SESSION 5

PROPHETIC IMAGERY

 


 

Small Group Leader Guide

Step 1. Introduce the Session

5 minutes

The poetic imagery of the Bible’s prophetic passages can stretch our rational reasoning. From the mouths of two or more witnesses, we’ll get grounded on Heaven and Earth’s prophetic symbols.

SESSION GOAL(S)

  • Establish a basic understanding of several common prophetic images and themes.

Step 2. Watch the Video

40 minutes

CONTENT SUMMARY (with timestamps)

  • Heaven and Earth (02:28)
  • Kingdom of God (06:52)
  • Sun, Moon and Stars (09:36)
  • Rod, Staff and Scepter (11:11)
  • Cities and Nations (14:13)
  • Brides, Harlots and Marriage Covenants (16:38)
  • Seas and Floods (23:03)
  • Wine, Winepresses and Wrath (28:58)
  • Creatures (34:39)
  • Get the Picture?(38:50)

Step 3. Discuss

15 minutes

Leaders: You might like to split into smaller groups at this stage so everyone has a chance to respond honestly. Don't feel like you have to hurry through all these questions; they are simply conversation starters.

Q. What did you find most helpful or most challenging in this lesson? Any surprises?
Q. Matthew makes the statement, “Just as we can make the literal symbolic, we can also make the symbolic literal; both are error.” As you have studied the Bible, have you ever understood its symbolism one way and later, after growing in your understanding, come to understand the same passage differently?
Q. How can understanding the historical and cultural context of a prophetic image enhance our interpretation? Can you identify an image that may require deeper cultural understanding?
Q. How does understanding prophetic imagery affect our faith and understanding of God's character? Are there specific images that inspire hope or challenge doubt within you?

Step 4. Report Out [OPTIONAL]

15 minutes

Leaders: If you're a team of leaders taking a class through the course and you broke into small groups in Step 3, regroup at the end and ask each small group to report out on their small group discussion. What were their ah-ha's? What did they struggle with?

Close with prayer.

[TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS]

SESSION 5

Prophetic Imagery

(Revelation 12, Revelation 21, Various)

Whether delivered through dreams or prophetic visions, we recognize heaven’s language to earth is highly poetic and symbolic. By establishing an understanding of the Bible’s poetic imagery, we will be better positioned to understand the Word’s prophetic downloads. On the other hand, if we fail to understand these metaphors, we’re likely to make a mess of the scriptures as we struggle to fit them into a “literal”, earthly understanding. In this lesson, we take a short journey through biblical symbolic imagery.

TAKE-AWAYS FROM THIS LESSON

  • Establish a basic understanding of several common prophetic images and themes.

 

Once upon a time, I had the misfortune of witnessing a blinding example of literalism firsthand. Several Bible students were wrestling with a tougher prophetic passage: specifically, Revelation 11’s two witnesses. Some students argued for the two witnesses being the Mosaic law and the Old Covenant prophets, some said Enoch and Elijah, and still someone else said Jew and Gentile believers. But, midstream, someone made a gobsmacking comment:

“Scholars love complicating things. What's wrong with a literal interpretation?”

I replied, “Because human-lampstand-olive-tree hybrids don't exist (11:4).”

To which they replied, “Not according to the bible. The bible say [sic] they exist.”

Well, I thanked them for their example of literalism-gone-wrong and I think we quietly agreed to disagree. Mercifully, the majority of Bible students don’t take their literal hermeneutic this far. Most readers understand when Psalm 18 says, “The Lord is my rock,” King David is not saying God is literally a rock. Just as we can make the literal symbolic, we can also make the symbolic literal; both are error.

Truly, in its heavenly, prophetic language, we find the Word of God ripe with symbolism; so much so, we earth-born often struggle to understand it. Yet, James 1:5 promises if we ask our Father for wisdom, He is faithful to give it. Our lesson on prophetic imagery opens with the heavenly and the ruling.

