He said: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever….”

//In today’s verse, God speaks to Ezekiel and tells him that a new Temple must be built as his holy house. God dictates to Ezekiel several chapters of precise building instructions, describing a magnificent picture of a second Temple.

Ezekiel was not the only one to dream of a second Temple. Here is Isaiah’s promise, written much earlier, from which Ezekiel surely finds inspiration.

In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

This will be quite a thing, won’t it? Except for one thing. Ezekiel, an “exile prophet” (he prophesied during the period of time the Jews spent in exile in Babylon) was describing the day when the Jews would be released from bondage, and allowed to travel back to their homeland. When that day came, a magnificent second Temple would be erected, and God would dwell there with his people forever.

Then the day came. Israel was allowed to go home, and the second Temple construction began. But it was such a poor, pathetic attempt that the elders, those who remembered the glory of Solomon’s temple, sat and cried. No way would God come and dwell there forever! They scanned the horizon for a descendant of King David to arrive and rule their new kingdom, but he never arrived. For hundreds of years the Jewish nation floundered, and eventually King Herod the Great began construction on a newer, grander Temple for the Jews, resurrecting the dream of a Davidic Messiah who would arrive and rule. But again the dream dissipated. Before the Temple was finished, in 70 A.D., it was destroyed by the Romans.

Two thousand years later, many people point to the prophecies that didn’t pan out and continue to dream of yet another Temple.

Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.” The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” “You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”

//Here’s the story of today’s verse. The Syrian army had surrounded the city of Samaria, and its inhabitants were starving. But Elisha the prophet encouraged the king, promising that tomorrow food would become so plentiful that it would be sold at cheap prices.

At this, the king’s officer scoffed, saying the only way that could happen is if food rained down from heaven! To which Elisha retorted, you’ll see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any!

If the officer’s stomach weren’t rumbling, I’m sure his eyes would be rolling. Why wouldn’t he eat any if there was plenty?

The next day, some mysterious loud noises startled the Assyrian army, and they scuttled off, afraid for their lives. A few adventurous lepers wandered into the now-empty Assyrian camp, and after eating their fill, they came back to the city to report what they found. So the king stationed his officer, the scoffing one, at the gate of the camp to supervise. At which point, the starving city-dwellers stampeded toward the food, trampling and killing the officer.

Elisha was right. Moral: don’t mock God’s prophet.

You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the LORD.

//Is this verse saying God doesn’t want you to tattoo your body? Many Christians think so, and it does read rather straight-forwardly. But why does God care?

God cares because that’s what Israel’s enemies—the Canaanites—did in their cultic funeral practices. They cut their hair, and lacerated and tattooed their bodies, all in an attempt to ward off the departing spirit by disguising themselves so they wouldn’t be recognized. God’s instruction continues:

You shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard.

But does this have anything to do with today’s time? I suggest this compromise: Go ahead and ink up your biceps, but wear a nametag to the funeral parlor.

You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

//Growing up, I understood swearing to be a serious sin. It was taking the Lord’s name in vain. So serious was this ban against swearing by God, that God made room for its inclusion in the Ten Commandments. But is this really what God meant by this rule?

Most scholars doubt it. Note the more precise wording of the NIV: you shall not “misuse” the Lord’s name.

In antiquity, the name of a god was sacred. A person who knew a god’s name held some power over him. In an age where an oath was binding, swearing an oath by the name of a god obligated that god to help with the request.

Now let’s go back to before the law was written, in Exodus 6:3, where God is talking to Moses: I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El-Shaddai—’God Almighty’—but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them. Oops! In what sounds like a slip of the tongue, God discloses his name. He has kept it a secret for 2,500 years, but now the secret is out, and he’ll spend the next 1,500 years until the time of Christ trying to erase his mistake.

Back to the Third Commandment. God probably doesn’t care if we let loose a little goddamn when our tight end drops an easy catch. He cares that we don’t swear an oath by his secret name, Yahweh.

I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

//These words are written by John to the city of Smyrna, one of seven cities to whom the book of Revelation is addressed. There are two ways to interpret John’s frustration:

[1] There are Gentiles in Asia Minor who are masquerading as Jews.

[2] There are Jews up in Asia Minor who have forsaken their heritage, and are frolicking with Gentile beliefs.

Most scholars lean toward [2], finding it unimaginable that John would deny Christian fellowship to Gentiles. But I’m actually not so sure. I waffle on the topic in my own book about Revelation. The fact is, Revelation is a very Jewish book, repeating age-old dreams of redemption for the Jewish nation. John never once uses the word “Christian”; he sees himself as a Jew who acknowledges Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

Regardless of the way you interpret this verse, it becomes one of many in Revelation that verify that Christianity and Judaism had not yet separated. The intense schism between Jew and Christians revealed in such books as John’s Gospel does not yet exist in Revelation. Yet, Revelation and John’s Gospel share many common themes, though their eschatology, cosmology, and vision of Jesus remain so different. Clearly, one drew from the other, or both drew from a common religious language.

