Reference links:
Old Testament
Gah! All this symbolism. I am going to start getting my OT and NT readings confused. Today Zechariah sees a lamp stand surrounded by seven lamps each with seven spouts and wicks and an olive tree to either side. These somehow represent the fact that Zerubbabel has God’s favor for completing the rebuilding of the temple.
In particular, the lamps represent the searching eyes of the Lord, and the olive trees represent some heavenly beings. At least, compared to Revelation, Zechariah tells us what these different things represent.
After that Zechariah sees a giant flying scroll which contains a curse going over the land. The curse is against those who steal or swear falsely.
The next vision is a grain basket filled with the sins of the people and a woman named Wickedness. This basket will be worshiped in Babylon.
And that is the end of today’s weird reading.
New Testament
The lamb and the faithful sing a song that only the small remnant of faithful can learn. An angel flies through the sky telling people to fear and worship God. Another angel declares that Babylon has fallen because of its immorality. A third angel promises God’s anger and eternal punishment to any who accept the beast’s mark.
Those who are to be punished are collected and pressed in the “winepress of God’s wrath” until blood flowed in a deep stream 180 miles long. How horrid. Once again the Bible has led me to believe that even if there were reason to believe that the God of the Bible existed, he should not be worshiped. He should be despised as a terrible monster whose crimes exceed those of history’s mass killings.
Psalms and Proverbs
Apparently, the earth can not bear reversals of fortune or status:
There are three things that make the earth tremble—
no, four it cannot endure:
a slave who becomes a king,
an overbearing fool who prospers,
a bitter woman who finally gets a husband,
a servant girl who supplants her mistress.
I did not realize the world was so uptight and lacking in understanding.