Heaven and Earth

Rulers and their nations; When we think of heaven, we usually imagine winged angels, a golden city in the clouds and pearly gates. We’ve come to associate these otherworldly images with what the Bible calls the “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2), with the first heaven being the sky (Isaiah 55:10) and the second heaven containing the celestial bodies (Psalm 19:1-6). But biblical references to heaven and earth don’t always mean we’re talking about the literal heavens and earth. Sometimes, “heaven and earth” refers to a ruling class and its nation, as it does in Isaiah 1:2,10, Isaiah 24:23 and Jeremiah 22:29. Another example of this is in Isaiah 34:4,

“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.”

Sounds like the cosmic end of all things, right? End times! Judgment Day! If we keep reading, however, we learn in verses 5 and 6 the dissolving of “all the host of heaven” is not actually talking about the angelic realm, but the Idumean kingdom. This is apocalyptic “day of the Lord” language!

5 “For My sword has drunk its fill in heaven; Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom, and upon the people whom I have designated for destruction. 6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.”

Lest we take Edom to be a symbol for the reprobate world in the last days, we’ll also note the images of rotting dead bodies (v3) and ensuing generations (v10) following this judgment.

The Temple; Beyond rulers and their nation, the Old Covenant Mosaic rites and Temple complex offer a second image of “heaven + earth.” Seen in the tabernacle’s mixture of heavenly and Edenic imagery, the Temple itself was considered the place where heaven literally met earth. In Psalm 78:69, we see God “built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth He established forever.” In his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus shows us Moses established the tabernacle in three parts, the outermost parts representing land and sea and therefore “accessible and common to all. But when he set apart the third division for God, it was because heaven is inaccessible to men.” The 12 loaves of shewbread marked out the months of the year, the candlestick represented the movement of the planets, the four-part veils represented the four elements of earth, sea, air and fire. Even the High Priest’s vestments represented creation. (Josephus, Antiquities 3.7.7.)

So, when we read in Isaiah 66:22 about the new heavens and the new earth enduring before the Lord, we understand He’s not speaking of a literal, newly formed heaven and earth since we see dead bodies two verses later, in verse 24. This same principle applies in the book of Revelation where we see the new heaven and earth established in Revelation 21, but then Revelation 22:14-15 says:

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”

Wait. If we’re talking about the new literal heaven and earth, how do we still have folks sinning?

The heaven and earth being spoken of here is the New Covenant reality—the kingdom of God—ushered in by the Messiah at His first advent. Revelation 22 can’t be the new creation, since we know all those not found written in the book were thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15) with death and Hades. Revelation 22 refers to the new kingdom of God, the spiritual kingdom of the saints, walking out the present reality of the Gospel.

Israel; Since they were the people raised up out of humanity like the earth from the sea in Genesis 1:9-10—and since the nation hosted the Temple and therefore God Himself—Israel extended the Temple’s heaven and earth imagery to herself.

Kingdom of God

For some reason, there seems to be a lot of confusion around the kingdom of God. Many think it will be a physical, earthly kingdom. Some folks even believe the kingdom of God has been delayed, however that would mean this kingdom’s arrival, foretold by God through His prophets, and announced by John the Baptist, and by Jesus Himself, [1] failed to arrive as the Lord predicted! Yikes! Yet these all declared the Messiah’s victory and His ensuing judgment. I’m pretty sure if God says something will come to pass at a certain time, not only will His plans be fulfilled as promised, but this will even be done in the face of fallen angelic and human efforts to interfere (Colossians 2:15).

Did you ever notice how the fire of God filled the Holy of Holies in the wilderness (Exodus 40:34) and then again later, Solomon’s Temple? (2 Chronicles 7:1) Oh, and then again at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit showed up like a roaring wind and tongues of fire over each of the 120 in the upper room? (Acts 2:3) The third Temple was—and is still—being built, from generation to generation:

“You also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5)

Jesus was very clear about the nature of the kingdom of God:

“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God comes not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.’” (Luke 17:20–21)

And in Hebrews:

“Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:” (Hebrews 12:28)

And in Romans:

“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 14:17)

Here Paul connects the kingdom of God to the regenerated Christian heart.

