Oh, Woah is Me
Finally, we’re at the plagues. Don’t be afraid. I think you will find them to be most enjoyable. It’s true, they suck while we are in the midst of them, but they show us who we really are. Each deadly sin has a saintly blessing at its other end. The latter heals the former. Knowing this can save us loads of suffering.
The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath
16 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”
This verse reminds us that it is God who is sending us these questions. They are not originating within our minds, but from our hearts, and they come on the wings of angels. We might think that it is our own intelligence that is making us doubt God, but in truth it is He who is drawing us nearer, by filling us with curiosity.
It is said that angels possess wings that can fly from one end of the earth to the other in the blink of an eye. They are not the feathered variety that we typically think of. They are bolts of lightning. Angels are electricity. They bring us our spark. They force us to question, and to explore, and to move when we would rather not. They are the bringers of epiphanies. The earth that these angels pour their bowls out onto, is the solid ground on which we stand. Just when we think we know it all, God will make us doubt, so that we will keep seeking answers. The plagues are uncomfortable, and nothing motivates us to move like discomfort does.
2 The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
Festering sores ooze pus (Corruption). The Mark of the Beast (These formulas we use to try and control the world) lead to corruption. We can see that clearly now. Greed, the first plague, causes us to look for formulas that will help us maximize our returns. We don’t want to leave a tenth of our field for the birds or hungry travelers. We don’t want to share our toys. We gather everything up and keep it in a little bubble, where we can keep our eye on it. Our thinking becomes corrupted. Everyone wants our stuff. Our head burns with feverish activity as we try and think of better, more creative ways to safeguard what we have, and gather more to us.
The Seven Final Plagues are for the vain (Those afflicted by vanities). They can be severe. Fortunately, we know a healer. The Law is not against the people, it’s for them. It’s for us. In fact, it’s just what the Doctor ordered. Greed is the first plague, because the love of money is the root of all evil. All of our vanities begin with greed. We want more than what we have. It’s a natural, human trait.
In order to grow, we have to consume, but it can get out of hand. We can become obsessed with collecting more and more stuff. The medicine required to heal the first plague is the opposite of Greed. You gotta pop the bubble and share your pus with the world. You gotta draw it away from you, out of the sore, so that your wound can be properly dressed.
Charity heals Greed.
Greed is all about maximizing our returns. To fight it, we need to return some of those returns, if you get my drift. We need to give away some of our stuff, and give away our desire to gather more and more stuff.
But what kind of stuff is best to give away? Well, for starters, give away the formulas that give us an advantage when it comes to collecting stuff. Share them with people so our advantage is not so great.
Become a ‘White Hat Hacker’ showing everyone where the exploitable flaws are in the system, and give away the story of how you were afflicted and how you came to be healed. Teaching others makes us better students. Share all of these things, but remember that you are in a weakened state. Feed a cold, starve a fever, and don’t invite further infection.
Remember that greed is also contagious. Clamoring to gather up more stuff will put others into a fear-induced panic, if they think there won’t be enough stuff for them. Our greed is something we should not share.
There is another thing that we shouldn’t share. Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Keep your charity to yourself. Don’t put on a show in broad daylight. Give your gifts in the dark. You already have the plague of Greed. You don’t want to add any more on top of it, especially Pride. Pride is the worst of the plagues. Most of the people who suffer from it don’t even realize they have it. It’s the true invisible killer. Don’t replace your greed with pride. Telling everyone how you helped someone else is the surest way to contract the plague of Pride.
This is a good time to further address praying out loud. If Heaven is inside us, then that’s where our prayers need to be directed. Standing in public, praying out loud is a prime example of performing our alms in the street, for all to see. We want everyone to know that we are godly. We also want them to know that we are taking time out of our life to put in a good word with God, for someone else. It makes us feel like we’re helping. Perhaps it even makes us think that our prayers carry more weight than theirs, but that’s not true. God is easily accessible to all of us. If we feel the need to pray for our neighbor, maybe we should consider talking to God about ourself first? Let’s ask Him what we should do about our pride and our messiah complex.
Jesus didn’t pray out loud. If he had, the disciples would have felt no need to ask him how to pray. They would have heard him do it, every day. The Lord’s Prayer doesn’t mention other people, except as a reminder that we should forgive their trespasses. Nowhere in the Bible do we see Jesus standing in front of a congregation with a prayer list of people who “needed” him to put in a good word for them, with God. The Lord’s Prayer is all about us, and our relationship with God, not our neighbor’s. God already knows what we all need.
Praying isn’t about asking God to help others, it’s about us coming to understand the things that drive us. The Lord’s Prayer reminds us to focus on the basics, our daily bread, and reminds us that God is all-powerful, and in complete control.
Note: Bread is something we need to make. At its simplest, it requires water and flour and heat. We already know that water represents philosophy, and heat is our scrutiny. Flour is made by harvesting, then crushing wheat, or some other grain. Grains are the seeds of grasses, and grasses are boring. They are the preferred food of lambs, not goats.
Our daily bread is made from unsalted philosophy (rain water, not sea water), and monotony, that is baked in the oven of our observations. It is a reminder that the important things in life, the ones that nourish our spirits the best, are not the desserts. The high points of our lives do not build our characters. It’s the low points that truly test us.
We should not be hypochondriacs, either. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Jesus told a rich, greedy man to sell all of his belongings and give the money to the poor. He didn’t say it to you, unless you see yourself in that wealthy Prince. If your Greed isn’t symptomatic, don’t treat it. Focus on the plagues you can feel.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died.
Lust is a killer. It makes our cheeks flush, and our blood boil. A dead person’s blood doesn’t flow, anymore. It pools in the lowest parts of their bodies, and stagnates. When we stagnate, when we lose our lust, our spirit dies. The sea is salt water, but it is also teaming with life. I would hazard a guess that there are more living things in the oceans of the world, than there are on land. Likewise, philosophy is where our dreams live, even if that philosophy is a bit salty.
Things that live in the sea represent the dreams we have in this world. They are the things we wish we could do. But, just as stars are angels who hang in the heavens, fish are devils that hang in the water. Our greed makes us want to catch as many of them as we can. Greed is the match that sets our lust ablaze, and that’s why lust is the second plague.
When Lot and his family were forced out of Sodom, it was his wife who took it the hardest. She had grown up there, all her friends were there, and so were all the familiar places she loved. As far as we know, she never left the city, until its destruction. The world outside, the vast plain, was not as interesting to her as life in the city was.
Lot, being a loving husband, tried to lessen the blow by asking the angels if they could relocate to a small town at the foot of the mountains. I’m sure that he knew his wife would absolutely hate rural mountain life, and in his mind a small town was better than no town. The truth is, by trying to hold on to part of their old life, he probably made it worse.
Any city slicker knows that small towns are boring. In the case of Lot’s wife, it would have been better if she had gone into the mountains, where life is more rugged, and exciting. She may have even seen a sunrise from a mountain peak.
Where lust is concerned, there can be no middle ground. It’s better to rip the bandage off, instead of trying to peel it away slowly.
It was lust that consumed Lot’s wife, lust for the only life she knew. When that life was taken from her, she became a bit salty.
Now, when we say someone is salty, we mean they are… well… mean. They have seen too much, and are through trying to be nice. This is exactly the state of mind that Lot’s wife entered. Her saltiness and constant pining for the past, poisoned the lives of the people around her. She spoiled their zest for life. As any chef can tell you, there is a fine line between too much salt, and too little, and just like drinking sea water, too much spiritual saltiness will drive you mad.
