240507_Revelation_14

The speaker begins with a prayer and introduces a diagram of the book of Revelation. The diagram shows the seven series of sevens in Revelation, such as the seven letters, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven signs, and so on. The speaker explains that the signs are an ongoing pattern throughout Revelation and that they represent different metaphors. The main point is that the book of Revelation follows a pattern of seven sevens, leading to the new creation and new Jerusalem. The speaker also discusses the significance of the year of Jubilee in Leviticus and how Jesus fulfills this concept. The speaker then focuses on the fourth sign, the lamb and the 144,000, and discusses its importance in the overall narrative of the church. Finally, the speaker introduces Revelation 14:1-5, which describes the lamb standing on Mount Zion and the redeemed 144,000. The speaker mentions that there are many references and symbolism in this passage, but does not provide further analysis. We'll open with a prayer here, and then we'll talk about the she a little bit. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, and for warm houses to be in in this winter, wintery wind that we're still having. We thank you for this opportunity to gather around your word, and to hear, and to grow in our understanding, and grow in our faith, and our love, as you teach us by your Holy Spirit. We pray that you would do this for us at this time, in Jesus' name. Amen. So, this sheet, the diagram, is what I tried to do on the board one time. It wasn't quite as neat as this, and then the typing is about the section we're in right now. I'm just going to explain a little bit. I didn't completely understand this signs part, but I went and did some digging, and it's pretty well clear in my head now. So, this outline for Revelation, and this is with this diagram, this outline of all of Revelation, and it's seven series of sevens. So, seven letters, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven signs, seven bowls, seven sites, and then you're into chapter 21 and 22, the new creation, the new Jerusalem, etc., the final victory. And so, the argument is that we're covering the same time frame, and we're going back to another metaphor that's going to come across in seven different things. And some of these are really clear, and a couple of them are not quite as good. The seven signs one, it takes a little more work to see, but once we see it, then it's pretty good. So, we're in, because we're going to be in chapter 14 today, we're in the middle of the seven signs, and the signs start back in chapter 12, or the very end of chapter 11, but really chapter 12, and it might be the very end of chapter 11. Well, yeah, the very end of chapter 11, God's temple is opening, you see the Ark of His Covenant, and then it goes into the sign of the woman, and so some people want to put that with it, and some people don't, and that's obviously just a choice. But, there's the first sign is the woman, and the conflict with the serpent, and that's basically all of chapter 12. And then the second sign is the beast from the sea, chapter 13, 1 to 10, and then the third sign is the beast from the lamb, and what we'll get today, thankfully, and this is an ongoing pattern throughout Revelation, is you're going to see a bunch of really bad stuff, and Carl's going to threaten to leave, he's like, we're going to have to study this for, and then we'll get something really good. And that's what we'll get today, the beginning of chapter 14, the lamb and the 144,000. Then the fifth sign is three angels making proclamations, the sixth sign is the harvest, which is kind of good and kind of scary, and then the seventh sign is the saint's victory song at the end. Like, the seven letters, really obvious, the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls, those are all very clearly marked out and announced. In fact, as we get through this seventh sign today, right before we get into the seventh one, there's a little prelude mention that the seven bowls, the seven bowls are coming, the angels, the bowls are coming, and so those are all clear. The seventh signs have a lot more variety to them, and the seventh sites will also have a lot more variety to them, they're not all quite so similar. And so then down at the bottom, you know, and this is what I think really kind of makes the point that this is why John would do this, and why make this pattern. And seven is great, and that's a divine number, number for God, that's wonderful and everything. But we have seven sevens, so seven times seven is 49, and then you have the end of the book, which would be like 50, which is the New Heavens and the New Earth, where everything is fixed. And at least in large part, and there could be other symbolism too, and if I come across some, or if you come across some, please share it. But if you go back into Leviticus 25, we won't do that today, but if you go into Leviticus 25, it's the, there's two teachings there, one is the Sabbath year for the land, and then the other is the year of Jubilee, which is the 50th year. And so in the law that Moses gave to Israel, they have, every seventh year they're supposed to let the land lie fallow, the Lord promises that the crops in the sixth year will be sufficient, and they just let it go, and then after seven, periods of seven, the 50th year, if you sold your land to someone else, it comes back to you. All the property that was