Reading from Sunday, December 26

Yes sir. Strep is kicking my little white booty.

Reading for December 26
Zechariah 9:1-17
Chapter 9 starts with a "this will happen to this country" and "that will happen to that country" thing, but then right in the middle, is a clear vision of Jesus, the humble kind, king.

  ⁹ Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
   Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
   righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
   on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
¹⁰ [...]He will proclaim peace to the nations.
   His rule will extend from sea to sea
   and from the River^[b] to the ends of the earth.

If I remember correctly, this specific prophecy of him riding on a donkey is one that Jesus uses to prove his divinity amongst the Jews. I'd also like to point out verse 10 - he will proclaim peace to the nations. That's nationS with an S. All are welcome, all are able to partake of the peace Jesus offers. 

Revelation 17:1-18
This has already been mentioned in Revelation, but I haven't touched on it yet - the book of life.

The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come.

I'll get to that beast in a minute, but I want to talk about this idea of the book of life. According to this, there is a book in which is written the names of every person who will ever get into heaven. And apparently this book was written at the outset of the universe. From the very beginning, God knew who would and who would not come to him. Logically this creates some errors that I could spend hours on, but this takes me all the way back to when I started this thing and I wondered about God's all-knowing nature. Why the disappointment when people fail, then? Why these seven plagues if you know that these people will not convert? Why kill every first born child of Egypt? Why the death of Christ?! Why any of it? Doesn't this book of life render all of it meaningless? It's like multiplying the entire Bible by zero.

How very Ecclesiastical of me.

Now. This beast. The phrase "once was, now is not and yet will come" is repeated several times in regards to this beast. What could this beast be? My best guess is death. Not physical death, but the death that Adam and Eve experienced, the death that was defeated by Jesus and the death which will come again after this ridiculous catastrophic apocalypse.

And who is riding this beast? A prostitute. To me this symbolizes temptation and lust for power, sex, money, land, Porshes, guns, video games, food, flat screen tvs, pornography, drugs, and anything else you want to fill in. The lust for things and sex and satisfaction will ultimately destroy us. We're already seeing it, and we've been seeing it for thousands of years. Wars for no actual reason, poverty because of others' greed, hunger in a land of plenty - this will be our destroyer. Make no mistake.

I hate to be all scary and death zone but this is what its saying, I'm trying to provide my honest interpretation as I always have tried to do.

Psalm 145:1-21
Again, nice to read coming from Armageddon town.

 ⁸ The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
   slow to anger and rich in love.
 ⁹ The LORD is good to all;
   he has compassion on all he has made.

Proverbs 30:32
 ³² “If you play the fool and exalt yourself,
   or if you plan evil,
   clap your hand over your mouth! 

Yah. Shut up ya jerk.

Reading from Saturday, December 25

Christmas post. Only two weeks late!

Reading for December 25
Zechariah 8:1-23
God reiterates his statement from the last chapter...

¹⁴ This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Just as I had determined to bring disaster on you and showed no pity when your ancestors angered me,” says the LORD Almighty, ¹⁵ “so now I have determined to do good again to Jerusalem and Judah. Do not be afraid. ¹⁶ These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; ¹⁷ do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the LORD.

It's also interesting to see God himself admitting he has a changed heart towards his people. We saw this too in books like Jeremiah where God spoke of the New Covenant. So to receive this good that God wishes to give us, we are asked to be truthful, fair, good natured, and to keep from loving false promises. God HATES all of this. And what is "all this"? All of these are things that bring pain and sadness and despair to people. Extrapolation helmet on - God hates seeing his people suffer.

Revelation 16:1-21
So if God hates seeing his people suffer, he must be dreading this day. I usually don't paste an entire chapter, but this is so intense, I think it all needs to be read to understand.

  ¹ 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.”
 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.
 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.
 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.”
 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.
 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.
 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. 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.
   ¹⁵ “Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
 ¹⁶ Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
 ¹⁷ The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” ¹⁸ Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. ¹⁹ The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. ²⁰ Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. ²¹ From the sky huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds,^[a] fell on people. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.

