Daily Dose of Hope

March 20, 2025

Day 5 of Week 51

Scripture: Job 24-27; Revelation 17

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that goes along with the Bible reading plan at New Hope Church in Brandon, Florida. 

Our Old Testament reading is from Job once again.  I don’t know about you, but this is really hard to read.  Job is heartbroken and struggling with why the evil seem to prosper and God doesn’t seem to provide any kind of punishment for those who do evil.  Where is God’s justice?  He certainly hasn’t experienced it. 

Job’s friend answers him in chapter 25 saying that God is all-powerful.  Nothing is good compared to God.  I’ll be honest.  I’m not sure what his point is, except maybe to pour salt in Job’s wounds.  No one is righteous in God’s eyes, according to this friend, and that includes Job. 

Our last chapter for today is Job’s reply to this.  Yes, God is bigger and more powerful than everything.  He is in control of the universe and everything in it.  There is no way we will understand why or how he does anything.  What’s amazing here is this – after all Job has gone through, after all his lament, he concludes that God is filled with wisdom and he simply has to trust because God is in control. 

The New Testament reading is Revelation 17.  In this chapter, John is invited to witness the downfall of Babylon. He sees the image of a woman sitting on red beast with seven heads and ten horns. The woman, very seductively dressed, has a name written on her: Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes, and of the Abominations of the Earth. She slept with the kings of the world and was drunk with the blood of God’s people. Babylon was a seductive society and a very powerful one. It conquered many of the nations around it and others were seduced by its influence and wealth.

While the woman in the vision obviously represents Babylon, it goes so much deeper. How many Babylons have existed since then? How many great civilizations have risen to power, only to reject God and serve themselves? We could probably generate a pretty long list: the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, various European empires, maybe even the United States of America? Where do you see the evils of Babylon around you? How should we respond as God’s people?

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki