I am torn. The lectionary has the 2nd reading coming from Revelation. As the time of the church year winds down this makes sense, but Revelation is about the last book of the bible to treat in a blog format. It is just way to “indirect” in its words. Personally, I know the NT much better than the OT (outside of the Torah). If this was Genesis through Deut, then I’d feel better, but we are in the minor prophets. Micah to be exact. The Gospel Reading is marching through Luke, but that would get way too confusing with the Sunday Sermons coming from Matthew. I am torn, but Revelation appears to be the best course.
Reading: Rev 9:1-12
We pick up Revelation in the middle of the 2nd cycle of visions. The first grouping was seals on a scroll. The last grouping is the censors/bowls. This grouping is trumpets. The first 4 trumpets have sounded. The effect of those trumpets is the physical world gone mad. God’s good creation is twisted becuase of sin and producing all kinds of natural disasters that destroy things like the ocean, and the fresh water and the grass. Never all the natural resource. Never even half of them. God is merciful in the midst of evil. But the next three trumpets are Woe!
With the fifth trumpet, the demons are let loose upon unbelieving men. They are allowed to torture people for five months (not all the time, but enough to always be mindful of them). They have no ability over those with the seal of God, and the demons have no authority to kill. But all of that raises the question, why are they released, and who gives them their authority? The hard answer is that it is God – And that God does this for his good purposes, and the good of those afflicted. The suffering without recourse to death is a call to repent and turn to God – to find eternal life instead of the longed for destruction. The demons do the will of the Father bound by his limits. Like Satan in Job.
God does not want evil. Neither does he want the sinner to die. Since mankind saddled him with the former, God uses it as a goad to accomplish the latter. The devil wants to torment us and convince us that our sins are not forgiven, that there is no God, that we have no hope – stings like a scorpion. The mission of the Christian is to call out during these times that there is a saviour – Jesus Christ. The devil wants to destroy the human race – abaddon, the destroyer. Christ has saved it and is recreating us.
May the Lord grant you the insight to calm the troubled souls in your life.
Alternate readings: Micah 5:1-15 , Luke 10:25-37
