It's about time.
Let’s tackle the book of Revelation, the source text recorded by the disciple John and give it our best to unseal what we can about the Biblical connections to begin to understand it.
After all, it seems so complex or cryptic.
Because of that, it’s one book a lot of people shy away from, as it seems to be a bizarre, scary, end-times prediction full of beasts, dragons, and global disasters off in the distant future that are inconceivable that no one wants to study it.
While it seems to stand alone like an outcast that barely made in to the back of the Bible, the revelation reality is that the account is a deeply interconnected book that ties to many sources in the rest of the Bible.
It reads like a futuristic graphic novel, but fundamentally, it’s deeply rooted in the Tanach, the book most tend to call an Old Testament. And that's a label with a religious paradox: if Revelation is about the future, why is it so connected to the Old Testament?
Revelation draws heavily from the Tanakh, weaving in themes of covenant promises, judgment, and restoration. It echoes Daniel's visions of apocalyptic beasts and ancient of days and Isaiah's new heaven and earth. Not only that Ezekiel's temple imagery pops up in Revelation's holy city, too.
If you’ve missed the prophetic source texts embedded in Revelation you're not alone.
In a nutshell, believe it or not, the visions are focused on the Fall Feasts of the LORD and the setting is in the Tabernacle.
Revelation is chocked full of imagery directly from the Torah and the Prophets.
Vivid descriptions include the two beasts, the four living creatures, and the plagues. It might seem like John just made these things up as if they were new, but for a 1st-century Bible believer in Jerusalem, reading Revelation would have felt like finally connecting all the jots and tittles from Daniel, Isaiah, Zechariah, Ezekiel with the Torah.
With Revelation—the mysteries all come together. It’s an unsealing.
It unseals prophecies given centuries before but not fully understood, which brings us right to the name.
We call it Revelation, but Hebrew gives us a different understanding. In Hebrew, it’s known as “Hitgalut,” often translated as a vision or unveiling that describes a process of understanding divine truths by experiencing awareness of God's word.
Think of it more like someone slowly pulling back a curtain before the show starts. At first you see a hint of what's behind the curtain, then you see a bit more of the scene, it’s like Paul says, “seeing through a glass darkly,” but then gradually the view of the stage and the setting becomes clear.
John sees something, and then John has to respond—and by extension, the reader does too.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. Revelation 1:3
Revelation demands participation.
It’s like any commandment, any mitzvah: God speaks, He commands, and that requires an active response from us that brings a blessing. If you just hear it and believe it, but don’t do anything about it, well, the revelation hasn’t really landed, has it? The relationship loop isn’t complete. Revelation grounds John's visions into something very personal: “OK, you saw this, now what?”
Keep what is written in it.
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The whole book is structured in a systematic pattern of sevens just as Genesis 1-2 is. It’s also about the gospel message of hearing and seeing truth and then choosing the response: repentance, obedience, alignment, relationship.
Sticking with the Hebrew language, there’s a connection between “Hitgalut” (the unveiling) and the Hebrew word for exile, “Galut.” How does that work? Well, think about John himself—where is he when he receives this vision? In exile. He’s in exile on the Isle of Patmos, but the book itself is the revelation of Yeshua (Jesus the Messiah), and where is He?
In a sense, He’s also in exile in heaven, waiting for the appointed time to return and establish the Kingdom of God on earth as noted in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9-10:
Pray then like this:“Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name.Your kingdom come,your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven."
Bottomline, in Revelation the exiled King reveals the end of exile to His exiled prophet for His people, who often feel exiled in the world we live in. It’s a divine graphic communication about the end of exile, NOT the end of time.
This leads us right into a core idea in prophetic thought: if you want to understand the end, where do you have to look?
According to the Bible, in the beginning (see Isaiah 46:10). The book of Revelation is not some heavenly riddle to frustrate us; our Creator God wants us to find and to discover Him in His word. He embedded the plan right there in the text; it’s woven into the fabric of the Torah in Genesis.
Consider the book of Numbers too—its Hebrew name means “in the wilderness,” which is much more evocative than just “Numbers,” and that name itself holds clues.
“Bemidbar” is like a deep well. When you start looking at the Hebrew root words, you find the last three letters for “davar” דָּבָר —word. Wilderness is “midbar,” you also have the letter “dalet” in the ancient pictographs. What does “dalet” look like? An entrance.
