Thursday, December 19 - Revelation 11.8-12.6

Their bodies will be left lying in the streets of the same great city where their Lord was nailed to a cross. And that city is spiritually like the city of Sodom or the country of Egypt.

For three and a half days the people of every nation, tribe, language, and race will stare at the bodies of these two witnesses and refuse to let them be buried. 10 Everyone on earth will celebrate and be happy. They will give gifts to each other, because of what happened to the two prophets who caused them so much trouble. 11 But three and a half days later, God will breathe life into their bodies. They will stand up, and everyone who sees them will be terrified.

12 The witnesses then heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, "Come up here." And while their enemies were watching, they were taken up to heaven in a cloud. 13 At that same moment there was a terrible earthquake that destroyed a tenth of the city. Seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were frightened and praised the God who rules in heaven.

14 The second horrible thing has now happened! But the third one will be here soon.

The Seventh Trumpet
15 At the sound of the seventh trumpet, loud voices were heard in heaven. They said,

"Now the kingdom of this world belongs to our Lord and to his Chosen One! And he will rule forever and ever!"

16 Then the twenty-four elders, who were seated on thrones in God's presence, knelt down and worshiped him. 17 They said, "Lord God All-Powerful, you are and you were, and we thank you. You used your great power and started ruling. 18 When the nations got angry, you became angry too! Now the time has come for the dead to be judged. It is time for you to reward your servants the prophets and all of your people who honor your name, no matter who they are. It is time to destroy everyone who has destroyed the earth."

19 The door to God's temple in heaven was then opened, and the sacred chest could be seen inside the temple. I saw lightning and heard roars of thunder. The earth trembled and huge hailstones fell to the ground.

The Woman and the Dragon
12 Something important appeared in the sky. It was a woman whose clothes were the sun. The moon was under her feet, and a crown made of twelve stars was on her head. 2 She was about to give birth, and she was crying because of the great pain.

3 Something else appeared in the sky. It was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and a crown on each of its seven heads. 4 With its tail, it dragged a third of the stars from the sky and threw them down to the