Admittedly, this is a macabre headline, but it does allude to a Biblical issue.
I recently tweeted about Matthew’s Gospel, arguing that Jesus literally told his followers to expect violent death before that entire age was judged. This is explicitly in Matthew 23 and 24, but by the time you read through chapter 10, the message is obvious.
In this post, I want to point out in this post is that this [major!] aspect of Matthew’s Gospel fits with other Biblical patterns.
The Ten Plagues on Egypt
Pharaoh had commanded his soldiers to cast all the newborn Hebrew sons into the Nile. A generation later a Hebrew son who had been put into the Nile and drawn out again, confronted a new Pharaoh with a command from YHWH. When Pharaoh refused to recognize YHWH, He inflicted ten plagues on Egypt through Moses.
The first and last of these plagues stand out in light of the murders of a generation earlier. God began by turning the Nile into blood. In the final plague we killed the first born sons, probably only the very young.
Revelation
In Revelation 16:4-7 we read:
The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say,
“Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was,
for you brought these judgments.
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!”
And I heard the altar saying,
“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
true and just are your judgments!”
This is an obvious callback to the first plague on Egypt. Later, when the seventh bowl is poured out, we are told
…God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. (Revelation 16:19b ESV)
But the theme goes deeper. She is forced to drink God’s wrath because she has already gotten drunk on the blood of the saints (Revelation 17:6).
This blood that makes drunk has already been shown to us as coming from a wine press.
Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:17–20 ESV)
Going outside the city sounds much like the language of the letter of the Hebrews exhorting the Christians to accept martyrdom rather than betray Christ:
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13:11–16 ESV)
The winepress of God’s wrath seems to be the winepress that provokes God’s wrath rather than the winepress that inflicts God’s wrath on the wicked. This happens in the land and covers it deeply in bloodguilt (I take 1600 to represent the four corners of the earth–4x4x100). The blood comes from those who followed Christ so that God responds to them by destroying the murderers.
Earlier we were explicitly told how the saints defeated the dragon:
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death”(Revelation 12:10–11 ESV).
I reviewed all this just to point out that it all fits perfectly well with Jesus’ message in the Gospels. First his followers must be faithful unto death and then God’s wrath will avenge their blood and end the age to begin a new age. As I commented at X.com, “We have gotten used to thinking of Jesus’ call” to take up our cross or to hate our own lives () “as figurative because many of us in subsequent history have been graced by a golden age.” We haven’t faced martyrdom because they did.
Of course, as unique and decisive as the first century was (thus, its number), some Christians have been called to a similar situation from time to time in various places. So we might do well to meditate on the privilege of martyrdom and the nature of Spiritual warfare if we want Jesus to defeat new accusers of the Church and new Babylons.