And what does “bar” mean?
Bar means son. So put it together: the name “Bemidbar” (in the wilderness) contains the word, the door, and the son. In the wilderness experience, you find the son coming through the door—who is the word. That’s the staggering insight hiding right there in “Bemidbar” the name for the wilderness journey tells you where and how to find the Messiah.
That’s incredible and so think about it: if you really want to see God, if you want to hear His “davar,” His word, clearly, where do you often need to go to do that?
Into the wilderness.
Quiet time away from the noise. You have to separate yourself, get away from the spiritual static, the light pollution, all the chaotic distractions that block the voice of God we all need to hear. Seeing and hearing God often requires intentional separation—quiet time, going into the wilderness, spiritually speaking. It really resonates: true revelation isn’t so obvious; it’s a journey away from the world’s clutter and noise.
Sticking with this theme of encoded revelation, let’s talk about the main character: Yeshua, with this title—the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek “Alpha and Omega,” the first and the last. That’s a direct claim and it’s radical, utterly uncompromising and a sign. Yeshua’s directly quoting Isaiah 44:6, where God Himself says, “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no God, king, the Redeemer.”
So when Yeshua takes that, He is making an explicit claim: I am in unity, one with the Father. There’s no wiggle room there. But it goes even deeper when you look at the ancient Hebrew pictographs. This is where it gets visually stunning. In the ancient script, the “Aleph” picture is an ox head, symbolizing God’s strength, power, but also, crucially, servanthood. The ox was the primary working animal for thousands of years—the strong servant. The ancient paleo Hebrew “Tav” was drawn as crossed sticks—like a cross, or a mark, a sign, a covenant symbol.
First letter, “Aleph” last letter “Tav” —literally, visually, “Aleph-Tav” את paints a picture of servant strength on a covenant cross. The Hebrew alphabet frames the Messiah: from divine strength and origin to sacrificial servanthood on the cross. It’s embedded in the very first and last Hebrew letters.
That’s fundamental and built right into the Hebrew language and the first verse of the Bible, so how did we lose sight of it? Why isn’t this common knowledge? Is this just a translation issue?
That’s a huge part of it. It involves that very beginning-end phrase, “Aleph-Tav” in Hebrew. It often appears as the Hebrew word את “et.” Grammatically, it usually functions as a marker pointing to the direct object of a verb. It appears thousands of times—over 7,000 times in the Hebrew Bible and it is rarely found in an English Bible other than the word "the."
But if we go back to the very first verse of the Bible in Genesis 1:1 we find:
בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ
“Bereshit bara Elohim”—in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
The את “et” appears twice there—before the heavens and before the earth. So what happened in most English translations? They just left it out, translated it as “the,” essentially ignored it as untranslatable, a grammatical pointer with no deeper meaning.
But the Revelation insight is that this Aleph-Tav” את “et”—the signature of the first and the last—marks the direct objects of creation, meaning Yeshua, the Word, the Aleph and the Tav, was intrinsically involved in the act of creation. He wasn’t an afterthought; He was the agent. It’s His signature on His handiwork.
So removing or ignoring the “et” essentially removes a witness to Messiah right there in Genesis 1:1. It’s a massive loss. It disconnects the end—Revelation from the beginning. That’s why Yeshua declares Himself the Aleph and the Tav—from the very beginning, where His mark is already present.
Not just the Aleph-Tav is found in the beginning—the entire messianic plan is somehow packed into six Hebrew letters בּראשׁית Bereshit, tracing to a cornerstone prophecy from Isaiah 28. It’s a stunning example of the divine fingerprint on the Hebrew language.
It’s time to break down בּראשׁית “Bereshit.” The picture is God’s plan from the beginning was about building a family, a dwelling place, a home. Next, within the word, you can see “bar,” the Aramaic word for son—Yeshua, the son. Then you have the letters that spell “esh”—fire. And “el-shin-tav” can point towards foundation, just like Isaiah 28:16: “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation.” The son is the foundation stone and Yeshua was literally laid in stone in Zion for three days and nights.
How’s the son the foundation? Check out the Hebrew, you have “resh,” meaning head—chief, beginning. Connect that to the suffering Messiah—what’s was put on Yeshua’s head? The crown of thorns. Now consider the Hebrew letters “yud” and “tav”—the “yud” is the hand, the “tav,” is the cross where His hands were nailed to the cross. And there’s one more layer: the root letters also form “reshit,” which means first fruits—as in first fruits of the resurrection after three days.
Let me try and put that all together for you from the very first word of the Bible—God’s plan centered on the son, who is the foundation, upon whose head is a crown of thorns, whose hand is nailed to the cross, and who arose from death as the first fruit of life eternal.
Now you know what you didn’t know from the first word of the Bible. The entire gospel message is revealed in six letters, signed and sealed right there in the beginning, waiting for Revelation, the time of “Hitgalut”—the unveiling.
Revelation reveals Yeshua’s identity from the beginning. Now, what about our identity in Him?
Revelation calls believers kings and priests to God, see Revelation 1:6, for instance. That’s a direct callback, a restoration. John is pulling that straight from Exodus 19:6. God’s original intention for Israel was and continues to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests—both intertwined. But what happened after the end of the first exile? The sin with the golden calf. After that crime scene, the covenant assignment was broken, separated. Kingship eventually went to the tribe of Judah; the priesthood went to the tribe of Levi. They became distinct offices, for necessary reasons—a consequence of sin and the need for specific roles.
Yeshua brings them back together and that fact was foretold in Zechariah c6:12-13, it’s an amazing prophecy. It talks about the man whose name is “the Branch,” who will build the temple of the LORD. He will rule on His throne and at the same time He will be a priest—with rule and intercession together in one person. The prophecy explicitly says the two offices—king and priest—which have been separated for centuries, will be unified in the Messiah. So, when John tells believers Yeshua has made us kings and priests, he’s confirming that through our union with Yeshua, we get participate in that assignment from Mount Sinai just as God said and Moses wrote.
Are you prepared to operate with the king’s authority and priestly intercession?
So, since Yeshua has restored this dual role—this king-priest identity, what does He have to say to His royal priesthood?
That takes us right into Revelation chapters 2 and 3—the messages to the seven assemblies and the warnings aren’t just historical postcards. Not at all—the Hebrew mindset is very cyclical. You’ve heard the phrase “history repeats,” it’s true, there’s nothing new under the sun. So yes, these were seven actual physical congregations in what’s now the nation state of Turkey.
They had real problems: false teachers, getting complacent, mixing in with the culture that does not follow God’s instruction but their own—things we still see today. The specific issues John was told to write down as letters addresses recurring patterns; they are warnings for every generation of believers.
The central image for this part of John’s vision is the menorah and it’s missed because English Bible call it seven candlesticks. There are no wax candles.
John sees Yeshua standing among the seven lampstands of the menorah and that image is absolutely key. It represents the seven assemblies, yes, but it also connects back to Zechariah’s vision and 2 Chronicles 16:9:
“The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth.”
The eyes of the LORD are represented by the menorah lamps. The menorah holds the light, and Biblically, what provides the light? Proverbs 6:3 give the answer, “The commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light.” The light is God’s voice, His Torah, it removes darkness. The lampstands echo Zechariah's menorah, symbolizing God's presence.
You may have never noticed it, but Yeshua is doing the daily duty of a priest, walking among the Menorah lights, inspecting them, tending them, seeing if they’re burning brightly or just sputtering out from the lack of oil, the Holy Spirit—He’s checking the quality of their light.
The duty to tend the menorah (golden lampstand) is given in Exodus and Leviticus. Key passages:
Exodus 27:20–21 — "Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil... to keep the lamps burning continually." The duty is to keep the oil in the lamps in the tent of meeting burning brightly.
Chapter two and three hit the seven churches, represented by the seven lamps, each letter written to them pulls from Solomon's wisdom in Proverbs and Jeremiah's call to repentance, urging faithfulness amid trials.
Yeshua sees problems of syncretism and lawlessness in Ephesus, Pergamum and Thyatira.
Let’s look at the specific problems He calls out as recurring issues. First up, Ephesus: they get praised for hating the works of the Nicolaitans. What exactly was that? It’s generally understood, based on the name, to represent a form of lawlessness—meaning, basically torah-less, the idea that because we have grace, God’s foundational instructions, His teaching, His Torah, well, it’s done away with; it doesn’t matter how you live anymore.
All grace, no obedience needed, but is that what God's voice says?
So, Ephesus rightly rejected that notion—they had good works, good doctrine. What was their problem?
