Revelation Day 36 - Where the Wild Things Are

DAY 36
Where the Wild Things Are
Mark 4:34

“And the wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.”

I must've read Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are dozens of times to our kids. It's a beautifully illustrated story about a boy's imagination and struggle to grow up.

Midway through Revelation and we are where the wild things are. Suddenly, Pastor John, Revelation’s author, has visions of monsters who wreak havoc on Earth. It’s confusing. Many have misread, misapplied, or avoided chapters like these. It should be no surprise but John is talking in symbols again.

But just like Where the Wild Things Are, John can’t talk about the challenges we and his churches face without using this way of talking. Some things are too big to talk about any other way. Jesus also used symbolic stories to get people thinking. He didn’t explain his stories right away either. People had to chew on it for a while. Still, we have to ask, what do these symbols mean?

These wild things of Rev. 13-14 live in the murky swamp of politics. That world is a place of pressure and propaganda. John raises the question: how do Christians survive social and political pressure and propoganda that steers us away from the Way of Jesus? 

Before digging into details, let’s briefly survey these two chapters. Rev. 13-14 continues the vision-story of Rev. 12 which focuses on a woman and her children being chased by a dragon, who is Satan. Now the invisible dragon starts working through visible puppets. John calls these demonic pawns “beasts.” They’re monsters - wild things!

These two chapters have five visions. First, Satan (the dragon) raises up a Beast of the Sea who “wages war against God’s holy people” (Rev. 13:1-10). Second, Satan raises up a Beast of the Land who tricks people into worshiping the first monster (Rev. 13:11-18). Third, the Lamb’s army stands battle-ready and uncompromised by the wild things (Rev. 14:1-5). In John’s fourth vision, three angels call the world to God and warn of wrath for any “who worship the beast” (Rev. 14:6-13). The fifth and final vision shows Christ dividing saints from sinners. This final judgment is imagined as a harvest (Rev. 14:14-20).

Don’t be put off or stressed by all the symbols. Today, survey the terrain in front of us and sit with the picture-stories. We’ll dig deeper in the days to come.

REFLECT
How comfortable are you with symbols and picture-stories in the Bible that are not easy to understand?

PRAY
Father, sometimes Scripture confuses me. Your word isn’t always easy to understand. Help me to be patient. Help me to keep listening to hard parts of Scripture until I gain wisdom. Amen.