The one thing that sticks out to me as I try to defend a God who would allow this is the end of verse 11 "and they refused to repent for what they had done." God's only motive in sending this torment is a last ditch effort to get people to become his children, but as it says here, they instead cursed God for the pain they were suffering. Scary times indeed.

Psalm 144:1-15
One of my favorite verses - it keeps all the Revelation stuff in perspective.

³ LORD, what are human beings that you care for them,
   mere mortals that you think of them?
⁴ They are like a breath;
   their days are like a fleeting shadow.

Proverbs 30:29-31
Super helpful. Thanks!

 ²⁹ “There are three things that are stately in their stride,
   four that move with stately bearing:
³⁰ a lion, mighty among beasts,
   who retreats before nothing;
³¹ a strutting rooster, a he-goat,
   and a king secure against revolt.^[a]

Reading from Friday, December 24

Post #2 for the day.

Reading for December 24
Zechariah 6:1-7:14
Good stuff. It's strange how many similarities there are between this book and Revelation. Chapter 6 opens with another vision of four horsemen riding in chariots. One with white horses, one with black one with red and one with "dappled" or spotted horses. These are identified as the four spirits of God to go throughout the earth. One to the North, one to the East and so on...Interpreting that a bit, this would indicate that God's message is meant for everyone to hear and receive.

Chapter 7 is titled "Justice and Mercy, Not Fasting". We start to see this a lot toward the end of the Old Testament - God would rather a person who practices genuine compassion and who possess a pure heart than someone who obeys rituals without meaning. God calls people out for fasting for the wrong reasons and then tasks us all with this message:

⁹ “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. ¹⁰ Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

It's kinda neat to think about God sort of "amending" the Ten Commandments. Sure you could derive this message from the original commandments, but you could also derive a completely opposite message. It almost feels like God is playing catch-up with his laws...what are your guys thoughts on this?

Regardless, this message is of clear importance to God, and how I am trying to live my life. 

Revelation 15:1-8
This is it. God's final wrath is being administered on the world. Seven angels hold seven bowls which contain seven plagues which will be inflicted on the world. As they prepare to dole it out, the angels sing a song comprised of sections of Psalm and Deuteronomy.

  “Great and marvelous are your deeds,
   Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
   King of the nations.^[a]
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
   and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
   and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Not to trivialize this, but singing this song of praise before killing billions feels almost psychotic. Like in the movies when the crazy religious guy is killing people for God. 

Psalm 143:1-12
This almost feels like a prayer that would be uttered in the last days mapped out in Revelation:

¹ LORD, hear my prayer,
   listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
   come to my relief.
² Do not bring your servant into judgment,
   for no one living is righteous before you.

Proverbs 30:24-28
 ²⁴ “Four things on earth are small,
   yet they are extremely wise:
²⁵ Ants are creatures of little strength,
   yet they store up their food in the summer;
²⁶ hyraxes are creatures of little power,
   yet they make their home in the crags;
²⁷ locusts have no king,
   yet they advance together in ranks;
²⁸ a lizard can be caught with the hand,
   yet it is found in kings’ palaces.

What is a hyrax?

Aww...

Reading from Thursday, December 23

Here we are. Today is January 10 - exactly one year since I started this project. Posting has been sporadic lately because I have strep throat and haven't felt like moving, much less sitting up and typing. I'm starting to feel slightly better, but am still pretty much bed ridden.

Can I bang out nine posts and finish this thing in exactly a year? It would be the most I'd ever done in a single day, but it would also be an epic conclusion to the Adventure.

Let's do it.

Reading for December 23
Zechariah 4:1-5:11
This is immensely confusing. There is a golden lampstand, with an olive tree on either side of it. I remember seeing a golden lampstand in Revelation, but not the olive trees. There's an angel there who explains these visions to Zechariah, but I have no idea what he's talking about. This is what the angel says about the golden lampstands...

⁶ So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
 ⁷ “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’”
 ⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to me: ⁹ “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.
 ¹⁰ “Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the LORD that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone^[a] in the hand of Zerubbabel?”