They had lost their first love. Their works were diligent, their doctrine was sound, but their heart—their motivation, their passion of love for Jesus-Yeshua that started it all—had cooled. The engine was running, but the spark plugs was misfiring. If you ask me they were no longer spreading the word about their first love.
Yeshua says Pergamum lives where Satan’s throne is and there’s some serious spiritual opposition there. There’s a specific failing: building to the doctrine of Balaam. Nothing new, that takes us back to Balaam’s story in Numbers. It’s a critical warning about something insidious called syncretism. Syncretism—the blending that links us to what the serpent asked Eve, did God really say?
It's time to remember Balaam. He was the prophet hired by King Balak to curse Israel, but Almighty God wouldn’t let him because the God of Israel had blessed them as His children, so Balaam took a different strategy—Plan B. He couldn’t curse them directly, so Balaam taught Balak how to make Israel curse themselves by putting a stumbling block in front of them, specifically enticing the Israelite men to participate in Moabite pagan feasts, eating food sacrificed to idols, and committing sexual immorality.
That willful lust of the flesh compromised their blessing. Balaam's plan was the blending of pagan worship and forbidden relationships with God’s commands—that’s the doctrine of Balaam straight from the serpent.
So, the doctrine of Balaam is not just about listening to a false prophet; it’s about adopting pagan practices, blending them in with your faith. It’s spiritual adultery. It’s allowing the surrounding culture’s values and practices to infiltrate and corrupt the purity of devotion to God’s ways, to live in His image.
Think about the Greco-Roman world of John’s day, it relied on a huge influence of Greek philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. They were very intellectual, very rationalistic, and some early church thinkers wanted to be more sophisticated or acceptable to that culture and mindset.
And in doing so, the Biblically Hebrew concepts, the cyclical understanding of time, the importance of Torah—got diluted and replaced. That blending is called synchronism, and it is a manifestation of the doctrine of Balaam that John is warning us about even today.
Next is Thyatira—you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. She calls herself a prophetess, yes, and she’s actively teaching and seducing God’s servants to do the exact same thing as Balaam. It’s the same sin, promoted from inside the assembly. Whether the compromise comes from external accommodation or internal corruption, the result is the same: spiritual adultery, impurities, a divided heart.
Why were all these churches dealing with compromise?
Yeshua has a stark reminder: payday is coming. He quotes Jeremiah 17:7: “The mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” True, grace is free; salvation is a gift, works don't earn salvation, but rewards in Heaven are tied to good works—to the quality, source a reason behind doing good works. Were their works done in obedience, flowing from His Spirit, or were their works done out of selfish ambition, cultural pressure, or just going through the religious motions? God knows the difference. Accountability is real in the end.
Without good works there's no charity, no helping others in need, we're just a bunch of selfish scrooges holding on to our cash or ignoring others in pain, allowing them to suffer when we could do something to lend a servant's helping hand.
If you call yourself a believer and doubt this, it’s easy to unwind. Consider Jesus, the ultimate servant leader. What if He was like Plato or Socrates and just said what he thought and never did a thing about it, never healed a leper, never gave sight to a blind man, never healed the sick and demon-possessed, never raised Lazarus.
Would you believe He’s the Messiah or just a philosopher?
Moving on to Sardis, this the social gospel church. It looks good on the outside. Oh yeah, Sardis had a name or reputation; they were known for being alive, active, probably doing lots of visible things. But Yeshua says their works were not perfect or complete before God. They were busy, yes, but something was missing. They were more concerned with maintaining their reputation, their name, than with truly honoring God’s name. So, activity doesn’t equal spiritual vitality.
Their works might have been impressive to men, but they weren’t flowing from a pure heart aligned with God’s will. It was self-centered self-effort, perhaps works spotted by the flesh, as Jude 1:23 puts it. Seems like it. The warning, “If you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief”—His return will be a surprise for everyone who isn’t watching, someone asleep at the wheel, unprepared.
Yeshua doesn’t come as a thief to His watchful, waiting, prepared bride; He comes as a thief only to the unsuspecting, the complacent, the worldly—those represented by Sardis, who look alive. It’s about suddenness for the unprepared.
And finally, the infamous lukewarm church—Laodicea. Their problem wasn’t really persecution or false doctrine or even bad works, necessarily; it was their attitude, their self-perception. Totally materially wealthy, known for Laodicea’s fine wool and medical school producing eye salve, it seems. So they said, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” Material prosperity and complacency about their spiritual reality, which Yeshua describes as “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”—the complete opposite of how they saw themselves. Their self-sufficiency had crowded out their need for God.
