Tuesday 27 August 2013

Background

We begin with the destruction of a prostitute (Revelation 17-18) and end with the marriage ofa bride clothed in purity. Quite a contrast! So what is going onhere?

It must be remembered that all this imagery is related to theJewish ideas of what the final reign of God would signify. All theevil enemies will be defeated and destroyed and the good willtriumph. In this particular case it is the Roman nation that isrepresented by the prostitute and the bride is clothed by the deedsof the holy people of God.

In the time of Paul and the Apostles, Rome had been consideredto be an authority that was fair-minded in judging the Christians.But by the time that the book of Revelation was written things hadchanged. Now Christians were considered to be traitors because theywould not acknowledge Caesar as a god. So Rome was now the enemy,the prostitute, the one that was ripe for destruction.

In contrast, in this new reign of God, saintly people wereconsidered fit to be present when the Lamb received his bride.People who are unfamiliar with this imagery can find it puzzling,or amusing, to think of a lamb being married with great ceremony.But this is the familiar - to Christians - image of Christ as thesacrificial Lamb taking his rightful place in this new heavenlykingdom, along with his bride. The bride is the Church and theChurch is dressed with holy people. An idealised picture, if everthere was one.

Around all this ceremony the sound of loud voices like rushingwater, or peals of thunder, are heard shouting in verse 6,"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns!" What anoisy lot they are in heaven! But if we could be sure that evil wasfinally defeated and good would triumph for ever, I suppose wemight want to shout it on the rooftops too. Until that day we readof the imagery, but live with the reality of the struggle of dailyliving in a world that is good, but only in parts.

To Ponder

• Attitudes towards destroying the enemy have changed. How do youfeel about the issue of retribution?

• Christ the Lamb and the Church as the bride of Christ arefamiliar images to Christians, but may well be puzzling to otherpeople. How would you explain, or change them, in order to makethem more accessible?