's Satan, right?

The dragon is Satan.

The great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the Devil or Satan who leads the whole world astray.

But why is this dragon, Satan, compared to or described as a red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns?

Satan is an angel, one of the fallen seraph im- one of the fallen seraphim perhaps, but he's a pure spirit.

So why is he described in corporeal or bodily terms?

Because I would suggest to you that in addition to the dragon being an individual, it is also a symbol of a collective power.

For instance, we have seven heads and 10 horns, and from the Old Testament and from the book of Revelation, we realize that 10 horns symbolize dynastic power.

In other words, I would suggest that here we have Satan identifying himself in some manner with an earthly kingdom.

But what kingdom is it?

I'm gonna take the suggestion made by J.E.

Leonard in this book, Come Out of Her, My People: A Study of the Revelation of John.

Let's see, I'm gonna read from page 91.

The personification of the satanic power working through Rome is Herod the Great, who gives orders to kill all Jewish baby boys after he learns of the birth of Jesus, infant King of the Jews.

He is the red dragon, because Herod is of the people of Edom.

Herod was an Edomite.

Edom is the Hebrew word for red.

Let's take a look at this a little more closely.

We need to l- know a little bit more about the Herodian dynasty.

You might be thinking, Come on, you know, the dragon being Herod?

I mean, he was a little puppet dictator there in, you know, in one little dark corner of the world.

I would suggest to you that the Herodian dynasty is the least studied, the most underrated reality of the first century.

Think of this, for instance.

I want to give you just a little bit of background.

Herod the Great was a non-Jew who was appointed by Rome way back in 40 BC to rule Judea, and he ruled from 37 BC to around 4 BC as the king of Judea and of Galilee.

He's the one who wiped out the Hasmonean dynasty of the Jews to safeguard his own power.

He knew, even though he ruled in Jerusalem, he knew that because he wasn't a Jew, the Jews weren't accepting him as their king.

When he died, who took over?

There were four of his sons who formed what was called a tetrarchy .

alright?

A monarchy divided up into four parts.

There was Herod Philip II, there was Archelaus or A- Archelaus, Herod Antipas; he was the one who put John the Baptist to death, he was also, uh, the one that Pilate sent Jesus to, uh, that's Herod Antipas.

And there was also Aristobulus.

He's not mentioned in the Bible, but, but from Roman sources we know the fourth tetrarch appointed to succeed, uh, Herod the Great.

This forms the great Herodian dynasty.

Now, where was the center of the Herodian dynasty?

Jerusalem.

What was Herod claiming to be?

King in Jerusalem.

Guess which dynasty he was laying claim to?

The Davidic dynasty.

Guess who built the temple in Jesus' time?

Right.

It's known as the Herodian temple.

He wasn't even a Jew, yet he was claiming to be the king in Jerusalem and the one who would build the temple of God.

This red Edomite king.

And think about just how wicked he was.

Herod the Great, for instance, the founder of this great Jerusalem dynasty, who began rebuilding the temple, murdered his own wife.

He executed three of his own sons.

He executed his mother-in-law.

Well, you know.

Eh.

No, I'm sorry.

That was terrible.

He also killed his brother-in-law, his uncle, and many others, as well as the Bethlehem babies that he ordered executed in the Slaughter of the Innocents.

What an inauspicious beginning for a resurgent Davidic dynasty in Jerusalem, huh?

What a satanic counterfeit.

And he was conspiring with who to snuff out the lives of the infants of the Messiah?

Who did he consult to figure out where the Messiah would be born?

The priests of Jerusalem.

They were in bed with Herod.

I mean, don't you think they ought to say to themselves, Wait a second, why do you want to know?

So you, an Edomite, can worship our Messiah Davidic king?

Yeah, right.

Yet here are the chief priests conspiring with Herod to help him locate where the Messiah was at his birth.

It's incredible.

I mean, uh, there are other things too.

In the line of, after the tetrarchs, we have Herod Agrippa, who was king of Judea from around AD 37 to around 44.

He was the one who killed James in the Book of Acts.

