Week 52 Revelation 17
After John had had his baffling vision an angel came to him and said: why are you so amazed? I will tell you the mystery.
At first that sounded like good news for John…and good news for me. But by the end of the chapter I realized that the angel’s idea of an explanation wasn’t the same as mine (a partial explanation doesn’t do-the-trick when I’m wanting comprehensive disclosure).
The angel did (of course) clarify several things:
The seven heads are actually seven kings…
Five kings have already come-and-gone…
The “beast” is one of the kings…
The ten horns are ten other kings…
The “beast” & the kings will destroy Babylon…
They’ll all wage war against the Lamb.
This is all useful to know and I have to admit that I am farther ahead by the end of the chapter. But not as far as I’d like to be. The angel’s explanation left things unexplained. No one is identified. No dates are given.
In quantitative terms I wonder how much of an explanation this really was? Maybe 25%. Hard to say. But in my view a low explanation-number.
Anyway this is an interesting dilemma for a bible-reader. Do I just accept that being in-the-partial-dark is the best I can expect? Or am I free to start guessing…filling in some blanks?
For now I figure it’s better to function in dimly-lit certainty than operate in the full light of guesswork. See what develops over time.
Note: quote & paraphrases in Revelation 17:7 9 10 13 14 16