Bible Readings for Monday July 18th, 2011
– The Week of The 5th Sunday After Pentecost*Click on each bible passage to expand the text.
- At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity. – Psalm 75:2
- And now I will break off his yoke from you and snap the bonds that bind you. – Nahum 1:13
- So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. – Revelation 14:19
The Wrath of God Strikes Back?
Great.
Thanks, yet again, to the Revised Common Lectionary, for today’s chilling readings which come right on the heels of my blockbuster post from yesterday about how Jesus’ “Furnace of Fire” actually supports the doctrine of Universal Salvation. In this very popular post (in terms of the # of readers), I made a pretty darn good argument for the biblical case supporting Universal Salvation: “Hell” as an eternal punishment is a myth, but the purification of man’s soul is very, very real and now. Water-tight, if I don’t say so myself…
And then today, we get the violent and terrifying imagery of Revelations 14:18.
The Harvest of the Earth
The passage opens with a repetition of the motif that Christ is going to harvest the world the end of this age. The harvest will be sorted in the following way: some actually live out their beliefs and show compassion for others (the wheat), and the rest do not (the tares, or “fake wheat”). This is not terrifying, and completely jives with what we covered yesterday.
To review, The fake wheat is harvested and refined in the heat of fire, a purifying process by which the believer is shown the consequences of their choices in their life and they experience first-hand the real and devastating consequences of their actions. For example, I might see that the homeless man I refused money to last winter then went on to sleep outside and died of exposure. The heat of the refining fire is a direct, undeniable confrontation of your wicked heart, which ALL OF US have.
Also, bear in mind that in the real-world, wheat grains must be dried in order to preserve them, otherwise they will rot. This is accomplished most effectively through the application of high heat. So, if we are to utilize this real-world analogy fully, we realize the truth is: all of us, whether wheat or tares, will experience the heat of the refining fire, either in this life, or in death. All grains must be dried to preserve them.
Okay, good so far.
The Great Wine Press of The Wrath of God
And then we reach the rest of the passage, in which it is no longer Christ who wields the sickle, but “another angel”. His boss is the “Angel who has authority over fire” and they are apparently the Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield of Heaven:
Revelation 14
Vincent and Jules
18. Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.”
19. So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
20. And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse’s bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles.
Oh, God. This is the kind of disturbing, ultra-violent imagery that the wackos of this world thrive on, and makes the rest of us shudder. In fact, I don’t know if I can even love a God that would do something so monstrous:
- God’s angels killed so many people in the wine press, that the blood was as deep as a horse’s mouth for 200 miles. A veritable lake of blood.
And yet, as my regular readers might expect, I am about to argue that things are not quite as they seem. The language of Revelation is deep and rich, and so we cannot leave this passage yet, with only a cursory understanding.
The Angel of Purification
First, I will turn your attention back to the angel giving the order in this scene: “the angel who has authority over fire”. The Greek word for “fire” here is pur (πῦρ). This is a refining, purifying fire, that transforms souls into the likeness of God.
In other words, we need to realize that this angel is actually “the angel who has authority over refining and transformation“.
The Blood of Grapes
Next we turn to all that blood.
Although we are shocked by the reference to so much “blood”, the bible makes regular reference to the juice of grapes and to wine as the “Blood of Grapes”( Gen 49:11, Deut 32:14, Isa 63:3 ).
So, I ask you to look past the violent, symbolic imagery, and answer me the following challenges:
- Is the grape destroyed completely in the pressing? No, the pure juice, the “blood” remains.
- Is a grape of a greater value than wine? No, a cup of grapes is a fraction the price of a cup of wine.
- Which lasts longer, a ripe grape, or bottled wine? The wine can last for years, while the grape will rot within days.
The most obvious argument against this imagery being only violent and negative is Jesus’ own positive language about blood and wine:
Luke 22
17. After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you.
18. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
20. In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
“Blood” is of the utmost importance, it is not some nightmarish vision simply to be discarded. In the seemingly horrific language of Revelation 14:18-20, the Revelator is powerfully (if awkwardly) illustrating the final fruition of God’s covenant of mercy:
God is collecting us all, the entire world, and transforming us through hard and painful change into the very substance of covenant (blood/wine). We shall become the symbol of the covenant fulfilled. All of us.
This process will be undoubtedly painful.
Necessary Pain?
