REVELATION - 20 1-6

Apocalypse logic & riddles, weekly study, verses paraphrased [ ] references { } thots

BOOK OF REVELATION

1 - Then I (John) saw an angel descending from heaven. He held in his hand the key to the abyss, and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil [diabolos - devil, accuser, slanderer] and Satan [satanas - adversary] and bound him for a thousand years. {God has been permissive? letting things run course, even a semi ant farm is no paradise, so this ‘quick” unavoidable, all important one & done first, 1Tim.4:10.}

     3 And then the angel threw him into the abyss. {Imperfection/straying/going rogue is an abyss of potential.} And he shut it and sealed it over him, so he could not deceive the nations any longer, untiL, “the” thousand years are over.

     After that, he must be released for a little while. {Which will be for the first half of an “8th” millennium.. According to the pattern of the Fall holy days, Leviticus 23, and this chapter, although it’s portrayed like describing the crests of waves, but not much of the in between.}

     4 And I saw thrones. [Thronos - seats of authority, from thrao - to sit, or thranos - bench.] And those sitting [kathizó - sitting, settled, seated] upon them, and judgment was given them and those beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus, and the word [logos - message, reasoning expressed in words] of God, which did not worship the beast, or the image of it, and didn’t take its mark [xáragma - brand-mark, originally any impress on a coin or seal used by an engraver on a die (stamp, branding iron) and later became an identification-marker, an owner's unique brand-mark] upon their forehead and hand, and they live and reign with Christ a thousand years. (Help from biblehub dot com’s interlinear with links to the original words and their meanings.)

     5 The rest of the dead do not live again until the thousand years are completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed [makarios - blessed, happy, fortunate] and holy [hagios - holy, sacred, set apart] are those who have a part {& role?} in the first resurrection! Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests [hiereus - ministers in priestly office] {minister what to whom?} of God and of Christ, and they will reign [basileúō - exercise dominion] with him {for/during} the thousand years. {And during GWT judgment ‘day’? Serving called reigning..}

Next - 20:7-10🗝️

REVELATION - 18 1-8

 Apocalypse logic & riddles, weekly study, verses paraphrased [ ] references { } thots

BOOK OF REVELATION

     1 - After (all) this I (John) saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, for the earth was made bright with his radiance.

     2 He called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen! Fallen! Babylon - the great - is fallen! ‘She’ who became a dwelling place for demons! A haunt for every unclean predatory bird and spirit. {Truly dog eat dog?} {City Babylon sits on all seven hills/continents.. rode there upon the beasts of earth that will join into one beast.}

     3 For all nations have drank the wine of her passion [orge - passion, wrath]. {This is the word translated wrath when it comes to “God’s wrath” which I think of as God’s “passion”. His passion being cause and effect because an Ant Farm is no paradise. And because it’s running its course even though he, as Life, witnesses and lives through all atrocities. I can’t help thinking some actual anger, however does come into play sometimes. The old Testament word means “smoke out the nose”. Lol. Can’t forget nations around Israel were sacrificing children and babies to a fire ‘god’. And preflood was hands off..?}

     All nations have drank the wine of the wrath of her immorality. The kings of earth {are in bed with} have committed immorality with her. And the merchants of earth through her sensuality have grown rich. {Not only from free enterprise highjacked and gone extreme, but also by harnessing immorality, greek word porneia.].”

     4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, and thus share in her plagues. 5 For her sins are heaped high as heaven {‘she’ shakes her fist at heaven?} and God has remembered her iniquities [adikéma - wrongdoings, injustices, offenses]. 6 Pay to her as she has paid to others. Repay her double what she has done, mix a double portion for her in the cup, she herself mixed. 7 As she glorified [doxazó - bestowed glory, honored, praised] herself and lived in indulgence and wantoness, so give her its torment and mourning. Because in her heart she says, ‘I am a queen, not a widow. And mourning I will never see.’ 8 For this reason her plagues [plégé - plagues, wounds, afflictions, blows] will come in a day, death, mourning, famine. And she will be destroyed by fire, for mighty is the LORD God who judges her.” {Only Good and True can stand, and endure, an iron measure. Truth is, and Truth rules. But this contrast was all set on fast forward by fallen angels being involved.. Otherwise why did God wait …so long? Not only for the first bound to occur rebel thought to occur, but to mature into outright sedition, before creating the universe, earth and man and woman?}

Next - 18:9-24

The Heartbroken Prophet

Poor Hosea. He lived in hard times, a time hard to find a good wife. Prophet for the Most High God of the Bible, during a time when the nation was, let's say very sexually active. Finally God said "Go ahead, get yourself a wife from the nation, she'll symbolize the unfaithfulness of my people".

Now lest we get on our high horse and judge Israel, it's not hard to see Israel is but a micro example of the macro situation.. the world has wandered far from the One who created it as a garden of peace and delight.

It's been said of prophet Hosea, "his sentences fall like the throbs of a broken heart." His wife had run off with another man, likely one who could pamper her with luxury. Hosea's heart was broken. This, God said, was the exact same thing Israel (and mankind) had done to him. Like sheep gone astray, Israel then, and the world now, has wandered far away from Him and life's simple garden of peace and delight. We could truthfully say God's heart mourns.

Mourning the unfaithfulness of his wife, Hosea, wrote that he "bought her back". Before we judge them too harshly, let's note it was a day when religion (other than Israel's) involved sex rites in the shade of lush groves. "The spirit of harlotry leads them astray" Hosea recorded, "and Most High God is a stranger to them".

This marriage was an example of God's marriage to mankind, and Israel, appointed to prophecy, to record the words of Scripture, and to be the place a little bit prepared for the rescuer, Messiah, whom it is prophesied will return and restore paradise and eternal life, after the course of mankind and world history has run its course. You see, God too, has "bought back" His unfaithful wife.

Before God sent Hosea to prophecy, He had sent Elijah, Elisha and Amos. Meanwhile, He also had sent Jonah to preach to Nineveh the capital of Assyria. You see Assyria was a great nation whose main theme and occupation was conquest, and they had their eye on Israel.

Back when Israel was faithful to God, His radiant Spirit (His Presence with them) was a shield round about them. But this could no longer be said. Mighty Nineveh, and all Assyria amended their ways at the preaching of Jonah, long enough to delay their aggressive conquest of Israel, what God called "fiery judgment".

In the day when mighty Assyria was getting ready to pounce on Israel, Israel, according to the Bible, had, for some time, fallen prey to practices of the popular religion of the day, which had progressed into human sacrifice, especially of infants and children. Sex rites brought about what was likely many unwanted babes, and it doesn't seem too big a leap to assume one had to do with the other, a natural progression if you will.

What Almighty God worth his salt wouldn't cease to protect a people who had adopted such horrific practice!

Bible prophet Hosea never did say how he and his (once) unfaithful wife got on. Did they end their days in peace and grow old together? Assyria did come, make war with and terrify Israel, and carried the people away with them back to Assyria, to be the slaves they had become. But a few poor folk of the land had been left behind. I like to think Hosea and his wife, Gomer, found peace and happiness in the end.

And as for Israel? (The northern ten tribes of Israel that is.. the ones some think of as "the lost ten tribes of Israel, but that's another story.)

God also said through His prophets that Messiah would regather and restore Israel. They would turn to Him and the nations would stream to Jerusalem to learn. And Jerusalem/Israel will become the beautiful and verdant capital of a New Earth within a New Heavens, where the "lion will eat straw like the ox, and the bear will be seen grazing with the cow" (paraphrased just a little).