Questions

Scriptural Reflection
Revelation 15:5–16:16

15:5-8—The Seven Angels of Plagues

(1) From where do these seven angels proceed? (v. 5)

(2) What is the temple in heaven called and why? (v. 5; Num. 17:7; 18:2)

(3) Can you recall how special these plagues are that they would be poured by these angels? (15:1)

(4) The seven angels are all dressed in clean, shining linen which resembles those dressed by the priests: What might be the importance of the wearing of golden sashes? (see 1:13)

(5) The unveiling of the plan of God of the End-time takes the form of seven seals (which seal the scroll of God’s plan), the seven trumpets and the seven bowls: What might be the meaning of each of these symbols?

(6) Just as they receive the bowl of wrath from one of the living creatures (cherubim), and proceed to carry out their judgment on God’s behalf, what does the filling of the temple with the glory and power of God signify? (v. 8)

(7) “No one could enter the temple until…”: What does it signify?

a. God’s resolve? or

b. The time for intercession is past?

16:1-16—The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath

(8) The 1^st bowl (v. 2)

a. On whom is this bowl of wrath poured?

b. Why would God not send a fatal plague at this point?

c. Who are exempt from this wrath?

(9) The 2^nd bowl (v. 3)

a. What happens to the sea?

b. What does “blood like that of a dead man” mean?

c. What is the impact of this plague to the people? Will it lead to a drought?

(10) The 3^rd bowl (vv. 4-7)

a. What is the difference between this plague and the previous one in terms of their impact?

b. The response from the angel in charge of the waters: Why does he say that it is a just punishment?

c. The response from the altar

1. What does the “altar” represent? (6:9ff)
2. What does this judgment mean to the crying martyrs? (v. 7)

(11) The 4^th bowl (vv. 8-9)

a. What does the searing heat of the sun lead to?

b. With painful sores, dead fish and whales, etc., no drinking water and now immense heat (and fire):

1. Do the people recognize the reason for these plagues?
2. Why do they not repent?

(12) The 5^th bowl (vv. 10-11)—Do you remember the beast and his cohort, the false prophet, i.e. the 2^nd beast in chapter 13? They basically rule over the entire world at that time.

a. What is this plague about?

b. What will complete darkness do to a human mind?

c. Why do they not repent?

(13) The 6^th bowl (vv. 12-16)

a. What is the purpose of drying up the river Euphrates?

b. Who gathers the kings of the earth? (vv. 13-14)

c. What is this plague about? (v. 14b)

d. Why does the Lord remind us at this point that His coming is like a thief? (Matt. 24:42-44)

e. Where will this battle take place? (see Note below)

f. Compare this plague with that of the 6^th trumpet and note their main differences? (9:13-21)

(14) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?

Note:

“Magedon is normally connected with Megiddo, the ancient city lying on the north side of the Carmel ridge and commanding the strategic pass between the coastal plain and the valley of Esdraelon. It is one of history’s famous battlefields, having witnessed major conflicts all the way from one fought by Tuthmosis III in 1468 B.C. to that of Lord Allenby of Megiddo in 1917. By the waters of Megiddo, Barak and Deborah defeated the chariots of Sisera (Jdg. 4-5; cf. 5:19). Ahaziah, wounded by the arrows of Jehu, fled to Megiddo, and died there (2 Ki. 9:27). Instead of Armageddon, the NRSV and a few others use the designation Harmagedon which would mean “the Mountain of Megiddo.” But here a difficulty arises: There is no Mt. Megiddo. It is possible that Harmagedon could be a reference to the hill country near Megiddo or perhaps a reference to Megiddo and Mt. Carmel in the same breath. In John’s day the tell or mound upon which Megiddo was built was about seventy feet in height, hardly enough to justify the designation Mount. One frequent suggestion is that the Apocalyptist began with Ezekiel’s prophecy of a great eschatological slaughter of the nations on ‘the mountains of Israel’ (Ezek. 38:8-21; 39:2, 4, 17) and then made the reference more specific by adding the name Megiddo as the place where so often in Israel’s history the enemies of God were destroyed.”
(NICNT, 301)

Scriptural Reflection
Revelation 16:17–17:18

16:17-21—The 7^th Bowl

(1) As the 7^th bowl is poured down from heaven (v. 17),

a. What does the voice say?

b. What does it mean?

c. Who is the one speaking?