This leads to that incredibly poignant image: Yeshua standing outside their door, knocking. It is often pictured very gently, like a polite soft tap, waiting to be invited in. Perhaps it’s true, it might mean just tapping, but it can also carry the sense of pounding down the door with urgency: given their dire spiritual state—poor, blind, naked, yet they are thinking they’re just fine—the context tells us the knocking is likely urgent. It’s like someone pounding on the door of a sleeping person whose house is on fire: “Wake up, you’re in danger!”
Comfort and wealth have effectively locked Him out; they think they have everything they need. That changes the feel of that verse entirely.
After addressing the earthly assemblies, the perspective shifts dramatically from the Holy Place of the Tabernacle which contains the Menorah.
In Revelation 4 and 5—John is caught up, he sees a door open in heaven. He moves conceptually from the Menorah room—the holy place representing the churches on earth—through that open door into the holy of holies, the throne room of the Most Holy Place.
This marks a dramatic shift in perspective. No longer is the focus on earthly assemblies and their spiritual condition; now, John is invited to witness the heavenly reality, the very center of almighty divine authority.
Chapter four swings to heaven's throne, an echo of Ezekiel's chariot vision, with elders and creatures praising God like Psalm 103. In Revelation chapters 4 and 5, John describes being “caught up” and seeing a door open in heaven. He enters the throne room, the Most Holy Place, and is immediately confronted with awe-inspiring sights: the throne of God, surrounded by twenty-four elders, four living creatures, and countless angels.
The scene is filled with vibrant colors, thunder, lightning, and the continual worship of God. The four living creatures, each with unique faces and wings, proclaim God’s holiness day and night, while the elders cast their crowns before the throne, acknowledging Almighty God’s sovereignty above all.
The scroll in Revelation 5 is sealed with seven seals, recalls Ezekiel's sealed book, representing God's covenant plan, and the Lamb's victory. At the center stage of this heavenly court is the Lamb—Yeshua, the Messiah—who alone is worthy to open the sealed scroll and reveal its contents. This moment is pivotal: the Lamb’s worthiness is rooted in His Torah life, sacrificial death and resurrection, fulfilling the messianic prophecies and establishing Him as both King and Priest.
The worship in heaven intensifies as every creature joins in praise, declaring the Lamb’s authority to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing from God to rule as King.
This heavenly vision sets the stage for unsealing the rest of Revelation. The focus shifts from earthly warnings and corrections to the drama of redemption, judgment of evil, and restoration of planet earth as it was intended from the beginning.
The throne room scene emphasizes that everything which follows—the opening of the seals, the sounding of the trumpets, and the pouring out of the bowls—flows from God’s sovereign plan, will and the Lamb’s victory over death.
John’s journey from the menorah in the holy place to the most holy throne in the holy of holies mirrors the journey of believers: moving from earthly service and witness to intimate relationship with God, participating in heavenly worship, and understanding the fullness of God’s redemption plan.
The message is clear—true revelation comes not just from seeing earthly realities, but from entering into God’s presence, beholding His glory, and responding in worship and obedience.
What John sees in the heavenly throne room confirms that the earthly Tabernacle—the one Moses built—was not the original, but rather a reflection of the heavenly reality.
John witnesses things that Moses and the elders only glimpsed, such as the pavement under God’s throne, crystal clear, and the rainbow around the throne, shining like an emerald. This rainbow is a symbol of God’s enduring covenant faithfulness and His mercy, even amidst overwhelming majesty and impending judgment.
Surrounding the throne are living creatures straight out of Ezekiel’s vision in chapter one: the lion, the ox (or calf), the man, and the eagle. This isn’t random imagery. Ezekiel 1 imagery represents the attributes of God reflected in creation and the realms over which humanity was meant to have dominion but failed.
The lion represents royalty, boldness, and fierceness—like God’s judgment described in Hosea, and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The ox king of domesticated animals, stands for strength, endurance, patient service, and humility—think of Yeshua taking the form of a servant, as described in Philippians 2. The eagle is the king of the birds, represents soaring vision, transcendence, and the ability to see from afar—past, present, and future—like God watching over Israel and carrying them on eagles’ wings in Deuteronomy 32, symbolizing prophetic insight. The man represents humanity itself, created in God’s image: compassion, intelligence, relationship, and the fullness of perfected humanity in Yeshua the Son of Man.