given to a family in the allotment, as they did in the books of Moses, was to go back to them every 50th year, the Jubilee. And what it's, it's not clear biblically that the Israelites ever did this. They may have, and it didn't get reported, but I have never really seen in the history of the Old Testament where they actually did it, but there's lots of things they were supposed to do that they didn't do. Then in Luke chapter 4, I think we will go to Luke chapter 4, and just hear what Jesus says there. So this is his first sermon that's recorded in Luke, not necessarily his first sermon, in fact it's probably an idea that he's been preaching already, but this is the sermon in Nazareth, and it's his first one. And so we're going to read Luke 4, 16-21. And he, it's Jesus, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And the reference to Leviticus is there in verse 19, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. In Leviticus 25, it says, celebrate the jubilee, it is the year of the Lord's favor. So Isaiah is referencing this 50th year, you get back your stuff, even if you became poor and lost it, and everything was back to the way it was supposed to be. And now Jesus takes what Isaiah says, and he's like, that's me, I'm fixing it. The year of the Lord's favor. And then Revelation, and by going to 7, 7 is 49, and now we're going to go into the new heavens and new earth, they're capturing that same idea. And of course, it is Jesus that constitutes, it's in him that we have access to new creation and new heavens and new earth. So, that's what John is doing behind all this. So for us, we've got to do a lot of digging, we've got to have somebody really smart to figure this out. The idea of the jubilee and the year for number significance would be much higher in his heroes, because they're first century Hebrews, and this is, they think like this. Well, they may still to a certain extent, but I can number things, they have a system for numbering the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and they'll associate numbers with words, and this is part of their culture. So we're there in the middle of the seven signs, and we're actually right in the middle of the fourth sign, and even that's significant too. The first three signs are pretty negative, the woman is protected because she's being pursued by the serpent. And then we have the second and third sign, we're being persecuted, so now we have the lamb, and so the climax in the center, or the high point or the turning point of the center is going to lead to the victory. And you really kind of get into this whole picture of the entire period of the church between Jesus' ascension, which is on Thursday, we celebrate on Thursday, and his return, which maybe we'll celebrate on Friday, you never know, in these seven signs. So, I'll leave that, if you've got any questions about that now or later, I'm happy to try to field those, and once we get done with the signs, we'll be in the bowls, those are all the pillars. One angel, two angels, three angels. When we get to seven signs, we'll mark those out again too. So, Revelation 14, and it starts out with great stuff, and I think we want to read just the first five verses. Revelation 14, somebody wants to read verses one through five. Then I looked, and behold, a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having his Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many moths, like the voice of wild thunder, and I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as if it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one could learn that song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who were not defiled with God, with women, for they were virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God. Thank you. Lots. We will not unpack everything that's in here. There are a lot of references, and it is interesting. Before, we had a hundred and forty-four thousand before. Well, I guess we should start with the Lamb, right? The Lamb has been here before, back right at the beginning of the vision. Remember, there was no one found worthy to open the seals, and John was crying, and the elder, I think, whether it was an angel or an elder at that point, was guiding him to stop crying, you know, and look. Then comes the Lamb who appears to be slain, the Lamb who appears to be slaughtered, and immediately comes forward and can open the seals. So, the Lamb returns here, standing on Mount Zion, right? So, that's both... We're going to see it as it progresses along. I mean, Mount Zion, that's where Jerusalem is. That's where... That's the mountain where Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac, and eventually Jerusalem is built there, and that's the center of God's holy land on earth. But then it also has a heavenly sense. And we're kind of in between, because we just had all of this, these beasts and the crazy persecution and all of the bad things that happened from the two beasts, and now we have this response. And on Mount Zion, and we have 144,000, we looked at that before, it was 144,000 saints militant on the earth, and a myriad of myriads of saints saved souls in heaven. And so, the idea that there's this church on earth, not literally 144,000, but rather it's like a military unit, there's at least that, 12 times 12 times 1,000. So, you go with prophets and apostles, or patriarchs and apostles, and then times 1,000, you just do Old Testament Israel, New Testament Israel, and times 