Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
As we began to study yesterday, Revelation 17:9 is one of the most misinterpreted verses in all of Scripture: “And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.” The New International Version’s unfortunate mistranslation of “mountains” as “hills” is based on a presuppositional bias that Rome, the city built on seven h ills, is being discussed here. The Greek word ore means “mountain” (as even the NIV correctly translates elsewhere in Revelation), not “hill.” Also, the immediate context is speaking of Babylon (16:19; 17:5; 18:2). Moreover, “the seven mountains” represent “seven heads,” not one place, and in the context, these “seven heads” are “seven kings” (verse 10). In the Old Testament, mountains are used symbolically of kingdoms (Isaiah 2:2; Jeremiah 51:25; Daniel 2:35; Zechariah 4:7). Kingdoms, of course, necessitate “kings” (or leaders). We should also note that the description is not of Babylon (“the woman”) but “of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns” (verse 7). Babylon and (as we will see in further studies) its leader, the Antichrist, are thus being discussed in this passage. We have more to consider on this subject, but for today let us be confident that the minutiae of Scripture is important, for “till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18).