So yes, the kingdom of God has arrived, and yes, Jesus is reigning right now (Hebrews 1:3, 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22; Acts 7:55-56, and all of the book of Revelation). As believers, we have been rescued from darkness and have been transferred into Christ’s kingdom, being forgiven and redeemed (Colossians 1:13-14, 2:13-14).

Sun, Moon and Stars

Israel; Harkening back to Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37, Revelation 12’s heavenly sign of “a woman clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head” points to faithful Israel (whose number will be as the stars), for it is she who gives birth to a son who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter”, who is then “snatched up to God and to his throne” (Revelation 12:5). [2] Here again, we see the members of the ruling class—in this case, the founding family of Israel—being referred to as heavenly celestial bodies.

The Revelation of God; But this celestial imagery isn’t just limited to humanity’s ruling classes. In other places, it is used to highlight the good news of the Gospel, as in Malachi 4:2. Indeed, Jesus Himself replaces the sun and moon as the light of the world [3] and as the “bright morning star” of Revelation 22:16.

Angels; Literally meaning “messenger”, in Revelation 1, verses 16 and 20, we see the “angels” of the seven churches (in this case, local pastors or ministers), represented by seven stars. Angels (the heavenly type this time) are referred to as stars in Job 38:7, and in Revelation 12:4, where we read the dragon—Satan—sweeps a third of the stars of heaven (angelic hosts) in a mutiny against God’s plan for humanity. Satan and his angels lose the war and are expelled from heaven (Revelation 12:7-9).

Rod, Staff and Scepter

One of the timeless symbols of ruling authority is the scepter. Also known as a rod and sometimes represented as a staff or a shepherd’s crook, the scepter grew to mean divine power and position. Seen as early as Genesis, the possession of a scepter indicates you hold the power to command.

“The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” (Genesis 49:10)

Of course, Joseph spent years in Egypt, where the flail and crook were common imagery among the pharaohs and their gods. Representing a shepherd’s crook—used for guiding, protecting and stability—pharaoh’s crook was a symbol of his power to gather and preserve the people. It is no coincidence then, that God instructs Moses to carry his staff into Egypt to confront pharaoh—it becomes physical image God’s divine authority over all (Exodus 4:1-5,17,20). By Exodus 7:12, Aaron’s staff swallows the magicians’ staffs and is used to administer several plagues to Egypt. There is debate on whether there was one staff, shared between Moses and Aaron, or two, but regardless, we recognize the staff or rod represents power and authority.

In the account of Esther, the young queen reminds her uncle,

“...any man or woman who comes to the king in the inner courtyard, who is not summoned, he has only one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter so that he may live...” (Esther 4:11; also 5:2 and 8:4.)

With the nation facing destruction, Esther asks her people to intercede and fast from food and water for three days on her behalf before she approaches the king. “If I die, I die,” marks her resolve (4:16).

Finally, as with Egypt, the scepter or rod can represent judgment and discipline. A favorite passage for parents is Proverbs 22:15, where we learn the “rod of discipline” will remove foolishness far from our children. Job refers to this “rod of discipline” (judgment) in Job 21:9 where he laments the houses of the wicked “are safe from fear, and the rod of God is not on them.” [4]

So, when we hear the Messiah will “rule all the nations with a rod of iron” (Revelation 12:5, 2:27 referring back to Psalm 2:9), we understand the Messiah’s government will be strong and stern. Turns out, iron is the metal used to represent the fourth kingdom (Rome), as seen in the statue’s iron legs from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2) and in the teeth of the fourth beast of Daniel 7:7. This fourth kingdom coincides with the arrival of the kingdom of God, as predicted in Daniel 7, Daniel 9 (v24,26), and elsewhere.

Cities and Nations

As in our earlier examples of “heaven and earth” and “sun, moon and stars”, throughout the Word, metaphor often extends between cities, nations and even people, using one to represent another.

