Friday, December 15th<\/b><\/p>\n
Revelation 16:8-16: The fourth plague listed here does not appear in Exodus at all; Moses had been able to blot out the sunlight, but not even he was able to make the sun hotter. Even this plague, nonetheless, does not bring the idolaters to repentance (verse 9).<\/p>\n
The darkness of the fifth bowl (verse 10) corresponds to the ninth plague in the Book of Exodus (10:21-29). The sixth bowl, the drying up of the Euphrates, includes the proliferation of frogs, which corresponds to Moses\u2019 second plague against Pharaoh (Exodus 8:2-6). The hailstones that accompany the seventh bowl (verse 21) are parallel to Moses\u2019 seventh plague against Egypt (Exodus 9:13-26).<\/p>\n
The sixth bowl of plagues here is a composite. There is, first of all, a drying up of the Euphrates, so that the Parthian armies can march westward. This puts one in mind of the \u201cdrying up\u201d of the Jordan, so that the Israelites could move west against the Canaanites. Because of the great difference between the two instances, however, this symbolism should be read as an example of theological \u201cinversion\u201d (in the sense used by John Steinbeck, who often employs biblical symbols in this way), so that the identical image is used for both good and bad meanings.<\/p>\n
With respect to the drying up of the Euphrates, John knew a precedent in Jeremiah (50:38), who spoke of the drying up of the waters of Babylon, to facilitate its capture by the Persians. Indeed, John will have a great deal to say about the fall of Babylon.<\/p>\n
Verse 15 contains a well-known saying of Jesus, in which He compares His final return to the coming of a thief in the dead of night. This dominical saying is preserved in the Gospels of Matthew (24:43) and Luke (12:39).<\/p>\n
The final battle takes place at Armageddon (verse 16), which literally is \u201chill of Megiddo.\u201d Megiddo sits on the edge of the Plain of Esdralon and was in antiquity the site of two famous battles, in each of which a king was killed. In Judges 5 the Canaanite king Sisera was slain there, and 2 Kings 23 describes the death of Josiah there in 609. In John\u2019s mind, Armageddon symbolizes disaster, catastrophe, and violence.<\/p>\n
Saturday, February 16<\/b><\/p>\n
Luke 1:26-38: To Mary\u2019s inquiry—\u2014\u201cHow can this be, since I do not know a man?\u201d— Gabriel gives an adequate and very reassuring response, whereas Zacharias\u2019s request is not only denied, but he is punished for even making it!<\/p>\n
The difference between the two cases is not hard to discern. Mary\u2019s question is actually a request for further instruction. Since she is a virgin, and Gabriel is telling her she is about to become a mother, Mary really does need more information. Her question to Gabriel means something like \u201cTell me what I am supposed to do.\u201d There is no arrogance here, nor doubt. On the contrary, Mary\u2019s attitude is summed up in her final words to Gabriel: \u201cBehold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word\u201d (1:38).<\/p>\n
Psalms 30 (Greek & Latin 29): It is entirely appropriate to pray this psalm at this time, inasmuch as the its title tells us it is \u201ca Song at the dedication of the House of David.\u201d It later became a song for liturgical festival celebrated every year\u2014the Dedication (Hanukkah<\/i>) of the temple.<\/p>\n
Hanukkah<\/i> is a winter feast (cf. John 10:22) dating from 165 B.C., and Jews around the world continue to celebrate it even today, long after their temple has disappeared from history. This year the festival began this past Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
At Hanukkah<\/i>, David\u2019s personal sentiments of gratitude and praise to the redeeming God became incorporated into Israel\u2019s restoration to her temple after years of oppression and strife. This history is narrated in chapters 1\u20144 of 1 Maccabees. When Antiochus Epiphanes IV came to the throne of Syria in September of 175 B.C., it was the beginning of very hard times for the Chosen People.<\/p>\n
Their oppression by this ruthless overlord included even the desecration of the temple. At the end of this decade of terror (175\u2013165), when Judas Maccabaeus rededicated the temple at Jerusalem, Israel felt it could now, with unburdened heart, make its own the ancient sentiments of David: \u201cI will extol you, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, and have not let my foes rejoice over me.\u201d<\/p>\n
But both David and the temple were \u201ctypes\u201d of Him who was to come, and the deeper, truer voice in this psalm is Christ our Lord on the day of the Resurrection: \u201cO Lord, you have brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down into the abyss.\u201d The time of suffering was followed by the morning of the paschal deliverance: \u201cFor His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life.\u201d The dark hour of the Passion (cf. John 13:30) gave way to the dawn of victory.<\/p>\n