(2) What is this plague about? (v. 18)

(3) Its impact on the “great city” (v. 19)

a. What is this city?

b. What is the impact of this plague on this city?

c. Why would it remind God of “Babylon the Great”? (see Note below)

(4) Its impact on the rest of the world (vv. 20-21):

a. With this last plague, what basically has the earth turned into?

b. How do the people on earth respond to this plague?

17:1-18—The Great City of Babylon—The 7^th plague is basically done, and this is what happens afterwards, as God deals with the Great City of Babylon and Satan and his earthly agents who are the 2 beasts of chapter 13.

(5) The preface to this vision (vv. 1-2):

a. Who is the main object of this vision? What is she called by the angel?

b. What does she sit on? (see explanation in v. 15)

c. What is her sin concerning the kings of the earth? (v. 2a)

d. What is her influence over the inhabitants of the earth? (v. 2b)

e. What does the sin of adultery refer to? (see Jer. 3:9; Ezek. 23:37; Hos. 4:15)

(6) The Great Prostitute (who is definitely not the woman in 12:1ff):

a. What does the posture of “sitting on” imply? (v. 3)

b. What does the way in which this woman is adorned or dressed symbolize: (see 18:3b)

c. What does she hold in her hand? What does it symbolize?

d. Read the title on her forehead carefully (v. 5):

1. Mystery: In what way(s) is she a mystery? (see v. 7 as well)
2. Babylon the Great: “great” in what sense?
3. The Mother:

1. Of Prostitutes: What does it mean?

2. Of the Abominations of the Earth: What does it mean? (This is one of the most frequent rebukes of Israel and you can find many references to it in the Books of Kings and Chronicles, such as 2 Chr. 36:14.)

e. What has she done to the saints? (v. 6)

f. Who is she? (Let’s not be influenced by what we have heard in the past, but answer simply based on the information we have read so far.)

(7) The beast (vv. 3, 7-14)

a. The beast on which the woman sits (v. 3):

1. Scarlet in color: Is there any special meaning? (see Isa. 1:18 for its possible meaning)
2. Covered with blasphemous names: What does it mean?
3. The seven heads (vv. 9-11):

1. What is its double meaning?

2. Five (world powers) have fallen by John’s time: What might they be?

3. The 6^th —“One is”: Which is the dominant world power of John’s time?

4. Where is the 7^th one?

4. Since the beast (the Anti-Christ) is not one of the 7 heads, but the 8^th king,

1. What is meant by “he belongs to the seven”?

2. From John’s vantage point, what is meant by, “he was, now is not and will come”? (v. 8 and the contrast in 1:4)

3. Where is its origin?

4. What is its destiny?

5. The ten horns (vv. 12-14)

1. The ten kings: Who are they? (v. 12)

2. What is their relationship with the beast? (v. 13)

3. With whom will they make war? (v. 14)

(8) The woman and the beast (vv. 15-18)

a. What will the future ten kings and the beast do to the woman? (v. 16)

b. What is the identity of this woman? (v. 18)

(9) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?

Note:

“The identification of ‘the great city’ is problematic…A number of early commentators identify this city as Jerusalem…though others understand it to be Babylon-Rome…Supporting this view that the city must be Jerusalem is the fact that only in v. 19c does the text say that ‘God remembers great Babylon,’ implying the city in v. 19a must be a different city.” (Word Biblical Commentary, Revelation, 900).

Scriptural Reflection
Revelation 18:1–24

In the last vision, John is told the fate of the woman, the great city of Babylon that rules over the kings of the earth. Now the reasons for her fall are given through another vision:

18:1—The Messenger

(1) What kind of an angel is used to send this message?