1,000, but it's the complete people of God, and they are in military, you know, rank upon rank, and that is very much here, and yet they also sound like they're in heaven, so it's like things are coming together, because they're... It's a little confusing, but are 144,000 singing before the throne? Yeah, or is it they're hearing the song? It's a little confusing, but I think the idea is that now they're transported to heaven. Voice of many waters? Anybody remember where that came in? Stretch. It's all the way back in chapter 1, when John hears the voice of many waters, and turns around, and he sees Jesus, and so this is Jesus, so he's somehow, he's the lamb, but then he's also the voice in heaven again. It's symbolic, this is a dream vision, full of meaning, but not to be taken too rigidly, literally. Okay? So, the voice of many waters, sound of thunder, and also sounds like harps, so that's interesting. And they sing the new song. We've heard the new song before, and we don't get any more words to the new song, we just find out that they're singing the new song. You know, and it's that, the dignus est, the worthy is the lamb, receive honor and power and glory, and that's the church's song. Obviously it's not a matter of can you know the words, but rather do you have the faith to really understand and receive and rejoice in the song. The new song was back already in chapter 5, chapter 5 verses 6-10, so always the same song, but always a new song. In fact, that was Eric Hissel on Sunday in 2 John, and he says, I'm writing you a new commandment, but it's really not a new commandment, it's really the same commandment. But it's made new, it becomes new as ever, because it's the song that the Christ gives to us, the song of forgiveness and salvation and life. So they're all virgins. You know, that's obviously symbolic language, not literal, to be taken literally, because God also is happy to have marriages and more children. And yet this idea of, is this virgin in the sense of pure and washed clean, and you know, you tend to read wise and fluid versions and all of that, again, just people who are following the Lamb, people who are cleansed and made righteous by faith. I always wonder, and I went and researched it and it doesn't seem like it, but it always seems to me that Mary had a little lamb, at least it was wise to know. It should be a reference to here, I don't think it is. But, certainly we're following the Lamb here, and you know, Jesus is both the Lamb and the Shepherd, right? He is, you know, the Lamb leads us as a Shepherd. You know, firstfruits, Jesus is declared to be firstfruits of the resurrection. James calls believers firstfruits. In his letter, just the idea that the fruit that God is really looking for from his, in this case we're going to just bring in vine, we're going to bring in all kinds of imagery that the ultimate fruit that the Lord is looking for is more believers, more people to have with him forever. We had the, where's the number at in the next section? Oh, it's back in the very beginning of this section. The 144,000 have his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. And the condemned, in chapter 13, were marked either on the hand or on the forehead with 666. And so we've had this seal them on their foreheads, you know, in the tradition to make the signs of the cross on the forehead and once upon the breast in a baptism as reminiscent of this, we're in this metaphor here, this idea that they're talking about here. So the beast is marking people with 666, but God is putting his name on the foreheads of his own. Yeah. Why is it saying no one could learn that song except the 144,000? Because it's a song of faith. Now it doesn't mean you can't literally know the words, you know, everybody can read the Bible, but the Holy Spirit has to be faith. You know, until the Holy Spirit comes and gives you faith, it's not, he doesn't through that word and that's our task here on earth is to share that word so he can create that faith. So it's not literally you can't know the words, but rather you can't know them in the sense of having them for your own, that they're true for you. And so that, I think also, you know, since the 144,000, well they're kind of being transported into heaven here, but it was clearly 144,000 on earth and myriads and myriads in heaven and the Lamb is with the 144,000, which of course is his promise, right? You know, I will be with you to the end of the age, even though we can't see him, he is with us. Which is good to know when there's beasts coming out of the ground and the sea to persecute us. We had a fun conversation about slavery, the custody of subject, and we'll go into it here, but just that we are called slaves of God, we translated usually servant in most of our The simplest translation of dunos is slave, and not necessarily a slave in the American South Channel slavery sense, but there's always been slavery, still is slavery, but in Christ, it's okay, we're property, we're owned, we want to be owned by God. Is it more like a bondservant who is in debt because of what has been done for him? You know, we kind of just kind of unpacked that yesterday and just dug through it a little bit, and bondservant is another word, and probably for us, using the word slave because of the last 300 years of American history or whatever, 400 years of American history, that's not the relationship, the slavery relationship we have to God is a good relationship, it's a wonderful relationship, and