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THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO HIS SERVANT JOHN
The Unveiling of the Kingdom on Earth and in Heaven
Lesson 18
Succession Arrangements of the Covenant Treaty
Chapter 15
The Hymn of Moses and the Lamb and the Seven Chalice Judgments

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Lord of Justice and Mercy,
People tend to focus on Your mercy and forget that the application of Your divine justice is necessary for the spiritual health of individuals, nations, and Your Kingdom of the Church. Without justice, the wicked become bolder and increase the suffering of the poor and disadvantaged. In Revelation Chapter 6, John saw the souls of the martyred saints under the heavenly altar and heard them crying out for justice. Help us to understand that the application of Your justice, even in its most severe form, prevents the deaths of more martyrs and the loss of more misled souls to Satan and his agents. Send Your Holy Spirit to guide us in our lesson as You answered the plea of Your martyred saints in judgment on apostate Jerusalem. We pray in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Yahweh said to Moses: "For not having joyfully and with happy heart served Yahweh your God, despite the abundance of everything, you will have to serve the enemy whom Yahweh will send against you, in hunger, thirst, lack of clothing and total privation. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he has destroyed you. Against you Yahweh will raise a distant nation from the ends of the earth like an eagle taking wing; a nation whose language you do not understand, a nation grim of face, with neither respect for the old, or pity for the young ... He will besiege you inside all the towns throughout your country, given you by Yahweh your God. During the siege and in the distress to which your enemy will reduce you, you will eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of the sons and daughters given you by Yahweh your God."
Deuteronomy 28:47-53
Flavius Josephus recorded that some of the besieged Jews of Jerusalem did indeed kill and eat their children to the horror of the Roman soldiers who discovered what they had done (The Jewish Wars, 6.3.4).

Yahweh said to Moses, "You will be sleeping with your ancestors, and this people is about to play the harlot by following the gods of the foreigners of the country, among whom they are going to live. They will desert me and break my covenant, which I have made with them. That very day, my anger will blaze against them; I shall desert them and hide my face from them. A host of disasters and misfortunes will overtake them to devour them ... Now write down this song for you to use; teach it to the Israelites, put it into their mouths, for it to be a witness on my behalf against the Israelites...."
Deuteronomy 31:14-17c, 23

Those who are left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem will be called holy, all those in Jerusalem noted down to live. When the Lord has washed away the filth of Zion's daughters, and with the wind of judgment and the wind of burning cleansed Jerusalem of the bloodshed in her, Yahweh will create, over every house on Mount Zion and over those who assemble there, a cloud by day, and by night smoke with the brightness of a flaring fire. For over all will be the Glory as canopy and tent to give shade by day from the heat, refuge and shelter from the storm and rain.
Isaiah 4:3-6
Seventy years after the disaster of the destruction of Jerusalem's judgment in 587 BC, a faithful remnant of Israel returned to Judah to form a renewed covenant people in preparation for the messianic restoration. However, they again became unfaithful and were again purified in fire so that another remnant could welcome Jesus Christ the Messiah, the "shoot" and "branch" of the new, sanctified Israel (Is 11:1-10).

Historical events that impacted the events in the Book of Revelation:

• Nero became the emperor of the Roman Empire when he was seventeen years old in AD 54.
• In AD 64, after a fire destroyed three-fourths of Rome, Nero blamed the Christians for the disaster, and the Roman Empire's persecution of Christians began.
• The Romans imprison St. John on the Island of Patmos sometime between AD 64-68, when he begins to receive divine visions.
• The abuses of the brutal Roman governor, Florus Gallus, drove the citizens of the Roman province of Judea to revolt in AD 66.
• In AD 66, the Jews overwhelmed a Roman punitive force lead by Gallus, the imperial legate in Syria.
• In November of AD 67, Roman general Vespasian mustered an army of 60,000, four legions plus Syrian slingers, Arab archers, and the cavalry of Jewish King Herod Agrippa II, and began to methodically and brutally reconquer the Galilee, Samaria, and the rest of Judea for three and a half years (as the ancients counted).
• In AD 68, Nero committed suicide, and four other men succeeded him as emperor within the year AD 69, three of whom met a violent end.
• On April 14, AD 70, just before the Passover, Vespasian's army besieged Jerusalem. The people of Jerusalem held out for three and a half months (as the ancients counted) before the Romans took the city, destroying Jerusalem and the Temple by fire.

Following Israel's divine judgment for covenant failures, Yahweh's holy prophets, like Isaiah, envisioned a restoration of the covenant people in Jerusalem on Mount Zion as a faithful remnant escape the invader's sword ( Amos 3:12; 5:15; 9:8-10; Is 4:3-6; 6:13; 7:3; 10:19-21; 28:5-6; 37:4, 31-32; Jer 3:14; 5:18; Ez 5:3, 9; Mic 4:7; 5:2; Zep 2:7, 9; 3:12-13). The prophets were right; Jerusalem would be the focal point of a new Israel. And when John sees the righteous remnant in Revelation 14:1, he witnesses an amazing restoration of Israel's faithful joined with other "firstfruits" of New Covenant saints. However, what the Old Covenant readers of the prophecies missed was that God's goal was to bring the faithful remnant of redeemed Israel to the true Mount Zion in Heaven, of which the earthly Jerusalem and its Temple was only a copy.