Why then, must this process of final transformation be hard? So painful? So much pain makes such redemption-through-transformation seem… evil!
Does it?
Is a woman experiencing the soul-shattering pain of child-birth experiencing evil? No.
Then why do we fear this pain of transformation?
Because we don’t want it. Not yet, anyway.
We like our selfish apathetic lives for now. We don’t want to learn to be selfless, compassionate, and cooperative with the other Children of God.
But we will… someday soon.
About Trig Bundgaard
See http://www.bartleby.com/235/297.html
You might be interested in how William Blake saw the Winepress…
Absolutely terrifying. Thank you for sharing?…
Oh, God. This is the kind of disturbing, ultra-violent imagery that the wackos of this world thrive on, and makes the rest of us shudder. In fact, I don’t know if I can even love a God that would do something so monstrous:
Trig,
As a universalist, how do you square your statement above with the old testament and numerous examples of God’s wrath laid out there…Noah’s flood, Sodom and Gomorah, the Israelites conquest of the promised land (with accompanying slaughter and pillage of the natives)?
Thanks and God Bless brother!
A bit of a different take on fire. Throughout the Bible the imagery of fire is often used to describe passion as well as purification. ( did a Pentecost sermon on Wind and Fire which a professor described as jazz. I think he meant that as a compliment.)
I believe Pentecost was about being given passion, as we have been, by the Spirit. And I read Revelation as a hidden message (given the persecutions) of the fall of Empire. Societal, not personal.
Hmm.
Oh, the abuses of the apocalyptic literature! We think everything in print should be factual journalism, when much of it is coded messages for then-contemporary readers, as llama lady noted, or is a mix of folktale and spiritual narrative, as the Flood. We need to keep remembering that a story does not need to be factual to be true.
As for the pain of purification: Since near-death experiences were named in 1975 and “went public,” many thousands of individuals have sent an account of their own NDE to the International Association for Near-Death Studies. Of the people whose NDE included a life review (“All the events of my life passing by me, like a film running at high speed”), most report that they not only saw the events of their lives but felt their effects. Where the people around them had felt pleasure or delight, that’s what they felt; but likewise, where they had caused pain, disappointment, betrayal, grief, anger, those emotions came back to them big-time. Purifying pain, indeed! Not the punishment of wrath but the purification of experience. Worth keeping in mind.
That’s awesome and so fascinating, nanbush. I love it when science hints at spiritual truths!
Isn’t it great! It’s what helped me become a progressive Christian. So much corroboration of the larger truths, so much letting go of literal nonessentials.
It’s in the mysteries of nature that I find a true sense of spirituality. Some of the cynics out there call it a “God of the Gaps”, never acknowledging that the gaps are not, in fact, growing smaller as science progresses, but larger!
That comment was soooo “jazzy”. ; )
The apocalyptic text that I have encountered always leave me wondering what the hell was going on when the author penned this? That may be too mundane for some but I think one need to always keep an eye and ear to the cultural context. Image the destruction, carnage, and death that first century people lived with?? Peace to all!
Trig,
I am researching this passage and Google brought me to your blog. I wish to comment on your statement “Oh, God. This is the kind of disturbing, ultra-violent imagery that the wackos of this world thrive on, and makes the rest of us shudder. In fact, I don’t know if I can even love a God that would do something so monstrous”
What gives you the moral authority as a mere human to say that it is wrong for God to shed blood? My reading of scripture presents God’s attributes as many faceted. Yes, He is a God of love, mercy and grace, but also a God of justice, vengeance and wrath. He is a God who hates sin, but He has provided the vehicle of grace, love & mercy thru Jesus Christ. If people reject Jesus Christ, then they expose themselves to the wrath of God and become grapes thrown into His winepress.
Ah, I see, Jim. You are a convert of the “believe or you gonna die!” camp, huh?
What a tragic way to hold faith and share faith.
I am no “mere human”, Jim. I am created in the very image of God, the pinnacle creation, higher than the angels of heaven. I am a Child of God and beloved.
Just like you.
I have moral authority based what is the true character of God because Yeshua revealed it to us.
Yeshua taught non-violence, therefore God taught non-violence.
I think it’s high time we simply ignored the Book of Revelation. The Jesus of Revelation is not the Jesus of the Gospels.
Mr.Bundgard ,
That is an interesting take on the passage in Revelation about blood and wine being metaphors .