In the Garden, on the night in which He was betrayed, the Lord had prayed for this deliverance: \u201cYou hid Your face, and I was troubled. . . . I cried to You, O Lord; and to the Lord I made supplication: \u2018What profit is there in my blood, when I go down into the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me; Lord, be my helper\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New Testament describes that Garden prayer of the Lord \u201cwho, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear\u201d (Heb. 5:7). And on the dawning of the day of Easter victory, our psalm refers back to God\u2019s hearing of that vehement prayer of tears: \u201cWeeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. . . . You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christ is the true David, the new Israel\u2019s sweet Psalmist, our song-master in the eternal praise of God: \u201cSing praises to the Lord, you saints of His, and give thanks to the remembrance of His holy name. . . . To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Old Israel\u2019s winter Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah<\/i>) is now the new Israel\u2019s spring feast of Pascha, for Christ is the true Temple, of which St. John wrote: \u201cBut I saw no temple in [heaven], for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple\u201d (Rev. 21:22). When the Lord told His enemies: \u201cDestroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,\u201d they misunderstood him, not aware that \u201cHe was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead<\/i>, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them\u201d (John 2:19\u201322).<\/p>\n
Sunday, December 17<\/b><\/p>\n
Luke 1:39-56 and Psalms 98: The latter part of Isaiah, in which the dominant theme is Israel\u2019s return from the Babylonian Captivity, speaks several times of God\u2019s \u201carm,\u201d a metaphor especially used in conjunction with the noun \u201csalvation\u201d and the adjective \u201choly\u201d (Is. 40:10; 51:9; 52:10; 53:1; 59:16; 63:5).<\/p>\n
This robust image of God\u2019s arm, which had first appeared in the Bible in the context of the people\u2019s deliverance from Egypt (cf. Ex. 6:6; 15:16), was thus applied to their return from exile in Babylon. In each case, the redemption of the oppressed was ascribed to the holy flexing of God\u2019s muscle, as it were, on their behalf.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s Gospel reading, the expectant Mother of the Savior summons this same metaphor to describe God\u2019s definitive historical intervention on behalf of His people: \u201cHoly is His name, \/ And His mercy is on those who fear Him, \/ From generation to generation. \/ He has shown strength with His arm\u201d (Luke 1:49\u201351). God\u2019s arm in these contexts is an image of His \u201cpower according to the Spirit of holiness\u201d (Rom. 1:4), \u201cthe power of God to salvation\u201d (1:16).<\/p>\n
The same reference to God\u2019s holy, salvific arm appears several times in Psalms, one example being the opening of today\u2019s Psalm: \u201cSing to the Lord a new song, for the Lord has done wondrous things; His right hand and His holy arm have wrought salvation.\u201d<\/p>\n
God\u2019s salvation is not simply a thing announced, but a \u201cwrought\u201d reality. In saving us, God truly does<\/i> certain deeds, \u201cwondrous things,\u201d by which we are redeemed. God saves man by the forceful intrusion of His holiness into man\u2019s history. God\u2019s arm is a metaphor of this irrupting redemptive holiness. In the \u201cwondrous things\u201d of the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Resurrection, God\u2019s arm invades the processes of human destiny with the outpouring of His own life. Man\u2019s life is thereby given access to the incorruptible life of God.<\/p>\n
This, says our psalm, is the substance of the Gospel proclaimed to the nations and peoples of the earth: \u201cThe Lord has made known His salvation; unto the nations has He revealed His righteousness. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.\u201d<\/p>\n
The substance of the Gospel, then, is not some theory about God or even some set of norms by which man is to live. At root, the Gospel has absolutely nothing in common with even the highest religious speculations, such as those of the Upanishads, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Lao Tzi, or the Buddha. In the strictest possible sense, beyond all human reckoning or expectation, the Gospel is a \u201cnew song,\u201d a radically different voice on the human scene. It is the revelation of God\u2019s holy arm taking charge of man\u2019s history. It is that redemptive, holy activity by which \u201cHe has shown strength with His arm.\u201d It is \u201cthe power of God and the wisdom of God\u201d (1 Cor. 1:24).<\/p>\n