In Revelation 11:8, we see “the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt”. If we take that literally—and not symbolically (“spiritually”)—we’ll be confused. Fortunately, most Bible students understand when the verse says, “where our Lord was crucified,” John is referring to the degenerate city of unbelieving Jerusalem in the first century. John is pointing to Jerusalem’s moral degradation and idolatry as an echo of these sinful, worldly strongholds of the past, and in doing so, he also foreshadows the city’s approaching judgment and destruction. He does this again in Revelation 17, when he points to the woman who rides the beast, Mystery Babylon, leveraging the Babylonian nation’s fallen image of depravity and oppression.

Likewise, though we usually think of Israel (sometimes called Jacob) as the literal nation of ethnic Israel, Paul is clear: “Israel” may also indicate the faithful remnant; not national Israel.

6 “It is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel, who are of Israel, 7 neither are they the seed of Abraham, those who descended: but, ‘In Isaac shall your seed be called.’ 8 That is, the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” (Romans 9:6-8; see also Romans 2:28-29.)

Here the name Israel is applied to those who belong to Christ—even to the exclusion of Jewish ancestry—defining faithful believers in the Messiah as “Abraham’s descendants, the heirs of promise” (Galatians 3:29).

In fact, after faithless Jerusalem is put away (Revelation 19), and the kingdom of God, millennial reign, and final judgment in are seen in Revelation 20, we circle back to the kingdom of God—the New Jerusalem, the holy city—coming down from heaven (Revelation 21-22). The New Jerusalem is synonymous with the bride of Christ, God's born-again people (Revelation 3:12, 21:2).

Brides, Harlots and Marriage Covenants

While we’re speaking of the bride of Christ, it’s vital to understand the importance of covenant in the kingdom of God. Typically, there are five major covenants recognized in the Bible: the Noahic, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, the Davidic, and Jesus’ New Covenant. These agreements between God and His holy people are a big deal. The Creator of the universe bends down and contractually obligates Himself to us? He does not need to do this but does so for our sake.

In the Mosaic covenant, seen in Exodus 19, the Lord invites Israel into covenant with Himself, establishes the terms of the covenant across the following chapters and, by Exodus 24:8, Israel agrees, sealed by blood. In exchange for Israel’s obedience and loyalty, God takes them as His “own possession among all the peoples, […] a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6). [5] This is marriage.

This wedding covenant imagery is further cemented in Isaiah 54:4-5, in the Lord’s words to Zion:

4 “‘For your husband is your Maker, whose name is the Lord of armies; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, who is called the God of all the earth. 5 For the Lord has called you, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,’ says your God.” (See also Isaiah 61:10, 62:4-5.)

God also refers to this covenant in Ezekiel 16:8 when He says, “…I spread My garment over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine.” He goes on to describe the lavish treatment He bathed Israel with, adorning her with fine jewelry and raising her to the status of royalty.

However, as we reach verse 15, we find Israel has not been faithful.

“But you trusted in your beauty and became unfaithful because of your fame, and you poured out your obscene practices on every passer-by to whom it might be tempting.” (Ezekiel 16:15)

Ezekiel goes on to describe the ways Israel turned to idolatry, an idolatry that even rose to the level of fornication, angel and Baal worship, and child sacrifice (2 Kings 17). Worse, she who was to be a light onto the nations began exporting her obscene practices, mixing with other nations including the Egyptians, Assyrians and Chaldeans (Ezekiel 16:23-29). “How feverish is your heart,” declares the Lord God, “while you do all these things, the action of a bold prostitute!” (v30)

Israel’s turning away into spiritual adultery is summarized again in 2 Kings 17:14-15:

14 “However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. 15 They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His warnings which He gave them. And they followed idols and became empty, and followed the nations that surrounded them, about which the Lord had commanded them not to do as they did.”

In fact, Israel’s image as beloved-wife-turned-harlot is stated over and over:

  • “You are a prostitute with many lovers;” (Jeremiah 3:1)
  • “‘Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,’ says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 3:20)
  • “My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.” (Hosea 4:12; see also Hosea 1:2 and 3:1.)

So, in Malachi 2:16, when God says, “I hate divorce,” we understand He sees it as a rending apart of what He knit together. Though some Bible versions translate “I hate divorce” as “the man who hates and divorces his wife”, the results are the same: God considers divorce faithless violence to the marriage covenant and to the oneness He establishes through it (v14-15).