at the time of the Bible there are all kinds of slaves, I mean Joseph is a slave to Pharaoh, and he's running the place, many slaves had a pretty good life, but they still, they were property, and of course there's also, in bondservant kind of slides into a denture, where he might be for a period of time, but when, in Genesis chapter 2, where it said, there was no man to work the field, by the fourth subject, the detail of how God created the man and the woman, that's a different word for man and it is related to the word in Hebrew for slave. To be a slave to God, it's okay, because the other way to think about it is, in a biblical time frame, and really probably up until a couple hundred years ago, what's the relationship between a child and his father? How different is that from slavery? Legally, it's not. They had, don't believe they really had kids, it was for work all the time. Well it's not the only reason they had kids, but they definitely, you know, everybody, I mean, the idea that, I don't know what, you'd have to look at a particular culture in time, but the vast majority of everybody worked in whatever their parents did. And very often it was agriculture of some kind. But, you know, who was a slave? A slave is a person who is legally owned by someone else, and the only return they get from their labor is what? They're bored. They're in the family. And so, a child is a person, and we don't use this language, but I mean, we used to legally, that child belongs to the parent. And what did they get for their labors? Well, you know, we started doing allowances at some point in the 20th century, I suppose. But for the most part, you get to live here and eat. And is that a bad, it can be a bad relationship, but it can also be the very best relationship of our life, right? And when it is good, well, that's the picture of, you know, we're happily owned by the father. So these 144,000 who were following the lamb had been purchased. Purchased with the precious blood of Christ. All right. Any other questions? Now we're going to get three angels, so they kind of go together as a sign, and they're said with messages. So we want to read chapter 14, verse 6, and we want to go through 13. So 14, verse 6 through 13. And we saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water. And another angel followed, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, a great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. And they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest in the neighbors, and their work follow them. Thank you. Yeah, we had a discussion on their work follow them. Okay, we'll do that. We'll just talk in general a little bit. So, always remember, angel most basically means messenger. Very often, and since these are angels flying in mid-heaven, we're thinking of created spirits that knew the Lord's vision, and that seems to fit here. But angels can also be humans. Malachi, the prophet Malachi, his name means my messenger or my angel. So, someone who's sent to speak for the Lord can be a human being. And also, Jesus is very often, we've seen him already, like that angel of Jesus in Revelation. And multiple times in the Old Testament, Jesus is the angel of the Lord, who comes and makes an appearance at different points in the Old Testament story. So, that's always in the background. But these do seem like they are a typical picture of an angel flying around and speaking. So, what comes to mind when you think about angels flying in the mid-heavens, making announcements? About Lucet too. Shepherds, right? In the same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them. The glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David the Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. That's announcing the birth of Christ. And this is really announcing the victory of the Christ. So, there's a comparison there. And we just had recently from John chapter 16 for Sunday Gospel. Really could be kind of challenging passage, but interesting. I think it might make some connection here. So, Jesus in John chapter 16 is talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit. And he says, It is your advantage, so this is upper room. The night when he was betrayed, his last long session with the eleven at this point, before the crucifixion. He says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and he will see me no longer. And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. And I think that fits with these angels pretty well here too. The first had the eternal gospel to preach. So, the righteousness that the Holy Spirit proclaims. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. So, they need to be convicted of their sin. That's kind of the second and third angel. Well, that's the third angel. Don't follow the beast. Follow the lamb, right? Then concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and he will see me no longer. Christ is the righteous one. We don't get to see him yet. And so, in order to receive this righteousness, we need to hear him. So, the first angel here in Revelation is preaching the eternal gospel. And then, concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. And I think that's the second angel. The second angel says, follow him, follow him, he's bound along the grave. And so, I think there's kind of an interesting comparison to make between those. That these angels are basically, this is the message of the church. The victory of Christ. The free gift of