The four faces together capture the composite perfection of the Messiah: the ruling lion, the servant ox, the the all-seeing eagle and the compassionate man. This is the fullness of God’s image, His character expressed in His creation, and it sets the stage for the next scene—the scroll that no one in heaven or on earth is found worthy to open.
Remember in Daniel 12, the angel tells him to shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. In Revelation, the scroll appears still sealed up. The unsealing represents judgments, redemption, and essentially the title deed to the earth, which Adam forfeited. Now, the Lamb is found worthy to reclaim it, and the act of opening the seals begins. There’s a connection to Jewish practice here that missing in most churches—the theme of the Feast of Trumpets, a time associated with judgment and the beginning of the heavenly court.
Revelation 6 unleashes the seals, mirroring the plagues of Exodus and Joel's day of judgment-war, famine, death, all rooted in Tanakh's covenant curses for those that oppose God. The martyrs crying for justice echo Psalm 79 and Habakkuk's pleas. The unsealing of the scroll initiates a sequence: the first four seals release the four horsemen—conquest, war, famine or economic collapse, and death. Things escalate quickly; each open seal unleashes another wave of judgment upon the earth, building in intensity and conflict with the main antagonists.
Revelation 7 pauses for the 144,000 sealed Israelites, a nod to Ezekiel's marked remnant and Jeremiah's restoration promises, with the great multitude hinting at Isaiah's universal salvation. Revelation highlights a specific quality of the 144,000 who stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion.
Fast forward to Revelation 14:5 it says, “In their mouth was found no guile or no lie.” Zephaniah 3:13 says the remnant of Israel will do no wrong and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. No guile, no deceit—purity of speech seems to be the ultimate outward mark of their inward purity.
Revelation 8 and 9 trumpets ramp up judgment, drawing from Exodus' locusts and hail, with the locusts from Joel's apocalyptic swarm. The abyss imagery ties to Job's Leviathan and Isaiah's chaos monster.
Revelation 10 reveals a little scroll, sweet then bitter, mirroring Ezekiel's scroll-eating, a prophetic call to proclaim truth despite pain. Revelation 11 notes two witnesses, killed and raised, blend Moses and Elijah, with their temple measuring echoing Ezekiel's vision of God's sanctuary. The earthquake ties to Zechariah's final quake. Revelation 12 shows a woman and dragon pulled straight from Genesis' proto evangelium, where the woman crushes the serpent, with the dragon's war on her offspring reflecting Satan's attacks in Job and Zechariah.
Revelation 13 introduces two ancient figures of opposition: the beast from the sea and the beast from the land. Chapter thirteen's beast and false prophet amplify Daniel's fourth beast and horns, blending political and religious deception, like the false prophets in Jeremiah. The first beast rises from the sea, which Biblically often represents the sea of nations, the Gentiles, and churning chaos, tossed about like waves. It’s a composite creature—part leopard, part bear, part lion—drawing imagery from Daniel’s visions and representing various Gentile empires and powers. This beast gets its power from the dragon—Satan himself—empowering this final political power.
The second beast is the religious or propaganda power, coming from within the established religious sphere on dry land. It has two horns like a lamb, deceptively harmless, but speaks like a dragon—its voice betrays the true source of its power. Its main tactic is deception through signs and wonders, performing great miracles that make people marvel, just as Elijah did on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18. This beast uses counterfeit miracles to legitimize the Antichrist system and commands people to worship the image of the beast—it’s the ultimate test like the one in the Garden of Eden, believe and do what God says or fall for the deception, did God really say?
This is why the Torah provides the ultimate safeguard. Remember Deuteronomy 13: “if a prophet or dreamer arises and gives a sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder comes true, but then says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ you are not to listen or follow.” God allows false miracles specifically as a test of loyalty—to see whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul. The test is whether the miracle like Pharaoh’s snakes leads you to worship the one true God according to His commandments, or if you want to fall into idolatry and disobedience.
The deception is powerful; people will follow spectacle instead of truth. The mark of the beast is not just about a number—the Greek word for “mark” here can refer to a brand, a seal, or a sign of loyalty to the beast system. The stark contrast is presented: you either receive the mark of the beast, or you have the Father’s name written on your forehead—ownership by God versus ownership by the beast.