John's vision of the redeemed hundred and forty-four thousand in Chapter 14 reminds us that, although 1^st century AD Jerusalem had rejected the Messiah, apostatized from the covenant, and become seduced into secular, pagan practices, not all Old Covenant Israel would be condemned because not all had bowed to the beast and received the mark of his image (Rev 13:16-17). The first Christians of the New Covenant were all Jews whose mission was to lead their younger Gentile brothers and sisters into an understanding of the links between the old and new covenants. Those Jews were marked with the sign of the Lamb (Rev 14:10 because God had spared a holy remnant as He had throughout salvation history, and the purified faithful remnant would again become a godly nation of the everlasting Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

In contrast to the evil forces of Satan and his followers who worship the beast of the sea in Chapter 13, Chapter 14 revealed the hierarchy of heaven in the Father, the Son (Lamb), the angel/messengers, and the 144,000 sealed followers of the Lamb "in whom no fault is found."

In Chapter 15, we reach the final section of Revelation's covenant treaty format, the Succession Arrangements. These last chapters of the Book of Revelation will introduce the seven plagues poured out in seven chalices by seven angels. Since Chapter 4, we have seen four divisions of Revelation ruled by one of each of the Four Living Creatures/cherubim who are before the throne of God. The Living Creature with "the face of a man" will rule this last section. You will remember in our discussion of the fourth angel cherubim (see Chapter 4 and the handout) that the Four Living Creatures appear to correspond to the four pillars of the constellations of the Zodiac. The fourth angel-cherubim corresponds to the constellation Aquarius, the Water-Pourer, who is the symbol of judgment. In this fifth section of Revelation, the symbol of judgment is seven angels pouring out God's wrath from their seven chalices. This vision would remind Jewish Christians of the blood of the sin sacrifices poured out against the altar in the Jerusalem Temple during the worship services.

Chapter 15 begins the Succession Arrangements and the continuity of the covenant specified by Yahweh after the curse-judgments in Deuteronomy 28. Deuteronomy Chapters 31-32 addressed the disinheritance of illegitimate covenant members and the inheritance of those who are faithful to God and their sworn obligations to the covenant. Deuteronomy Chapters 31-34 are Moses' last instructions from Yahweh and his final address to the children of Israel before they took possession of the Promised Land. He began his discourse with orders for the extension of the covenant into the future. He charged the three groups who were responsible for faithfulness and obedience, maintenance and justice, and the instruction concerning sacrifice and the liturgy of the covenant people with the duties to the present and future generations.

When Moses completed the instruction, Yahweh appeared in the Glory-Cloud at the doorway of the Tabernacle. He called Moses and Joshua and instructed them to teach a "Song of Witness" to the new generation of the children of Israel. Deuteronomy Chapters 31-34 are central to the interpretation of the visions in Revelation Chapter 15.

Revelation 15:1-4 ~ The Song of Victory: the Hymn of Moses and the Lamb
1 And I saw in heaven another sign, great and wonderful: seven angels were bringing the seven plagues that are the last of all, because they exhaust [teleo] the anger of God. 2 I seemed to be looking at a sea of crystal suffused with fire, and standing by the lake of glass, those who had fought against the beast and won, and against his statue and the number which is his name. They all had harps from God, 3 and they were singing the hymn of Moses, the servant of God, and the hymn of the Lamb: "How great and wonderful are all your works, Lord God almighty; upright and true are all your ways, King of nations* [hagios = saints]. 4 Who does not revere and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy, and all nations will come and adore you for the many acts of saving justice you have shown."
[...] = Greek, IBGE, vol. IV, page 685. * God has sovereign authority over all the nations of the earth, and He is the kingly Father of the redeemed saints and not of the unredeemed.

The first and last verses of Chapter 15 have the same word Greek word, teleo, which means to finish or complete, poorly translated as "exhaust" in 15:1 of the NJB. The use of this word in 15:1 and 8 indicates that God's divine judgment is about to make a complete [teleo] end of apostate Judea.

• And I saw in heaven another sign, great and wonderful: seven angels were bringing the seven plagues that are the last of all, because they exhaust [teleo] the anger of God (Rev 15:1).
• The smoke from the glory and the power of God filled the Temple so that no one could go into it until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed [teleo].

From the sea beast of Revelation 13:1 to the vision of the seven angels and the crystal sea in 15:2, John received seven visions. However, he only describes the one in 15:1 as a "sign" that is both "great and wonderful" (the sixth sign of the seven, and the third sign in heaven).

Question: What is the irony of the description of the fifth sign, and what two other times, did John see a "great sign in heaven"? See Rev 12:1 and 3.
Answer: The other great sign was the Woman clothed with the sun in 12:1 and the great red Dragon in 12:3. The irony is that the angels with the chalices, filled with plagues, are described as a "great and wonderful" sign.