the gospel. The defeat of Satan. And then, of course, the foolishness of following men after Satan. Worshipping the beast instead of worshipping the lamb. So, I think in total, and again, who does this work? Do angels preach God's word on earth? Not very often. Not created angels. The church has given this work. God's people are giving this work. I mean, I think it would be an example of it. Johann Gerhard, who is a 17th century Lutheran theologian and pastor. He's like, Luther! Luther surely was someone who was preaching the gospel on the earth. It had a huge impact. Not just Luther. But that was anybody who discovers the gospel. And it is hard to, for us, the gospel is just shockingly rare to hear. And then Luther and others behind him start proclaiming it. And nobody was hearing the Bible. Unless you spoke Latin, you couldn't understand the Bible. And now you've got the Bible. And now you've got the gospel you preach. So, this has always been going on. All right, so you guys want to talk about their works followed? That's where some congregations get that work. I mean, I can see where they're pulling that out. I don't know. Right. And another place you can go, and it's a similar kind of end times idea, is the sheep and the goats. And Jesus and the great white throne. Well, that's Revelation. Is the white throne judged in Matthew 2? Anyway, there's a judgment in Matthew. And the sheep and the goats are separated. And the Lord says to the sheep, hold up. Look at all the stuff you did. And they're like, we did what? And then the goats, you're out. You didn't do anything. And you can look at that and say, you're saved by your works and not just by faith. But you pick that part carefully. And of course, compared to the rest of what Jesus had to say, it's, you know, faith alone saves, but faith is never alone. Faith will always result in good works in the life of the Christian. And they follow it, as you saw through Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10. By grace you have been saved through faith. And it is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God that no one may boast. For we are God's workmanship prepared to do good works, that God prepared in advance we may walk in them. And so the good works, you know, it's a biblical warning. And if there's no result in your life of good works, well, then that is a warning for the, you know, is your faith right? But whatever. I think the word follow is important here. Their deeds follow them. And different translations probably do it differently. Yeah, no, it's easy for you to do it. And the works of them follow with them. So it comes along, it's not, you know, it doesn't say, and they're led into heaven because of their works, but rather their works follow them. My take on it was that perhaps it could mean those that went before us who showed us their faith through their works, and that we should be following their, following their example. Absolutely. And that is the right function of considering the saints who have gone before is to see the work of Christ in their life and to imitate them. Very much so. Very much so, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't read it. Yeah. I mean, I think the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus, you know, keeping the commandments, you know, there's just so many places where it's so clear in Scripture that we don't keep them perfectly to be saved, but rather we do keep them in that we acknowledge them. We acknowledge, I mean, in a sense, repentance, you know, salvation is faith in the gospel, faith that this thing God has done for you in Christ takes away your sin. That's, you know, faith, saving faith. Repentance, you can think about it as agreeing with God's law. Repentance is your sorrow for your sin. So, God's law says, don't do this, and the repentant soul agrees and admits that they haven't. The unrepentant soul says, that law doesn't really apply to me, or I did keep that law, or, you know, that's just some dead white European guy making stuff up, I mean, whatever. Just rejects them, you know. And so, I mean, that's really, you know, what is the place of the law in the life of a Christian? It's multiple, but the most important work of the law in the life of a Christian is to remind you and point out your need for forgiveness and a Savior. Yes, it's also a guide for life, and we want to embrace that and pursue that, but that's not how we get saved. We're saved when, like, you know what, I don't keep the law, but I've heard about this Jesus fellow, this lamb who died so that I can be forgiven. Yeah, I can go right here. I should have just looked down my nose before, like I said earlier. It's also just this, you know, nice reminder and this, you know, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. That our struggle with sin and our suffering and everything else is over, or this life is over, and then we rest. Rest in peace. Rest is a reality, and it's a reality that starts now, because there's always, when we say die in the Lord, it's always, you know, we've done a little bit of the first death and the second death, and we'll do some more coming up, but, you know, we die in the Lord by faith in Christ now, and then we also then, it can also mean die in faith, and so then your soul rests with Christ and your body waits the last day to be reunited. But there is blessing now for the faithful. And no, there's no in-between indicated, there's no more tests, there's no more things to do, it's