I don’t think it is likely that the Revelation imagery supports some sort of dispensationalist scenario, or even neccessarly a futurist scenario.
However, I must ask whether or not there is any more solid, ironclad hermenuetical evidence to support the interpretation of the blood of the winepress in Revelation as referring to a process of consecration like unto the wine of the eucharist ?
The sort of scenario of interpretation you favor is certainly more congenial and may perhaps be the right interpretation, however, I am wanting to examime all the evidence pro and con .
Here are the lyrics to an interesting song on Revelation from one of my favorite bands, “I see Hawks in L.A.”. Song is called “Harvest”:
Harvest
Well I sat down and read the book of revelation today
tried to give a listen to what old John had to say
but I just kept getting bored so I threw that book away
if the end is coming let it come another way
Now are you bold enough to challenge the power of God
when the volcanoes rumble and the wild beasts claw
and the skin on your bones tears away like soggy mud
if the end is coming keep the flower burn the bud
A Harvest is coming
Are you out in the field?
A Harvest is coming
What will your labors yield?
Well all our myths have expired and they no longer tell
the mystery’s revealed there’s no ring in the bell
so close up your books of history and set them on the fire
they can’t keep you from the darkness but they’ll burn for a little while
There’s a secret in a cave painted on a wall
a magnificent buffalo fourteen feet tall
and if you press your ear to his lips and listen he will speak
but if your heart is not pure destruction he will wreak
A Harvest is coming
Are you out in the field
A Harvest is coming
Will your mortal would be healed?
I’m a lion, I’m a bear, I’m a leopard, I’m a lamb
I’m a lion, I’m a bear, I’m a shepard, I’m a lamb
I’m a leper, I’m a bear, I’m shepard, I’m a man
(or I’m a leper, I’m a square, I’m a liar, I’m a ham)
Playing Tug-O-War with buffalo the rope slipping through my hands
Ohhhh, Ohhhhhh, Ohhhhh, Ohhhhh
Enjoyed your post but you left out some very important things. Who said, “I am the vine”? Whose blood is represented by wine or grape juice? On whom was the wrath of God poured out completely? Who was it that said, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” Revelation 14: 18-20 is a vision of the cross of Christ who bore the wrath of God on behalf of all humanity. It was Jesus exchanging our sin for His righteousness. It was the fulfillment of Isaiah 54:7-10
7 “For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
8 In a surge of anger
I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
I will have compassion on you,”
says the LORD your Redeemer.
9 “To me this is like the days of Noah,
when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.
So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,
never to rebuke you again.
10 Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
All of God’s wrath has been poured out. He has none left. There will never again be an angry God. “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” That son in whom God is well pleased is all humanity as the body and Christ as the head. On that we can rest.
While I like the tidy logic of this, it deeply troubles me that we’re still left with a God that would NEED to do that to his own Son. What does that say about God? Is he like Dexter, and must kill and spill blood to be loving?
Jesus is God. There is no trinity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one and the same. God is one, undivided or unfragmented in any way. What we refer to as a triune Godhead is in reality just three different ways in which God manifests Himself to us. The One who supernaturally impregnated the virgin Mary was the very same one that Mary gave birth to in that stable and laid in the manger. Father and Son are one and the same. When Jesus hung on that cross it was God Himself giving His own life for us. Greater love hath no man then He that lay down His life for His fiend. God is love and we are His friends. If Father and Son were two different persons, as religion suggests, then you would be right. No loving father would do that his children nor would he require it of one to save another. But as a father myself I can tell you I would gladly give my life for any of my children or step-children. In Jesus, God Himself, the creator of all that exists, became one of us and walked among us as one of us and gave His own life for us. That is how much He loves us.
I agree, Trig. Not only must we get rid of Revelation, we must get rid of these notions of God requiring a sacrifice.
Steve, God did not require a sacrifice as implied by religion. Justice required that evil be punished. Depending on the crime that punishment is death. God came to earth as our substitute and took that punishment on our behalf. We did the crime, God did the time.
God creates man. God creates law. Sin results from disobedience to the law. The punishment is death. God saved us from death. God saved us from God?
Nope. The logic is flawed, Daniel.
I refuse to believe that, Daniel.
Your prideful boast about your water tight case for hell being a myth is astonishing. Don’t break your elbow or dislocate your shoulder patting yourself on the back. Oh yeah, as a refresher, pride is one of the 7 deadly sins…