The cure for lust is chastity
Chastity involves refraining from an activity. While going up into the mountains might seem like the opposite of chastity, the truth is that just surviving in that harsh environment would probably have distracted Lot’s wife from her daydreams – and it was her daydreams that were killing her spirit. The world was only fun, in her fantasies, and it was those fantasies that she needed a break from.
Had her husband set aside his own desire to make her happy, she might never have sunk into that spiritual stagnation. He should have removed the whole town from their lives, instead of just part of it.
The Bible doesn’t say Lot’s wife died, it only assures us that she became much too salty. We can imagine how her assertions that the world had ended might have affected her daughters. As far as they knew, there were no survivors from the cities on the plain, and therefore no men left to marry them and give them children. Their mother’s lust for the past, clouded their futures. They saw no other choice but to take matters into their own hands, and ensure that life would continue.
When dealing with lust, it’s just better to go the distance. Trading one addiction for another still leaves you with an addiction. In fact, it leaves you with two, because the first never really leaves you. I quit smoking over twenty years ago, yet I am still a smoker, because from time to time I have to fight off the craving. For me, this is proof of what Jesus said - When an evil spirit leaves a man, it wanders through a dry place, then it comes back and finds its house swept and garnished. Then, it goes out and brings back seven more spirits, even worse than itself. The moral of that is, be content with the devils you have. Don’t go inviting others in, or before you know it you’ll be carrying around a legion.
Learn to live with your devils. Jesus didn’t hate the ones he encountered, and neither should we. Before he cast out the legion, he asked them where they would like to go. They went into the pigs, then the pigs died, and the devils were returned to Hell for reassignment.
The thing is, some of them belonged inside the person they were cast out of. They were a part of that man, just as our devils are a part of us. Our body is their home. Evil was built into our flesh. That’s why it’s best that we learn to deal with them. There are no shortcuts. It takes patience and discipline to control our devils, instead of being controlled by them.
Remember the old adage, feed a cold, starve a fever, and recall that lust is a fever. It is our desire, and not just the sexual one. Greed makes us want, while lust makes us stretch out our hand and take. The only cure for it, is to hold back, and not reach for the apple of our eye.
When Jesus is in our heart, his fire shines out through our eyes, onto the world and makes us see things in a different light. He lusted after the understanding of his disciples. When Peter failed to understand, Jesus said, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Since we know that Jesus and Satan are two halves of the same coin, we can see that he wasn’t calling Peter Satan, he was orienting himself. He was getting his own heart and mind right. He didn’t want to tear his friend’s head off, so he put his devil in its place, behind him. If you’re facing the light, your shadow will always be at your back.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. 5 Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: “You are just in these judgments, O Holy One, you who are and who were; 6 for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.” 7 And I heard the altar respond: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”
Once we have stretched out our hand and taken the thing we desire, our natural instinct is to pat ourself on the back, and expect others to pat our back, as well. Greed makes us want, lust makes us get, and pride makes us look around, once we have gotten it.
We look for those who will appreciate what we did, and, remembering our own covetousness, those who might want it for themselves. The fear of having it stolen from us might make us hide our accomplishment, or we might see the path to it as a great advantage that we have to safeguard. Whether we stand a little taller, or sink a little lower, the underlying condition is the same. We have contracted the number one killer of Christians, which is pride.
Blood isn’t supposed to go in our mouths. Traditionally, drinking blood was thought to infuse a person with the power of the person whose blood they drank. The Old Testament strictly prohibits the drinking of blood. This prohibition led to modern kosher slaughtering practices, where the trachea, esophagus, carotid arteries, and jugular veins of the animal are severed in one fluid stroke, without undue pressure. The meat is then soaked and salted to ensure all the remaining blood is removed, before consumption.
That being said, Jesus gave his disciples wine, told them it represented his blood, and urged them to drink it in remembrance of him. That’s a point of contention between the Old and New Testaments. It also seems to fly in the face of Christ’s assertion that he didn’t come to change one jot or tittle of the Law. However, we already know that the testaments, put together, give us a picture of the evolution of understanding, about God and ourselves. They are spiraling thoughts, and, just as an eye for an eye becomes forgiveness, don’t drink blood transforms into “Here, have a cup.”
In truth, the prohibition doesn’t change. In fact, it’s not a prohibition, so much as a good idea. When I was little, my mother sewed my mittens to my jacket sleeve, so that I wouldn’t lose them. As I grew, and became more responsible, this practice was no longer needed. The Old Testament dietary laws are nothing more than God sewing important practices into the daily lives of the Israelites. Eating was something they did every day, several times a day, and the dietary laws were intended to make them think about spiritual things, while they filled their physical bellies. It worked fine, until the Babylonian captivity, when the meanings of things were lost or twisted.
The Jews in the time of Jesus knew that the scriptures prohibited drinking blood, but they could only guess at the need for that restriction. Jesus, however, knew the truth. Blood is life. It symbolizes the attributes a person is born with, that are unique to them, just as bread represents the things we make with what we can get out of the world.
These two things, bread and wine, give a more complete picture of a person, than either could do alone. We don’t applaud Helen Keller just because she learned to talk. Most kids learn to do that. We applaud her because she overcame the impairments she was born with, and reached something resembling a normal life, when, In fact, it was the abnormalcy of her life that makes her stand out.
Most of us would not wish to be Helen Keller. We would not intentionally blind ourselves, or deafen ourselves, in order to see if we could do what she did. We can look at her accomplishments, without feeling the need to recreate them. In this way, we are obeying the law against drinking blood.
Jesus, also, did not break the law. He did not tell his disciples to drink his actual blood. He gave them wine as a substitute, and why wine? Because he was born with an addiction. He was a wine bibber. He gave them wine and told them to drink it in remembrance of him, so that they would never forget that his love of wine was his greatest weakness. He took that weakness, and made it a symbol.
His confession was part of the cure for his pride. He humiliated himself. He admitted that he had a problem, and that’s the first step to facing addiction. Just ask anyone who has ever been part of a twelve step program. Not only that, when we sit in those meetings, we are urged to remind ourselves that we are addicts, every day, many times a day, because addiction is a chronic disease. It never leaves us. We must treat it every day for the rest of our lives.
By giving his disciples wine to remember him by, Jesus was urging them not to forget his own addiction. He didn’t want them to contract the plague of pride, either, by placing him on a pedestal. His gesture spoke volumes. It meant, don’t worship me, remember me.
Humility is the treatment for pride
Humble people are light as a feather. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “get it off your chest.” We use this to mean that we have confessed to some burden we’ve been carrying around.
Perhaps you know that drinking actual blood, regularly, can lead to iron overload. Blood is very rich in iron. Iron is heavy. Our bodies have a difficult time excreting excess iron. Ingesting blood regularly can lead to all sorts of medical problems, as does the stress of carrying too much weight on our shoulders. The only real treatment is to put the things that are stressing us into someone else’s hands.
Notice that the angel with the third plague emptied his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. These are fresh water sources, not salt water, like the sea. They are also not rain, which is pure philosophy that comes to us from above.
Rivers might be fed by rainfall, or run off from melting snow, but springs live up to their names and spring from out of the ground. Wherever their water comes from, the important thing is, they have not been tainted by salt. They are pure philosophies, that have not yet been tested by the world, at least not for us.
If they turn to blood, they become undrinkable. When our pride is manifest, we are sure of ourselves, and will refuse good advice, no matter how pure it is. We become zealots, closing our eyes and ears to any other truths, clinging desperately onto the ones that have brought us success, thus far. We say things like, “If it was good enough for my parents, it’s good enough for me.”
