Week 38 - Daniel 10-12, Revelation 9 (Sept 17 - Sept 23)
Notes
Daniel 8-12: Visions of the future
Daniel’s visions in chapters 8-9 largely point to historical events that occurred between the eras of the Old and New Testaments. Here is a breakdown of the events that happened between the Old and New Testaments that help make sense of what Daniel is seeing in these visions, and the situation that Jesus is walking into when we get to the gospels
The History of the Exile
Judah (the kingdom representing the southern 2 tribes of Israel, Judah, and Simeon) is taken into exile, and then returned from exile, but it is a little more complicated than that. there were multiple occasions on which Babylon exiled Israelites (605, 597, 586). Jerusalem was destroyed in 586. Babylon, the kingdom that exiled Judah, fell to the Persians under Cyrus the Great, Cyrus issued a decree allowing the return of the Jewish people in 538 BC, and there are 4 major episodes of this return.
Shesbazzar returns with the articles of gold and silver that had been taken from the temple in 538 along with ~1,000 exiles (Ezra 1)
Zerubbabel (heir to David's throne and ancestor of Joseph - father of Jesus) returns in 538 along with 42,360 exiles (Ezra 2)
the returned exiles delayed in rebuilding the temple, they were chastised by the prophet Haggai in 520 BC and finally completed their (relatively modest) temple in 517 BC
Ezra returns in 458 BC with ~ 4,000 exiles (Ezra 7-8)
Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem in 433 BC with a strong army escort supplied by the king of Babylon which allows them to rebuild the walls of the city.
A Brief Intertestamental History
Persia had allowed the Jewish people to return to the promised land and basically let them self-govern though they were still a vassal state (this is actually the M.O. of the Persian empire for nearly all conquered states). During this time, historical records indicate that it was the high priest who exercised the most civil authority over the people of Israel.
Persian control of Israel came to a sudden end when the Macedonian (Greek) Alexander the Great defeated Darius III and swept through the Persian empire and beyond. Though Alexander only ruled over the Grecian empire for 13 years, his vision of a worldwide empire unified by language, custom, and civilization would continue to shape the history of Western civilization to this day. in a process called 'Hellenization' everyone touched by the Greek empire - Including the Jewish people of Palestine - began to use the Greek language and culture. A very important Biblical development occurred as a result of Hellenization - the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek. This Greek translation is called the "Septuagint" (often abbreviated LXX meaning "seventy") The Septuagint is especially important because it becomes clear that it is the version of the Old Testament that the New Testament authors are usually working from
Alexander's empire was more-or-less divided into 4 kingdoms after his death, and Israel fell under Ptolemaic (Hellenistic rule centered in Egypt) control from 323-198 BC. Under the Ptolemies, Israel was treated well and given generous autonomy, but they increasingly adopted Greek culture and even Greek religious practices. During this time of Greek rule, a Jewish council was established to bring civil law to the people of Israel - this council was called the Sanhedrin. In 198 BC the Seleucid empire (the Syrian (north) division of Alexander's kingdom) was pushed down and took control of Israel. under the Seleucids, the Jews were treated harshly and the Hellenization of their culture was accelerated. A party of orthodox Jews (later to become known as the Pharisees) rebelled against this Hellenization. which brought the Seleucid ruler Antiochus Epiphanes to Jerusalem in a fit of rage in 168 BC. He forbade all sacrifices, outlawed circumcision, canceled the observance of the Sabbath, destroyed every copy of the Hebrew bible that they could find, and forced the Jews to eat pork and sacrifice to Idols. His most awful act was to set up an altar to Zeus and offer sacrifices to him in the Most Holy Place of the temple.
So heinous was the behavior of Antiochus Epiphanes that the Jewish people revolted led by a family named the Maccabees. By 165 BC the Maccabean revolt had retaken Jerusalem, cleansed the temple, and restored biblical worship. This occasion is the genesis of the story of Hanukkah, or the festival of dedication, which Jesus himself celebrates (John 10:22). Israel experienced a brief period of independence under this, the Hasmonaean, dynasty. The Hasmonaean rulers were priests, but they rose to such power that they began to refer to themselves as kings, even though they were not from the lineage of King David. the party that opposed the Hasmonaeans calling themselves kings was called the Pharisees (which means "separatists") and those who supported the Hasmonaeans were called Sadducees (which means righteous); who were generally more Hellenized than their Pharisee counterparts.
in 63 BC, the Roman conquest of the Mediterranean world reached Israel, their independence was once again lost. because Jerusalem resisted the invading Pompey, Israel was punished. The Romans placed an Idumean (Edomite) governor over them, who would later become the 'Herods' and they would be made king of the Jews. the second Idumean ruler was Herod the Great who began rebuilding the modest temple constructed by the returned Israelite exiles in 20 AD - not because he was a devout practitioner of the Jewish faith - but because he loved great building projects which would bring him fame. This building project was mostly complete when Jesus ministers (30-33AD) but was not fully complete until 63 AD. Herod the Great was historically successful but also extremely paranoid (as we see in Matthew 2) he had every surviving descendant of the Hasmonaeans killed including his wife and two sons, so that there would be no threat to his throne.