In a way, this phrase announces the third Act of this great drama of judgments (Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets, Seven Chalices full of plagues). It initiates the climax of the book in which the seven plagues are the last. This "sign" is the third of the three signs that appear in heaven. The first and the only positive sign of the seven signs was the "Woman clothed with the sun," the second was the great Red Dragon. There are four signs on earth (Rev 13:13, 14; 16:14; 19:20) and three in Heaven (Rev 12:1; 12:3; 15:1).

Unfortunately, the New Jerusalem translators use the word "miracles" in place of the Greek word for sign(s) in verses that deal with the earthly signs: 13:13, 14; 16:14; and 19:20, and the New American translators use "prodigies" for the four earthly signs. The Greek word is semeion, and this same word identifies these seven signs in all seven passages (#4592 Interlinear Bible Greek-English).

bringing the seven plagues that are the last of all
Do not think of these plagues in terms of diseases like smallpox or aides. The use of the Greek word plege is quite general and can mean "blow" or "stroke" and often designates misfortunes. You may recall that in Revelation 9:18, John spoke of three plagues (plege) of fire, smoke, and sulfur coming from the mouths of the horses of the heavenly army.

Question: Why does John say these are the last?
Answer: John says in 15:1, "these are the last of all because they exhaust the anger of God."

In Greek, the words are etelesthe = "filled up" and telos = "reaches the end" or "the aim." In other words, God's anger will be finished or fulfilled after these final seven plagues. These are the last in the scope of the Book of Revelation, and the prophecy it fulfills is the destruction of the Old Sinai Covenant, Israel, and Jerusalem.

Question: As the vision begins to unfold, John sees the sea of crystal. How is this vision connected to Old Testament visions of the heavenly throne room? We have already mentioned some in previous chapters. See Ex 24:10; Ex 30:17-21; Ez 1:26; 1 Kng 7:23-26; 2 Chron 6:14-42. You may recall that John also mentioned "a sea as transparent as crystal" in front of God's heavenly throne in Revelation 4:6.
Answer: In the Old Testament:

1. the "sapphire pavement" Moses saw on Mt. Sinai in Exodus 24:10
2. the "blue crystal firmament" through which Ezekiel passed in his ascension in the Glory-Cloud in Ezekiel 1:26
3. the Bronze Sea or Laver made for the desert Tabernacle in Exodus 30:17-21, and then in the Temple in Jerusalem in 1 Kings 7:23-26 and 2 Chronicles 6:14-42

Question: But what is different about the color of this sea, and why?
Answer: The sea is no longer blue; mixed with fire, it is red.

Question: What is the connection to the very last scene in Chapter 14:19-20? See Ex 14:15-15:21.
Answer: The imagery ties this vision to the last scene in Chapter 14, where there was the great river of blood running the whole length of the land of Judah, a terrible "red sea." And like the Red Sea experience of the Exodus, the righteous are victorious and are standing on the edge of the sea singing a victory song (Ex 15:1-21).

Question: Looking at Revelation 15:2, what is the three-fold nature of the victory of the faithful over the conquest of the beast?
Answer: They have victory: 1) from the beast, 2) from his image, and 3) from the number of his name.

A "name" is more than the letters that compose it; a name is an identity. When we bear the "name" of Christ, we bear His identity. 15:2 announces a three-part victory; three is one of the "perfect numbers." In the Old Testament, it signified fullness, completion, and an event of importance; in the New Testament, it represents the same including the Trinity.

St. Paul described the Red Sea deliverance as a "baptism" of God's people in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2. The first great persecution of the New Covenant believers was the Church's baptism of fire; therefore, it is fitting that the great crystal sea appears filled with a fiery mixture.

There is also an interesting connection to the dedication of Solomon's Temple in 2 Chronicles 6:14-7:2. During the dedication of the Temple, Solomon stood by the "Sea" (the bronze Laver) on a platform before the Altar and prayed to God, thanking Him for His mighty works, invoking God's righteous judgments, and petitioning Him for the conversion of all nations. When Solomon had finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Yahweh filled the Temple. The priests could not enter the Temple of Yahweh because the glory of Yahweh filled the Temple of Yahweh (2 Chron 7:1-2). Please remember this passage when we read Rev 15:5-8.

They all had harps from God, 3 and they were singing the hymn of Moses, the servant of God, and the hymn of the Lamb
Now we come to the awesome new song of Moses and the Lamb. Most commentators suggest the hymn of Moses is a reference to Exodus 15:1-21 when Moses and the Israelites sang a song in Yahweh's honor because He saved them from their enemies in the miracle of the Red Sea crossing. It seems to be an obvious connection because of the Red Sea symbolism and imagery of the crystal sea suffused with fire in verse 2. But the Song of Victory isn't our only link to the "hymn of Moses and the Lamb" in Revelation Chapter 15. One crucial difference is that God did not give Israel the victory song in Exodus; Moses, Miriam, and the Israelites composed the victory song. Please read Exodus 14:31-15:21.

Other commentators, however, point to the "Song of Witness" that God instructed Moses and Joshua to teach to the Children of Israel in Deuteronomy Chapter 32 that Yahweh composed. Both songs may be relevant, but the link is stronger to the "Song of Witness" in Deuteronomy Chapter 32. The connection will become clear as we continue to read and study the next several verses.