This was the state that the Jews were in, when Jesus was born. They were that way, because that is who they have always been. Remember, we’re not talking about the practitioners of Judaism in total, but a trait that could be found in all of us. Modern Jews trace their lineage back to the Israelites, but so can we all, because the Twelve Tribes represent twelve traits that all humans share. Judah and Asher are two good examples of this.
In Genesis 49:20, Jacob prophesies that Asher’s food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies. Moses added to this blessing, calling Asher the most blessed of all the tribes, and promising that he would be favored by his brothers and bathe his feet in oil. Both of these prophecies are symbolic of Stoicism.
Rich food is both tasty and plentiful. Royal delicacies are fit for someone who thinks himself to be the ruler of his life. By the way, Jacob wasn’t talking about actual food. He was referring to spiritual nourishment, which the Stoics find in abundance throughout the world. Their observations help others live healthier lives, as well. They speak of the hidden manna they find, without knowing that it’s manna. To them, it’s just common sense.
Recall that oil lubricates tongues and machinery. Our feet take us from one place to another. Bathing them in oil symbolizes the Stoics ability to travel easily through both the spiritual and physical worlds. They find wisdom in the mountains they climb, the valleys they rest in, and the dark caves they delve into, and they aren’t afraid to share that wisdom with everyone else.
Asher was supposed to occupy the city of Tyre, but Joshua could not overcome it. The gospel in his day was not sufficient to change the minds of the zealots that already lived there.
Tyre is noted as a very proud city, in the Old Testament. Thus, in the days of Jesus the battle between Stoics, zealots and Christians raged on. Ezekiel predicted that Tyre would be ruined by foreign nations, stripped of its splendor, and reduced to bare rock, becoming a place for fishing nets.
Think for a moment about that symbolism. The primary nation that rules zealots is anarchy. They do not play well with others, because they are unyielding in their beliefs. Their pride is their splendor. They are resting on their laurels. They found a bit of truth, and cling to it, wearing it like a crown. They tell themselves they don’t need to go further, because they have gone far enough to be successful. They put themselves on a pedestal.
When their pride dies in their humiliation, when they are proven to be absolutely wrong, then they are left with only the single rock on which they stand. They are the person who was given a coin and told to invest, but instead hide it and have nothing else to show when their master returns. Their pride made them fearful, because they did not want to lose their coin, or have it stolen from them.
But, the spiritual stock exchange is not like the physical one that we know. There is no risk in spiritual investments. Gold is literally lying all over the ground, we just need to open our eyes and look for it. If we listen, and do not close off our ears, then God will whisper its location to us. He will tell us which voices among us speak the truth, just don’t be surprised to find that all voices have some truth in them.
I hope you don’t have the idea that I hate stoics. The opposite is true. I just want them to look up. The reason Tyre is to be a place for fishing nets is, because we are urged to be fishers of men, and nothing catches men like wise words.
Women say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. This applies also to our spiritual hearts. Nourish us with wise words, and we’ll give you our hearts.
With that in mind, how bleak does Tyre’s fate look? Not bleak at all. Stoics are experts at turning a phrase, and fishing nets are made of twisted strings. It is the stoic in us that carries the most potential for winning the hearts and minds of our neighbors. But first, we need to mingle their bread with a little wine.
Remember that grapes are fruits, and fruits represent gifts from God that are readily visible in the world. Remember also, that stoics can’t see them as gifts from God. When fermented, those fruits make wine. Can you see what I’m getting at?
Stoics make bread, not wine. They take the harsh lessons of life (The monotonous grasses), and grind them into flour, then mix them with spiritual feelings. Their go to feeling is one of surrender. The world is as it is, so it’s best to just deal with it. This feeling bubbles out of the earth, instead of falling on us from above.
Because they don’t truly see any fruit in the world, their outlook is often cold, and hard. They become stones, reinforcing the prophecy that Tyre would be stripped to bare rock.
Note that people drink wine when they are sad, so that they won’t be sad. Wine is great at lifting our spirits, because it smooths out the world’s rough edges. To make spiritual wine, we need to lift our eyes.
In Genesis 49:8-12, Jacob describes Judah as a lions’ cub. Not a lion, but a lion’s cub, mind you. Cubs have all the pride, but none of the growth. Judah represents zealots. Jacob promised that the scepter (ruler’s authority) would not pass from Judah, until the coming of the rightful ruler (Shiloh).
Shiloh means “peaceful one,” “tranquil,” or “His gift.” Zealots are none of these things, except that they have a single gift (Some piece of truth) that they cling to.
Shiloh was also the name of an ancient city in Ephraim where the Tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant were located, before the Temple in Jerusalem was built.
Think about what Jacob’s words are telling us. The zealot must find peace and tranquility, before they can find the true ruler, and enter into New Jerusalem. In other words, shut up and take a breath. Stop talking and start listening. Open your eyes and your ears. God has more gifts for you. Go into the wilderness (the place where we go to get away from the voices of others, so we can hear God’s voice) and lift up the things that concern you. When it comes to the words of others, let God sort ‘em out.
Jacob’s exact words to Judah are these:
“Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. You are a lion's cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness--who dares to rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.
Let’s delve into them a little deeper. First, a lion returns from the prey with a full belly, and heavy eye lids. They want to sleep. Judah, too, is sleeping because his belly is full. He has found treasure, and thinks it is enough. He doesn’t know that he is still hungry.
Lions are called the King of the Jungle, even though they don’t live in Jungles. We associate them with pride, but their most defining characteristic is the mane around their neck.
Cats try to kill their prey by biting its neck, and choking off its windpipe. A lion’s mane protects it from just such an attack. Female lions don’t have manes (except in rare cases where no dominant male is around), and they typically do most of the attacking, so it seems like the lion is best protected from attacks within its own pride. Being thus armored, he can lie down secure in the knowledge that none of the other pride members can kill him in his sleep.
The neck of a lioness is unprotected. If you rouse her, you’re bound to get a close up look at her teeth. All of this symbolism speaks of the way that zealots fall asleep, and how they typically are woken up. If you go after the organ that they breathe through, and where their blood flows in and out of their head, you’re in for a fight. You will not convince them that you are right, because they have already convinced themselves that they are right.
Notice that the rulers staff will not come from between their feet. It’s hard to walk with a stick between your legs. King’s don’t use sticks to walk, they use them to pound the ground and get people’s attention. They don’t need to walk, because all important matters are brought to them, for their judgment. Therefore, the best thing we can do with a zealot is just not engage with them. When that happens, their pride will ignite their curiosity, and they will come to see what they’re missing. When the world moves on without them, they’ll get off their butts and go see where it’s gone.
We already talked about what it means to have your hand on the throats of your enemies. Just to reiterate, a zealot hates when people talk bad about them, or challenge the truth they have. Like a lion, they will try to kill that person by cutting off their oxygen, and the flow of blood to their brain. This is symbolic of how many people act, today. Their focus is not on debate, but only on making their opponent shut up.
For the scepter and staff to pass from Judah, he needs to shut himself up, and just listen to the God he thinks he knows so well.
He is the horse that won’t drink if you lead him to water. He has to find it on his own, but he won’t even look so long as he has others looking at him, feeding his pride. Like lust, pride is a fever that must be starved.
Zealots are different from Stoics, in that they cannot be convinced to give up their beliefs, even in the face of better evidence. They will cling to the truths they have, and stick their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing things that might force them out of their comfort zone. They are easy to spot, and should be left in the dust. Arguing with fools does not lead to truth, but only to strife. A fool has no interest in understanding, they only wish to express their own opinion.