(2) Why is such a powerful angel (like one of the archangels) used for this purpose?

18:2-3—The Sins of Babylon the Great

(3) The declaration of her fall:

a. How will she be destroyed? (17:16)

b. What will she become? (v. 2)

(4) Her sin of adultery (v. 3)—If adultery refers to the worship of anything other than Yahweh (see Hos. 4:10; Jer. 3:2), 

a. What is meant by her committing adultery with the kings of the earth?

b. How does the term, “maddening wine” depict the extent of her adultery?

(5) What other sin has she committed? (v. 3b)

18:4-8—Call to Separation

(6) Now the Lord speaks: To whom does the Lord appeal? (v. 4)

(7) What if His people will not listen? (v. 4b)

(8) Although we do not know for sure what this great city is, what does this call to leave signify about the attractiveness of this great city even to the saints?

(9) What does “piled up to heaven” signify about her sins? (v. 5)

(10) Who might be the speaker(s) of vv. 6-7?

a. Why would they cry out for a double portion of penalty? (6:9ff; 17:6)

b. How arrogant has she become because of her glory and luxury? (v. 7b)

c. In the opinion of the speaker(s), what does she deserve as a result? (v. 7a)

(11) What is God’s answer to them? (v. 8)

18:9-10—The Response of the Kings of the Earth

(12) What do they call this city? (v. 10)

(13)  How have they benefited from her before?

(14) How will they react to her ruin?

18:11-17a—The Response of the Merchants of the Earth

(15) How have they benefited from her?

(16) What does the trading of “bodies and souls of men” mean? (v. 13b)

(17) How do they describe the former glory of this city?

(18) How will they react to her ruin? (v. 15a)

18:17b-19—The Response of Every Sea Captain

(19) How have they benefited from her? (v. 19b)

(20) What do these seamen call this city? (v. 18b)

(21) How will they react to her ruin? (v. 19a)

18:20—The Call to Rejoice

(22) Who should rejoice instead?

(23) Why?

18:21-24—The Falling of Babylon

(24) With what does the angel use to depict her fall?

(25) How appropriate is it? (v. 21b)

(26) What does the combination of the utter cessation of music, workman, sound of a millstone, light of lamp and voice of the bride and bridegroom depict?

(27) What sins of her are emphasized by the angel again?

(28) Given all of the above, can you describe what kind of a city Babylon represents?

(29) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?

Scriptural Reflection
Revelation 19:1–21

At the announcement of the fall of Babylon the Great, there is great rejoicing in heaven.

19:1-4—The Shout of the Multitude

(1) Who might be this great multitude?

(2) What has God’s judgment of Babylon revealed about Himself? (v. 1)

(3) In what way are His judgments true? (v. 2)

(4) In what way are His judgments just? (v. 2)

(5) What does the smoke going up “for ever and ever” signify? (v. 3)

(6) Who are those who respond by saying “Amen, Hallelujah”? (v. 4; see Note 1 below)

19:5-10—The Call to Praise God

(7) Whom does the other voice from the throne call to join in to praise God? (v. 5)

(8) What does their response sound like? (v. 6)

(9) In declaring that God reigns, what does this (even greater) multitude announce? (v. 7b)

(10) The wedding of the Lamb

a. Who is the bride of the Lamb? (21:2, 9-10; 22:17)

b. In what way has the bride made herself ready? (v. 8)

c. Who are the ones invited to this wedding and why are they blessed?

(11) What has made John want to fall at his feet to worship the angel? (see Note 2 below)

(12) What is the response of the angel and why?

19:11-21—The Treading of the Winepress

(13) The rider on the white horse (vv. 11-16)

a. The names ascribed to this rider include (1) Faithful and True (v. 11; 3:14); (2) a name only know to Him (v.12); (3) Word of God (v.13; Jn. 1:1) and (4) King of kings and Lord of lords (v.16; 17:14):

1. What is the significance of each?
2. Why are they mentioned at this time?

b. What does His appearance look like? (vv. 12-13; see 1:14 and Isa. 63:6)

c. What does the white horse symbolize?

d. Who accompanies Him? (v. 14)

e. What are they to accomplish and how? (vv. 15-16)

(14) How does the calling of the birds signify the fate of the nations? (vv. 17-18)

(15) The end of two of the “unholy-trinity” (vv. 19-21)

a. What will the beast (the Anti-Christ), his ten kings (in chapter 17) and their armies do? (see 16:12-16; 17:14)

b. What will happen to the beast and his agent, the false prophet (i.e. the 2^nd beast out of the earth in chapter 13)?

c. What will happen to the rest, i.e. the kings and their armies?

(16) What is the message to you today? How may you apply it to your life?

Note 1:

The word “Hallelujah” occurs only in this passage in the NT. “It is derived from the two Hebrew words (halal and Jah) and means ‘Praise Yahweh’” (NICNT, 341).

Note 2:

At the sight of the utter destruction of Babylon the Great, there is great rejoicing and worship before the throne in heaven. John is so caught up in that euphoria that he naturally wants to join in, except that he is really not part of the vision, but an onlooker at this point. As a result, he imperceptibly falls down before the angel, perhaps not so much making him the object of his worship, but to express through him his worship to God as well. Just the same, no angel, no human being, no icon of any kind can be used as the medium through which we express our worship to God, but directly to God alone through Jesus Christ.

Scriptural Reflection
Revelation 20:1–15

20:1-6—The Millennium

(1) The binding of Satan (vv. 1-3)

a. What has already happened at this point to the two agents of Satan? (19:20)

b. Who now comes to bind Satan? (v.1)

c. What is Satan thrown into?

d. Why is Satan bound only for 1,000 years? Why does not God put an end to him right away?

e. What reality does the whole scene seek to portray?

(2) The Millennium reign (vv. 4-6)

a. Now thrones are seen by John: What is the purpose of these thrones? (v. 4)

b. Who are the ones specifically mentioned to reign with Christ from these thrones? (v. 4b)

c. Are those thrones also meant for us? (see 3:21; 5:10 and 2 Tim. 2:12)

d. Why are the ones raised in the first resurrection blessed? (vv. 5-6)

e. Will we be part of the 1^st resurrection? (see 1 Thess. 5:13-14; 1 Cor. 15:51-52)

f. Who are the ones under this reign during this Millennium?

g. What might be the purpose of this Millennium? (see today’s Meditative Reflection)

h. Do you think this period of time should be interpreted literally as 1,000 years or does it really matter?

20:7-10—Satan’s Final Judgment

(3) What is the purpose of releasing Satan? (v. 7)

(4) Given the Millennial reign of Christ, why would the inhabitants of the earth who remain alive after the destruction of the beast and his armies (19:20-21) be willing to side with Satan? (v. 8)

(5) What is the fate of these men? (v. 9)

(6) What is the fate of Satan? (v. 10)

20:11-15—The Great White Throne

(7) What happens when the Great White Throne appears? Why? (v. 11; see 2 Pet. 3: 10-13)

(8) Two sets of books are displayed:

a. Who are resurrected at this point and are made to stand before the throne?

b. What are the sets of opened books for? (vv. 12-14)

c. What is the other book called? (v. 12)

d. What is it for? (v. 15)

e. Who are the ones whose names are found in the Book of Life? (see 3:5 and Phil. 4:3)

f. Is your name there? Why or why not? (Jn. 3:16; 6:47)

(9) What will happen to “death” and “Hades” at the time? (v. 14b)

(10) What does it mean? (see 1 Cor. 15:54; Lk. 16:23)

(11) What is the most important message to you and how may you apply it to your life?