Question: What is the message of the hymns of Moses and the Lamb for the Church today in the continuing unfolding events of Salvation History?
Answer: The message for the Church in the present age and in the years yet to come is: "Take heart, God is with us, and He will prevail; God is not indifferent to human events!"

In the general audience, held in St. Peter's Square, on May 11, 2005, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, expressed this very message as he spoke on this canticle of adoration and Praise prom Revelation 15:3-4: "History is not in the hands of dark forces, of chance, or of merely human choices," Pope Benedict told the 17,000 people present. "The Lord, supreme arbiter of historical events, rises above the discharge of evil energies, the vehement onslaught of Satan, the emergence of plagues and wickedness. He knowingly guides history to the dawn of the new heaven and the new earth, as mentioned in the last part of the book in the image of the New Jerusalem."

Pope Benedict emphasized how the hymn is sung by "the just of history, the vanquishers of the Satanic beast, those who through the seeming defeat of martyrdom are in reality the builders of the new world, with God the supreme architect." The intention of this canticle, the Pope said, "is to reaffirm that God is not indifferent to human affairs, but penetrates them, creating His ways,' in other words, His projects and His efficacious works.'" Pope Benedict continued, "This divine intervention has a precise aim: to be a sign inviting all the peoples of the earth to conversion. Nations must learn to"'read" in history a message from God. The human adventure is not confused and meaningless, nor is it hopelessly condemned to the prevarication of the domineering and the perverse."

The Pope highlighted the possibility of "recognizing divine action hidden in history," and of openness to "fearing the name of God. In fact, in Biblical language, this fear' is not the same as being afraid, rather it is a recognition of the mystery of divine transcendence ...  Thanks to fear of the Lord, one is not afraid of the evil raging through history and can vigorously resume the road of life." Pope Benedict closed his homily by reminding the faithful that "The hymn closes by foreseeing a universal procession of peoples, who will present themselves before the Lord of history, whom they will adore. And the one Lord and Savior seems to repeat the words pronounced on the last evening of His earthly life: Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world'" (quoting Jn 16:33).

In Deuteronomy 31:14-15, God appeared in the Glory-Cloud at the doorway of the Tabernacle. He called Moses and Joshua and instructed them to teach a "Song of Witness" to the children of Israel. It is the second reason why this passage refers more to the "Song of Witness" in Deuteronomy 32 than to Moses' "Song of Victory" in Exodus 15 (the first reason is that Yahweh Himself, not Moses, composed the "Song of Witness"): Yahweh said to Moses, "And now the time is near when you must die. Summon Joshua and take your places at the Tent of Meeting, so that I can give him his orders." Moses and Joshua went and took their places at the Tent of Meeting and Yahweh showed himself at the Tent in a pillar of cloud; the pillar of cloud stood at the door of the Tent" ... "Now write down this song for you to use; teach it to the Israelites, put it into their mouths, for it to be a witness on my behalf against the Israelites ... (Dt 31:14-15, 19).

Did you notice in Revelation Chapter 15 how the scene changes from those who could claim victory over the beast (Rev 15:1-5) to the Sanctuary and tent of the Testimony in Heaven (Rev 15:5-8). The Sanctuary in Heaven is the true Tabernacle, whereas, the Tabernacle on earth was only a model. The inspired writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (believed to be St. Paul) wrote: these maintain the service only of a model or reflection of the heavenly realities; just as Moses, when he had the Tent to build, was warned by God who said: "See that you work to the design that was shown you on the mountain" (Heb 8:5; also see Heb 9:11-2, 23-24; 10:1; Ex 25:9, 40; 26:30 Num 8:4; and Acts 7:44).

John is very careful in the terminology he uses in Revelation 15. He bases the correct technical expressions for his imagery on the Old Covenant order.
Question: What was the basic treaty document of the Sinai Covenant; what was it called and where was it kept? See Ex 16:34; 25:16, 21-22; 26:33, 34; etc; Lev 16:13; 24:3; Num 1:50, etc; Josh 4:16; 2 Chr 24:6; Acts 7:44.
Answer: The tablets of the Ten Commandments were the treaty document. It was in two parts: one copy for Israel and another for Yahweh, and Moses placed the two tablets in the Ark of the Covenant/Testimony.

Israel's most sacred shrine was often called "the Testimony." The title "Ark of the Testimony" emphasized its legal character as the record of the Israelites covenant oath. The word Tabernacle in Hebrew means "dwelling"= mishkan; also used in association with the Tabernacle or as a synonym for Tabernacle is the Hebrew word ohel = tent (as in the "tent of meeting") to signify the Holy Place (where the golden lampstand, the table of the bread of the presence, and the golden altar of incense stood), and behind the veil, the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant held the Ten Commandments housed in the desert sanctuary under one tent. Therefore, the Tabernacle, in which the Testimony resided, was called the "Tabernacle of the Testimony."

