E02: Understanding Apocalyptic Literature (Supplemental Session 1)

What kind of book is Revelation? This episode explores apocalyptic literature, symbolism, and the role of gematria, helping you understand how to read the imagery and numbers without missing the message.

Transcript

Michael Berry: There are parts of the Bible that just seem so foreign to us, aren't there? I have no doubt that at some point in your Bible reading life you have come to parts of scripture that you have no idea what you are reading and why it is even in there. You know, reading through numbers and coming across pages of genealogies and ⁓ numbering of tribes. What is the point of this? Taking a stroll through Isaiah and it seems like it's all doom and gloom. You get to Daniel and you cruise along until you hit chapter seven and it all goes to chaos and confusion when we get into the dreams and the visions. Sometimes it's just confusing. And the same can be said as we read the New Testament. You know, we cruise along and we go through the Gospels, the Book of Acts, and the Epistles, and it's all making sense. And then we hit Revelation. And for many of us, it's just really easy to see all the wild stuff and just relegate it to the end of the Bible and say, ⁓ that stuff's going to happen in the future. I don't need to worry about it now. Plus, it's just really weird. And we get to that point because when we come to something foreign, it's easier to ignore it than it is to figure it out. And quite frankly, when it comes to the Bible, that does seem overwhelming because of just how vast the Bible is in its composition. It makes sense to ignore it amongst our busy lives. You don't have time to figure out biblical prophecy when you have a family to raise and a job to do, a budget to hit, a mortgage to pay. But you, dear listener, you have decided to journey through this book and give it the time to shape you and mold you even if it is for it. And I want to applaud you for that. I want to encourage you. It's actually not as challenging when you begin to key in on a few aspects of biblical interpretation. And that is my goal over the next handful of minutes is to help you feel more comfortable when it comes to parts of the Bible that seem foreign, particularly Revelation. And the first major understanding we need when it comes to the Bible is that within the composition of the Bible, there are different genres that we come across, and each genre has to be read with the intention of that particular framework. This is actually quite normal to us. You know, when you turn on Netflix and you find yourself looking at scary movies, you're not expecting to see a movie that has a cast featuring Jack Black, right? Scary movies are supposed to be scary, so we don't come to them anticipating comedy. We don't anticipate a historically accurate story, you know? We don't anticipate a talking head popping up like we do in a documentary. You likely understand the point. So while genre is normal for us, it doesn't necessarily mean it's expected when we come to the Bible. I remember expecting to read first kings the same way I read Ezekiel. But Ezekiel is not meant to function like first kings, and it must be read on its own terms. There are numerous genres throughout the Bible. There's a narrative like Exodus or poetry like Psalms. The epistles are a genre, Colossians, Romans, Philippians, etc. The gospels are an entirely different genre within themselves. All of these have a different way they function. Well, what is Revelation? Revelation is actually three genres in one. is prophetic, which we've already discussed what prophecy is and what it means. But it's also an epistle because it's a letter from John to the churches of Asia Minor. But last, it is also apocalyptic. Well, what is apocalyptic and what makes it apocalyptic? And I am so glad you asked. The first thing that comes to mind when we think of apocalyptic literature is likely what we think of when we think of a post-apocalyptic movie like I Am Legend or The Day After Tomorrow or even Zombieland and Its Twinkies. We think something that happens in the future and is destructive, right? But the word apocalypse simply means an unveiling or a revelation. And it's actually where the book gets its name. The book is Apocalypse Iano in Greek. And this word means to reveal truth that is hidden or obscure in everyday reality. And it's mostly using visions or dreams to reveal those truths. And so, I'd like to shift your minds when hearing of apocalyptic literature from future destructive events to this. An unveiling of truth that is obscure in our everyday reality. It's not easily seen necessarily unless you're looking for it. And common in apocalyptic literature are visions and dreams that utilize symbolism, and that is revelation. And this is where the struggle for our modern minds to comprehend this genre really rests. And I am going to get ⁓ pretty nerdy on you for a few moments, ⁓ but I don't want you to tune out just because I said that. Sometimes when you hear that, you're like, I'll