In fact, the only two biblical justifications we have for divorce is adultery (Deuteronomy 22:22) and abandonment by an unbelieving spouse (1 Corinthians 7:15), though there is a third way out—namely, death. In both Romans 7:2 and 1 Corinthians 7:39, we learn if a woman’s husband dies, she is free to marry whom she wishes.

According to Jeremiah 3, God divorced rebellious Israel, giving her “a certificate of divorce” and sending her into away, into exile, “because of all her adulteries…” (Jeremiah 3:8-10, also Isaiah 50:1). This divorce is a reference to the Assyrian invasion between 740 and 720 BC (2 Kings 17), which completely erased Israel’s 10 northern kingdoms from history.

In the New Testament, bridal language is used to represent faithful Israel, the early Church. Per 1 Corinthians 6:17, Paul teaches they who unite themselves with the Lord are “one with Him in spirit.” In 2 Corinthians 11:2, Paul says, “I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” We are also told Christ is the head of the Church, “just as the husband is the head of the wife” (Ephesians 5:23-25). God’s people, as this bride of Christ, are seen in the marriage of the Lamb, found in Revelation 19:7-8: 

7 “’Let’s rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself.’ 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

Finally, in Revelation 21:2, John sees “the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

Seas and Floods

In Revelation 17:15, an angel explains a vision to the apostle John, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute (unfaithful Israel) is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.” Indeed, water is often used to describe thronging masses of foreigners, as in Psalm 144:7, when the psalmist petitions the Lord to, “…Rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners…”

Isaiah

The prophet Isaiah frequently portrayed the multitudes as flowing currents:

“Woe to the many nations that rage—they rage like the raging sea! Woe to the peoples who roar—they roar like the roaring of great waters!” (Isaiah 17:12)

“Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth of the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.” (Isaiah 60:5)

Ever since Noah’s global reset in Genesis, and Pharaoh’s army was swallowed in Exodus, God has used flood imagery to communicate judgment, and Isaiah favored this visual. In Isaiah 8:7-8, Israel will be overcome by the powerful Assyrian nation:

7 “Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: 8 And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”

Isaiah 57:20 tells us, “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt” so when that sea turns to envelop a nation under divine judgment, flood language is the natural progression. (See also Isaiah 59:19, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood…”)

Daniel

Known as Daniel’s 70 Weeks, Daniel 9:24-27 offers us one of the most amazing prophecies in the Old Testament. This prophecy points to the arrival of the Jewish Messiah and the destruction of the second Temple, where “the end shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined” (v26). We know this prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD during the Roman siege of Jerusalem. The prophet’s use of “flood” here is similar to his “arms of a flood” in Daniel 11:22.

Jeremiah

In Jeremiah 46, the prophet laments judgment coming to Egypt at the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon. Egypt’s arrogant thirst for conquest is described:

7 “Who is this that comes up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers? 8 Egypt rises up like a flood and his waters are moved like the rivers. He says, ‘I will go up and will cover the earth. I will destroy the cities and their inhabitants.’” (Jeremiah 46:7-8)

As Jeremiah continues, this imagery is declared over the Philistines, a flood rising out of the north with the noise of hooves and rumbling chariot wheels (Jeremiah 47:2-3).

Amos

In Amos 8, we are told God is preparing to divorce Israel and His judgment “shall rise up as a flood and [the land] shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt” (v8). The same vision is repeated in Amos 9:5, where we are told spiritually adulterous Israel will be judged and the house of David shall possess the remnant, even “the heathen who are called by His name” (v11-12).

Nahum

Nahum describes day of the Lord judgment coming to Ninevah, and here in Nahum 1:8, “…with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.” In this case, the “overrunning flood” was the armies of Babylon.

