We have arrived at the heart of Revelation 

Not only the middle of the book, but its central message
- I’m going to take you backstage and show you my work room
• the Bible is many books and among them, different writing styles
◦ there are books of history (written more or less like storytelling), poetry, legal codes, prophetic writings, wise sayings, and letters
◦ each literary style has its own form, rules, and devices, and that style determines how it is to be read and interpreted
• for instance, poetry, wherever it appears in the Hebrew Scriptures, uses lots of parallelism
◦ one line is followed by another (or more than one other) line that mimic or react to it
◦ sometimes the second line repeats the first line backwards, or uses different words to say the same thing, or intensifies the message of the first line, and so on