Such is the meaning of Theophany, literally \u201cthe appearing of God\u201d in man\u2019s history. This appearing of God is not a general and pervasive luminosity to which the human race has a ready and easy access. It is, on the contrary, most particular, very specified with respect to time and place. God has become incarnate only once. Only once has the price of our sins been paid. Only once has He \u201cappointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has ordained.\u201d Moreover, \u201cHe has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead\u201d (Acts 17:31). Only once has God done all of these \u201cwondrous things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our psalm speaks likewise of this latter judgment of the world by one Man whom He has ordained. \u201cFor He comes to judge the earth,\u201d it says, \u201cHe will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with uprightness.\u201d All of human history will, at the last, be summoned before the same Judge whom God has ordained, giving \u201cassurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.\u201d This single, unique standard of the final judgment is likewise a component of the Gospel itself: \u201cWhen the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him\u201d (Matt. 25:31, 32).<\/p>\n
Particular in the time and place of its appearance, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is nonetheless universal as the canon and measure of man\u2019s destiny, being solely the source of the \u201cknowledge of salvation\u201d (Luke 1:77).<\/p>\n
Monday, December 18<\/i><\/p>\n
Psalms 44 (Greek & Latin 43): Second Chronicles 20:1\u201319 describes a special liturgical service at the Jerusalem temple, in which King Jehoshaphat (873\u2013849) led the people in a prayer of lamentation and intercession during a time of great crisis. He also proclaimed a period of fasting, for the plight of the people seemed desperate; their enemies were upon them, and \u201cJudah gathered together to ask help from the Lord\u201d (20:4).<\/p>\n
There were many such occasions in biblical times, and many more since then, for the enemies of God\u2019s people are both numerous (\u201cMy name is Legion; for we are many,\u201d Mark 5:9) and powerful (\u201cFor we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places,\u201d Eph. 6:12). Indeed, we are continually at war, we children of God, and we sometimes feel simply overwhelmed, almost empty of hope.<\/p>\n
Our psalm was obviously written for such times: \u201cYou have given us as sheep to the slaughter and scattered us among the nations. You have bartered Your people for a pittance and made no profit on the sale.\u201d A useful prayer, this psalm of despondency, because the life of faith is not a sustained, uninterrupted series of triumphs.<\/p>\n
The prayer begins, however, with an appeal to Tradition: \u201cWe have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us.\u201d Such an appeal to the lessons of history is, of course, standard in the Bible, for the biblical God is, first and last, \u201cthe God of our fathers.\u201d Thus, the message of Genesis has to do with God\u2019s fidelity to Israel\u2019s patriarchs, while Exodus tells of Israel\u2019s redemption by that same patriarchal God. Other historical books of the Bible narrate the continued faithfulness of His promises to an unfaithful people. The prophetic literature, likewise, constantly looks back to God\u2019s redemptive work throughout Israel\u2019s history, as both paradigm and prophecy of what He will do for His people in the future.<\/p>\n
A similar note is sounded strongly in the Wisdom literature of the Bible. The Book of Proverbs, for instance, is forever appealing to the moral lessons of history, that complex of disciplines and standards learned by experience, prescribed by the authority of Tradition and handed down through succeeding generations. In this case too, biblical religion is essentially an inherited religion, and its Lord is \u201cthe God of our fathers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tradition is also the note on which our psalm begins, then, almost its entire first half being taken up with a review of past experience. But God is not only the God of the patriarchs in the past; He is also our own God, one and the same: \u201cYou are my king and my God, You who command victories for Jacob.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then suddenly the psalm\u2019s tone changes, for the reassuring lessons from the past are now being put sternly to the test: \u201cBut You have cast us off and put us to shame. You no longer march forth with our armies; You have turned us back from the foe, and our enemies plunder us at will.\u201d<\/p>\n
The situation here may be likened to that of Job. He too had ever endeavored to be pleasing to the God of the fathers, steadfastly following the high moral precepts handed down from authorities of old. If one reads carefully what is said of Job in the first chapter of the book that bears his name, it is clear that he is a perfect embodiment of the traditional prescriptive norms treated in Proverbs and Israel\u2019s other wisdom literature.<\/p>\n
