Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 9-12.

One thing I want to note about the Book of Revelation: it reads like an account of a dream.  The best way I can describe what I mean is by giving an example from dreams I have had.  I have had dreams which took place in the house I grew up in with people who would have been in that house while I was growing up, then I go through a door into a room that was never in that house and the people who were with me are now different people, and yet the same.  There appear to be scene shifts in John’s vision which involve real world events which are only connected in terms of God’s plans, not anything we can see without revelation from God (and I wonder if some of the events described in this vision take part solely in the spiritual realm with no connection to real world events we can recognize).  With that introduction I will start writing about today’s passage.  John describes smoke which rose from the earth after a star fell from the sky.  Out of the smoke came locusts which had the power to inflict pain in the manner of scorpions.  These locusts will inflict torment on those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. The star fell from the sky after the blowing of the fifth trumpet.  After the five months of torment, the sixth trumpet will sound.  When the sixth trumpet sounds four angels will lead mounted troops throughout the earth to slay a third of mankind with fire, smoke, and sulfur.  Reading that I can make no connection to what that would look like in physical world events.  I wondered if the seal of God on the forehead would have a physical manifestation which could be seen, or if it will be purely figurative?  Which leads me to ask, to what degree are the rest of the things described in this part of John'[s vision figurative and to what degree will they have physical manifestations which we can connect to what he describes?

I am going to skip to the end of today’s passage to a scene which most clearly illustrates that dream-like jump in focus I referred to at the beginning of today’s blog.  In the account of the woman and the great dragon, the dragon waits in an attempt to devour the woman’s child, but is thwarted when the child was snatched up to God.  The dragon is the devil, or Satan, while the child is Jesus.  John makes it clear that from the moment of His birth, Satan sought to destroy Jesus, but failed.  The woman is the Jewish people collectively.    The dragon pursued the woman, but she flew to a safe place which had been prepared for her.  I cannot help but think that the safe place described is the modern state of Israel (but it may be something much more figurative).  Unable to destroy the woman, the dragon turned its attention to her other offspring, those who follow Jesus.  So, Satan, the devil, has sought to destroy the Jewish people, and seeks to destroy those who follow Jesus.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.