Revelation

I believe it’s only by grasping these prior examples that we can begin to understand flood and sea imagery in most symbolic book of the Bible, John’s Apocalypse, otherwise known to us as Revelation. Now, without properly unpacking all of Revelation 12, I’m just going to drop you into the deep side of the pool, verses 15 and 16:

15 “And the serpent (Satan) cast out of his mouth water as a flood (the Roman armies) after the woman (faithful Israel, the first-century Church), that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood (the Roman armies). 16 And the earth (national Israel) helped the woman (faithful Israel), and the earth (national Israel) opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood (the Roman armies were consumed by the goal of subduing the Jewish revolt between 66 and 73 AD) which the dragon (Satan) cast out of his mouth.” (Revelation 12:15-16)

Sorry. Hopefully that leap didn’t sink you and you were able to follow at least the flood and earth symbols back to their typological roots as we’ve illustrated in this lesson. Now, when we read in Revelation 21:1 about the new heaven and the new earth—and we get to that odd little detail about there being “no more sea”—we can understand none are considered foreigners in the kingdom of God; people from “all nations will walk by [the Lamb’s] light” (v24). We’re not talking about literal oceans here. This is a fulfillment of Joel 3:17: “Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling on Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will no longer pass through it.”

Wine, Winepresses and Wrath

Early societies were agrarian, so it should be no surprise to us that much of the Bible’s metaphors surround images of sowing, reaping and the fruit of the land. Wheat offers a favorite allusion to God's holy people (Matthew 3:12), where the wicked and ungodly are compared to chaff (Psalm 1:4) or tares (weeds) to be burned up in the fire of final judgment (Matthew 13:38).

In John 15, we see Jesus describe God as the vinedresser and Himself as the vine, where believers bearing kingdom fruit are pruned, but the faithless are cut away and cast into the fire. Wine is referred to as the “blood of the grape” as early as Genesis (49:11, and Deuteronomy 32:14) and was established for drink offerings, as seen in the Mosaic Temple rites (Numbers 28:7,31). Jesus continues this synonym between blood and wine during the last supper when He takes the wine and says, “this is my blood” (Matthew 26:27-28). 

In Jeremiah 51, the prophet foretells day of the Lord judgment coming to the Babylonian empire at the hands of the Medo-Persians and Cyrus the Great. Babylon, previously used as an instrument of judgment over wayward Israel, has gone too far and will, herself, now be judged. Our wine allusion is found in verse 7:

“Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, intoxicating all the earth. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are going insane.” (Jeremiah 51:7)

We know this prophetic judgment was fulfilled in 539 BC. However, this chastisement is replayed in the destruction of Revelation’s harlot, the great prostitute, Mystery Babylon. It is no accident then, when John borrows the same imagery regarding Revelation’s great city:

“[…] Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.” (Revelation 16:19)

Kings and those who live on the earth have become “drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality” (Revelation 17:2, 18:3). The woman is seen “holding in her hand a gold cup full of abominations” (17:4) and is herself “drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus” (17:6). It is fitting, then, that those who have accepted the mark of the beast and persecuted the Lamb’s saints “will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger” (Revelation 14:10). In Revelation 16, we see the second and third angels pouring their bowls (vials) out onto the waters of the earth, turning them to blood (v3-4), declaring,

“For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink; they are worthy” (Revelation 16:3-7).

From Revelation 14:14-20, we see one “like a son of man” (the exalted and reigning Messiah) being called upon to “Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe” (14:15). This image harkens back to Joel 3:13:

“Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread the grapes, for the wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”

Revelation’s judgment, it turns out, is a fulfillment of the book of Joel, and here, where the Lord promises He will avenge the blood of his faithful people (Joel 3:21), He simultaneously establishes the kingdom of God. (Let the student understand.)

Revelation 6:10 sees the saints in heaven crying out, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You not judge and avenge our blood upon those who live on the earth?” By Revelation 8:3-5, the prayers of the martyred saints are collected, mixed with God’s wrath, and poured out onto the earth. Once judgment falls upon the great prostitute, it is announced that God “has avenged the blood of His bondservants upon her.” (Revelation 19:2; cf. Revelation 18:20,24) But then, Jesus declared this would happen:

35 “…so that upon you [Jerusalem] will fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” (Matthew 23:35-36)

Indeed, Jerusalem even asked for it when the religious leaders, together with the crowd, cried, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:23-25). In the days leading up to His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus says:

33 “It cannot be that a prophet would perish outside Jerusalem.