Uh...yup. Got it.

Revelation 14:1-20
This is fairly disturbing. The first paragraph talks about how there will this group of 144,000 (divisible by 12) who had Jesus and God's name written on their foreheads and they were singing a song that only they could learn. The qualities of these 144,000 are that they are:

A) Men
B) Virgins who "did not defile themselves with women"

First of all, I think this is where the Mormon's derive their belief that only 144,000 people will be allowed into heaven. But secondly, what the heck?!

Only men who remained virgins will be allowed into heaven? Well, maybe I'm being too presumptuous. It says that this group "had been redeemed from the earth". So maybe this is like a test group that goes to heaven before everyone else gets to come? But why punish those who aren't virgins? Jesus condones sex within marriage, right? And why no women? That seems a little unfair...

This chapter ends with an even more disturbing image. Jesus and a couple angels begin to "harvest" the earth, but not in a good way. They have "sharp sickles" and the harvest the ripened grapes and "threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath." The blood that flows out of that winepress is about four feet high in 180 miles in all directions.

If that doesn't strike the fear of God into ya...

Psalm 142:1-7
You know, I'm often critical of Psalm's overtly positive attitude towards God. But after reading that passage from Revelation, this comes as a breath of fresh air.

 ³ When my spirit grows faint within me,
   it is you who watch over my way.
In the path where I walk
   people have hidden a snare for me.
⁴ Look and see, there is no one at my right hand;
   no one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge;
   no one cares for my life.
 ⁵ I cry to you, LORD;
   I say, “You are my refuge,
   my portion in the land of the living.”

Proverbs 30:21-23
 ²¹ “Under three things the earth trembles,
   under four it cannot bear up:
²² a servant who becomes king,
   a godless fool who gets plenty to eat,
²³ a contemptible woman who gets married,
   and a servant who displaces her mistress. 

Uh...yeah. Right on...

Reading from Wednesday, December 22

Hey gang.

I'm uber sick. Been in bed for the past three days without the strength to read or post. I'm still shooting to finish by the 10th. Exactly a year.

Nine posts to go.

Reading for December 22
Zechariah 2:1-3:10
So Zechariah begins to prophecy about the coming of the savior. Though it appears that this prophecy is only for the Israelites. First you have a vision of the priest, Joshua standing before God and Satan. Joshua is wearing filthy clothes and God demands that he be stripped and clothed with new, pristine garments - symbolizing the taking away of sins. Joshua is only one man though...lets see what he says about everyone else...

⁹ See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes^[e] on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day. 

This land. That could mean Jerusalem, Israel, the Middle East in general or the whole world. I wonder if the original Hebrew gives any better indication about that...scholars...hit me up.

Revelation 13:1-18
This is possibly one of the most metal chapters in all of scripture. Dragons, fire, mortal wounds, swords, lions, war - Aspiring metal musicians - Revelation 13...read it.

So in the last post we read about a dragon who was trying to kill all the people of the earth. This dragon is Satan and he is trying to kill us all, spiritually. That's my interpretation anyway.

This chapter talks about how the dragon suffered a mortal wound but was eventually healed of it. My best guess is that the mortal wound is the salvation that came through Christ to all people, and that through time, people found less and less meaning and significance in that, and just like their ancestors, turned their back on their Lord.

The chapter closes with possibly the most infamous number of all time:

¹⁸ This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.^[e] That number is 666.

You know with all the pop culture references to that number, I wasn't sure if it would actually appear in the Bible or not. Kinda like how "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" is thought to be from the Bible, but in fact is not. 

Psalm 141:1-10
Consider it pure joy, brothers...

⁵ Let a righteous man strike me—that is a kindness;
   let him rebuke me—that is oil on my head.
My head will not refuse it,
   for my prayer will still be against the deeds of evildoers.

Proverbs 30:18-20
What?

 ¹⁸ “There are three things that are too amazing for me,
   four that I do not understand:
¹⁹ the way of an eagle in the sky,
   the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
   and the way of a man with a young woman.
 ²⁰ “This is the way of an adulterous woman:
   She eats and wipes her mouth
   and says, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’

Reading from Tuesday, December 21

Ten posts to go. 