Jesus told his disciples that if any city refused to hear them, they should leave and shake the dust off their feet at the edge of that city. In other words, walk away, but also don’t take their so-called truths with you, or let it affect what you know to be true.
Dirt, if you recall, represents hard truth, as opposed to spiritual truth, which is water. Dirt is what we know. Water is what we believe to be true.
Being ignored by a Zealot is painful, if we let it be. It can make us doubt our own grains of wisdom. We must keep in mind that no one gets all the truth, and there are two paths, one for goats and one for sheep. In our own way, we are protective of the truths we have collected. Therefore, we should do unto others as we would have done unto us, and let them wallow in their mud puddle, while we wallow in ours. (Mud is dirt mixed with water.)
It will be worse for Zealots on Judgment day (Meaning the day when our truth is shown to be greater), because they will have to face the fact that they ignored us, instead of jumping on our bandwagon when they had the chance.
Stoics will believe, if you give them a reason to look up. If you can convince them that there is something up there that is worth looking at. They are seekers of truth. Zealots are not. They believe they have all the truth they need.
Blood moves things around in our bodies. Without enough water, it thickens and coagulates. Without spiritual waters, so does our pride. If we begin to see ourselves as the ‘most chosen’ we put ourselves on a pedestal. We begin to think that our labors are more important than everyone else’s. The blood we shed, the energy we exert, loses its water, its meaning.
Some of the Disciples suffered from this plague. They believed their prayers and spiritual works were more important than sweeping floors and serving their neighbors.
Even Jesus chastised his disciples for falling asleep while he prayed. In his mind, his prayers were more important than their need for rest. He was just as human as the rest of us, and equally afflicted by vanities. He learned from his, and passed those lessons on to us through his observations.
Our pride tells us that the scriptures are inviolable. Jesus told the Jews they missed something in their interpretations. Christians, in their pride, can’t reconcile the Prince of Peace telling his Disciples to sell their cloaks and go buy swords. They think there is something wrong with that scene in the Garden of Gethsemane, and they’re right, it just isn’t the part they think it is.
They have changed the newer translations of the Bible so that when two Disciples step forward with their swords, instead of telling them, “that’s enough”, Jesus says, “That’ll be enough of that”, as if he is now chastising them for bringing forth the very things he just told them to go and buy.
The problematic part of that story isn’t the buying of swords or the presence of two of them in the garden, it’s in how we think one of them was used.
If swords represent tongues, then you can easily see that Jesus was telling us to lawyer up. If you don’t have a tongue capable of defending yourself, go buy one. Get yourself a good lawyer because the cops are coming. He was a Jew, and Jews love the Law and the lawyers who defend it. Yes, I know that Jesus chastised lawyers, but it’s what he chastised them for that’s important. He told them they brought burdens on people that they, themselves, couldn’t even bear. He didn’t say he hated them. He was just trying to show them a way that they could be better.
If you’ve ever watched court proceedings, you know that most of what happens between lawyers is deciding what laws apply and to what extent. If you’ve ever seen a lawyer get stopped for a traffic violation, you know they push for the officer to get on with it, and get to the point. Write them the ticket so they can get on their way. They typically don’t fight the battle on the street, because they can wage a better war in the courtroom.
Lawyers know it’s pointless to argue with police officers who don’t know as much about the law as they do. But when they get their day in court they have a better chance of winning their case. They can use all of their understanding of the fluidity of the law to influence the court that they did nothing wrong, or at least shouldn’t be punished for what they did do.
The preferred tactic of defense lawyers is to muddy the waters of the law. Prosecutors try to bury their targets under a ton of evidence. Defense lawyers don’t care if you’re guilty, at times, prosecutors don’t care either. Lawyers prefer to cut deals if they can, to expedite matters. Their concern isn’t truth, it’s expediency, except when it’s them facing the charges. That’s what Jesus was pointing out.
Peter, that hard-headed, stubborn, pain in the butt disciple - who Jesus loved too - used his sword to cut off the Officer’s ear. Now imagine what would happen today if you cut off a cop’s ear with a sword. There wouldn’t be a trial, you’d get shot.
Even if Jesus healed the ear, the soldiers wouldn’t have let Peter off with a warning. They definitely wouldn’t have let him tag along behind while they took Jesus into custody.
In fact, if you think about it, if they were willing to let Peter off the hook, why would they have ‘hooked’ (Handcuffed, arrested) Jesus? It was he who performed a miracle right in front of them, after all. It probably would have been them running for the safety of the woods, because there was a scary, supernatural being in their midst.
That’s the part of the story that makes no sense, unless you see it from the proper, humble perspective. (with a liberal sprinkling of salt) To get there, you have to do a little homework.
You can’t swing a sword and hit just someone’s ear. It’s physically problematic. The shoulders get in the way. The head is too close. Peter wasn’t a warrior, and probably not skilled with an actual sword, but that tongue of his was always getting him in trouble. And what’s the only part of a person a tongue can injure? The ear.
Peter the hot-head, who was deep in the cups of his pride, said some things that offended the cops. The miracle Jesus performed was one every magician knows. Distraction and misdirection.
Magicians take advantage of our selective attention. Jesus soothed the injured officer, but also got his attention back on the true criminal, and the reason the police were there in the first place. He reminded them that he was the one they were after, not Peter. Jesus pushed the Officers to get to the point, like a good lawyer would. He humbled Peter, in their eyes, to save Peter’s life. He used Pride like a fine-tuned instrument. Most of us aren’t that skilled, yet. Peter said as much when he begged not to be crucified like Jesus was. He knew the difference between a Party-trick magician and a true wielder of supernatural power. If only we were as smart as that block-head Peter.
We’re dumb, but not in a good way - not in the way that zips our lips. We’re often deaf and blind, but all too often not as dumb as we should be (Dumb meaning unable to speak.). Good lawyers will tell you to keep your mouth shut, especially when you’re being questioned by the police. Pride is the third plague, but to master it we need to plead the fifth. (Spoiler Alert: the fifth plague is sloth.) We need to remain silent, so that we don’t incriminate ourselves.
God’s judgments are true and just, because He is not saddled with vanities, like we are. Our vision is perpetually blurry, our ears are chronically clogged, our nose runs, our skin crawls, and we have a funny taste in our mouth. It is the angel in charge of the waters that first tells us that it is God we should be listening to.
By announcing that God is right, they imply that we are wrong. The statement, “you who are, and who were,” means that God understands us on a profound level. He has always been, and Jesus lived as one of us. It is a direct refutation of the belief that God is so distant from us, as to have no concern or hand in our affairs.
Shedding the blood of holy people, and prophets, means picking their lives apart, and seeing them as born special, instead of normal. When God gives us blood to drink, He shows us how alike we are to those we revere.
Like the adage says, never meet your heroes. All of those biblical characters were born human, with human flaws. To see them in the proper light, we have to see the blood (What they were born with), as well as the bread (What they made), but we shouldn’t drink their blood.
Wine is made, just like bread. It is the blood of grapes, allowed to ferment. Fermentation takes time. We cannot truly understand someone’s motivations in the heat of the moment. Our lives, and theirs, are best viewed in hindsight.
Wine loosens our inhibitions, and our tongues, and makes our head spin. All of these things are symbolic of how we should look at our own lives, and the lives of others. Most of us don’t drink wine on the go. We sit and reflect over our glasses. We definitely shouldn’t drink and drive (our carts). I can tell you from personal experience, that thinking too much about the shouldas, the couldas, and the wouldas, is no way to steer your life.