34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her young under her wings, and you were unwilling! 35 Behold, your house is left to you desolate…” (Luke 13:33-35)

Really, I’m not trying to spill the beans on the identity of Mystery Babylon in this lesson, but… well… it gets super obvious after a while.

Creatures

In keeping with our brief survey of earth-based prophetic imagery, we would be remiss if we failed to cover a few of the more common allusions to the animal kingdom.

Lions, Sheep and Goats

Jesus is called both the Lion of Judah and the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world, contrasting images of fierce strength with innocent sacrifice. But Satan is also imaged as a lion, seeking whom he may devour, so we recognize images can be played in different ways. While the people of God are sometimes pictured as sheep under Christ, the Good Shepherd, in Matthew 25’s final judgment, they are separated from the wicked goats. This is the reason Satan is often represented by the goat or the Baphomet in Satanism and the occult.

Snakes and Dragons

That the Satanic is referred to as serpent and dragon in Scripture is notable enough that most Christians don’t need much explanation here. Satan first gets the label of serpent in Genesis 3:14, which probably looked more like a dragon, since the snake didn’t lose its legs until Adam and Eve’s judgment in the garden. Indeed, just as the serpent is cursed to eat dust for all the days of its life, Satan is “cast…to the earth…a spectacle before kings” (Ezekiel 28:17; “kings” being a reference to angelic hosts, not earthly human kings.) This earthly punishment is further illustrated in Job’s heavenly courtroom vision where Satan responds to God that he’s been roaming the earth, to and fro (Job 1:7, 2:2). Twice in the book of Revelation, John does a paint-by-number to remove all doubt as to who has been behind the all the trouble when he says, “the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan” (Revelation 12:19, 20:2). Finally, it’s in Revelation 12 where we learn of a war in heaven that results in Satan and his angels being cast down to the earth, losing their access to heaven.

Horses

In and out of prophecy, horses represent power, strength and swiftness. Outside prophecy, they may also represent man’s false sense of security (Psalm 33:17, Proverbs 21:31). When we see horses represented in prophecy, it may be to say God’s justice is coming quickly; it will not delay.

The sixth chapter of Revelation presents us with the first six of seven seals. Each seal is its own heavenly scene as the Lamb’s judgment is released. The first four seals offer us the infamous four horsemen of the Apocalypse, where each horse represents a different judgment: white for war and conquest, red for internal strife, black for famine, and the pale (or green) horse representing death by sword, famine, plague and beast. These judgments point us back to Israel’s earlier exile in Ezekiel 14:21:

“For thus says the Lord God: ‘How much more [God’s judgment over the land] shall be when I send My four severe judgments on Jerusalem—the sword and famine and wild beasts and pestilence—to cut off man and beast from it?’”

The fact these judgments are symbolized as swift, powerful horses lends further weight to the time statements we find in Revelation, such as “soon” (1:1, 22:6,7,12,20), “near” (1:3, 22:10) and Jesus’ “hold fast until I come” to the church of Thyatira (2:25), who by the way, is no longer in existence.

But that will be a different lesson.

Beasts

Lastly, in my lesson on the beast of Revelation, I go into great detail as I show the connections between Daniel 7’s four beasts and John’s beast of Revelation, but suffice it to say here, beasts represent foreign nations, their wicked kings and the fallen angels who back them.

Get the Picture?

Okay! We’ve only scratched the surface, but hopefully this brief survey on biblical symbology has opened you to a deeper understanding of the Word and a handful of its images. Obviously, the Word of God is too vast for us to unpack every symbolic meaning here.

In this lesson, we’ve covered a lot of ground, including: heaven and earth, the kingdom of God, the sun, moon and stars, staffs and scepters, cities and nations, brides and harlots, seas and floods, wine and winepresses, and several creatures.