tune out and... get back into it when he gets to the point. But this is actually really important for our understanding of the book of Revelation and really anytime you come to symbolism and visions in the Bible. So in the Middle Ages, a shift began to take place in the thought processes of humanity that we call the Enlightenment. And it brought about the term modernity. See, I told you it's going to get nerdy, but it's important. Let me get through this, okay? ⁓ When modernity came about, our minds shifted to thinking about the world differently, primarily focusing on seeking understanding from scientific discovery and scientific reasoning. We began to seek understanding based on how how things function. How does photosynthesis work? How does gravity affect our surroundings? Why is the sky blue? And this is something to be thankful for and such a great shift that was the beginning of the world as we know it today. However, it did make biblical understanding a bit more difficult. See, before modernity, mankind was not necessarily concerned with how things functioned, we were more concerned with what they are and what they mean. Think about it. Who cares why the sky is blue when your primary focus is survival? You have to wake up and fish to feed yourself and your family. You don't have time to investigate while leaves turn different colors in the fall. Our lives were not meant for information, but for survival at that point. And therefore, something that formed within humanity was that we lived with mystery and imagination. We didn't know how things worked, so we made up gods that controlled the sun, the moon, the crops, the war, ⁓ fertility, et cetera, all this stuff. And we did that to understand that which was mysterious to us. And within this framework, we allowed our minds to be captivated by vivid imagery and imagination as a way to understand the world and gain meaning from it. And I think that's a good way to summarize the two ways of thinking. Currently in our world, we look for how. Back in ancient times, they looked for meaning. There are a few good quotes from ancient minds to help us understand this principle. ⁓ Cicero was a Roman philosopher and lawyer in the first century. ⁓ And in one of his works, he wrote this. said, memory depends on orderly arrangement of vivid images. Memory depends on orderly arrangement of vivid images. He's showing that ancient minds relied on imagined spaces filled with vivid imagery to gain understanding. For them, knowledge lived in pictures, not in scientific data. Plutarch. Plutarch was a Greek historian and philosopher. He actually lived during the time Revelation was written and he says this he says the soul does not need instruction as much as it needs ignition. I want you to notice he said the soul they thought that their their thought was that thoughts originated from the soul not the brain or the mind. ⁓ Note that. But modernity says tell me what's right. The ancients say Tell me a story where I feel what's right. Aristotle, we all know who Aristotle is. ⁓ He said this, the soul never thinks without an image. You could say the soul never thinks without a symbol. for ancient thinking, knowledge meant seeing differently, not just accumulating information. And so with all of this, what I believe has happened, and it's not right or wrong, it's just truth, it's just what has formed over the years, is that we have shifted from imagination to clarification. And we can say, well, they were stupid. They didn't know how things work like we do. I just think their imaginations were their way of gaining meaning from the world around them and also providing a way of escape from their fairly mundane lives of primarily survivalistic work. I mean, think about it. You go out, you farm, you go back home, you eat, you go to sleep. You go out, you farm, you come back home, you eat, you go to sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat, right? They needed imagination. They needed symbols. They needed imagery to explain the world, but also to escape from it. And we're not much different in pursuing entertainment and escapism. It's just that they didn't have stranger things to watch when they put their kids down to bed. And very few of them got to run off to vacation in Malibu. They relied on imagination to understand their world and rest their minds and be entertained. And I don't want that to scare you. I'm not saying that the Bible is just entertainment. That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying what entertains you captures your mind. We live pretty complicated lives. The things that you do, I'm sure, for your work is complicated. My wife is a teacher. All the time she's talking and when she tells me about her day or her work, ⁓ teachers use so many acronyms or or short forms of like patterns or words. And so Shelby told me a story, was like, this kid needs a 1041LB, but he's not ready for a 1041LB. What he needs is a 52 for RS. And when you, you got to do this and you got to do, and all of these ⁓ different complicated