Today's Scripture Reading (June 8, 2021): Revelation 12
When
everyone around him seemed to be arguing for Britain to appease Adolf Hitler,
Winston Churchill resisted the temptation. He commented that “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat
him last.” I love the imagery, the picture that is drawn by Churchill’s words.
And from our point in history, I believe that he was right. The evil of Hitler
had to be stopped. Reasonable people could not stand aside and let the evil work
its way through Europe. If Britain, and by extension, the British Commonwealth
and likely the United States, had stayed out of the conflict, this world would
be a very different place today. But we need to understand that an appeaser
does not literally feed a crocodile, hoping that the crocodile will eat the
appeaser last. It is just imagery that Churchill used to get his point across
in a way that we could understand, both intellectually as well as emotionally
I
have friends that want to take everything in the Bible very literally. They
argue that if we can’t take Scripture literally, how can we know what is true
and what is not. They stress that the danger of claiming that some of the Biblical
passages use figurative language is that it weakens biblical truth. It is
impossible to know when it is speaking literally and when it is speaking
figuratively or poetically.
But
the comment “An appeaser is one who feeds a
crocodile, hoping it will eat him last” is the truth as far as Churchill was
concerned. It is just truth spoken in a different, more descriptive way, which impacts
our understanding.
I
love the imagery of Revelation. It is truth that is spoken differently. And
sometimes, we need just to allow the imagery to wash over us. So, John says that
out of the serpent’s mouth pours a river of water, intended to wash the woman
away. The serpent is often used as an image of evil, and water is a description
of the effects of chaos. But amid the worst moment that the woman could
imagine, John tells us that the earth itself would rise to defend her.
What
does it mean? I am not sure that we are supposed to know. We will figure it
out, but only on the other side of these events. But these words are not
without precedence. Jesus seemed to speak of something very similar.
“So when you see standing in the holy
place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the
prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee
to the mountains. Let no one on
the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. Let
no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How
dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the
Sabbath. For then there
will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and
never to be equaled again (Matthew 24:15-21).
You can almost hear the Serpent roar and see the water
pouring out of its mouth.
And John reminds us that, even in the worst moments, God will
come to our aid. He will help us even if he has to call on all of the earth to
accomplish his plans. Again, from the mouth of Jesus as he spoke to the
Pharisees.
Some of the
Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
“I
tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out”
(Luke 19:39-40).
When the time
of evil comes, the earth will not stay silent. She will rise up in our defense.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Revelation 13
No comments:
Post a Comment