Thus, when Job is undeservedly afflicted, his sentiments are very much what we find here in our psalm\u2014shock, surprise, and disappointment. He complains to God, very much as this psalm complains: \u201cYou have made us the taunt of our neighbors, a derision and scorn to those about us.\u201d Such is the prayer of those who, like Job, feel overwhelmed by the sense that, in spite of His salvific deeds in the past and His promises for the future, God has simply forgotten. There are days when, if we are believers at all, we can only be described as \u201cmen of little faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
The present psalm is the prayer of an individual, or a people, being sorely tried with respect to faith. Were it not for such experiences of being abandoned by God, there would be no test for the important proposition that the just man lives by faith. Whatever the trial (and its possible forms are manifold), it is finally the voice of faith\u2014albeit, little faith\u2014that prevails in this psalm. We pray to the Lord with those other men that our Lord describes as \u201cof little faith,\u201d the frightened disciples on the stormy lake: \u201cAwake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Rise up, and do not cast us off forever. . . . Arise and come to our help; deliver us for the sake of Your name.\u201d<\/p>\n
From Romans 8:35, 36 we know how the Apostle Paul prayed this psalm, seeing in its lament a reflection of the sufferings in his own soul by reason of his fidelity to Christ: \u201cWho shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: \/ \u2018For Your sake we are killed all day long; \/ We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n
Tuesday, December 19<\/b><\/p>\n
Psalms 48 (Greek & Latin 47): Most especially after the Assyrian Sennacherib\u2019s failure to capture Jerusalem in 701 (cf. 2 Kin. 19; 2 Chr. 32; Is. 37), many of its citizens came to believe that God\u2019s protection of the city would forever save it from such a fate. Their presumptuous confidence in this illusion grew into an arrogant, almost magical audacity at odds with an earlier warning they had received from the Prophet Micah. He had cautioned them that unrepented sin inevitably invites the judgment of God, even on His chosen city (Micah 3:12). Then, more than a century later, this warning of Micah was taken up by Jeremiah, when Nebuchadnezzar led his Babylonian army against Jerusalem. So strong and popular was their rash, magical presumption of Jerusalem\u2019s invincibility that Jeremiah\u2019s words fell largely on the deaf ears of a people not convinced of their need for conversion. God would protect His holy city, they were persuaded, so why repent? In consequence of this sinful attitude, the city fell in 586.<\/p>\n
It would be rather easy to read this psalm as expressing the same unfounded presumption on the part of a sinful city. So many lines, on a first reading, would seem readily to bear such an interpretation: \u201cGod is in her palaces; He is known as her refuge. . . . In the city of our God; God will establish it forever. . . . Walk about Zion, and go all around her. Count her towers; mark well her bulwarks; consider her palaces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interpreted as referring to the earthly city of Jerusalem, however, such affirmations are surely wide of the mark, for that city has been conquered many times in the course of history.<\/p>\n
But Jerusalem is vastly more than Jerusalem. Back in the late fourth century the Egyptian Abba Nesteros, in words recorded by St. John Cassian, distinguished four meanings of the name Jerusalem in Holy Scripture. \u201cOne and the same Jerusalem,\u201d he said, \u201ccan be taken in four senses: historically, as the city of the Jews; allegorically, as the Church of Christ; anagogically, as the heavenly city of God \u2018which is the mother of us all\u2019; and tropologically, as the soul of man, which is frequently subject to praise or blame from the Lord under this title\u201d (Conferences<\/i> 14.8).<\/p>\n
In which of these four senses, then, is Jerusalem meant in our present psalm? Certainly not in its literal sense, as we have seen, for Jerusalem has been captured by Babylonians, Romans, Arabs, and others.<\/p>\n
Should Jerusalem be understood here, then, in what Cassian calls its tropological or moral sense, as \u201cthe soul of man\u201d? There is much to recommend such a reading, for God certainly does surround the souls of His servants with every manner of blessing and protection. The confidence expressed in this psalm seems identical with that of the Apostle Paul: \u201cIf God is for us, who can be against us? . . . It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? . . . Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?\u201d (Rom. 8:31\u201335). Such sentiments express the consoling doctrine of the divine assurance, according to which no one can snatch our souls from the hand of Christ (cf. John 10:28).<\/p>\n
