Judgment: Wrath of the Lamb
Page 56
Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation Vol. 2 (Dallas, GA: Tolle Lege Press, 2016), 592.
The Messianic marriage Psalm:
Psalm 45:4–17
4 In your majesty ride out victoriously
for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
5 Your arrows are sharp
in the heart of the king’s enemies;
the peoples fall under you.
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
7 you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
13 All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
14 In many-colored robes she is led to the king,
with her virgin companions following behind her.
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The armies of heaven:
“Though all of those redeemed by the Lamb – from all lands and in all ages – will enjoy the fullness of Christ’s redemptive provision, Revelation is a judicial drama focusing on his judgment of first-century Israel. It is explaining those things “which must shortly take place” (1:1; 22:6) because “the time is near” (1:3; 22:10). It is highlighting the formal and permanent establishment of the new covenant kingdom as Christ overthrows his people’s first and most dangerous enemy, their mother Israel (11:15; 12:10; 19:6). Given this temporal and dramatic focus of Revelation, these armies must be composed of first-century saints, who have all been subjected to Israel’s persecuting wrath – whether directly by the Jews themselves or through Israel’s manipulation of the Roman beast.”
Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation Vol. 2 (Dallas, GA: Tolle Lege Press, 2016), 610.
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Dipped in the blood of his enemies:
“Our local context compels us to view the blood as that of his enemies, for the following reasons: (1) The vision presents war (19:11, 14, 15, 19) leading to the death of his enemies (19:17-18, 21). (2) It employs the imagery of the wine press (19:15c) which suggests the blood of those trodden down (as in 14:20). (3) John’s primary Old Testament source material is Isaiah 63:1-3 where we read: “Why is Your apparel red, / And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press? I have trodden the wine trough alone / . . . And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, / And I stained all My raiment.” (4) This is appropriate to a context where we recently heard that his enemies are to be paid back even for what they had done (18:6) – and their guilt is taking the blood of the saints (19:2; cp. 6:10; 17:6; 18:20, 24).”
Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation Vol. 2 (Dallas, GA: Tolle Lege Press, 2016), 609.
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Sword in the mouth of Christ:
“Surely it cannot be that “the sword that comes from his mouth is the gospel message that defeats evil by showing the love of God in revealing the gift of eternal life” (L. Michaels 1999: 113). Rather the sword represents judgment, just as do both the rod (2:27; 12:5; cp. Ps 2:9; 11:4) and the winepress (14:19-20; 16:19). In 1:16 the sword pictures an instrument of judgment…
“Hosea 6:5 parallels the judgment word of the prophets with words coming out of God’s mouth: “Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; / I have slain them by the words of My mouth; / And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth” (cp. Isa 49:2). As Mounce (355) puts it: “the sharp sword symbolizes the lethal power of his word of judgment. We are not to envision a literal sword but a death-dealing pronouncement that goes forth like a sharp blade from the lips of Christ.” The Lord prophesied Israel’s judgment in several contexts, most dramatically in his Olivet Discourse (Mt 24:2-34ff).”
Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation Vol. 2 (Dallas, GA: Tolle Lege Press, 2016), 612.
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This is all drawn from: Revelation 19:11-16.
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The coming of Christ on the white horse:
“Though most commentators associate this with the second advent at the close of history, it is surely a response to first-century events surrounding the destruction of Babylon-Jerusalem. This must be so in light of the following: (1) The primary focus of Revelation is on soon-occurring events (1:1, 3; 22:6, 10). (2) The theme of Revelation regards the destruction of Jerusalem in response to the crucifixion of Christ occurring there (1:7; cf. 11:8; Exc. 3 at 1:7), hence Revelation’s dominant character is the slaughtered Lamb (5:6, 12; 13:8; cp. 5:8, 13; 6:1; 7:9, 14, 17; 12:11; 14:1, 4, 10; 15:3; 17:14; 19:7, 9; 21:9, 14, 22; 22:1, 3). (3) The Babylonian harlot is an image of Jerusalem, not Rome or some end-time foe (Exc. 13 at 17:1). (4) In the Old Testament an announcement that God reigns often resulted from the historical overthrow of some enemy of Israel (e.g., Ex 15:1-5, 18; cp. Ps 10:15-18; 47:3, 8; 96:10, 13; 97:1-3; Isa 52:7-10), and Revelation is strongly influenced by the Old Testament. (5) This approach fits well with the earlier announcements of the beginning of the reign of Christ (11:15) and God (11:17) at the destruction of the first-century temple (11:1-2) which destruction opened the heavenly temple (11:19). (6) This also comports nicely with God’s promise to vindicate the first-century slaughtered saints in just a “little while” (6:10-11). Why should we expect them to wait centuries, especially in light of all the near term indicators in Revelation? (7) It seems strange that the evidence of God reigning would wait until the final act of history.”
Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation Vol. 2 (Dallas, GA: Tolle Lege Press, 2016), 591.
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CHAPTER 60
Seraphim:
“In Isa 6, the seraphim appear in connection with the enthroned heavenly king, →Yahweh Zebaoth. The following may be said about their position, form, number and function. Their position, ʿōmĕdîm mimmaʿal lô, “standing above” Yahweh (v 2), lends itself to comparison with the raised uraei on the chapel friezes, where the uraei are however without wings. Whether their shape is serpentine or more humanoid is a matter of dispute. As for number, there are probably two seraphim in Isa 6 (cf. v 3a). Concerning their function Isa 6 displays a noteworthy mutation of the uraeus motif (KEEL 1977: 113): instead of protecting Yahweh the seraphim need their wings to cover themselves from head to feet from Yahweh’s consuming holiness; Yahweh does not need their protection. Isaiah thus uses the seraphim to underscore the supreme holiness of the God on the throne.
“The seraphim occur a number of times in the pseudepigrapha and later Jewish literature (see OTP 2, index sub seraphim and J. MICHEL, RAC 5, 60–97). The seraphim, →cherubim and ophanim are described as “the sleepless ones who guard the throne of his glory” (1 Enoch 71:7).”
T. N. D. Mettinger, “Seraphim,” ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 743.
“The prophet Isaiah had an exalted vision of the Lord sitting on his heavenly throne high and lifted up with the glorious train of his robe filling the temple. But there were also some other chimeric creatures in his presence:
Isaiah 6:2–7
Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”… Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal.
“The meaning of the Hebrew word for seraphim is “fiery serpent.” It was used to describe the fiery serpents in the wilderness whose poisonous burning venom was God’s puni
shment for Israel’s grumbling and complaining (Num. 21:6). God’s balm of healing forgiveness was obtained by looking to a brass serpent (seraph) image raised on a pole called Nehushtan (Num. 21:8).
“But this is not the only use of seraph that sheds light on the meaning of the angelic seraphim. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon points out that Isaiah 14:29 and 30:6 refer to a “flying fiery serpent” (seraph) in the wilderness that originated in mythically conceived winged serpent deities. The term is unavoidably serpentine in all its cognates.
“Some deny this serpentine essence by pointing out that the Isaianic seraphim are described as having human heads, wings, hands and feet. But Karen Randolph Joines has persuasively argued that the Egyptian winged ureus (upright cobra) that guarded the Pharaoh’s tombs and thrones with its “fiery” venom is demonstrably the equivalent of the Hebrew seraph. Like the seraphim in Isaiah, the ureus was also commonly described as having a human face, wings, hands and feet when it was necessary for it to accomplish tasks like those of Isaiah 6. But it remained a winged serpent.
“ANE scholar Michael S. Heiser goes one step further and provisionally considers a literary overlapping of all these elements of fiery serpents, flying, humanoid features, and divinity to be variations of descriptions for the “Watcher paradigm”:
“Seraphim, then, are reptilian/serpentine beings – they are the Watchers (the “watchful ones” who diligently guard God’s throne, which is carried [cf. Ezekiel 1, 10] by the cherubim, who may also serve as guardians). There are “good” serpentine beings (seraphim) who guard God’s throne (so Isaiah 6’s seraphim), and there are fallen, wicked serpentine beings (seraphim) who rebelled against the Most High at various times, and who became the pagan gods of the other nations.”
Brian Godawa, When Giants Were Upon the Earth: The Watchers, the Nephilim, and the Biblical Cosmic War of the Seed (Los Angeles, CA: Embedded Pictures Publishing, 2014), 143-144.
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Cherubim:
“The term ‘cherubim’ occurs 91 times in the Hebrew Bible. It denotes the Israelite counterpart of the sphinx known from the pictorial art of the ancient Near East. In the Bible the cherubim occur essentially in two functions: as guardians of a sacred tree or as guardians and carriers of a throne…
T. N. D. Mettinger, “Cherubim,” ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 189–190.
Ezekiel 1:4–14
4 As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. 5 And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness (‘shape”), 6 but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. 7 Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. 8 Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: 9 their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went. 10 As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. 11 Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. 12 And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. 13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. 14 And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning.
Ophanim:
Not much is known about ophanim. Some scholars suggest they may be the “wheels” in Ezekiel’s vision. They show up in 2nd temple literature.
1Enoch 61:10
And he will summon all the forces of the heavens, and all the holy ones above, and the forces of the Lord – the cherubim, seraphim, ophanim, all the angels of governance.”
1Enoch 71:7
Moreover, seraphim, cherubim, and ophanim – the sleepless ones who guard the throne of his glory – also encircled it.
I have chosen to portray them as the “flame of the whirling sword” that accompanies the Cherubim because they have the same kind of presence as the wheels of Ezekiel.
Genesis 3:24 says that the cherubim guard the Tree of Life with “the flame of the whirling sword.” Scholar Ronald Hendel has argued that “the ‘flame’ is an animate divine being, a member of Yahweh’s divine host, similar in status to the cherubim; the ‘whirling sword’ is its appropriate weapon, ever-moving, like the flame itself.”
Scholar P.D. Miller appeals to passages such as Psalm 104:4 where “fire and flame” are described as “Yahweh’s ministers” to conclude a convergence of imagery with ancient Ugaritic texts that describe “fire and flame” as armed deities with flashing swords. He writes that “the cherubim and the flaming sword are probably to be recognized as a reflection of the Canaanite fiery messengers.”
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CHAPTER 61
On Ba’al’s two weapons:
One as a hammer like mace and the other “Ginsberg (1935:328) identified ṣmdm with the two-pieced maces excavated at Ugarit. The weapon consists of two pieces, a head latched onto a handle, specifically in Ginsberg’s words (1935:328) “a mace with a stone head drilled through to adjust the wooden shaft, to which it is lashed tightly with thongs; and hence the name from the root ṣmd, ‘to bind.’ Such mace heads are found frequently in excavations.”…
“A famous stele from Ugarit, sometimes called the “Baal au foudre” stele and housed in the Louvre, depicts Baal wielding two weapons. The weapon in his right hand is sometimes characterized as a mace (Amiet 1980:201).204 In his left hand Baal holds “tree-lightning” (Vanel 1965:84; Williams-Forte 1983:28, 30). Other examples of second millennium iconography of the storm-god depict him with a weapon (Vanel 1965:esp. 108; Seeden 1980:esp. 102), which appears at times as “branch-like lightning” (Williams-Forte 1983:26).”…
Comparative evidence drawn from Mediterranean and Near Eastern myths comports with the meteorological character of ṣmdm (Thespis 164–65). Zeus pelts Typhon with thunderbolts at Mons Cassius, the Latin name for Mount Sapan (Apollodorus, The Library, 1.6.3; Frazer 1921:48–49). Zeus’s thunderbolts made by Cyclopes, the son of the craftsman-god Hephaistos, have been compared with Baal’s weapons fashioned by Kothar (Walcot 1969:115)….”
Mark S. Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle: Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU 1.1-1.2, vol. 1 (Leiden; New York; Köln: E.J. Brill, 1994), 339–340.
The actual text of the Baal cycle where Kothar-wa-Hasis crafts the two weapons, Yagarrish/Yagrush (“Driver”) and Ayyamarri/Ayamur (“Expeller”) for Baal to defeat Yamm (Sea) and River (Nahar) is KTU 1.2.11-25:
Kothar fashions the weapons,
And he proclaims their names:
“Your name, yours, is Yagarrish:
Yagarrish, drive Yamm,
Drive Yamm from his throne,
[Na]har from the seat of his dominion.
“Your name, yours, is Ayyamarri:
Ayyamarri, expel Yamm,
Expel Yamm from his throne,
Nahar from the seat of his dominion.
Leap from Baal’s hand,
Like a raptor from his fingers.
Strike the head of Prince Yamm,
Between the eyes of Judge River.
May Yamm sink and fall to the earth.”
The weapon leaps from Baal’s hand,