If we don’t recognize symbolic metaphor when we find it, we may take the woman in Revelation 12 being given the wings of an eagle, as Mother Mary flying over the desert with literal bird wings, instead of understanding the faithful remnant’s first-century exodus from Judaea was swift.

1 Corinthians 13:9-10 says, “For we know in part and prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with.” There will come a day when there is no more prophecy; all will be fulfilled, and we will know as we are known. Until that day comes, according to 2 Timothy 2:15, let us continue to grow in the Word, studying to show ourselves approved.

Remember: It’s the Truth that sets you free.

 

FOOTNOTES

[1] Foretold by God through His prophets (Daniel 2:44, 7:13-14, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Isaiah 61, and others), and announced by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:2), and by Jesus Himself (Matthew 4:17, 12:28, Mark 1:14-15, Luke 22:29-30, John 5:25).

[2] Faithful Israel (whose number will be as the stars, per Genesis 15:5, 22:17, 26:4), for it is she who gives birth to a son who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter” (Psalm 2:9, Revelation 2:27) who is then “snatched up to God and to his throne” (Revelation 12:5).

[3] Jesus as the light of the world (Matthew 4:16, John 8:12, 9:5, Revelation 21:22-27).

[4] (See also Psalm 110:2, Ezekiel 7:10-11 and Hebrews 1:8.)

[5] (cf. Isaiah 51:16, Ezekiel 16:8-14, Hebrews 9:18-22.)

REFERENCES

Barker, Margaret. “Beyond the Veil of the Temple. The High Priestly Origin of the Apocalypses”. Marquette University. https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/veil.html.

Bible Symbols. June 18, 2017. “Bible Symbols List”. http://biblesymbol.com/bible-symbols-list/.

Got Questions. “When and how was Israel conquered by the Assyrians?” https://www.gotquestions.org/Israel-conquered-by-Assyria.html.

Gregg, Steve. “Revelation 6”. OpenTheo. https://opentheo.org/i/3873095679538709626/revelation-6.

Hunt, Michal. 2008. “How to Study the Books of the Old Testament Prophets”. Agape Bible Study. https://www.agapebiblestudy.com/profit_study/HOW%20TO%20STUDY%20THE%20BOOKS%20OF%20THE%20OLD%20TESTAMENT%20PROPHETS.htm.

Josephus, Flavius. “Antiquities of the Jews.” 3.7.7. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-3.html.

Josephus, Flavius. “The Jewish War.” 4.6.1, 5.8.2, 5.10.4. University of Chicago. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-5.html.

Morais, Daniel. “Revelation 16: A Preterist Commentary”. RevelationRevolution.org. https://www.revelationrevolution.org/revelation-16-a-preterist-commentary/.

Pliny the Elder. “The Natural History”. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855. Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D30

Sanford, Derek. Aug 1, 2023. “What Does the Bible Say About Divorce?” Grace Church. https://blog.whoisgrace.com/what-does-the-bible-say-about-divorce/.

Smith, William, Dr. “Entry for ‘Sceptre’”. Smith’s Bible Dictionary. 1901. https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/smiths-bible-dictionary/sceptre.html.

Solow, A. R. “On celestial events, auroral activity, and the solar cycle in classical antiquity”. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 232:67–70, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2005.01.010.

Sparavigna, Amelia Carolina. 2019. “The eclipses in Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita”. HAL Open Science. ff10.5281/zenodo.3330598ff. ffhal-02197593f. https://hal.science/hal-02197593/document.

Steichen, Neal. November 21, 2023. “Crook & Flail in Ancient Egypt | Overview & Meaning”. Study.com. https://study.com/academy/lesson/crook-flail-in-ancient-egypt-definition-symbolism.html.

Stothers, R. August 28, 1978. “Solar Activity Cycle during Classical Antiquity”. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Goddard Space Flight Center, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA. Astronomy and Astrophysics. 77, 121-127. https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/1979/1979_Stothers_st06400f.pdf.

Stothers, R. B. 1987. “The Roman fireball of 76 BC”. The Observatory. vol. 107, p. 211–213. https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1987Obs...107..211S.

Tikkanen, Amy. “Sceptre”. Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/scepter.