An Apocalyptic Christmas

The Bible ends with a literary category referred to as “apocalyptic prophecy.” The book of Revelation is written in a form of prophecy that is filled with all kinds of pictures, which are both highly symbolic and often confusing. Furthermore, these pictures are often downright scary! There are armies and dragons and bowls of wrath and blood and death and on and on and on it goes . . . In other words, it is not the kind of story we would read to our kids before bedtime; in fact, it is not the kind of story in which we expect to find children at all. And then we come to Revelation 12:

“Then I witnessed in heaven an event of great significance. I saw a woman . . . she was pregnant, and she cried out because of her labor pains and the agony of giving birth. Then I witnessed another significant event. I saw a large red dragon . . . he stood in front of the woman as she was about to give birth, ready to devour her baby as soon as it was born. She gave birth to a son who was to rule all nations with an iron rod. And her child was snatched away from the dragon and was caught up to God and his throne . . . and the dragon was angry at the woman and declared war against the rest of her children – all who keep God’s commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus.”

Whoa! In the midst of this seeming horror story comes a baby, and it is this baby who turns the whole story. He defeats the dragon, sets up a kingdom, and invites everyone into it who will recognize him as the true King. This is what we remember during Advent. We remember that a child came on our behalf, that this child grew up, died and rose again in order to defeat sin and death, and that one day he will return to establish his eternal kingdom. The book of Revelation reminds us that we live in a world that is often scary, but that God chose to enter into the scariness with us, so that we might have the opportunity to live with him for all eternity in a place where nothing bad or scary will ever happen again.

Ben

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