Thoughts in Worship

Message Magazine's Online Devotional for Sabbath, October 25, 2015

Today’s Scripture:

“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” (Revelation 17:1–6).

Introduction:

At this point in the Revelation we should be so thankful that God just gave us a glimpse of His reward for the faithful. Conscientious people sometimes become weary as we read news headlines. It seems that there is nothing good happening in the world. At different points in time, God gives us glimmers of hope. We hear about a Good Samaritan who organizes the rebuilding of a family’s home devastated by a storm or dilapidated due to extreme poverty. We hear of a young child who has overcome all odds through her battle with cancer, and is now healthy and strong. We read about an entire town coming together to settle their differences and refuse to allow violence to destroy them.

Thankfully, at this point in the Revelation we are coming out of one such hopeful situation. As we noted yesterday, God will prevail in this epic battle between good and evil. He will deliver His people from sin, sickness, and evil forever. He is now patiently entreating every person from every nation to heed His invitation to turn from evil, and choose life with Him.

At this point in the Revelation, having given us a much-needed break, He intensifies His identification of just how evil things can become and how to avoid being swept away in its heinous flood of deception.

Today’s Observation:

In our devotional thought on Revelation 13 we identified the persecuting power that was drunk from the blood of martyring saints for 1260 long years during the Dark Ages as none other than Papal Rome. We will not attempt to prove this here, as we have done so previously. We highlighted the fact that this power blasphemously usurped the mediatorial authority of Jesus by requiring its people to confess their sins to priests in order to receive absolution. We discussed the fact that they feigned to change the seventh-day Sabbath time in God’s Law, thereby replacing it with their own Sunday sacredness, which would signal their mark of usurped authority (Daniel 7).

Today, I would like to emphasize a scarcely discussed detail from our theme text—colors. The Bible says that this woman was seen riding a scarlet/red/crimson colored beast, was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and was bedecked with gold and precious stones and pearls.

In the Old Testament system of sacrifices, the high priest, which is a symbol of Jesus Christ, was to have certain garments. Here is part of the description: “And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty. And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments...