Archive for December 2023

John 21:15-25, Revelation 22, Job 42, Malachi 1-4 Revelation 22: In this final chapter of John’s revelation, he continues to describe the new heaven and the new earth, and then concludes with a final invitation and warning. The new heaven and new earth is further described in stunning detail. The clear as crystal water of life. The tree…

John 21:1-14, Revelation 21, Job 41:12-34, Zechariah 10-14 Revelation 21: Now in Revelation 21 and 22 we come to the great culmination of John’s vision. This chapter 21 presents the new heaven and the new earth, and the great marriage of God with his people, and the fulfillment of all the promises of God in the great new…

John 20:24-31, Revelation 20, Job 41:1-11, Zechariah 6-9 Revelation 20: We come now to the part of Revelation where the final battle is depicted again and the thousand-year reign of Christ and his victory before that. The martyrs who are killed by Babylon and the beast, the forces that oppose Christ, the devil and the satanic powers that…

John 20:19-23, Revelation 19, Job 40, Zechariah 1-5 Revelation 19: Having described the great Babylon – the military and economic powers ranged against God and his people – and its fall, John now turns to describe the final judgment, this time in terms of a great last battle. The first part of chapter 19 describes the song of…

John 20:10-18, Revelation 18, Job 39, Haggai 1-2 Revelation 18: We are still in the section when John is describing Babylon. Babylon is symbolic of the military and economic might, of the Roman Empire and other nations in rebellion against God. Babylon is opposed to the work of Christ and to his people, killing God’s prophets and people:…

John 20:1-9, Revelation 17, Job 38:22-41, Zephaniah 3 Revelation 17: We now come to the part of Revelation where John’s revelation describes three different ways that the end will come. The first, from Revelation 17 to 19, describes Babylon. The way John describes Babylon, as a beautiful woman who is drunk with the blood of the martyrs (17:6)…

John 19:38-42, Revelation 16, Job 38:1-21, Zephaniah 1-2 Revelation 16: In Revelation chapter 16, John now finishes revealing the meaning of the Lamb’s unsealed scroll. Here we come to the seven bowls of God’s wrath on those in rebellion against him. They echo the plagues described in Exodus; those plagues are now being poured out on the whole…

John 19:28-37, Revelation 15, Job 37, Habakkuk 1-3 Revelation 15: We enter now into the last of John’s cycles of seven. This time the seven angels will unleash seven last plagues, symbolized (in chapter 16) as coming from seven bowls. These plagues replicate and resonate with the plagues that came on Egypt. And they are God’s judgment now…