Revelation 8
Pausing in writing. Of dramas and slippery slopes.
N.T. Wright asks, “How does the pause of chapter 7, as we wait for the seventh seal finally to be opened in chapter 8, heighten the drama and add emphasis here?”
Although some novels and North American TV shows pause an exciting storyline to switch to a subplot or secondary storyline, no one does it as effectively as K-Drama and C-Drama writers. They leave you hanging at the end of one episode. They don’t pick it up at the beginning of the next! Talk about heightening the drama!! You want to fast forward to get to what happened in the main storyline, yet the secondary one supports and adds nuance to the main one. You’ll miss stuff by FF’g. It’s already difficult seeing the full story with subtitles and cultural mores you don’t know. I find with some plots I have to rewatch the first three or four episodes so I catch all the foundational info.
The same for Revelation.
The thick tangle of metaphors, the rich imagery, the unknown first century context — they challenge building up a big picture. Memory cannot keep up with the cognitive requirements! Even moreso when one decides to read a couple of sections at a time in Revelation for Everyone and fails to write on it right away. Ahem.
Note: I’m following N.T. Wright’s Revelation: 22 Studies for Individuals and Groups and his newest book 20th Anniversary Edition with Study Guide, Revelation for Everyone. See my post Prepare for Revelation for suggested materials.
The Function of a Pause
I tend not to put in pauses in my novels, probably because I don’t have the memory capacity to carry two storylines. But I do have flashbacks in some. Here, in Revelation, it’s a sort of flashback. It’s about the main storyline but focusing on a different part of the scene. It’s that complex!
“The smoke of incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose up from the hand of the angel in front of God. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth. There were crashes of thunder, loud rumblings, lightning and an earthquake.” Rev 8: 4-5
Wright writes:
“In some Jewish thinking, the praises of heaven must pause for a while so that the prayers of earth may be given a proper hearing. The main point, however, is that the seven trumpets and what they bring will be part at least of God’s answer to the prayers of his people….
“If prayer from on earth is presented by means of the golden censer, the immediate answer is given in the same way…The ‘thunder, rumblings, lightning and earthquake’ come at the close of each section of the book, picking up from their initial appearance in front of God’s throne….Jesus himself declared that he had come ‘to throw fire upon the earth’ (Luke 12.49). Here the angel with the golden censer continues the lamb’s strange work.”
The Function of Prayer
The popular mantra today is that prayer doesn’t work. But what is prayer? And what would prayer look like if made visible?
Prayer is the human talking to God on behalf of themself or others (or the planet or animals). People scoff that prayer doesn’t work, but if we consider that prayer is conversation in a form unique to conversation with God, Jesus, and/or the Holy Spirit, then prayer serves the same function as talking does between humans or humans and their pets.
Building rapport.
Presenting a problem.
Listening for feedback.
Maintaining a relationship.
Getting to know one’s own thinking — talk things out.
Develop a plan of action — talk things out and hearing/seeing feedback.
The vision John relates tells us that God not only hears our prayers but replies immediately. Even when it feels like there’s no response, Revelation tells us that there is and it is immediate. Not like when you have to leave umpteen messages and voice mails for your mother to get back to you in a few days time! But I have no experience of that, right? Right?!
Idea for The Soul’s Reckoning
Anywho, this passage gave me an idea for novel 2 of my trilogy. I finished writing the first draft of The Soul’s Reckoning, The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy on November 30th, read this section a couple days later, and immediately realized I needed to amend a scene where prayer appears. My protagonist Charlotte Elisabeth is in the confused, skeptical-towards-prayer population. She has to learn one of the reasons people in the afterlife pray. The vivid imagery here gave me an idea as to how to add excitement and awe to the scene.
By the way, novel one is out end of this year! The Soul’s Awakening begins with Charlotte Elisabeth’s death. As the SPR editorial review stated, The Soul’s Awakening is “a metaphysical afterlife adventure that will have readers questioning the meaning of life and the permanence of death, The Soul’s Awakening by Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy is a thought-provoking musing on mortality.”
Destructive Humanity
The second half of chapter 8 reflects, in a way, the four horse riders in chapter 6. Four angels, four types of destruction reflecting humanity’s de-constructing tendencies.
A third of land burnt up. Climate change anyone?
A mountain thrown into the scene. Like glaciers calving into the ocean. Climate change again.
Huge star fell from the sky. A recurring theme. Like asteroids we can’t control. Or space junk that we can. We let billionaires pollute our skies with satellites; they fall to earth, and we hope they won’t poison the waters or hit people.
A third of day and a third of night lost their light. Back to climate change and greedy men wanting to mine the moon. Death comes with the sun’s diminishment.
The first horse rider conquered.
The second horse rider brings war, trashes peace.
The third horse rider creates inequitable economies.
The fourth horse rider brings death.
Although I am skeptical that Revelation predicted humans changing our climate, it isn’t surprising either. After all, once we’d eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, the ancients would’ve foreseen it was only a matter of time before humanity learnt enough to destroy its home. That’s what happens when creatures know enough to destroy but aren’t compassionate, collaborative, and wise enough to use that knowledge to create instead.
The Bible — and plays and novels — chronicle human greed, selfishness, lack of self-control, lying, exploiting traits. Think about the slippery slope of Canada’s repulsive “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAiD) law, that went from pseudo-compassionate killing of the terminally ill, to now killing the disabled and vulnerable children to save money on health care and social support. MAiD has become a rather steep speedy downhill tumble to legalized evil. Predictable. After all, guess who endorsed this policy before and during WWII? The rationalizing of euthanasia varies from culture to culture, but the underpinning remains the same: fear
of disability
of sickness
of vulnerability
of contracting the disabled’s vulnerability to another’s questionable mercy.
Get rid of the source of your fear through euthanasia; you feel better. Use a rationalization that appeals to your fellow citizens’ ego or sense of justice; you get everyone else to cooperate with your fear’s impetus.
The problem with euthanasia is that “learned” judges assumed Canadians are compassionate, more than any other country’s citizens, and wouldn’t descend to using it to get rid of the vulnerable. After all, goes the rationalization, Canadians are using it to justly alleviate suffering. How could the Justices be so arrogantly naïve?! My, how the definition of unjust (read unallowable) suffering has expanded. Preventable suffering that’s not prevented but “cured” through legal murder. Writers and the author of Revelation have shown over and over again for millennia that rationalization for euthanasia is complete BS for any human being, no matter where they live.
A human having the power of life and death over another will slide towards death inevitably.
This is why God kicked Adam and Eve out of Eden before they could eat from the Tree of Life. God’s thunder, rumblings, lightning, and earthquake create awe. This cacophony of vision and sound enforces who has the real power. It sounds warning against humanity’s destructive mien. It’s the end-of-Act bell in a play.