This is a true and valid meaning of our psalm, I think, unless such confidence be understood in the same presumptuous sense condemned by the Prophets. On occasion, one does discern such a sinful attitude among individuals deceived into believing that, once they have come to faith in Christ, they will inevitably be saved, even should they apostatize from that faith. The catch-phrase of these misdirected minds is \u201conce saved, always saved,\u201d a very unbiblical notion entertained only unto grave spiritual danger.<\/p>\n
Surely what Cassian calls Jerusalem\u2019s allegorical sense is also a proper understanding of our psalm, which speaks impressively of God\u2019s protection of His Church throughout the centuries: \u201cFor behold, the kings assembled, they passed by together. They beheld and marveled; they were disturbed and fled away.\u201d The Church of God has indeed beheld the rise and fall of empires, and this psalm is perhaps best prayed as an expression of gratitude to God for this fixed and lasting institution of His grace in this world: \u201cWe have received Your mercy, O Lord, in the midst of Your temple.\u201d This is the one, holy, catholic house of God\u2019s praise: \u201cAs is Your name, O God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wednesday, December 20<\/b><\/p>\n
Revelation 18:9-24: The fall of Babylon is bad for business. It means very low profits on the stock market. Verses 12-13 list various products that won\u2019t sell any more. The \u201cfutures\u201d in frankincense and chariots are down by sixteen points, and the shekel is in free fall!<\/p>\n
Everyone calls it a \u201ccrisis,\u201d and they are right. In fact, John uses the Greek word krisis<\/i> (\u201cjudgment\u201d) to describe it (verse 10). The crash, when it comes, comes quickly, in a single hour (verses 10,17,19). John says that those who weep over Babylon do so from a distance (verse 10). That is, Babylon has mourners, but no helpers. At this final hour of her career, no one will stand with her. No one wants to be associated with her. She was part of an order in which true friendship had no place. It was an order founded on shared interests and profits, not on love. Babylon is bewailed, not for herself, but for her lost investments. In short, the fall of Babylon is bad for business, and John borrows heavily from Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 27 in order to describe her plight.<\/p>\n
We observe that John does not see Babylon fall. An angel tells him that it has already happened. John, that is to say, has no violent vision. There is no projection, here, of a vindictive spirit; it is, rather, the divine resolution of a cosmic problem. The fall of Babylon is not seen; it is revealed to John in a vision of light. John is not interested in revenge but in justice, in the setting right of the world order, and the right order of the world requires the overthrow of Babylon and idolatry, and materialism, and the hedonism for which Babylon stands as a symbol. Her fall is particularly related to her shedding of blood (verse 24). Babylon is thrown into the sea like a stone (verse 21). She is swallowed up in her own chaos (cf. Jeremiah 51:60-63; Luke 17:2,24-30).<\/p>\n
John particularly notes the loss of musical instruments and technology, components of human life first devised by the sons of Cain (Genesis 4:17-30). Indeed, there has often been something a bit ambiguous about such music, morally considered. When King Nebuchadnezzar employed \u201cthe sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music\u201d for his idolatrous purposes, it was not the last instance when instrumental music served to deflect men from the worship of the true God. In fact, nonetheless, God designated musical instruments as appropriate to His own worship in the tabernacle and the temple. And, once again, in the Bible\u2019s final book heaven resonates with the sounds of trumpet and harp, whereas the damned are forever deprived of such music! The sinful descendants of Cain, the very inventors of harp and flute, will never hear them again.<\/p>\n
Thursday, December 21<\/b><\/p>\n
Revelation 19:1-10: The previous chapter spoke of the destruction of Babylon, pictured as a woman dressed in scarlet. The present chapter speaks of a contrasting woman, dressed in white, who is called the Bride. A wedding is planned. There is no vision of the Bride just yet, however, nor does John specifically identify her. He will see and describe her in Chapter 21.<\/p>\n
