Friday 22nd December - Revelation 17

Today’s chapter is Revelation 17

Tom writes:

I’m sitting in a coffee shop. I’m listening to the lovely twinkly Christmas music. I’m conscious that both the bible and the year are reaching their end. I’m looking at all the delicious treats on offer and I’m finding it hard to equate what I see with what I have just read. The passage tells me of great powers raging in this world. It tells of a grotesque and adulterous force that is intoxicating us with worship of false gods. It says that this force is violently opposed to me and my faith. It says that it wants my blood. But everything looks so jolly. Christmas is just so jolly... isn’t it?? I think this is one of the areas of my faith that I struggle with more than anything else. In the affluent West we have grown so accustomed to things having the edge taken off them. Life is manicured around us; it has been declawed. I suppose there is nothing wrong with that except that it belies the truth of the vicious battle going on. I need passages like this so I can see through the fancy facade and remember the reality. I need to see that in their hearts - in their souls - people are haggard.  People are on the brink.

I need to look past the superficial “jolliness” and see the cancer and the divorce and the loss and the loneliness and the people struck by trains and the slander against Jesus and grasp that this is the work of a disgusting and despicable force. It is the work of THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES. In John’s day that MOTHER was manifested in the idea of Rome. Today it is probably another manifestation that rules over the kings of the earth. It requires wisdom to recognise it because it is so easy to overlook. It is so easy to be serenaded by superficiality and to miss the battle that is raging on this earth. We need to pray hard to see the foetid ugliness that hides behind what we call “normalness”. Only then can we fight. Only then can we be sure we will overcome. The story of the book is coming to an end and it ends with a mighty battle and then the brilliance of a brand new dawn. We must not lose sight of that. We can enjoy the twinkly lights. We can enjoy the jolly stuff. Let’s celebrate Christmas. And at the same time let’s see what lies beneath; to have our hearts broken for those trapped in the schemes of the great Evil One and pray that we can all be awakened to what is really going on in this earth. 

Question for reflection

What is the spiritual battle that Jesus is fighting in this city today?