In Revelation, the Temple (the Greek word is naos) is the inner Sanctuary of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies in Heaven, and the earthly Sanctuary was its copy. In the New Covenant, the Church of the Living Christ is the naos, the Temple. The writer of the Book of Hebrews explains in 8:5 and 10:1 that the Sinai Covenant Tabernacle was both a copy of the heavenly original and a foreshadowing of the true Zion that is the Church in the New and Everlasting Covenant (Heb 13:20). The Church of the New Covenant "Tabernacles" in Heaven, and if the Temple is the Church, the Testimony is the New Covenant that is the Testimony of Jesus Christ: and John has borne witness (testimony) to the Word of God and to the witness (testimony) of Jesus Christ (Rev 1:2; also see Rev 1:9; 6:9; 12:11, 17; 19:10; 20:4).

Read Exodus 40:34-35; Deuteronomy 31:14-15; and 2 Chronicles 7:1-2. Notice the connection between these passages and Revelation 15:5-8, where the same action is taking place: God's Glory-Cloud fills the Sanctuary, and no one can enter.

Deuteronomy 31:23 is the commissioning of Joshua: To Joshua son of Nun, Yahweh gave this order, "Be strong and stand firm, for you are to be the one to bring the Israelites into the country which I have promised them on oath, and I myself shall be with you."
Question: What is the connection between Joshua and Christ? The name of Jesus in Greek is Iesous; it is the version of the Hebrew name Yahshua/Yeshua or Yehoshua in Aramaic translated Joshua in English.
Answer: God commissioned Joshua to be Moses' successor (the new Moses) and to lead the covenant people of Israel into the Promised Land. Jesus, the new Joshua, will lead the New Covenant people of God into the true Promised Land of Heaven.

In the stories of Joshua son of Nun in the Old Testament, there is no single incident of misbehavior recorded against him, unlike other Israelite leaders. He is always perfectly faithful and obedient to God. His name means "Yahweh saves" or "I save," and he is a Biblical "type" of Christ.

We have established some of the connections between Revelation Chapter 15 and Deuteronomy Chapters 31 & 32. First, to have a better understanding, please turn to Deuteronomy 30. First, please read Yahweh's promises to the new generation of the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30:15-31. Next, read Deuteronomy 31:14-21, where God tells Moses that sadly, in the future, the people will forsake Him and His promises, and they will break His holy Covenant, and His anger and judgment will come against Israel: Yahweh said to Moses, "You will be sleeping with your ancestors, and this people is about to play the harlot by following the gods of the foreigners of the country, among whom they are going to live. They will desert me and break my covenant, which I have made with them. That very day, my anger will blaze against them; I shall desert them and hide my face from them. A host of disasters and misfortunes will overtake them to devour them." (Dt 31:14-17)

Then, Yahweh instructed Moses and Joshua: "Now write down this song for you to use; teach it to the Israelites, put it into their mouths, for it to be a witness on my behalf against the Israelites: against Israel, whom I am bringing into the country which I swore to his ancestors that I would give him, a country flowing with milk and honey: against Israel, who will eat to his heart's content and grow fat, and will then turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant. When a host of disasters and misfortunes overtakes him, this song, like a witness, will give evidence against him, since his descendants will not have forgotten it. Yes, even today, before I have brought him to the country which I have promised him on oath, I know what plans he has in mind. So that day, Moses wrote out this song and taught it to the Israelites" (Dt 31:19).

The Song of Witness and the passages that follow it in Deuteronomy Chapters 33-34 are Yahweh's Covenant Lawsuit against a future unfaithful Israel, delivered to them through Moses. The structure of the song is according to the standard form of the ancient Mesopotamian five-part covenant treaties:

(chart adapted from scholar David Chilton's outline)

As you read the Song of Moses in Chapter 32, notice the references to "the Rock," "their Rock," and "our Rock." There are five references to an individual who carries the title "Rock" (do not count verse 37, which is not a reference to an individual but instead refers to the practice of offering sacrifices on a rock as an altar). To discover the identity of "The Rock," read 1 Corinthians 10:1-5. Some modern translations do not accurately translate the Song of Moses and lose the meaning of the title "Rock." The New Jerusalem Bible and the St. Ignatius Bible both provide a good translation, but the New American completely loses the significance of the text. If you are using the New American translation, proceed to the end of this lesson where you can find the document entitled "The Rock is Christ" or see the study on the Book of Deuteronomy, lesson 15: "The Rock is Christ" will identify the critical passages concerning "The Rock."

Please read the "Song of Witness" in Deuteronomy Chapter 32. Looking at Deuteronomy 32:4, "He is the Rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are equitable. A trustworthy God who does no wrong, he is the Honest, the Upright One!," notice the connection to the Hymn of the Lamb in the phrase "upright and true are all your ways" in Revelation 15:3b.

Question: Who is the Rock in the "Song of Witness"? See Exodus Chapters 16 and 17, Numbers 20:7-11, Deuteronomy Chapter 8, and 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, where St. Paul wrote: I want you to be quite certain, brothers, that our ancestors all had the Cloud over them, and all passed through the sea. In the Cloud and in the sea, they were all baptized into Moses; all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they drank from the same spiritual Rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ. Is there a connection to Christ and the Eucharist?
Answer: The Rock is Christ. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, St Paul referred to the manna from heaven that sustained the Children of Israel in the wilderness (Ex 16 and Dt 8) and the rock that miraculously gave them life-sustaining water (Ex 17 and Num 20:7-11). Both miracles foreshadow Christ and the Eucharist. He is the "Living bread come down from heaven" and who will give us "the water of eternal life."