Scriptural Reflection
Revelation 21:1–8

The New Heaven and the New Earth—At the throwing of the devil, death and Hades into the lake of fire (20:10, 14), John now sees a new heaven and a new earth:

(1) What happened to the former heaven and earth? (v. 1; see 2 Pet. 3:10-13)

(2) Why is there no longer any sea? (see 20:13 and Dan. 7:3 for its symbolism and today’s Meditative Reflection)

(3) The bride is called the Holy City, the New Jerusalem (v. 2)

a. Where does she come from?

b. Why is she called the “Holy City”?

c. What has now been fulfilled by calling it the “New Jerusalem”? (What did the old Jerusalem represent?)

d. What does the “bride” seek to express?

(4) What does the arrival of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem signify? (vv. 3-4)

a. Now the dwelling of God is with men: Since the word “dwelling” refers to the tent or tabernacle of Moses’ time, what does this mean? What has been fulfilled?

b. As God now lives with us, what other significant fulfillments are now realized? (v. 3; see Lev. 26:11-12; Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 37:27-28; Zech. 8:8)

c. How different is life in this New Heaven and New Earth from the first? (v. 4)

d. What might be “the” thing that you look forward to most in this New Heaven and New Earth? Why?

(5) The assurance (vv. 5-6a)

a. Who does the assuring? (v. 5)

b. How does He address Himself in giving this assurance? (v. 6)

c. What does His self-address mean? (see 1:8, 17; 2:8 as well)

d. What does “new” mean in this entire vision?

(6) The reward and punishment (vv. 6b-8)

a. The first promise is given to the thirsty:

1. Who are the thirsty? (see Jn. 4:13-14)
2. With what will they be rewarded? (Isa. 55:1; Jn. 46:35; 7:37)
3. Why would such a promise be given to the thirsty upon the revelation of the New Jerusalem? (see 22:17)

b. The second promise is given to the overcomers:

1. Who are the overcomers? (see 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21)
2. What will their reward be?

c. The warning of punishment (v. 8):

1. Who will face the 2^nd death?
2. How different is this 2^nd death from the 1^st? (20:14-15)

(7) What is the message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?

Scriptural Reflection
Revelation 21:9–27

Now John gives further details about the New Jerusalem as the angel carries him in the spirit to a great and high mountain:

(1) Where does this New Jerusalem come from? (v. 10)

(2) The general appearance of the city (v. 11)

a. How does he describe its glory?

b. What does this glory signify? (see Ezek. 43:5)

(3) Its gates (vv. 12-13)

a. What does the guarding of these great, high walls by angels signify?

b. What does the naming of the 12 gates with the 12 tribes of Israel signify? (see also Ezek. 48:30-34)

(4) Its foundations (v. 14)

a. Who are named on the 12 foundations of the wall?

b. What is its significance? (see Eph. 2:20)

c. When combined with the names on the 12 gates, what is the message concerning this city?

(5) The measuring of the city and the wall (vv. 15-17)—The length, width and height of the city are each about 1,400 miles (forming a cube) and the thickness of the wall about 200 feet:

a. What might be the purpose of making these measurements? To portray its enormous size or its perfect symmetry (the city is a square)?

b. What does the use of a rod of gold to measure indicate?

(6) The materials for its walls, foundations and gates (vv. 18-21)—These descriptions are necessarily symbolic.

a. The wall of jasper (v. 18): What might it symbolize? (see 4:3; 21:11)

b. The city and its streets of pure (or transparent or pure) gold (v. 18b, 21b): What does it mean?

c. The foundations are each decorated with a different gem (vv. 19-20). Allowing for the various translation for gem name, the gems roughly correspond to the 12 gems set into the breastplate of the high priests (Exod. 28:17-20). What might this symbolize?

d. The gates of 12 pearls, each made of a single pearl: What might this symbolize?

(7) The perfect city of God (vv. 22-27)

a. A city without a temple (v. 22): What does it mean that “Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple”?

b. A city without sun or moon (v. 23): What does it say about the glory of God?

c. A city for all nations (vv. 24, 26): How does this fulfill prophecies like that of Isaiah 60:1-5?

d. A city with open gates (v. 25):

1. When are city gates normally shut? (see Neh. 7:3; 13:19)
2. What does not shutting the gates ever indicate?

e. A city of purity (v.27): To whom does this city belong?

(8) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?