Whore’s Glory, Pt. 3

"They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads." - Revelation 21:4

If you have not read Whore’s Glory parts 1 & 2, you can find them here and here.

We are all known for something.

I often wonder what word immediately comes to mind when my name comes up in conversation. I know there are some people whose last taste of me was “traitor.” I’m sure there are a few who remember me as a “homeschooled freak.” And obviously labels like “wife,” “mother,” and “friend” apply in the minds of all acquaintances, though I would hope there are a few more positive things that come to mind beyond the generalities.

What does it mean to be known for something? How does what we are known for come to be?

“It’s written on your forehead”

In English, we say “it’s written on your forehead” to mean that we can see the true intent or thoughts of a person. There is also an old Armenian idiom that says when something is “written on your forehead” it means you are destined for something. I dunno if that has anything to do with foreheads in the Bible, but I liked it. It feels similar to what foreheads symbolize in scripture.

In the Hebrew language and culture, the forehead represents one’s will. It’s a figure of speech. Which makes sense alongside the Armenian idiom. If one’s will is oriented toward something, is that not the thing for which he is destined? And where one’s will is directed will become obvious to others, if not quickly, then over time. It will become the thing for which he is known—as though it were written on his forehead.

Another word for this: worship.

We all worship something.

And the thing we are known for is that which we worship. They are one in the same.

Now, there is room for folks afar off, who have never met you or don’t know the people who know you well to perceive you as just the butcher, the baker or the candlestick maker. But if they did speak to those who know you more personally, what would your renown be? What would they communicate as your true intentions? What would they say you are destined for?

Refractory phylacteries: the stumbling block of rituals

The people of Israel were known for something. In fact, it came to a point that it was not just a figure of speech to say the intent of her heart was “written on her forehead.” During the intertestamental period, when the pharisees hijacked the intent of the Mosaic law, they literally wore little boxes containing Hebrew texts on their foreheads as a reminder to keep the law. Jews still use them today; they are called phylacteries.

Image from Encyclopedia Britannica

Well, the bad news is the state of your worship might be in bad shape if you need something equivalent to a whole box strapped to your face to remind you where your loyalties lie. The good news is we’re only human, so it’s still probably a good idea to keep little reminders for ourselves sprinkled through our days. After all, that’s exactly what God commanded the Israelites to do in Deuteronomy 6. Seems a good practice just got derailed along the way:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
- Deuteronomy 6:4-9

The pharisees

The pharisees were known for their re-interpretation of God’s law. As Christ rebuked them, “You strain a gnat and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24). They top the list of people in scripture who kept the letter of the law (often to a literal extreme) at the expense of the spirit of it. They were known for their shows of law-keeping:

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” - Matthew 6:5

Did God intend the Israelites to wear scraps of paper on their foreheads for the world to see how much they loved God’s law? I doubt it. It’s a figure of speech.

Meditate on these words as though they were tied to your forehead.

The priest

Further making the point that this was about internal worship rather than external rituals: a frontlet was a decorative band worn over the forehead by the priest in Israel. A frontlet also refers to a piece of cloth that covers the front of an altar. And what do the forehead and the altar have in common? They are both the place of a person’s worship.

Image from Muliberal Viewpoint

Be as a priest; let God’s law decorate your altar, your forehead, your place of worship. Let God’s law be what makes your sacrifice acceptable and beautiful.

Does this call to mind any other verses?

“Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” - 1 Peter 3:3-4

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” - Romans 12:1-2

“And Samuel said, ‘Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.’” - 1 Samuel 15:22

“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” - Matthew 5:23-24

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” - 1 Peter 2:9

So what if you have a decorative box on your head filled with scripture? It does not adorn your spirit in the sight of God if you trample the spirit of his law. And on these two commandments hang the whole of the law: “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-40).

So what if you practice a ritual or offer a sacrifice if you sin against your brother?

(I just learned today that refractory means “stubborn” or “resistant to authority or control.” So, you know I could not pass up the temptation to use the alliteration to make a point about the pharisees going their own way.)

It seems the phylactery can tend to have refractory effects. It did for the pharisees. And it does for our other notable character who serves as a symbol to represent all those who, like the pharisees, trust in their outward adornments to gain them glory.

The whore

She is a law unto herself, trusting her works, her adornments, her riches, her beauty. She is the opposite of a gentle and submissive woman (Proverbs 5-9). She sacrifices her body, but as one who is dead, not a living sacrifice. She claims Christ, but the true intent of her heart is written on her forehead:

“And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.’” - Revelation 17:5

She will take her gifts and her rituals to the altar of God, saying:

“‘I sit as a queen,
I am no widow,
and mourning I shall never see.’”
- Revelation 18:7b

—all the while walking lawless down to death, trampling the saints of God in her path. Worshipping her own glory, which she will soon discover she does not have.

“For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
- Matthew 13:12

And all those who walk with her belong to her, her name smeared across their foreheads for all the world to see. For the beast of this world to use her and to hate her as she rides unsuspecting on his back until he turns and devours her.

The bride

But then we have the bride. The world also sees a name written across her forehead:

“Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.”
- Revelation 14:1-5

Were you taught that the 144,000 were an army of ethnic Jews sent out to bear witness of the gospel?

Well, it’s certainly an army bearing witness to the gospel, but it’s not limited to just Jews. This symbolic number (another post for another time) represents the church of Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile—or neither you could say! Because she is a NEW creation. His bride. The name of her Husband and his Father are written across her forehead, for she is does not take his name in vain. Her side of the marriage covenant has been securely kept by he Bridegroom til he returns to take her to the house of his Father.

As she waits, she meditates on his law day and night, as though it were a frontlet between her eyes and a sign on her hand. The altar of her mind is a place where she presents her body for obedience as a living sacrifice. Loving God and her neighbor, spurning the pursuit of worldly glory, his law adorns her and makes her blameless in the sight of God. Because Christ kept fulfilled the law for her, her sacrifice is made acceptable and beautiful.

We are all known for something

As the old Armenian idiom says, she is destined for something.

If one’s will is oriented toward something, is that not the thing for which he is destined? She is destined for glory—His glory. The name of Christ written on her forehead bears witness to the true intention of her heart and her worship; that she has kept her vow in the marriage covenant, for she can plead the name of the One who kept it in her stead. Wherever she goes, his name written on her forehead. It’s the first thing that people see. It’s the first thing that comes to mind when her name comes up in conversation.

“They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” - Revelation 21:4

What are you known for?

Photo by Ajay Karpur on Unsplash