We are not meant to be marked with a number, but to bear God’s name in His image.
Back track for a minute because there’s a terrifying 200-million-man army mentioned in Revelation 9, that shows the cosmic scale of judgment. But there’s a crucial theological point: this is righteous judgment poured out. The evidence is in the text, like Pharaoh during the Exodus, it confirms that judgment leads the rebellious to curse God, not turn to Him. What leads people to repentance is the goodness, kindness, and patience of God—not judgment.
The judgment of the great city Babylon and the establishment of the true Kingdom go all the way back to the origin of human rebellion and the confusion of languages at the tower of Babylon. In Revelation, Babylon, the harlot represents the pinnacle of worldly systems—political, economic, and religious—in opposition to God. Her judgment is sudden, catastrophic, and complete, described as repayment and vengeance for her sins, echoing the language used against historical Babylon in Jeremiah 50 and 51.
The focus of Babylon’s sin is detailed in Revelation 18, where the merchants of the earth weep because their global market has collapsed. With the globe awash in debt and the United States alone at about $37.6 trillion. The World Bank today broadly supports a total global debt figure of just over $300 trillion, so Revelation 18 hits home.
The cargo lists—gold, silver, jewels, fine linens, spices, chariots, slaves, and chillingly, at the end, “souls of men” and that show that human trafficking and exploitation are built into the system.
According to ourrescue.com: “A $172.6 billion industry thrives in the shadows of our global economy, profiting from human suffering (International Labour Organization [ILO], Global Estimates Report, 2023). Human trafficking generates profits that rival some of the world’s largest corporations, representing not just a moral crisis but a complex economic phenomenon that challenges our understanding of modern markets. This exploration reveals the disturbing economics of human trafficking and its far-reaching implications for global commerce and human rights.
The crisis continues to intensify. The illegal industry now generates $172.6 billion from forced commercial sexual exploitation annually (ILO, 2024). Current estimates show traffickers hold 49.6 million people in modern slavery worldwide, including 12 million children (ILO and United Nations, 2024.)”
Babylon is judged not just for idolatry and luxury, but for trafficking in human lives and getting rich on the backs of the oppressed. Ultimately, as Revelation 18:24 says, “in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.” The entire corrupt global system built on greed and rebellion must fall before the true Kingdom comes; you cannot build the new Jerusalem on the foundation of Babylon.
In stark contrast to fallen Babylon, thank God the focus of Revelation shifts permanently to Jerusalem—the earthly city today, but ultimately the New Jerusalem. It becomes the undisputed center of the final events and if you read the headlines today you can see the pressure building.
Revelation 14 shows harvest and grape treading that echo's Joel's judgment and Isaiah's winepress, while the 144,000's purity recalls Leviticus' holiness code. Chapter fifteen's sea of glass and song of Moses tie to Exodus' Red Sea victory, praising God's triumph over evil. Chapter sixteen's bowls of wrath are a final Exodus-style plague cycle, with Armageddon rooted in Zechariah's Megiddo battle.
Chapter seventeen's Babylon the Great pulls from Isaiah's and Jeremiah's harlot cities, judged for idolatry, with her fall echoing Egypt's collapse. Chapter eighteen's lament over Babylon uses Ezekiel's Tyre dirge, mourning economic greed.
The final battle culminates in the valley of Jehoshaphat near Jerusalem, as described in Zechariah 14. The nations gather against Jerusalem, the city is captured, but then the Lord intervenes—His feet stand on the Mount of Olives, which splits in two. This physical return coincides with the great earthquake mentioned elsewhere in Revelation; His re-entry vortex point is Jerusalem, and the city itself gets a new status and name.
Jeremiah 3:17 says that in that day Jerusalem will be called the throne of the LORD. Ezekiel 43 calls it “the place of the soles of my feet,” where God will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever.
It becomes God’s permanent earthly capital and then we see it, the new Jerusalem descending from heaven in Revelation 21— it’s the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
This magnificent city is not what you think, it’s an image, after all John saw a vision and a city is not a city without citizens. New Jerusalem is the redeemed people of God, described in architectural terms made of living stones. Its foundations have the names of the twelve apostles of the new covenant. The gates have the names of the twelve tribes of Israel—the original covenant foundation and there’s no Gentile Gate. This shows the unity of God’s people throughout history. The wall is 144 cubits—12 times 12—representing the fullness of God’s redeemed community, the lighthouse to the world God intended from the beginning.