He is also the one who put Peter in prison, was planning on killing him until the angel delivered Peter.

He was worshiped as the, by the people as a god.

In Acts 12, verses 1 through 24, how does Herod Agrippa I die?

While he's giving a speech and all the people say, This is the voice of a god, all of a sudden, what?

He collapses and his belly bursts open and all these worms are seen eating his innards out.

And it was an angel of the Lord who smote him right there.

In other words, this man was a demonic counterfeit king that an angel himself had to destroy in order for the people of Jerusalem not to be sedu- seduced by his speech.

We're talking evil here.

I mean, this kind of evil makes the Caesars look mild by comparison, because the Caesars at this point really aren't that bad.

Then Herod Agrippa I was replaced by Herod Agrippa II.

He is the one that Paul makes his defense before in the Book of Acts, along with Felix, the governor of Judea.

Herod Agrippa is the one who also basically paves the way for the revolt of the Jews, inciting them in various ways.

He rules up until around the time of the early 60s AD.

So the Herodian dynasty.

Now, how many people formed the Herodian dynasty?

I just counted this up this evening.

You have Herod the Great, and then when he dies you have the tetrarchy, so that makes five.

Then you have Herod Agrippa I, and then the Herodian dynasty ends with Herod Agrippa II.

What a coincidence that this red dragon has seven heads.

What else does it have?

10 horns.

I would suggest to you that the 10 horns here are the source of power, because if you look back in the Old Testament, the horns in Daniel are the real power source where the, where the heads get their authority.

Now, where did the Herodian dynasty get its authority?

From Rome.

And in particular from Julius Caesar, and then from the Caesars in line.

Ultimately, when you study the Caesars, here's what you come up with.

You have Julius Caesar, and then in the time of Christ's birth you have Augustus Caesar, and then in Luke 3:1 we have Tiberius, then in Acts 17 we have Claudius, then of course after Claudius we have Nero Caesar, then after Nero's death we have three people all vying for the role of Caesar.

We have Galba, Otho, and Vitellius.

Two of them were believed to have actually taken the throne and reigned as Caesar for a short while.

They were followed by, uh, we- we'll say three of them, because they're actually listed as Galba, Otho and Vitellius as three consecutive Caesars.

That's was the year that you actually had four or five Caesars in one year.

Nero dies, replaced by Galba, then Otho, Vitellius.

And then Vespasian comes back from, uh, from, from the Jerusalem campaign and he becomes Caesar.

And then after Vespasian, his son Titus becomes Caesar.

And who is Titus?

He's the one who destroyed Jerusalem.

He was the general who commanded the troops that destroyed the temple as well.

And from Julius Caesar to Titus you've got 10 Caesars.

So you've got seven heads and 10 horns empowering Satan to make war against the woman and her Davidic son, who is the heir apparent to the throne that God swore to establish forever.

I would suggest to you that this is Satan indeed, but it's Satan personified in the Herodian dynasty there in Jerusalem, claiming the temple of God as his own, because he is the one who took decades and decades ultimately to rebuild it.

And he is the one who has the greatest gripe against Jesus, the Son of David, and against Mary, the Queen Mother of the Son of David.

All right?

So when we come to Revelation 12, I want in the worst way to spend time dealing with the Marian imagery of this particular chapter.

But before we rush into it, we will discredit the Catholic Church's teaching on Mary and the application of Revelation 12 to Mary if we just skip over the literal fulfillment, the literal historical meaning of this passage.

I would suggest to you that once we adopt as a working hypothesis a first century fulfillment surrounding Jerusalem in 70 AD with the destruction of the temple, we have the real interpretive key to seeing why this enormous red dragon is so committed to making war against this woman and her son.

We're gonna have to stop here with the, with our discussion of literal historical fulfillment because otherwise I just don't think we're, we're gonna be able to do justice to anything in the way of Marian imagery in Revelation 12.

But next time I want to begin and spend at least a half hour dealing with Revelation 12 and why I believe that the woman, like the dragon, is an individual as well as a collective symbol of the church.