Question: If Christ is the "Rock" to whom is the "Song of Witness" directed, and is there a connection to the hymns of Moses and the Lamb in Revelation?
Answer: Both songs glorify Christ.

Also, notice the references to the "perverse generation" in Deuteronomy 32:5 and 20 (some translations have rendered the Hebrew as "deceitful brood," but the Hebrew reference is to "generation" = dor in Hebrew and genea in Greek). Yahweh saw it and in anger he spurned his sons and daughters, "I shall hide my face from them," he said, "and see what will become of them. For they are a deceitful brood (perverse generation), children with no loyalty in them (Dt 32:19-20; also 32:5).

Question: Do you recall this pronouncement against another generation of Old Covenant Israel? Please read Matthew 17:17 (also in Lk 9:41) and Acts 2:40. What is the significance?
Answer: The first and the last generation of the Old Covenant Israelites/Jews received this title. What will happen to the last generation of the Old Covenant will be a reversal of the rescue the first generation experienced in the Exodus when judgment fell on Egypt, but God condemned both generations for their unfaithfulness. No other two generations in salvation history had witnessed such marvelous works of God!

Then too, please notice the imagery in Deuteronomy 32:31-33 and the connection to Revelation Chapter 14 and the "fire and brimstone" that will fall on the followers of the beast that is Sodom and Gomorrah imagery (Rev 14:10), as well as the poisonous grapes/wine (Rev 14:8, 10), their bitter clusters (Rev 14:18) and the poisoned wine that repeats in passages from Revelation Chapter 14.

Deuteronomy 32:32 ~ For their vine springs from the stock of Sodom and from the groves of Gomorrah: their grapes are poisonous grapes; their clusters are bitter; their wine is snakes' poison (bold added for emphasis). Compare Deuteronomy 32:32 with the pervious Chapter in Revelation 14:9-10 and 18b-19: all those who worship the beast and his statue or have had themselves branded on the hand or forehead, will be made to drink the wine of God's fury (wrath) which is ready, undiluted, in his cup of retribution, in fire and brimstone whey will be tortured in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb and the smoke of their torture rise forever and ever (bold added for emphasis). And also, notice where the angel said: "Put your sickle in and harvest the bunches from the vine of the earth (the Land); all its grapes are ripe." So the angel set his sickle to work on the earth (the Land) and put it into a huge winepress, the winepress of God's anger [wrath] (Rev 14:18b-19; bold added for emphasis). These connections are meaningful because, in this case, the contents of the cup, filled with wrath or anger, may be associated with poison as it appears in Deuteronomy 32:32. One Hebrew equivalent for the word "poison" is hemah, which also means "heat" or "wrath." Even though John is writing in Greek, as previously mentioned, he often seems to be thinking and expressing himself in Hebrew.

The faithful sang both Moses' "Song of Victory" in Exodus 15 and the "Song of Witness" in Deuteronomy 32 in the Old Covenant Liturgical Sabbath services in the morning and afternoon (evening for the Jews). They sang the "Song of Victory" at the beginning of the liturgy and the "Song of Witness" at the end, twice a day on the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday). The emphasis on this connection in Chapter 15 is fitting because this is the end of Old Covenant liturgy!

Revelation 15:5-8 ~ The Sanctuary in Heaven
5 After this, in my vision, the sanctuary [naos], the tent of the Testimony, opened in heaven, 6 and out came the seven angels with the seven plagues, wearing pure white linen, fastened round their waists with belts of gold. 7 One of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the anger of God who lives forever and ever. 8 The smoke from the glory and the power of God filled the Temple so that no one could go into it until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed [teleo]. [...] = Greek word; IBGE, vol. IV: naos refers to the inner sanctum; teleo means "to complete or accomplish" and repeats the same word found in verse 1, indicating that God's divine judgment is about to make a complete end of apostate Judea.

5 After this, in my vision, the sanctuary [naos], the tent of the Testimony, opened in heaven, 6 and out came the seven angels with the seven plagues, wearing pure white linen, fastened round their waists with belts of gold.
Question: According to verses 5-6, from where do the angelic messengers emerge?
Answer: They come from the heavenly Temple's inner sanctuary (naos).

Question: How are the seven angels dressed, and what is the significance of their garments? See Ex 28:26-29, 39-43; Lev 16:23, 32; Ez 44:15-19; and Rev 1:13.
Answer: Scripture often describes angels as wearing white garments, but these angels are also wearing gold belts. They are not just angel/messengers, but angels/priests of the New Covenant dressed like the chief priests in liturgical service in the Temple and in the image and likeness of Christ that John saw in his first vision in Revelation 1:13. The linen garments of the chief priests, according to Ezekiel, could only be worn during the liturgical worship services.

