Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In the Book of Revelation, chapter 14, the son of man came on the clouds, and an angel harvested the earth with God’s judgment, creating a river of blood. 

In Revelation 15, John looks away from the bloody earth, to a scene in heaven, where seven angels have prepared seven plagues. More bad news for earth. But there’s also a trace of good news. These are the last seven plagues. Then God’s wrath will be complete. Perhaps peace will come?

Meanwhile, standing in heaven, are Christians who were victorious over the beast and its image and the number 666. I think the victory they won was to be tortured and executed for refusing to worship the beast. This earned them a warm welcome in heaven. 

These victors play harps and sing a song of praise:
  Great and marvelous are your deeds, 
      Lord God Almighty.
  Just and true are your ways.
      All nations will worship you (Rev 15:3-4). 

After this worship set, seven angels come out of the temple in heaven. The temple fills with smoke and glory, like Moses’ tabernacle in the Old Testament. Then the angels take their seven bowls overflowing with God’s wrath, and pour them onto the earth.

  Bowl 1 causes festering sores on those with the mark of the beast. 
   Bowl 2 turns the sea to blood, killing every sea creature.
   Bowl 3 turns rivers and springs into blood. 

   Bowl 4 makes the sun scorch the earth with fire. The result of this? No one repents. Instead they curse God as a troublemaker. 
   Bowl 5 plunges the beast’s kingdom into darkness. More people curse God. 
   Bowl 6 dries up the Euphrates River, creating a highway for all nations to march to the battle of Armageddon. 

   Bowl 7 unleashes a mighty earthquake, sinks islands, flattens mountains, and pounds earth with  hundred-pound hailstones. 

And still the beast encourages everyone to curse God.
And still the nations march toward Armageddon. 

Let’s pray. 

O father, our world is like John’s vision. The wars that plagued the 20th century did not bring peace or wisdom. Instead, we have a war-mongering dictator in Moscow and a belligerent communist in Beijing, and a society with more guns than people in America. 

Yet we receive Revelation’s vision. 
– A vision that confirms that the evils on earth are real and life-threatening.
– A vision that looks beyond earthly dysfunction, to heaven where you rule.
– A vision that places a lamb on your throne, and he will soon take charge of the earth.

Grant us wisdom and patience to recognize the work of the beasts on earth, and to serve and die in the hidden kingdom of Christ. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In the Book of Revelation, chapter 13, a dragon and two beasts start a new religion, requiring everyone to worship the beast’s image and get tattooed with its name or number. Don’t want a tattoo? Too bad. Objectors will be executed.

In chapter 14, John looks away from this beastly vision, to Mount Zion, where the lamb stands with 144,000 people tattooed with God’s name, not that of the beast. 

Then we see three flying angels. The first says, “Worship God, because he’s ready to judge everyone.” 

The next angel says, “Babylon the Great, which infected the whole world with madness, has fallen.” 

The third angel declares, “God is angry with anyone who worships the beast or is tattooed with his mark. He’ll throw them into a pit of burning sulfur.” 

John says, “This calls for patient endurance by God’s people on earth” and a voice from heaven says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”  

What’s this? The beasts have been busy executing Christians. And now we’re told even more Christians will die? And those who die are blessed? Is this good news or bad news? 

When the Old Testament prophet Daniel got news like this, his face turned pale and he was deeply troubled. In his vision, four beasts rose out of the sea. The fourth beast blasphemed God and oppressed God’s people for three-and-a-half years. Then the son of man came in the clouds of heaven to destroy the beast and set up God’s kingdom on earth (Dan 7:1-28).

John’s vision also has the son of man coming on the clouds to deal with a world where sin has ripened into a harvest. An angel does the harvesting, throwing the produce into the winepress of God’s judgment. There the grapes are trampled and blood flows, rising as high as a horse bridle for 300 kilometers. 

A mighty harvest that! God’s judgment creates a river of blood. 

Let’s pray. 

O father, give us patient endurance to live through the evils of our time. 

John prophesied that Babylon the Great would fill the world with madness. In our time,  many nations pose as Babylon and drive the world to insanity. Trade wars and pornography, weapons production and cyber warfare, gambling and guns and bombs and drones. Pollution beyond control. 