There is a difference between wine and other alcoholic drinks, like beer and whiskey. Wine is made from fruit, while the others are made from grains. This difference adds an important adjustment to our perspective. The things we think of as impairments, are actually blessings, when we learn to see them clearly. In many ways, our vanities make our lives more interesting, because of the difficulty we have in dealing with them. Once we have overcome them (and allowed them to ferment into hindsight), we realize just how much of a blessing they truly are.
Once the angel in charge of the waters has made his proclamation, it is the altar that responds. Remember, the altar is the place where God sacrifices for us. Oftentimes, we see the curse, before the blessing, and it’s hard to believe that God loves us, when He’s holding our feet to the fire, or afflicting us with plagues. Likewise, it was hard for us to see the value in school, until we graduated. Time is the best teacher. Grapes have to be trodden, before their blood can become wine.
8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9 They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
Greed makes us want, lust urges us to get, pride makes us look around, then gluttony tells us what we have is not enough. The sun is the brightest light in the sky, but too much sunlight burns our skin. The fourth plague is gluttony, because gluttony is all about getting too much. Notice that the sun is allowed to scorch people with fire.
For some of us, the thought that God is letting us burn equates to too much light. The thought that He’s judging everything we do, and punishing us for it, makes us hate Him, especially if we feel like the things we do aren’t our fault. This is the spiritual equivalent of scraping your car along a guardrail, and cursing the road department for putting it in your way. When it all comes down to it, the plagues are like guardrails. They tell us when we are getting out of bounds.
Remember when I said that God is in control of everything, and responsible for everything, etc.? That was a perspective, at that moment on the path of revelation. Keep in mind that our perspective changes, as we go. This is a team effort. God laid out the path, all we need to do is walk it. He built urges into us, and sometimes those urges drag us toward the guardrails, but it is up to us to turn away and get back on course. Sometimes that takes time. Sometimes it hurts, but pain is a gift. Without it, how would we know what it felt like to be pain-free?
Revelation is about contrast. God will steer for us, but in the end, His goal is for us to steer ourselves. Most of us never get there, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t following His plan. It’s hard to think that we might suffer, only so that future generations can learn from the things we did wrong, but that is the way the world was designed. We go astray, so that we can be found, so that we will know both states. We walk crooked, so that we can appreciate walking straight. God is giving us both, because He gives in abundance.
When we want to walk a mile, He takes us a mile further, because He loves us enough to give us, not only the thing that we want, but also the thing that we need. The knowledge of that should make the glutton in us happy, since two things are always better than one.
Now I’m sure you’re thinking that God hasn’t given you everything that you want. You believe that, only because your perspective is off. Someone in the world has gotten, or will get what you want. When we are all one, we will all have everything that has ever been, so you will, in essence, get that thing you pine for. I know that knowing that doesn’t help you now, because we want what we want, when we want it, but disappointment is a gift, too. Heaven does not answer, just because we pipe to it.
Gluttony exposes our short-sightedness. Why wait for dinner, when we can have a snack now? Why save for the future, when there’s no time like the present? I want to diet, but my stomach won’t let me. Curse you, God, for making me a hungry, groveling beast! We curse the God above us, for allowing us to suffer, and curse the god inside us, for not being able to stop it. Where our curses go depends on whether we are prone to internalizing or externalizing our blame.
We treat gluttony with temperance.
Some of us are gluttons for punishment. Goats love a thorny dinner, and a mountain to climb. Others of us are gluttons for peace and quiet. The disease is the same, either way.
Onan’s pride led him to gluttony. He did not want to give his brother credit for the children he created with his brother’s wife. He wanted to keep them all for himself.
To keep his sister-in-law from getting pregnant, Onan spilled his seed on the ground, instead of just keeping it inside his own body. He wanted the fun, but not the consequences.
Most scholars agree that Onan’s crime was not the spilling, itself, but the refusal to perform his levirate duty, and produce an heir for his dead brother. I would add, that Onan could have refused to sleep with his sister-in-law, who he was required to marry when his brother died, but he didn’t. His real crime was pretending to fulfill his duty, and thinking no one would notice the mess he made. For his crime, God struck Onan dead.
Now remember, death in the Old Testament typically refers to a spiritual change where a person becomes someone new. It does not always mean a physical death. It’s possible that Onan’s new wife stoned him, symbolically, reminding him of his duty to her, and that others in his household backed her up. Under this community pressure, Onan probably came face to face with his selfishness, and turned from the person that he was, into the person he was supposed to be.
We can’t judge Onan too harshly. We all have some gluttony in us. As Christians, we fight to save every baby from abortion, then kill the potential children of God with the swords in our mouths. We want to gatekeep Heaven, by setting restrictions on who we think will get in. Jesus did this, too. He said he came for the Jews, alone, until a Gentile woman opened his eyes to the bigger possibilities. He could save every one, even the dogs under the table.
As Christians, we should want everyone to be saved, because that is God’s greatest desire. We are foolish to think that we can thwart Him, or that He hasn’t planned for every possibility. Likewise, we should want all sinners to burn, because when the sun gets too hot, our instinct is to move and find shade, and moving leads to a change in perspective.
We need to keep in mind, though, that we are all sinners. Doing that will make our own sunburns more bearable, and give us the common ground we need to stand side by side with our neighbors. The oasis is big enough for all of us. Jesus is a carpenter. With him in our hearts, there are enough bungalows for everybody.
Temperance involves pushing back from the table. The problem is, sometimes it’s hard to know what to push away from. Gluttony, like the other vanities, isn’t always a bad thing. Wanting everyone to get into Heaven is a perfect example of good gluttony. Just because we call temperance a blessing, doesn’t mean it always is. It depends on the context, and our perspective.
Temperance is the quality of moderation or self-restraint. Unlike chastity, which is not doing something at all, temperance involves doing it in moderation. The temperance movement of the early 1900s wanted to reduce or eliminate the consumption of alcohol, with the goal of banning its sale and production, altogether. They got their name, initially, because they urged moderation. Later they evolved into “teetotalers” who wanted a complete end to alcohol use. The funny thing is, the movement was born in churches, among people who read the Bible every day, and completely ignored the fact that Jesus gave his disciples wine to drink, and drank wine, himself.
It’s important to note that Jesus did not give up wine, completely. He simply moderated his use of it.
Paul even advocated for the consumption of “a little wine for the stomach.” In other words, he saw that it had some value, and did not “throw the baby out with the bathwater,” so to speak.
Holding things up for God, and waiting for His answer, helps us discern what is edifying, and what is not. The thing the Nicolaitans got really wrong was that they turned liberty into license. They believed that salvation meant that they could do whatever they wanted. Jesus, himself, said this was not the case.
The Apostle Paul said it best, in 1 Corinthians 6:12, which says, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.”
Sure, we can do whatever we want, and God will still love us, but just because we can, does that mean we should? It’s this question that forms the basis for gluttony’s treatment.
Unlike lust, which is often a sudden fever that will pass after a few moments, if we simply don’t give in to it, gluttony will not go away. In some cases, it is good for us to get as much of a thing as we can, while at other times, we need to decide how much of a thing is actually going to benefit us, or others. The answer may be none, but in most cases a little doesn’t hurt.
As an example, doctors prescribe drugs that are illegal from any other source. Even if we all had medical degrees, prescribing medications to ourselves would still not be a wise move, because when we are in pain, we cannot see clearly. It’s not illegal for doctors to write themselves prescriptions, but it is frowned upon, for that very reason. Sometimes we need another set of eyes to see our problem clearly.
Jesus advised us that, if we had a problem with someone else, we should go to them, first, but if that didn’t work, we should take some other people with us. The reasoning for this is simple. We might not be able to explain the problem like a third party could, because we are too close to it.