We begin the chapter with the \u201cAlleluia.\u201d Although our own experience may prompt us to associate that fine prayer with the sight and scent of lilies, here in Revelation it resounds against the background of smoke rising from a destroyed city. The worship scene portrayed here is related to victory over the forces of hell. The word \u201cavenge\u201d at the end of verse 2 reminds us there is a principle of vengeance built into the theological structure of history, for the judgments of God are true and righteous. Sodom and Gomorrah come to mind when we read of this smoke ascending for ever and ever. The worship becomes so warm at verse 6 that Handel decided to set it to music.<\/p>\n
By portraying the reign of God as a marriage feast, John brings together three themes, all of them familiar to the Christians of his day: First, the kingdom of God as a banquet, such as we find in Isaiah 25:6. Jesus interpreted the banquet, however, as a marriage feast (Luke 14:15-16). John stresses readiness for the feast (verse 7), much as we find in the parable of the ten maidens at the beginning of Matthew 25.<\/p>\n
Second, the marriage theme itself, as a symbol of the union of God with man. We find this theme in the prophets (most notably Hosea, but also Isaiah and Jeremiah) and the New Testament (Ephesians 5:32, for instance). The Lamb, who is the groom here, has already been identified earlier in Revelation.<\/p>\n
Third, the theme of the garments, which now become the clothing required for attendance at the feast. John has appealed to this imagery several times already (3:4; 6:11; 7:14). The identification of the white garments with righteous deeds puts one in mind of the parable in Matthew 22:11-13.<\/p>\n
Friday, December 22<\/b><\/p>\n
Revelation 19:11-21: The chapter continues on a different theme, warfare (verses 11-21). Jesus, pictured before as the Lamb, is here portrayed as a warrior on a white war horse (destrier<\/i>). The emphasis is on His vindication of justice, the motif with which the chapter began. He is called \u201cfaithful and true,\u201d adjectives referring to Him in 3:14. These adjectives should be considered especially in the context of martyrdom. That is to say, when a person is about to die a terrible death for the name of Jesus, “faithful and true\u201d are the words he needs to know with respect to Jesus. Like the martyrs, Jesus is here clothed in white. His eyes (verse 12) are flames of fire, much as in John\u2019s inaugural vision (1:12-16). His garment (verse 13) is spattered with blood, a detail we saw in 14:18-20. The literary inspiration of this portrayal is the canticle in Isaiah 63:1-3.<\/p>\n
One of the Christological titles found here is \u201cking of kings and lord of lords,\u201d a title going back to the ancient Assyrian emperors, who were kings ruling over other kings. John tells us that this title appears on the \u201cthigh,\u201d of the Rider on the white horse. The thigh here is the place of the scabbard, where the sword hangs. It was common in antiquity to speak of the thigh as the place of the sword. With regard to Achilles, for example, Homer wrote: \u201cAnd anger came on Peleus\u2019s son, and within his shaggy breast the heart was divided two ways, pondering whether to draw from his thigh the sharp sword<\/i>, driving away all those who stood between and kill the son of Atreus, or else to check his spleen within and keep down his anger\u201d (Iliad<\/i> 1.188-192). The same idiom is found in the Odyssey<\/i> 11.231 and the Aeneid<\/i> 10.788.<\/p>\n
The exact idiom is likewise biblical; \u201cGird your sword on your thigh, everyone of you,\u201d commanded Moses to the Levites (Exodus 32:27). The expression occurs twice in Judges 3 and in Psalms 45 (44):3. Finally, in the Song of Solomon there is a description of the sixty valiant men around the king, \u201ceach with his sword upon his thigh, against alarms by night\u201d (3:8). The title on the Warrior\u2019s thigh, then, is inscribed on His scabbard.<\/p>\n
The sword itself, however, is described as coming forth from His mouth, as in John\u2019s inaugural vision in the first chapter. This image, of course, identifies the sword with the word, as in Hebrews 4:12 and Ephesians 6:17. The image of God\u2019s word as a sword seems to have been very common among the early Christians, so we are not surprised to see it here. The Rider Himself is called \u201cthe Word of God,\u201d in the only instance of this expression with reference to Jesus outside of the beginning of John\u2019s Gospel.<\/p>\n
The summoning of the scavenger birds in verse 17 is reminiscent of Ezekiel 39, which describes the defeat of the armies of Gog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, December 15th Revelation 16:8-16: The fourth plague listed here does not appear in Exodus at all; Moses had been able to blot out the sunlight, but not even he was able to make the sun hotter. Even this plague, nonetheless, does not bring the idolaters to repentance (verse 9). The darkness of the fifth … Continue reading December 15 – December 22, 2017<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1210,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions\/1210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}