O Lord, we have crowned beasts as kings of the earth, and we display their names and number wherever we go. Drivers license, social insurance, health care numbers, money stamped with political images, bank accounts that report to government and tax authorities.

Is patient endurance the best you can recommend for us, Lord? Don’t you want us to try to change the politics of the world? To avert the rise of worse and greater beasts? Should we try to domesticate the politicians and encourage them to enact Christian legislation? 

O God, we live in troubled times, immersed in divisive politics and watched by intrusive technology. May we wait patiently and wisely while you prepare to ride the clouds of heaven and vanquish evildoers.

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In the Book of Revelation, chapter 12, Michael and his angels threw the dragon and his demons to earth. Chapter 13 continues the story. 

The dragon stands on a seashore, while a beast emerges from the sea. The beast has 10 horns, 7 heads, feet like a bear, and a mouth like a lion. One head looks like it was fatally wounded, but had healed. 

This impresses the whole world, and everyone worships the magical beast and the dragon who gave him authority. The beast spends the next six years blaspheming God, railing against the residents of heaven, and unleashing war against Christians. 

John quotes Jeremiah to describe these six awful years: 
    If anyone is destined for captivity,
      into captivity they will go.
    If anyone is destined to be killed by the sword, 
       then the sword will kill them (Rev 13:10 quoting Jer 15:2). 

Not a comforting thought for those Christians. What happened to the salvation and power and kingdom of God that were promised in Revelation 12? With classic understatement John comments, “This calls for patient endurance by God’s people” (Rev 13:11).  

The vision continues. Another beast shows up: Beast #2. It comes out of the earth and starts a new religion by creating an image of Beast #1. The image comes alive and speaks. If you refuse to worship the image, you are scheduled for execution. 

Notice some Old Testament themes in this story. In the beginning, God’s spirit hovered over the waters of chaos, and created humans in his image from the dirt of the earth. 

In a feeble parody of creation, the dragon stands by the sea, calling up beasts like itself from sea and earth. The beasts set up an image to be worshiped, reminding us of King Nebuchadnezzar who commissioned an image of himself for people to worship. When Daniel’s friends refused, the king threw them into a fiery furnace. 

In Revelation, the beasts not only demand worship, they mark everyone’s forehead or right hand. Without that mark, no one can buy or sell. 

John comments, again with understatement, “This calls for wisdom” (Rev 13:18). He continues, “Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of humans. That number is 666.”  

A mysterious saying indeed. 666 is the code for the beast that rules and for the humans it rules over? Maybe John is warning that humans who worship something other than God are turning themselves into beasts.  

Let’s pray. 

Our father, save us from whatever it is that 666 represents. Save us from the beasts that require worship, from humanity’s tendency to become like beasts, and from the beastly instincts of our own nature. 

John’s vision tells us that our world will get worse before it gets better. As the old hymn says, “Is this vile world a friend to grace?” 

O Lord, grant us wisdom not to consume ourselves with counting sixes and charting the rise of beasts. Grant us wisdom to understand the true nature of earthly power, whether wielded by Biden or Trump or Putin or Jinping or Trudeau. Teach us to be loyal to you alone, to wait for your salvation. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

John’s vision in the Book of Revelation bounces between heaven where multitudes worship God and earth where unprecedented disasters occur. 

In chapter 12, John’s vision shifts focus to signs appearing in the heavens. A pregnant woman, clothed with the sun, standing on the moon, and wearing a crown with twelve stars prepares to give birth to a son. 

Remember Joseph in the Old Testament? With his coat of many colors? He had a dream that featured a similar cosmic background. When he told his brothers that the sun, moon, and stars bowed down to him, they said he was an arrogant jerk. “No way we’ll EVER bow to you” they said, and they sold him into the Egyptian slave trade. But God made the dream come true–Joseph became the #2 man in Egypt and saved his family, and the known world, from famine.  

Do the sun and moon and stars in Revelation tell a similar story? Will Revelation’s child be a new Joseph, one who goes into slavery and rises to be king? 

As the woman in John’s vision gives birth, a red dragon with seven crowned heads and ten horns waits to devour the baby. But the baby is snatched away and taken to God’s throne in heaven. Our new Joseph escapes the clutches of his enemies and his mother escapes to the wilderness for three-and-a-half years. 