Likewise, anything we say might get ignored by the person we are having trouble with, because they are too close, too. But a third party could act like a mediator, and tell us both where we are going wrong.
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what this has to do with gluttony, and the answer is simple. Sometimes we need to let go of our desire to do everything for ourselves, because there may be other people who can do it better.
I hate the fact that I don’t know what everything in Revelation means. It really irks me, sometimes. Still, I have come to the conclusion that I should be happy with what I do have, which is a lot. Perhaps, in time, I will get the rest of it, but at this point it doesn’t matter. I’m happy to leave some of it for other people, if that’s what God wants. To get to this point, I had to learn to properly count my blessings, leaving out the chickens that haven’t hatched, yet.
When my father passed away, I was physically unable to be sad, because I felt completely content with the fifty-one years that I got to spend with him. Expecting more felt selfish, and ungrateful. Being raised by him was a blessing. Sure, he had his flaws, but all in all he was a pretty good dad. I learned a lot from him, and his shortcomings. At that time, I couldn’t imagine overlaying the life that he had lived, with any expectations I might have had for the life he could have lived. I still can’t do it. He took all the life that was his to get, and not a second more, and who am I to think he needed or deserved more. It’s only the glutton in me that would want him to live forever, but that glutton would miss out on all the things I learned about myself, after he was gone.
Losing an eye brings a new way of looking at the world. Losing a tooth forces us to find a new way to chew. When we leave this world, we create a vacuum that is filled by something else, because nature abhors a vacuum. Trusting in God helps us remember what is really important, which is the time we got to spend with the people we love, not the moments we think we missed, that we were never promised.
I learned to count the presents I received, not the ones that were never given to me. I have a profound understanding of Revelation, thanks to God. Perhaps someone will come along and prove that I’m wrong, or improve on my understanding? If so, that’s okay. In order to get their gift, I had to get mine, first. If I had not asked my questions, they would not know what questions to ask.
It’s hard to glorify God, when the heat is on, but it’s not impossible. It just takes practice. I’m still working on it.
10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in agony 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.
Greed makes us want, lust urges us to reach, pride makes us look around, gluttony wants more, and sloth stops us in our tracks, because of the questions in our head. Have we gone too far, or not far enough? Sloth is a slow death, because we don’t move. We become lukewarm, and we already know what happens to Christians who try to bring balance to the force – they get spat out.
Just when we think we have done enough, we need to remind ourselves that there is still so much to do. The throne of the beast is the place where we rest on our calculations (or rest from them).
Animals are instinctive. They don’t look up, and they don’t always put two and two together. They lack our spark. For over a hundred years, we have been teaching gorillas sign language, and to date none of them have ever asked why, about anything. They haven’t questioned our intentions or our desire for them to learn, and they haven’t questioned why they should learn. In fact, they don’t really question anything. They ask for things, but understanding isn’t one of those things.
Sloths aren’t lazy, they’re misnomered. They got their name before people understood anything about metabolisms, and we’re all too lazy to find them a new, more appropriate name. We could teach them sign language, and ask them what they want to be called, but they probably wouldn’t understand the question.
Animals might be content to do what comes naturally, but humans aren’t. We have spent most of our existence trying to not do things naturally. That desire was built into us, for a reason. God doesn’t want us resting on our laurels. Nothing we do will ever be enough, until it’s enough. We were made to keep rising, no matter how many times we fall down, and unlike animals, we can’t shut up about it.
Animals don’t really complain, like we do, and maybe that’s the secret to our success? When we complain, we let everyone know that something is making us uncomfortable. We spread our discomfort like a plague, but by spreading it we also crowd source a solution. Other people, who didn’t know the problem existed, can help us figure out what to do about it. It usually takes a few tries, but eventually we come up with a solution that works, if only for awhile.
People complain that we weren’t born with an instruction manual, but the fact is, we’re writing one for ourselves. We are figuring out the best way around every obstacle we come across. We have more ingenuity built into us than every other species, put together. The thing is, we’re covering a lot of ground that has already been covered. We’re essentially reinventing the wheel, over and over, because we don’t like to share, and because we’re too lazy to leave instructions for those who might come after us.
What if you died tomorrow, and found a long line of people trying to find Heaven, just wandering around, because the path into it is the one laid out in the Egyptian Book of the Dead? What would you do? Have you read it? Probably not. I have a copy on my bookshelf, but I can’t make heads nor tails of it.
Or what if you found out that there was a password to get into Heaven, but the last guy who knew it didn’t share it with anyone, so everyone who came after was doomed to sit outside the gates?
These are just hypothetical questions, and I don’t believe either of them to be the case. But they do make me think about what we leave behind, and how we might make things better. To see it more clearly, let’s go back to the meaning of “Spare the rod, spoil the child.”
Shepherds follow their flocks, and use their rod to steer them, not by hitting them, but by holding up the rod so the sheep can see it, and letting nature do the rest. See, the sheep instinctively turn away from anything that comes into their field of vision, that perplexes them. It’s possible that they know they are being steered and play along, but more than likely, the rod startles them, so they turn away from it. My point is, if it works for sheep, it would work for kids, but for it to work, we would have to have a clear vision of where we want the kids to go, and that’s the problem. We don’t.
We’re all on different pages. We’re all stuck trying to live our little lives, without giving much thought to where humanity needs to go, and why, and the reason for that is, we all have different gods. What I mean is, we all have different desires, and ideas about the form humanity should take. Until we can clearly lay out our goals, and come to a consensus about what is right, and what is wrong, we’re just going to keep going wherever the wind takes us.
I have already demonstrated that the Antichrist, the Dragon, the Beast, and his number are not what they seem. There is nothing to fear from the whole world coming together. In fact, that is the promise of Revelation. The world is headed toward New Jerusalem. Never mind that it’s a state of mind, and not a place. It’s happening, despite our best efforts. The world is getting smaller, every day. The world is learning to get along, and communicate with one voice. Questions arise in one country, that make every other country examine the way in which they would answer that same question. God wants us to be one, and God gets what He wants.
For those of you who are convinced that a one world government is a bad thing, I’m not going to try and dissuade you. If you believe that it’s inevitable, I’m agreeing with you. It’s coming, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. In fact, it’s already here, but no one’s crowing about it. The 5 permanent members of the U.N. Security Council lead it. If you don’t know how that body works, any of the five can veto any proposal. Therefore, nothing gets done unless they all agree to it. The other U.N. members don’t really have much sway. They basically have to just go along with whatever the big five want, as do the few countries that aren’t a part of the United Nations.
So what does any of this have to do with sloth? Well, for generations Christian pastors have been warning us about a one world government, and telling us not to allow it to happen, and here we are, with it already in place, right under our noses. So, did we screw up? Is God gonna be mad? Of course not. He’s the one who made it happen.
We fight sloth with diligence.
For six days, God created the earth. On the seventh day, He rested. On the eighth day, He got back to work. For us, the eighth day is the day after we have our moment, and every day that follows it. This is what I mean, for my entire life, I wondered if there was truly a God, and why He wouldn’t just reveal Himself. That was my six days. On the seventh day, out of the blue, He made me aware of Him in a way that prevents me from ever doubting His existence again. Let me be clear, I may wonder why He’s doing what He’s doing, but I will never wonder if it’s Him doing it.
That seventh day lasted for a full twenty-four hours. During that time I was beyond euphoric. It is not something I can easily describe, because it is beyond the five senses. It wasn’t a feeling, it was a state of being. It ended around 8pm on a Sunday evening, at which point I fell into a deep sleep.
When I awoke Monday morning, I had to go to work. I stepped back into the same life, with all the same problems, only I was not the same. I was sure that God existed, and that knowledge was like a warm blanket I could wrap myself in. With that question answered, I was free to delve into other ones. I was able to throw away all of the doubts I had about God’s existence, and stop wasting my time wallowing in them.
Work was still work, but it was somehow easier. It was the eighth day. On the eighth day, we are no longer struggling alone. We have Jesus with us, and he’s doing most of the heavy lifting. The eighth day is an easier day than any I have ever known, because I know I’m not trying to do everything alone, and because even if I don’t know what it is, I know there’s a plan.
The yoke is light, and the burden is easy. That’s what Jesus promised us, and he wasn’t kidding. The yoke, the thing around our necks that is connected to the reins, is actually light. Not only is it not heavy, it is literally light. Each of the vanities is connected to a color, and colors are just wave lengths of light that our eyes can perceive. Our vanities steer us. All we have to do is move our feet, and our spiritual mouths. We walk and we talk, and we let God worry about the rest. The burden is no real burden, at all. It’s the perfect size for sloths who don’t like to move, even when they have to. In fact, as every Christian knows, sometimes God just carries us along, and we don’t even have to walk.
It’s easy to think that we need to be diligent about where the world is going, or that we need to steer it. In fact, all we need to be diligent about is trusting God, communicating with Him, and going where He tells us to go. The big picture is His responsibility. When Jesus came face to face with a king, he reminded that king, and himself, that kings only rule because God gives them the power to do so. Jesus didn’t challenge the authority of the King, even though he was no respecter of persons. He knew that kings have a built in desire to lead others, and that it is God who builds our desires into us, in order to further His own plans. He accepted that the King was where he was, because that’s where God wanted him to be.
The Disciples were divided about whether or not new converts to Christianity should also become Jews. Some thought they should, others said no, that it would be too much of a burden. It was Peter, speaking in the spirit, who said that even Jews weren’t good Jews, meaning they couldn’t live up to all the standards imposed by Judaism, so it would be unfair to expect people who were not raised as Jews to try and do the same.
Jews have over 600 rules they are expected to follow, every day. The Disciples agreed to cut the requirements down to just three. Little did they know that John would cut it down again, to just one. John 3:16 promises us that, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Now that’s a burden any sloth can carry, with ease.
A beast’s eyes are focused outward, because the only lights they can see are in the world. Their kingdom is the place where they rest on their calculations, or from them, being sure that they have calculated enough. But we know, now, that even the most perfect formula that human accounting has ever devised, six-six-six, the counting of pros and cons, does not allow for leaps of faith. When we trust God, we close our eyes and jump. It is in this moment that the kingdom of the beast goes dark, because we stop looking for light in the world, and start searching for it within.
It goes dark, also, when our formulas fail. When our perfect plans fall apart, that’s when the gnawing of tongues begins. We all know what it means to symbolically bite our tongue. We know it, because God lets truth spill into the world, from sources we cannot even imagine. His voice is that of running water.
Rivers roar, and brooks babble, because their flowing, churning water slaps against itself, and the shore that restrains them. What this means is, God feeds our beliefs from a myriad of places, and our beliefs are constantly colliding with each other, and with hard truth, which is the land. He does this to fill us with questions, and make us move under the weight of our curiosity. He gave us sloth, because sometimes we need to stop like a deer in the headlights, and bite our tongue, which is to not say what is on our mind.
A leap of faith requires us to stop thinking, stop talking, and just do.
Leaps of faith are easier said than done. When the sensible options no longer make sense, and the way forward seems unclear, we find it easier to just stand and cuss, rather than to turn around (repent) and stop trying to figure everything out for ourselves. There is a part of us that loves the challenge, and the idea of complete independence. We don’t want God to help. We want to tie our own shoes, and pick out our own clothes, and pull ourselves up from the ground, when we fall down. There is nothing wrong with that, we just need to remember that God built that independence (rebellion) into us, just like everything else. It is the Spirit of Antichrist, which has been in the world since the beginning. It is more than the feeling that we are alone, it is also the desire to be and to do alone.
The title Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, which means anointed one. Prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with oil to symbolize God choosing them for specific roles or missions. The prefix anti means the opposite, or against. Therefore, an antichrist is someone who refuses to accept the role God has chosen for them. At times, we are all antichrist. Our place is beside our beloved, wed to him, and one with God. That means we are all a team, working together. When we refuse our place, we turn our back on the team, and divorce ourselves from those who only want what’s best for us. Turning back around can seem like the hardest thing we have ever done.
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.
Stoicism is a belief system that is full of great ideas, but as any soldier knows, the best battle plans go up in smoke, the moment the bullets begin to fly. Euphrates of Tyre found the place in Stoicism, where the rubber meets the road. His wife died, and all of his stoic phrases could not ease his pain, or help him understand the purpose in her death.
Stoicism was born in Greece, which is west of the river Euphrates. Its name comes from the Greek “Stoa Poikile”, which means “painted porch.” This was a reference to the place where Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, and his followers met. Little did Zeno know just how meaningful that name would be. Paint is just a covering. It hides the underlying structure, which can be ugly. We use it to make things look better, but when it ages, it cracks and chips. So it is with Stoicism, which teaches that virtue and contentment are found in living in accordance with nature, and controlling one’s own judgements, rather than from external circumstances.
Stoics beg us to take the reins of our own lives, but their words ring hollow in the living moments that stop us in our tracks. The waters of the river Euphrates slap against the solid rock of truth, and cannot erode or move it. Its river bed becomes a desert, that does not refresh us, but across that dry place, new rulers are coming to give us peace.
East of the river Euphrates, is Asia, and the eastern philosophies. Some scholars believe that Jesus was teaching eastern philosophies, and that he was trained in Asia as a boy, and maybe they’re right? Stoicism doesn’t allow for leaps of faith, but Buddhism and Taoism do. They encourage us to transcend the physical, walk our minds out into the universe, and become one with it.
Taoism urges us to harmonize with the Tao (the Way). Buddhism has no gods or deities. It encourages us to find Nirvana, so that we can stop the cycle of reincarnation. If you think about it, that’s what getting into heaven does for Christians. We become one with God’s plan, and find a place where we don’t need to seek Him anymore. We become one with Him, and when we are one with God, then we are God, and when we are God, there is no one above us, so there are no more gods.
If you don’t believe in reincarnation, then you are like the Sadducees, and they were sad, you see, because a singular life is all they get. The Bible, however, tells us that John the Baptist was the prophet Elias, reincarnated. Jesus said it, himself, so it must be so. Right?
Whether you believe it or not, there is truth in the East, as well as the West. Personally, I think this verse has a simpler meaning. The East is where the sun rises, so it is the place where darkness is replaced by light. If Stoicism was born in Greece, which is west of the river Euphrates, and you, as a Stoic, can’t see the water you need, then turn around and look to the rising sun. Let it illuminate the oasis that was hidden in the dark.
Note: We call Asia the Orient, which is derived from the Latin word oriens, meaning “rising” or “rising sun.” This practice evolved in Europe, and included all the regions east of Europe, including the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. It shares a root with the verb “orient,” which means to locate oneself. I can tell you that if you orient yourself toward the light, your shadow will always be behind you.
13 Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
A spirit is a feeling or an attitude. For example, the Holy Spirit is God’s attitude or intentions toward us. When we blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, we doubt God’s love. When we do this, our perspective is out of whack. Impure spirits are ones that are not fully refined, or thought through. They are a jump of the gun that makes us act on insufficient evidence. The fact that these three spirits look like frogs, is telling. Frogs leap to escape danger, but where they leap from is just as important as where they land. They typically seek shelter in the water. (Frogs are amphibians. They jump from truth into spirituality. Toads are frogs, but they are not amphibians. They jump from truth to truth.)
The dragon is a misunderstanding, as are the beast and the false prophet. They represent ways that we might incorrectly view Jesus, and ourselves, since we are to be one with him.
When we begin to notice God exercising His power through us, it is easy to think that we are more special than anyone else. We might think of ourselves as supernatural, mythical beings, who could rain actual fire from heaven, or smite the “Egyptians” who won’t listen to us, with plagues, as Moses did.
We might start to believe that we are a beast (a mortal) with the secret code to life, the universe, and everything. We might tell ourselves that God has given us the formula that allows us to prosper where others fail, and we might let it go to our heads, in that we see ourselves as the “most chosen” of all people. Once we believe we are better than everyone else, we might start to see others as children that we need to lead around by the hand.
Lastly, we might imagine that we are worthy of respect, like the prophets of old, and we might demand that people listen to us, and do the things we say, so that the world can be made into the image we have of it, which we tell ourselves is the image God has, as well.
The problem is, we are none of these things, and even the prophets of old were nothing more than men, trying to hear and obey the will of God. Some of them let it go to their heads, too, and unless we realize that, we cannot see them clearly, or hear their words correctly.
The word toad does not appear in this verse, but the difference between frogs and toads is key to understanding how we should be, as Sons of Man. All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. The difference is in the thickness and permeability of their skin. Frogs are thin-skinned. They take in water and oxygen through their skin. Symbolically speaking, they are easily offended, but also very spiritual and touchy-feely.
Toads have thicker skin, that lets them retain water so that they can live in drier habitats. As toads, we can walk the dry places with our devils, instead of letting them walk alone.
Remember, frogs jump from land to water. When truth frightens them, they will seek shelter in beliefs. They are those who hide behind superstitions.
When a toad is frightened by the truth, they seek more truth.
When we think of frogs, we think green, even though they come in a myriad of colors. Green symbolizes jealousy, or envy, and envy is the sixth plague.
Greed makes us want, lust makes us get, pride makes us look around, once we have gotten, and gluttony makes us want more. Sloth makes us stop, but envy makes us realize we will never have enough. Someone will always have more.
Reality begins where fantasy dies, and envy is the name of that place. It is the realization that the person you chose, who you thought was the perfect spouse, is really just a human being. Perhaps it is the place where we discover that we will never be the person our spouse wants, or deserves? Either way, the underlying plague is envy. It is where we begin to wonder if God is good enough for us, or if we are good enough for Him.
I read recently that archaeologists have uncovered artifacts from the biblical battle of Megiddo. During that battle, King Josiah was slain by Egyptian archers. The discovery and potential proof of this battle brings me to an important point: It would not surprise me in the least if the events in the Bible were both physical and spiritual in nature, meaning they are symbolic, but also actually happened.
King Josiah was a reformer who did away with much idol worship in Israel, and restored the worship of God. He was warned not to interfere in an Egyptian campaign by Pharoah Necho II. Josiah, knowing the Pharoah’s warning came from God, went out anyway. That’s as important as it is ironic.
During the reign of Josiah, the Book of the Law (Deuteronomy) was rediscovered in the Temple. It had been lost for some time. Josiah was so moved by it that he undertook his reforms, urging the people to keep their promises to God. He led the people in a covenant renewal, promising to obey God’s commands, but he didn’t do what he urged others to do, and it cost him his life. But was it a physical death? A spiritual death? Or maybe both at the same time? Sometimes we only reach the truth, on our death beds.
Jealousy arises from the belief that we are just not good enough. It makes us want what others have. Josiah wanted to live up to the words in Deuteronomy, but he fell short. We all do that. He organized a Passover celebration that emphasized the importance of God’s deliverance from Egypt, and yet, he was delivered into the hands of an Egyptian Pharoah. That’s irony. God loves irony. He made it, after all.
God is a giver. Sometimes He gives us things we don’t want, and at times our lives are nothing more than cautionary tales for others. The knowledge of that really makes the words “careful what you wish for” hit home. Josiah learned more about adherence to the Law by dying in rebellion, than he ever did by reading the Book of the Law. Philosophy is always easier said than done.
So what do we know about Egyptians? Well, they focused a lot of their attention on the afterlife. They wrote the Egyptian Book of the Dead to guide them through it. They believed Heaven (the realm of the gods) was a place humans could get to.
The prophetess Huldah said that Josiah would be spared judgment for his actions and that he would die in peace. Does that mean he went down to Sheol with his kin, like Jacob? Jacob didn’t see Heaven as an accessible place for humans, either, and maybe it wasn’t accessible to us until Jesus came along and provided the “way.”
Is the story of this battle telling us that Josiah stood against the beliefs of the Egyptians, even though he knew they were right in their belief that Heaven is open to us? Did Josiah think, like Jacob, that Sheol would be his only rest? That’s what I see in it. Maybe you see something different?
Interestingly enough, a Pharoah named Necho (The 1st, I think) formed the first Egyptian navy by recruiting Ionian Greeks. Egyptians had a distinct dislike for the sea, unlike the Greeks. I feel like there is something symbolic about that, using wielders of logic to engage your enemies on the water, but I can’t put my finger on it. I mean, logic is based in truth, whereas beliefs are born in the sea of our imaginations. I guess using logical people to fight battles on a battlefield that your superstitions keep you away from, is pretty ironic.
Perhaps the Egyptians still bore the memory of the sea that drowned their army and their Pharoah?
Symbolically, waters are philosophies derived from spiritual understanding. They can bring spiritual life or death. I don’t know how philosophical the Egyptians were. They may have declined to stick their toes in those murky waters, unlike the greeks who were surrounded by water on all sides and had no choice but to become a seafaring nation.
Is the former battle of Megiddo informing us as to where our own battle of Armageddon will be fought? Is this the moment we decide to live forever with Christ in Heaven, giving up our antichrist (our rebellion) and turning away from the eternal sleep of Sheol? Is it the fight that leads us into our Heaven on Earth? I mean, there can’t be peace, unless there is war, because the contrast is a necessary part of the definition.
Megiddo means mountain. We are standing on it, surrounded by the kings of the world, trying to make a decision like Jesus did. Like him, at some point we have to come down from that high place, to a more grounded perspective.
So, is it possible that there will be some epic battle at the site of the ancient city of Megiddo, where the kings of the world unite against Israel? I won’t discount it. My feeling is that all of the events in Revelation are symbolic. I could be wrong, though, and it’s possible that they could be both symbolic and physical. God, in his greatness, could make that happen.
Will there be one, singular Antichrist? I don’t believe so. The word Antichrist doesn’t appear in Revelation. The Antichrist that John speaks of is the spirit of rebellion that has been in the world since the beginning. That spirit is in all of us. Even Jesus had his antichrist moments, when he begged for the cup to be taken from him, and when he doubted at the end of his life.
John doubted, too. His own life was ending, and he knew he would doubt like Jesus did, but he had past experience with the spirit of antichrist. That’s why he said, “other antichrists have already come.”
Josiah met the antichrist inside himself, face to face. No matter how determined he was to adhere to the Law, when the time came, he came up short, because the spirit that overcame him, the one that urged him to go out and interfere with the Egyptians, was not fully purified. His story should be a warning to us that the words of the Law are incomplete without understanding from God.