simply, you're there. You're Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. Just a little small numerical note here. I heard a voice from heaven saying, If you go through all of Revelation, it just happens to be that John is told 14 times, 2 times 7, to write. So it's again, they just do this so naturally, he wouldn't stop on 13 or go to 16, just 14. And there's just one, and we've already had it in 10-4, he sees something, he's like, don't mean to tell me to write, nope, nope, nope, don't write that one down. So there was some vision not to share. When Paul talks about those kind of things too, but they are, they're just, the number stuff, he's just nailing it. Because it's how they build a level of communication in the document that for us is really hard to access, but for them was part of communicating the message. Why did we actually need to have the 12 apostles? Because that's how Israel does things. We're not going to have a lot of apostles. And if you really dig into it though, we actually have 13 or maybe 14, depending on how you want to read the book of Acts. So, you know, but we have to officially have 12 because we've got to get our numbers squarely. Okay. Any other questions there? I almost feel like we should stop right where we're at. Only because it sickles on me. It's not very happy. We're back to a rough section again. We've got to get over it anyhow. All right. Well, we'll read it. We won't have time to talk about it through it. Maybe we'll kind of, we'll at least get through it. You think it's like a snowstorm. You've got to get out there and shovel it. That's true. Okay, we'll do that then. Maybe we won't spend a whole bunch of time on it. I actually, unfortunately, got another conflict. So, it'll be two weeks again because Fishing? No. No. In Custer, there's a rotating meal and different groups and organizations serve it. And we're up on next Tuesday to serve this meal in Custer. And I don't have enough volunteers to say that I can't be there yet. So, we won't have class next week. And we can talk about then, too. We'll stay on the same schedule we're on. But Mary's going to be done with school pretty soon, forever then, right? She's retiring this year, isn't she? You never know about Mary. You never know about Mary. But at any rate, this time is fine for me. But as, you know, if we wanted to go to it some other time as we finish out Revelation, if there was a better time for the group, we could do that, too. I know Ronnie wanted to quit an earlier time. Yeah, I think that we kind of moved to I don't think we're going to see Ronnie because she's going to be holding a baby in Pennsylvania. We'll get tired of her. Yeah, that's true. We've got to figure it out. But we moved to 5 kind of for Mary, especially because she used to get here. If she really retires... Alright, I'll read... She's going to sub part time. No, that's probably on Tuesday. She shouldn't have to stay after students do IVs if she's subbing, right? Yeah. That's what she's always... Yeah, she shouldn't have to. So I'll just read the rest of Chapter 14 here, the sickles. This is another sign. Then I look and behold a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. It's Jesus. And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud. And that's interesting. Right? The one like a son of man had a crown and said, that's the God of Jesus. But then the angel comes out of the temple and gives him a command. Interesting. Another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, put in your sickle and reap for the hours of reap that's come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth and the earth was reaped. That's a good harvest. I think that's Jesus talking about the fields of white. And another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. Then another angel came from the altar, the one with power over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had a sharp sickle, saying, put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because the grapes are ripe. The angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth and threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. The winepress was trodden outside the city, and the blood came out from the winepress up to the horse's bridles for a distance of 200 miles, this is what this translation had, 1600 stadia is a more literal translation. That's deep. 1600 furlongs. Yeah, stadia of furlongs. And that's four times four times a hundred. Certainly could just be a representation of the whole earth, because four corners of the earth in four directions is always a geographic reference for the whole earth. So that is probably what's in mind there. So we've got kind of a positive and a negative harvest here, and we'll touch on it next week, a little bit before we jump into it. Two weeks. Two weeks, thank you. Kind of a rain. Yeah, in two weeks. Any other questions or anything you want to... That's a master. Good job. Thank you. All right, we'll close the prayer. Heavenly Father, we give thanks, and we give you thanks for the Lamb who is with your church at all times. We give you thanks for all of the messengers that you send to announce his victory and to announce the defeat of evil and of Satan, and we pray that you would use us in this work as well. Be with us as we go forth, and give us restful sleep. Bring us together in two weeks, that we can continue through this book. And we just ask you to continue to bless us day by day. In Jesus' name. Amen.