When the New Testament age arrives with the birth of Christ. the Jewish situation is bleak, they are still mostly scattered across the Near East from the Assyrian and Babylonian Exiles. they only tasted independence for a brief moment that was filled with strife, and they are now under their strongest oppressor yet. the might of the incredible Roman empire is behind their foreign ruler, Herod, who murdered their last remaining thread of hope for independence - the Hasmonaean descendants.
Imagine what it would have meant for John the Baptist and Jesus to arrive and, say this:
"The kingdom of heaven has come near"
Revelation 9: The prayers of God’s People
In Revelation 8, we get the second remarkable passage about prayer in John’s vision.
Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.
Revelation 8:3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne.
The depiction of prayer in both of these passages is an incense constantly burning before God in his throne room. In chapter 8, prayer receives additional significance as it seems to be the launch point from which the seven trumps of God’s judgment disembark.
The main point, however, is that the seven trumpets and what they bring will be part at least of God's answer to the prayers of his people. The sequence of divine judgments, necessary for evil to be conquered and God's glorious new world to emerge, is not a mechanical plan which will grind forward irrespective of human agency. God, as we have seen, is committed to working in the world through human beings. Prayer, even the anguished prayer of those who do not Understand what is going on, is a vital element in this mysterious co-operation (see Romans 8.26-27).
If prayer from on earth is presented by means of the golden censer, the immediate answer is given in the same way. The angel, having offered the incense, now fills the censer with fire from the altar and throws it on the earth. Until evil has been judged, condemned and radically uprooted from the earth, the only word that earth as a whole can hear from heaven is that of judgment.
- NT Wright, Revelation for Everyone, P. 79
Revelation 9: Trumpets 5 & 6
A reminder, we’re reading through a sequence of seven trumpets that are part of the seventh seal that the Lamb was worthy to unseal (Revelation 5). In chapter 9 we read the incredibly vivid imagery of trumpets 5 and 6. While reading them, it is important to remember that the seven trumpets are portrayed as righteous acts of God to punish wickedness and invite the rest of the world to repent (as becomes very clear at the end of our chapter). These horrific visions are acts of God to let our wicked world taste its own destruction, and his will is for the GOOD (repentance) of the world.
The point is the nightmare: all your worst dreams realized in an instant. The fifth angel has unleashed something truly mon. strous, truly hellish.
Which is not surprising, because the fifth trumpet has allowed another falling star to play a particular role. Normally, it seems, the ultimate source of evil and terror is kept firmly locked up. John's conception of the present creation includes a bottomless pit which, like a black hole in modern astrophysics, is a place of anti-creation, anti-matter, of destruction and chaos.
(I don't of course mean that John thinks there is an actual hole in the ground somewhere answering to this description, though some have thought that. Once again we must insist on reading symbols as symbols.) Jesus spoke of the way in which all kinds of wickedness - sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, treachery, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, stupidity - come bubbling up out of the depths of the human heart, to the surprise and horror of would-be pure persons who are doing their best to keep 'clean' by washing their hands (Mark 7.1-23). That is the black hole inside us all.
Humans were made to reflect their wise, loving creator, but somehow their hearts have become full of rebellion, filth and wickedness. Now it appears that the same is true at a cosmic level. The world, though made by God and loved by God, has come to harbour within it such rebellion, such anti-creation destructiveness, that, though God normally requires it to be restrained, if it is to be dealt with it must, sooner or later, be allowed to come out, to show itself in its true colours.
All of this was to be unleashed so that - and this is the point of it all - humans might be challenged to repent (verses 20, 21).
If the locusts and the fiery riders are symbols, then, what are they symbols of? What does John suppose will be the reality, on earth, which corresponds to these lurid visions? Here we must be cautious. There is a whole spectrum of speculation at this point, ranging from those who see these passages as prophecies of actual warfare in the Middle East (if the locusts can be seen as helicopters, the horses of verses 17-19 could be seen as armoured vehicles or tanks) right through to those who stress that the true reality to which these images point is entirely 'spiritual, with the torture and threat being carried out in the hearts, minds, imaginations and consciences of rebellious and sinful humans.
One possible key to the right answer is to remember that John is writing these visions as a prophetic letter to the churches, to encourage them when they face persecution. He has already warned them, in the visions of the first four of the seven seals, about humanly made disasters which are going to come upon the world. Now, with the seven trumpets, he seems to envisage, to begin with at least, what we call 'natural disasters', plagues which like those of Egypt will do their work without human intervention. But with the fifth and sixth plagues - and again we should not think of them all as separate, distinct events, but as different dimensions of the same terrible overall reality - he is warning his hearers that the plagues to come will, from one point of view, consist of foul, hellish, destructive forces, and, from another point of view, of massive, terrifying armies charging against defenceless people. Thus, in a sense, the sixth trumpet corresponds to the first seal: the rider on the white horse, going off to conquer, has become an army the size of the entire population of Britain three times over, or of two-thirds of the population of the United States. It is as though John is systematically saying, 'Think of your worst nightmares; now double them; and then imagine them coming true all at once, together. That's what it's going to be like. This is God's way of letting evil do its worst, so that it may eventually fall under its own weight.
NT Wright, Revelation for Everyone, P 91