vernacular. Terms is what she uses i do that my work i'm sure you do that in your work and so often times we're solving problems or we've got relationships that were we're thinking through or or what that is but when our mind isn't solving a problem isn't solving something complicated. You'd probably be surprised how often you think about the things that entertain you maybe it's a book you're reading or. ⁓ ⁓ a movie you watched last night or a TV show you're going through. How many times at work do you like, man, I can't wait to get home and just veg out on the couch and watch whatever show it is that's captivating you at that moment. And you'd start thinking about, ⁓ man, yeah, that character and this character. You think about what entertains you, what captures you. And so if you put yourself back in ⁓ ancient times and your job is, ⁓ you know, you. You grind wheat at the mill or you're a fisherman or you watch sheep You know like that's your day-to-day job. You know you're probably not even watching your sheep. You're probably watching somebody else's sheep ⁓ But you go you go out into the field and you know you're just sitting there It's not like you've got a bunch of things that are complicated in that work and so you your mind probably would tend to wonder and if you had been listening, maybe last night you went over to your neighbor's house and you listened to a section of the book of Revelation and you heard this story about these trumpets that were blown and the earth started decreating and then all of sudden more trumpets are blown and these locusts that are like transformed, they're like human and scorpions and lions and all that sort of stuff and... And then it leads to another trumpet that's blown and these two witnesses come out and they're speaking a message of good news and they get killed and then they raise back. That is going to be going through your mind. You're not gonna be sitting there thinking of ba-ba black sheep, right? You are going to be thinking about the things that are capturing your imagination and your thoughts. And so what you're gonna be thinking about in those fields is man. What's the, those locusts, you know? That's a crazy story. you know, those two witnesses, I wonder what is the point of what this is trying to get at? You know, those two witnesses, they shared some good news and they were killed for it and then they rose. Man, what did they accomplish in that? And you're thinking about this as you're doing your work. In fact, you're probably gonna be sharing this with the people around you. the other shepherds that are there with you. And so you may even say, hey, you should come over tonight and you should listen to the rest of this or some more, another part of this story. And then all of a sudden you thereby are finding yourself as the two witnesses in the story, which may actually be the point of the two witnesses, which we'll cover when we get into chapter 11. But you see what I'm saying there. This imagery has a purpose. And this is where apocalyptic symbolism finds its grounding. And I want you to know this because it will likely be frustrating to you. Because as we go throughout Revelation, you will probably ask yourselves, why didn't Jesus just tell us plainly without all these symbols? We don't need this. Why didn't he just say it and speak it plainly? And your answer, in part, is that he was sending a message to a people who were familiar with using symbols and imaginations to gain meaning from what is happening in their lives. And so when they see a picture of a dragon in chapter 12, it communicates malice and chaos, something bent on evil. When they see a slaughtered lamb in chapter four, they understand this to be more than a bleeding sheep. They see sacrifice, they see grace, they see gentleness, they see Jesus. This is actually rather common in the Bible. Think about back to the Old Testament. When Nathan comes to David after David has his affair with Bathsheba and he murders her husband Uriah, he doesn't say, David, you committed adultery and murder. No, Nathan tells a story. He tells a parable. And once David gets into the story, then he finds the understanding and the meaning. Jesus does this as well with parables. Within parables, he's not trying to pass along information. He's trying to inspire transformation. And that is the key with apocalyptic literature. It's much less concerned with facts and timelines, and much more concerned with meaning, truth, and transformation. And that's what revelation is after, right? It's after transforming our lives. And it does it through story. It does it through symbol. It does it through imagery. It does it through all of these that is meant to inspire imagination that allows a picture to speak beyond its literal description to communicate something much more important. And we do this too in our day and age. The best way to deliver a concept, maybe in a sermon or a teaching or whatever it may be, the best way to deliver a concept that you want people to know is through an illustration, something that