The author gets us up to date on rulers. Darius, who had allowed the Jews to go back
to Jerusalem was defeated by the man we know as Alexander the Great who is not
criticized at all for his rulership of the territories but handed over his
kingdoms to men of lesser caliber who made great evil. From these came a sinful root, Antiochus
Epiphanes, a man hated by the Jews. He had
himself been a hostage and this apparently made him ruthless. Some came out of
Israel who thought it best to make common cause, throw in the sponge on this
whole Yahweh thing, and accept the mores and ethics of their Gentile
overlords. The covenant is only as
strong as the covenant partner you choose and they chose unwisely as Epiphanes
soon demonstrated by conquering Egypt and then coming back to Jerusalem and
plundering the temple completely. When God's
people make human alliances and covenants it is never a good thing. They have lost faith in Him and are placing
their trust that should be in Him in nations and kings. What a silly idea but oh how easily we are
seduced to thinking in such ways.
After Jesus healed all the people who went up the mountain
and fed the four thousand with woefully inadequate food stocks the Pharisees
come and ask for a sign. Jesus' response
is essentially I have given you a thousand signs and you can't interpret them,
what good would another one be? His oblique
reference to the sign of Jonah surely confused them. What was he talking about? What was the "sign" of Jonah? Jonah didn't even get the signs and he saw
them first hand. One can only imagine
Jesus' head going limp to His chest when the disciples begin to worry about not
having bread. How could they possibly
think He meant literal yeast in this circumstance? The yeast of the Pharisees is unbelief, never
coming to a conclusion that is fixed and settled. The disciples are simply clueless at the
moment.
Is it moral for heaven to rejoice over the destruction of
the great city and all that live in it? That
is the same sort of question posed in connection with the Old Testament
destruction of cities and all the inhabitants.
The words of the rejoicing tell us that from the perspective of heaven
even this judgment is just and righteous.
We believe we are in a position to judge on a macro level and we live
only the micro level. We cannot stand in
judgment of God because we can't see all He sees, we lack perspective. It is only after the great city is judged
that the wedding supper of the Lamb is announced. This judgment is precursor to the final
judgment. John sees this angel and hears
the proclamation, "These are the true words of God" and falls at his
feet in worship. He is told to rise and
not do that, the angel is a fellow servant of the truth with John, the
man. That should give you room for
pause.
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