The measure of the people
Day 706, Saturday, July 18
Revelation 10:1 -11:14
Amid all the destruction and difficult imagery, Revelation is fundamentally a book of encouragement—not the kind of encouragement that says things aren’t as bad as they seem, but the kind of encouragement that calls for perseverance in suffering.
In his book “Breaking the Code,” Bruce M. Metzger sums it up like this: “Perhaps the most that can be said with confidence is that the author views the people of God as bearing faithful testimony, but also as suffering pain and persecution and indignity. They are delivered not from martyrdom and death, but through martyrdom and death to a glorious resurrection.”
In verses 10:9-11, the angel is given a little scross and told to eat it (like we might say we devoured a book). He says “It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” Receiving a message from God is sweet as honey, but the message itself it hard to digest.
Then John writes, “I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, ‘Go and measure the temple of God and the altar and its worshipers.’” The temple spoken of here isn’t the temple in Jerusalem—it had been destroyed years before—but the temple made up of God’s people. They (and we) are the temple that endures and is to become a house of prayer for all nations.
The “two witnesses” spoken of in 11:3 are often identified with Moses and Elijah; the world has seen the witness of the law and the prophets and has rejected it.
The first century was a difficult time. The Roman Empire was still expanding, but there was political turmoil, wars and natural disasters that affected the whole society; it was worse for Christians, with serious persecution under Emperor Nero. Even crisis can bring some good, though. In 11:13 we read, “At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.”

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Saturday meditation

Ecclesiastes 10:12-20
Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious, but fools are consumed by their own lips. At the beginning their words are folly; at the end they are wicked madness—and fools multiply words.
No one knows what is coming—who can tell someone else what will happen after them?
The toil of fools wearies them; they do not know the way to town.
Woe to the land whose king was a servant and whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed is the land whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time—for strength and not for drunkenness.
Through laziness, the rafters sag; because of idle hands, the house leaks.
A feast is made for laughter, wine makes life merry, and money is the answer for everything.
Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird in the sky may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say.

Prayer focus
We pray that you will protect us from times of trial and suffering, God. But give us the strength to endure the suffering we cannot avoid.