speaks beyond the literal concept. Let me describe these logos to you and see if you can guess them. If you're driving down the road and you see two golden arches, what are you thinking? McDonald's. If you see a black swoosh. Nike. If you see a piece of fruit with a bite taken out of it. Apple, right? A lady with a crown and hair draped over her shoulders on a green background. Starbucks. We allow symbols to speak beyond their literal picture. We're just not used to seeing it in the Bible. But that is what parts of the Bible demand. So here's what I would like to say to you. When you see something in Revelation you don't understand, you are going to want to ask the question, when will this happen? But don't let that be the primary question. Fight that urge, okay? What we have to practice when we come to Revelation is to ask the question, what principle about our world does this reveal? Okay, what principle about our world does this reveal? A great example of this, and then we'll be done, is numerology. Numerology is the understanding of a number to communicate significance, not an exact count. Okay, you are likely aware that the number seven is the Bible's favorite number. The number seven, it gains significance from the first chapter where God created all things in seven days. So seven communicates completeness or totality. So whenever we see the number seven in the Bible, it likely needs to communicate something more than just numerical value. It needs to communicate completeness or totality beyond its exact count. And you may say, that's just Bible code and ancient hodgepodge. But I would submit to you that we do the same today. If you're in Chicago and you see the number 23, you can't help but think beyond the number to something that the number represents, right? Michael Jordan, you may happen to be standing on 23rd Street and it's just the next numbered street after 22nd. but you can't help but think something beyond the street. If you're at a Taylor Swift concert, I know the number 13 matters. I have no idea why, but it does. You're probably going to see it all over the place. I am a Dallas Cowboys fan, unfortunately. Don't worry, I hate that team more than you do. But anytime I see the number 22, it carries a different type of significance. And it doesn't have to be in the context of football or have a blue star around it. There are simply times when I write the number 22 and I think Emmett Smith. This is what numerology does. It's not meant to count numerically, but to convey significance. So in Revelation with all its symbolism, do you think there's any significance to the fact that there are seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls in the book? Do you think there's any significance to the number 12 since there were originally 12 tribes of Israel? Do you think there's any significance to the number 144,000 that we see in chapter 7 in light of the number 12 in the context of the book and the tribes of Israel? Is that meant to merely convey 144,000 people or is it meant to have a significance beyond the numerical count? Apocalyptic literature says, understand it. Don't count it. So we need to ask the question, what principle about our world does this reveal? I'll end here by giving a bit of a cheat sheet for biblical numerology and apocalyptic literature as we begin our journey through. So this is one of those examples where you may need to have your notebook out and writing down because this is pretty important for your understanding. ⁓ The number two the number two conveys witness in Old Testament law two witnesses are needed to establish truth So when we see the number two it can convey witness number three It conveys divine perfection and wholeness Because it comes from the Trinity right? There's three of them. So Three conveys divine perfection and wholeness The number four, points to the created world or earth. There's four directions of our physical reality, northeast, southwest, right? ⁓ If we see the number six, it points to humanity and its sinfulness and rebellion. Humanity was created on the sixth day, and it's one short of the completeness of seven. If we see the number 12, it communicates God's people, His covenant people. 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles. There was a reason Jesus got 12 people around him. And so we see these numbers and variations of these numbers throughout our study. But it points to the purpose of symbols as communicating a deeper meaning than their literal description within the genre of apocalyptic literature that is seeking to reveal obscure or even hidden truths. So even within numbers, they are pointing to a bigger principle. How much more so when we come to the vivid imagery within these pages? So as we go through Revelation, I want to invite you to set down our literal mindset of how things work and pick up the mindset of letting this book capture our imagination. and speak beyond its literal descriptions to help us see reality that may have become obscure. If we can do that, revelation will transform.