Flavius Josephus wrote in the last years of the Jerusalem Temple that the Levitical lesser ministers of the Temple choir, who, like all the lesser ministers, were not allowed to wear the linen tunics of the chief priests, petitioned King Herod Agrippa II to convene the Sanhedrin to get them permission to wear linen on equal terms with the chief priests, contrary to God's instructions. Josephus wrote: "Those of the Levites, this is one of our tribes, who were singers of hymns urged the king to convene the Sanhedrin and get them permission to wear linen robes on equal terms with the priests ... Nor did they fail to obtain their request" (see Antiquities of the Jews, 20.216-18). In Numbers Chapter 16 and 26:9-11, the Levitical lesser ministers tried to expand their ministry to include prerogatives assigned only to the chief priests. God destroyed the Levitical rebels with holy fire from Heaven, and their leaders were swallowed up by the earth! In John's time, they had forgotten that lesson and were again trying to corrupt liturgical worship and the role of the priesthood.

Question: In verse 7, who gives the seven priestly angels the seven golden chalices?
Answer: One of the four Living Creatures gives them the chalices.

Question: Can you speculate which of the four Living Creatures that John first saw in Revelation 4:6-8 gave them the seven chalices? See their descriptions in Rev 4:7; John last heard the eagle-angel in 8:13. Consult the Zodiac chart in the handout for Lesson 7, Chapter 4.
Answer: It was probably the Living Creature with the man's face (Revelation 4:7) since the other three have already played a role in this drama of judgment, and since John seems to be proceeding systematically through the quarters of the constellations of the Zodiac.

In the lesson, we are referring to the seven vessels as "chalices" instead of "bowls," as the New Jerusalem Bible and the New American Bible translators call them because it is essential to make the liturgical connection as a "negative" sacrament. Some commentators see these vessels as incense bowls. We have already had two references to heavenly incense in Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-5, and the Greek word is the same in all these passages (phiale), but the chalices are connected to the cup of God's wrath, as we saw in Chapter 15, and this connection becomes clearer in Revelation 16:6 and 16:19.

The contrast here is that from the Chalice of Sacrament of Holy Eucharist flows God's grace, and from the Chalice of God's Wrath flows judgment. There is also a connection to the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant, which is now null and void with the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. What is modeled for us in heaven as the instruction for the New Covenant Church on earth is that this is the final casting out, in Greek ekballo, meaning ex-communication, of apostate, false prophet Israel when she has once and for all refused the communion cup of the Body and Blood of Christ. The heavenly ministers of the New Covenant are sent from the heavenly Tabernacle itself and from the Throne of God to pour out upon her the blood of the Covenant! Remember what Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem: "so you will draw down on yourselves the blood of every upright person that has been shed on earth, from the blood of Abel the holy to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. In truth, I tell you, it will all recoil on this generation" (Mt 23:35-36). Therefore, drinking blood is inescapable. The ministers of the New Covenant will serve us the Blood of the New Covenant, the Most Holy Eucharist, or God's priestly-angles will pour out of their Chalices the blood of divine judgment upon the heads of those who reject God's gift of eternal salvation.

THE ROCK IS CHRIST in the Song of Witness!

"I want you to be quite certain, brothers that our ancestors all had the cloud over them, and all passed through the sea. In the cloud and in the sea they were all baptized into Moses; all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ."
1 Corinthians 10:1-5

In his letter to the Corinthian church, St. Paul identified "The Rock" of Exodus 17:1-7 and Numbers 20:7-11 as Jesus the Messiah. In 1 Corinthians 10:1, St. Paul began by recalling the Glory-Cloud leading the Children of Israel as they passed through the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea), which Paul identifies with images of baptism. He also recalls the miracles of the manna from Heaven and the water from the "rock" as images of Eucharist. According to Jewish tradition, the "Rock" of Exodus Chapter 17 and Numbers 20 is the same "Rock," which followed the Children of Israel during their entire wilderness experience. Paul identifies "The Rock" as the pre-existent Christ already active in the history of God's covenant people. "The Rock" is central to the "Song of Witness" (also called Moses' Song) that Yahweh instructed Moses and Joshua to teach the children of Israel in Deuteronomy Chapter 32. From the time that Moses and Joshua taught the song to the people, it was sung at every Sabbath liturgy up to the day the liturgy of the Tamid sacrifices in the Jerusalem Temple ended in AD 70.

If you have an inadequate translation of Deuteronomy Chapter 32 and the "Song of Witness," here are the passages that identify "The Rock" as God. That "the Rock" is Yahweh is declared five times in the "Song of Witness" As you may recall, five is the number of grace and power.

• #1 verse 4: He is the Rock, His work is perfect....
• #2 verse 15: Jacob has eaten to his heart's content, Jeshurun, grown fat, has now lashed out. You have grown fat, gross, bloated. He has disowned the God who made him and dishonored the Rock, his salvation.
• #3 verse 18: You forget the Rock who fathered you, the God who made you, you no longer remember....
• #4 verse 30: How else could one man rout a thousand, how could two put ten thousand to flight, were it not that their Rock has sold them, that Yahweh has delivered them up?
• #5 verse 31: But their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies cannot pray for us! For their vine springs from the stock of Sodom and from the groves of Gomorrah....

Please note the word "rock" appears separately in verse 31: But their rock is not like... and 37: where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge..., as false gods.