Chapter nineteen's rider on the white horse merges Zechariah's returning king with Isaiah's righteous warrior, celebrating victory over evil.
This sets the stage after the millennial Kingdom—the thousand-year reign of Messiah on earth, ruling with a rod of iron from Jerusalem. One of the most surprising and sobering details is what happens after the thousand years are over: HaSatan is released for a short time. After a millennium of perfect, righteous rule by Yeshua Himself—no deception, no injustice, haSatan still finds willing followers. He gathers a massive army from the corners of the earth to rebel against God’s King in Jerusalem. Even after living under a thousand years of perfect rule, it’s unbelievable, but it shows the enduring nature of the human heart. Forced righteousness isn’t God’s ultimate goal; it’s a freely chosen love relationship.
This underscores the depth of the human heart problem.
Chapter twenty's thousand years and final judgment draw from Daniel's thrones and Psalm 110's reign, with the book of life tied to Exodus' names in God's book. The Gog and Magog battle echoes Ezekiel's final war defeating evil openging the door to chapter twenty-one's new heaven and earth fulfilling Isaiah's new creation, with the new Jerusalem as Ezekiel's city, no temple needed since God's presence is direct, like it was for Moses in the tent of meeting. Chapter twenty-two's river and tree of life echo Eden in Genesis and Ezekiel's life-giving water, with the curse lifted per Genesis 3, sealing the Tanakh's redemption plan from the beginning.
The Revelation timing of all these final events connects back to God’s calendar outlined in Leviticus 24—the Feasts of the Lord, the divine appointments, and the prophetic redemption timetable. Revelation’s story aligns perfectly with the Fall Feasts: Trumpets (judgment), Yom Kippur (atonement), and Sukkot (ingathering).
The imagery of the great winepress of the wrath of God in Revelation 14 is significant—grapes are harvested and pressed in the fall, not the spring. The final judgment and in-gathering happen according to God’s fall appointment schedule that was outlined at Mount Sinai.
The winepress imagery, spanning 1,600 furlongs (about 184 miles), pictures the totality of judgment, echos Isaiah 63, where God treads the winepress alone, His garments stained red—the fierce, righteous wrath of God against thousands of years of accumulated sin and rebellion.
For those who enter the Kingdom age, there is a specific command regarding the Feasts of the LORD.
Zechariah 14 says all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will be required to go up year by year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. If they do not, there will be no rain or they will receive the plague. This shows that God’s appointed times are not old and done away with or just for Jews alone—they are the eternal appointments of worship that reveal God’s character and plan, and as in days of old they will be front and center to life in the Kingdom of God.
As we bring this to a close, let’s circle back to the people of God—the remnant, the overcomers. What’s a defining characteristic at the end, beyond faithfulness and endurance?
The final application comes down to watching our mouths—what comes out of our hearts, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The Hebrew term is "לשון הרע" (lashon ha-ra), literally "evil tongue" — meaning harmful speech about someone behind their back.
Remember Miriam, Moses’ own sister—when she spoke against Moses, God’s anointed, she was struck with leprosy, judged for her speech. It’s a powerful warning: if we want to be part of that remnant aligned with the King and His Kingdom, we have to guard our hearts and consequently, our words.
Are we speaking words of faith, truth, encouragement, and life from God to others, or are we speaking words of criticism, deceit, or echoes of the ultimate lashon ha-ra deceiver in Eden that asked Eve, did God really say?
Looking at Revelation through the lens of the Tanach transforms it—it’s not so confusing, not such a strange book anymore. It becomes the ultimate unsealing, the capstone of the cornerstone connecting all the threads woven through the Torah and the Prophets. The patterns, cycles, justice, and identity of the King all snap into focus, but that means it's time to study the Scriptures.
The book of Revelation, like the rest of the Bible promises a blessing to those who read, hear, and keep what is written. It’s meant to produce alignment with God's will, readiness, and hope.
That's why Yeshua said do not think.
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Matthew 5:17
What does this all mean?
Speak well and consider a prayer: Please, God, guide me by your Spirit as to what I should hear, do and say.
It's time to repent and return to God's voice, return to hear and do His words, speak them and walk in the faith of His Kingdom path so that you can ready your lamp for your assignment to show others the way.