Howdy. So how about those birds and fish mysteriously dying? Wasn't that in Revelation? Uh oh...is this the third woe?

I'm kinda kidding, but I'm also kinda terrified.

Reading for December 21
Zechariah 1:1-21
Zechariah is gonna take up the majority of the remainder of this project from the OT perspective. A relatively big book amongst very short books. Must be good. Let us see.

Oh yeah. This is like the Revelation of the Old Testament - complete with the four horsemen we read about a couple nights ago!

⁸ During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.

Except these aren't terrifying murder horsemen. Their task, according to Zech's vision, was to go throughout the earth and report what they saw. Here is that report:

“We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace.”

YEAH! KILL EVERYTHING! JUDGMENT FOR ALL...wait...what?

"at rest an in peace"? "the whole world at rest and in peace"? This is still the Bible, right? God must be cooking up something really scary for the next paragraph. He wouldn't let us get too comfortable.

¹⁶ “Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the LORD Almighty.  

Mercy? Where is the judgment? Where is the blood rain and fire hail and scorpions that torture us for five months but can't kill us?  It's not here. I'm not sure of the time differential between the end of the OT and the story of Christ, but if you assume they are relatively close, you can almost see God readying his heart for the eternal mercy which he will bestow upon his creation.

Revelation 12:1-17
Crazy. My friend Chris has been preparing me for this chapter, and I certainly wasn't fully ready for it. So there's a woman who gives birth to a male child who I don't think is Jesus. There's a super monster dragon waiting to eat the child as soon as its born, but God snatched up the child and brought it up to heaven with him.

The woman went to earth where she would be cared for for 1260 days - what is with that number? (Looked it up - it represents half of seven - 3 1/2 years) The dragon was hurled down to earth after a war in Heaven and pursued the woman and the rest of her offspring.

Here's my amateur-hour theory of what's going on here. The child actually is Jesus, but the "In the Beginning" version of Jesus that lived with God until he came to Earth on December 25th, 0000 AD. "The rest of her offspring" is Israel - and the dragon marched among them to tempt and torment them.

Psalm 140:1-13

¹² I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor
   and upholds the cause of the needy.
¹³ Surely the righteous will praise your name,
   and the upright will live in your presence.

Proverbs 30:17

 ¹⁷ “The eye that mocks a father,
   that scorns an aged mother,
will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley,
   will be eaten by the vultures. 

Reading from Monday, December 20

11 posts to go. Yay.

Reading for December 20
Haggai 1:1-2:23
These two chapters make up the entirety of the book of Haggai, and its a fairly dry two chapters. The majority of this book talks about God's temple and how it lies in ruin. I read through both chapters a couple times and still have nothing of any real substance to share with you. I hate to do this so late in the project, but this one comes in as a big skip.

Revelation 11:1-19
OK, let me see if I can get this right.

There are two dudes who will prophecy in God's name for 1260 days - which is about three and a half years. During their testimony they have the power to kill anyone who opposes them and inflict whatever plague or disaster on the earth that they want. After this time, they will be killed by what appears to be Satan - referred to here as "the beast that comes up from the Abyss".

Their bodies will lie in a public square for three and a half days and everyone will be super psyched that they're dead because they were condemning the people of the earth. After the three and a half days, God will bring them back to life and bring them up to heaven in front of everyone. This will be immediately followed by a devastating earthquake which will kill 7000 people.

 ¹⁴ The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.  

Psalm 139:1-24
This is an idea of God that has remained consistent for me throughout the entire journey through the Bible.

  ¹ You have searched me, LORD,
   and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
   and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.

Not quite "all knowing" but certainly "all perceiving". 

Proverbs 30:15-16
 ¹⁵ “The leech has two daughters.
   ‘Give! Give!’ they cry.
   “There are three things that are never satisfied,
   four that never say, ‘Enough!’:
¹⁶ the grave, the barren womb,
   land, which is never satisfied with water,
   and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’