How is it possible, then, that scholars pretend both were written in the 90’s, in the same area of the world? Could they reflect two different views by two different competing men, arguing over the meaning of Jesus?

I find it far more likely that Revelation’s primitive cosmology precedes John’s Gospel by a dozen years or more, and that John’s Gospel reflects a “growing up,” discarding the vengeful, messianic dreams of Revelation. It’s from this perspective that I write my two books, about Revelation and John’s Gospel. 

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

//The book of James, with its focus on practical living, is a book that barely snuck into the canon. If you’ll forgive my bluntness, some Christians are more interested in receiving than doing, and that attitude would rankle James. The following verse at times appears to be glossed over like a blip across the screen:

James 1:22, But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Christianity’s emphasis on grace and belief seems commonplace to us today, but neither of these are common focal points of other religions. For example, Christianity’s parent religion, Judaism, is often criticized by Christians because its adherents often seem not to believe their own stories. Jews, however, are often puzzled by this concern, and by Christians’ lazy, unregulated practices and reliance upon grace. As a Jew, you practice your religion by doing, adhering to God’s teachings, not by believing.

By contrast, reformed Christianity is founded on just the opposite opinion. Martin Luther was known to rip the book of James, with its blasphemous teaching that we are saved by works rather than faith, from his Bible. Luther was a character; he claimed James was “an epistle of straw,” hated the book of Esther (which has no mention whatsoever of God), and said he saw no evidence of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration in Revelation.

Christianity clings to the flavor of the majority of its founding writers and their spectacular claim that the Messiah has arrived, and the Messianic age of God’s favor has begun. But can we bathe in grace, just believing and enjoying, or is it our responsibility to share in supporting the Messianic age by good works?

Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!”

//Does any word in the Bible evoke a stronger expression of joy than the word alleluia? Surprisingly, it occurs only once in the New Testament. Do you imagine that its use is to describe the day of Jesus’ birth? His resurrection? The day of his ascension?

No. It’s in Revelation chapter 19. Heaven erupts in praise and unspeakable joy: The voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” And what is the emotion which inspires this great cheer?

It is vengeance. God has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.  She is utterly destroyed, and her smoke rises forever and ever. Alleluia!

Much as I love the book of Revelation, it can be a challenge to understand how Christians draw inspiration from it.

“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

//Have you ever wondered what mountain Jesus was pointing to as he said this?

If you read my book about Revelation, you may have noticed a mountain being “thrown into the sea” … the volcano Vesuvius. When it erupted in 79 CE, the top of the mountain blew southwest into the sea, polluting the waters. Could that be the mountain Jesus meant? I doubt it … too far away.

How about the hated Samaritan mountain? Samaritans refused to worship in Jerusalem, instead preferring their own Mount Gerizim, the original location of their own temple. They had, in fact, condensed the original ten commandments into nine to make room for their own tenth, stating the absolute sanctity of Mount Gerizim. Ecclesiasticus 50:25-26 portrays the Jews’ dislike for Samaritans:

Two nations my soul detests, and the third is not even a people: those who live [on the mountain of Samaria], and the Philistines, and that foolish people that live in Shechem.

Gerizim seems a plausible answer, except that Jesus felt no animosity toward Samaritans. Instead, perhaps we should read today’s verse in context. A few verses earlier we find Jesus staging an attack upon the Jerusalem Temple:

And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” (Mark 11:17)

The next morning as Jesus walked outside the city with his disciples, he pointed up to the Temple Mount, with the glorious Temple walls reaching high above the city walls, and spoke these words: If you have even a little faith, you can ask God to destroy this Temple and He will do it for you.

He did.

You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

//These words were spoken by Jesus (as attested by John of Patmos) to the city of Laodicea. Go get some white clothes and working eye salve.

It’s fascinating to study the seven letters in Revelation, and how they fit within the historical setting of the times. Consider this example, the instruction given to Laodicea, a city grown rich through trade, located handily on a popular trade route. They had apparently become quite independent.

One of the items offered by Laodicea was a popular Phrygian eye powder. The town boasted a medical practice which lured people from far and wide. In particular, Laodicea specialized in ophthalmology, the healing of the eyes.

Another thing they were known for was a unique breed of black sheep whose wool was especially fine. This seems to have sparked a local fashion.

So what does Jesus say? Get off your high horse, you ain’t rich at all. Find some real eye salve so you can see what miserable creatures you are, and dress yourselves in white wool … not black.

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders. 

What a glorious day that will be! Enter the book of Revelation, which draws upon the legend of these two beasts–the beast of the land and the beast of the sea–as great enemies of God, conquered by Jesus, the Messiah. Luckily, we don’t have to eat them … both wind up in the lake of fire.

Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster through? 

For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

“Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?” And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.”  

“We just did. No forky toes.”

“What about birds?”

Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.