Sounds like the story of Jesus’ birth, where the dragon we know as Herod tried to kill him. And later that old dragon, Satan himself, arranged Christ’s crucifixion. But God restored Christ and set him on the throne of heaven. 

His mother, Mary, however didn’t escape to the wilderness like the mother in John’s vision. Interpreters who insist on a clear identity for the mother in Revelation tie themselves in knots trying to determine if she’s Mary, the Israelites, or maybe the church. 

Since my life is already tied in knots, I like flexible interpretations. The way I see it, the woman in John’s vision starts out as Mary giving birth to Jesus, and then she represents the church, the whole family of Jesus’ brothers and sisters who, with him, are targeted by modern-day Herods and spirit-dragons like Satan. 

Back in the Book of Revelation, meanwhile, war breaks out in heaven. Michael and the good angels fight the dragon and his demonic army, throwing them down to earth. 

That’s good news for heaven, but not so much for earth because earth is stuck with all the unhappy refugees: one angry and wounded dragon and his massive demonic army. 

A voice in heaven says, “God’s salvation is coming. The dragon who accused God’s children has been thrown down. They conquered him by the blood of the lamb andby their testimony” (Rev 12:10-12). 

But the dragon doesn’t believe he’s defeated. He was cheated out of the woman’s first child, so he plots revenge on the rest of the family–those who obey God’s commandments and hold the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17). 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we are participants in the war between good and evil. We feel the dragons that pursue us: 
… a culture of sex and consumerism and violence, 
… leaders who perpetrate war and kill those who oppose them, 
… our own hearts that love darkness more than light.

We hear the promise of John’s vision, that you, O God, are bringing salvation. The dragon is defeated. We can conquer him by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. 

Help us live into this promise of salvation, not to rely not on politics or philosophy to defeat evil, but on your word, spoken through the death of the lamb and the testimony of our faith.  

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

The Book of Revelation tells about John’s vision of heaven, where multitudes worship God. Where seven seals on a scroll and six trumpet blasts release disasters on earth. Very confusing and mysterious. 

Now, in chapter 11, we’re waiting for the seventh trumpet blast to traumatize earth with, you guessed it, more catastrophes. 

But instead of sounding a trumpet, one in heaven gives John a measuring stick and tells him to measure the temple. Reminds us of Ezekiel’s vision, which included dozens of measurements of the temple he saw. How many measurements should we expect from John’s vision? Surprisingly, none. 

Instead, John changes the subject. He says the Gentiles will trample the holy city for three-and-a-half years, like the Babylonians trampled Jerusalem in Ezekiel’s time. 

In John’s vision, God acts on behalf of the holy city, appointing two witnesses who prophesy in the temple for three-and-a-half years. They traumatize everyone by stopping rain, turning water to blood, and causing plagues. Rather like Moses calling down plagues on Egypt.  

But the prophets in Revelation don’t lead God’s people to a promised land like Moses did. Instead, a beast emerges from the Abyss and kills the prophets. The people of earth celebrate because they are freed from the prophets’ irritating preaching and destructive plagues.  

But suddenly, as the people party, the breath of God enters the corpses. The prophets come to life and ascend to heaven in a cloud, just like Jesus went to heaven when he left the earth. 

Next, an earthquake kills seven thousand people in the city, ending their celebrations.

And, finally, the sound we’ve been waiting for. The blast of the seventh trumpet. 

Instead of looking at earth to see what disasters the trumpet releases, John looks to heaven were many worship God saying:
      The kingdom of this world
        has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Messiah,
        and he will reign forever. 

The 24 elders also worship God saying,
      The nations raged,
        but the time of your wrath has come,
        and the time for judging the dead.
        The time for rewarding your servants,
        and for destroying those who destroy the earth (Rev 11:18-19). 

Finally John’s vision looks away from heaven to see what is happening on earth. The seventh trumpet is delivering lightning, thunder, rumbling, earthquake, and hail. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, Revelation locates the power center of the world and its affairs not in the World Economic Forum, nor the EU, the UN, Beijing, Washington, or Moscow, but in the throne room of heaven, where a lamb shares your throne and watches over his flock on earth. 

We wait for the day when you reveal yourself, when the kingdom of this world becomes your kingdom, when your Messiah will judge all of history and destroy those who destroy the earth. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube