Readings for today: Zechariah 1, Revelation 12, Psalms 140, Proverbs 30:17
Imagine for a moment you live in a world full of violence. Suffering. Pain. Disease. A world where food can be scarce. Clean water unreliable. Disposable income non-existent. Imagine your political leaders are corrupt. Regime change is a constant. Imagine armies marching through your town, your city, your community with frequency. Stripping your storehouses bare. Often burning your fields. Stealing everything of value. Imagine feeling trapped. Helpless. Powerless.
Now layer in the fact that you are a Christian in a predominantly pagan city. There are only about twenty to thirty of you. You have no wealth. No political power. No cultural influence. You are considered an oddity at best, seditious at worst. Because you refuse to participate in the cult of the emperor or the cultural festivals of your city, you are often persecuted. The people taking out their anger and frustration on you with great regularity. Because you follow special rules regarding diet, practice sexual restraint, and care for the sick, poor, and dying; you stand out. You cannot hide. You are marginalized.
Such was the lot of the early Christians John was writing to and it is against this backdrop that we have to read Revelation. Especially passages like the one we find in chapter twelve. The early Christians faced significant persecution. Their lives were threatened almost every day. Living out their faith was not safe. It was costly. It was sacrificial. They were discriminated against in the workplace, in the marketplace, and in the halls of political power in their communities. So when John writes about the suffering of the woman in Revelation and the terrifying might of the dragon as he pursues her, one can easily imaging those early Christians drawing strength and hope from his words…"Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” (Revelation 12:10-11)
One of the reasons reading and understanding Revelation is so hard for us is we’ve never experienced persecution. Not on the level of our brothers and sisters in the first century or in places like China or Iran today. We have lived relatively comfortable lives of privilege, power, wealth, and influence. We’ve enjoyed a somewhat unprecedented run of peace especially if one is white and middle class. We’ve not had to grapple with institutional discrimination. Systemic persecution.We don’t know what it’s like to be targeted by the government, and more importantly, the government’s police force. And so we are left to speculate. Left to hypothesize on the identity of the woman and the dragon. Left to conjecture on when the war will happen and why God allows the war in the first place.
These questions are important ones but it is equally important to keep in mind the cultural distance between us and those Christians who are living under intense persecution around the world, including our own country. For them, these words are not allegorical but literal. They know what it’s like to hear the dragon’s roar, feel his breath, and endure his relentless pursuit. They know what it’s like to watch their loved ones suffer and struggle and die for their faith. They are the casualties of the very real war being waged in the heavens. The dragon will not go quietly. He will not give up easily. He wants to take as many with him as he can.
So how do we read and understand this difficult book? We humbly let these truths sink in. We resist the temptation to engage this book philosophically and instead try to read it from the perspective of those who suffer. What hope can we find? What can we learn about perseverance and endurance and facing our trials by faith? How can we hold onto faith in the Son of God who came into the world to defeat the powers of darkness and destroy the devil once and for all?
Readings for tomorrow: Zechariah 2-3, Revelation 13, Psalms 141, Proverbs 30:18-20