There are two Old Testament passages which St. Paul identifies in 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 as "Christ the Rock":

• #1 in Exodus 17:1-7 [beginning with verse 3]: But, tormented by thirst, the people complained to Moses. "Why did you bring us out of Egypt," they said, "only to make us, our children and our livestock, die of thirst?" Moses appealed to Yahweh for help. "How am I to deal with this people?" he said.... [continuing with verses 5-6] Yahweh then said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, taking some of the elders of Israel with you; in your hand take the staff with which you struck the River, and go. I shall be waiting for you there on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out for the people to drink."
• #2 in Numbers 20:1-13 [beginning at verse 7]: Yahweh said to Moses, "Take the branch and call the community together, you and your brother Aaron. Then, in full view of them, order this rock to release its water" [continuing with verse 11] Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the branch; water gushed out in abundance [continuing with verse12] Yahweh then said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe that I could assert my holiness before the Israelites' eyes, you will not lead this assembly into the country which I am giving them."

Question: Why was the act of not fulfilling God's instructions to call on the rock instead of striking the rock in Numbers 20:1-13 so serious? Moses was indeed disobedient, and God said he did not believe, but what didn't Moses believe? Surely, he believed that God could give water from the rock because He had performed that miracle before (Ex Chapter 17). What didn't Moses believe? Was it that Moses doubted that merely "calling" on the rock could be enough to produce the miracle? How could this one act of striking the rock twice cost Moses and Aaron the right to cross over into the Promised Land? The answer is in St. Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 10:4.
Answer: The answer is that Christ is The Rock.

Question: How many times was Christ struck for our sins?
Answer: ONCE. He suffered and died on the cross once and for all time as the sacrifice for our sins.

In Chapter 7 of St. John's Gospel, Jesus addressed the crowd of Jews in the Temple on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths/Shelters). In the Temple liturgical services on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Scripture readings included both Old Testament passages from Exodus and Numbers concerning the miracle of water from THE ROCK when Jesus stood and cried out: "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink!" (Jn 7:37). What does the powerful imagery of Jesus' statement that proclaims the promise of the Sacrament of Eucharist have to do with the Old Testament passages about water from the Rock and Moses' punishment? After Christ's resurrection and ascension, how do we get the "water of eternal life" that Jesus promised? Do we strike "the Rock" again? No, we call on "The Rock" in the sacrifice of the Mass when the priest repeats the words of consecration and the blood from the side of Christ flows for us with the promise of eternal life! Christ, the Rock, was struck down once for our sins, but the sacrifice is on-going, and at every Mass, we call on "the Rock," and He provides for His Church and nourishes us with His Body and Blood to sustain us on our wilderness journey through this life as we struggle to reach heaven just as he provided the water that sustained the lives of the Children of Israel in their wilderness journey to the Promise Land.

Question: What two men in Sacred Scripture where called "rock" by God? See Mt 16:16-18 and Is 51:1-2.
Answer: Peter (Mt 16:16-18) and Abraham (Is 51:1-2). Both men: Simon, whose name Jesus changed to Peter, and Abram, whose name God changed to Abraham, were God's representatives who were divinely appointed fathers of a Covenant nation. In Abraham's case, he became a physical father of the Old Covenant people of Israel. In Peter's case, he became the spiritual father of the New Covenant people of Jesus' Kingdom of the Catholic, "universal" Church. And St. Peter's successors continue to "father" [Papa, father in Greek = Pope] the Church as God's representative!

In the last four verses of Chapter 15, we come to the last seven of the four-part judgments in the Book of Revelation that began with the letters Jesus told John to write and send to seven churches in Asia Minor. These verses give an ominous vision of seven angels dressed in white linen and carrying seven golden chalices filled with the wrath of God. The Chalice Judgments are repeats, with variation, of the Trumpet Judgments. Since the Trumpet Judgments were essentially warnings, they took only a third of the land of Judea; however, with the Chalices, the destruction is total. The similarities between the Chalice and Trumpet Judgments and the Plagues of Egypt cannot be a mere coincidence. The similarities should make us ask, "Why is the vision (or the plague) repeated, and what is the connection?" Notice the order of Chalice and Trumpet judgments compared with each other and how these judgments are reminiscent of the Egyptian plagues; the only missing plagues are the third, fourth, and tenth.

From the time of the Chalice Judgment forward, John will no longer use the imagery of warning but will concentrate on the message of Jerusalem's destruction. In Revelation 16:19, he will once again mention the "Great City" that he identified in Revelation 11:8 as the city in which their Lord was crucified. In that passage, he symbolically connected the sinful city of Jerusalem with Sodom and Egypt. Jerusalem is symbolically imaged with Sodom because, like Sodom, God will condemn Jerusalem to destruction as a whole-burnt sacrifice on the fiery altar of divine judgment (Gen 19:24-25; Dt 13:12-18).

Catechism references for this lesson (* indicates Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
Ex 15 (CCC 2810, 1502)

Ex 17:1-6 (CCC 694*); Ex 17:2-7 (CCC 2119*)

Dt 28 (CCC 10)

Dt 32:6 (CCC 238*); 32:8 (CCC 57*, 441*); 32:34 (CCC 1295*); 32:39 (CCC 304*)

1 Cor 10:1-11 (CCC 129*); 10:1-2 (CCC 697*); 10:4 (CCC 694*)

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