Revelation 15:5-8 – God’s Dwelling and Glory in the Completion of his Wrath

God’s victorious people have sung the song of Moses and the Lamb, and John’s gaze now turns to something else:

⁵ After this I looked, and I saw in heaven the temple of the tabernacle of testimony, and it was opened.

A temple in the ancient world was the place where the gods dwelled, and the tabernacle (dwelling) was specifically where the God of the Hebrews lived. It was representative of his presence because God is omnipresent, and as Solomon said even though he was building a house, or temple, for God, “even the highest heavens, cannot contain him.” The Israelites knew that God as the Creator of the heavens and the earth could not be contained in any one place, but God had to teach them who he was, slowly. The ancient world knew nothing of a personal Creator God, holy, completely set apart from man, wholly other, and God used something theologians call “progressive revelation” to teach the entire world about himself, but the Israelites most intimately. So, when he delivered them from Egypt, he commanded them to build for him what was in effect a portable dwelling place in the wilderness, the tabernacle. The Israelites had not entered the promised land so they couldn’t build a permanent dwelling for God yet, a temple, thus the tabernacle.

Everything about the tabernacle was symbolic, pointing toward the final tabernacle, Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with us. In John 1:14, John said the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, a reference to that original tabernacle in the desert. Here John is connecting that first tabernacle, a sign of God’s covenant promise to dwell with his people, to the final dwelling of God in his people. It’s hard to convey how radical a notion that would have been to ancient Israelites; it should be radical to us! We’re God’s temple? He dwells in us? Yikes! I’m not sure if I should be terrified or giddy with joy. By his Holy Spirit, God in Christ tabernacles in us because we have been made holy by the blood of Jesus, so our sin is no longer a barrier between us and our Creator. In the ancient tabernacle, any unauthorized person who entered the holy of holies would die immediately. As it was, only one person, the High Priest, could enter it only once a year on the Day of Atonement, after he had been ceremonially cleansed. This God of Israel, Yahweh, was not a God to be messed with, unlike all the other Gods of all the peoples on earth.

John makes the connection between old and new by calling it the tabernacle of testimony, or witness (marturion-μαρτύριον, from which we get our English martyr). John used this same word when he described Jesus in chapter 1 as the “faithful witness.” Because of Jesus, where God dwells is no longer closed, but available to all, so here, “it was opened.” Then,

⁶ Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. 

We’ll remember that John had seen these angels with the plagues as something great and marvelous “because with them God’s wrath is completed.” It is done, even though it is yet to be, a consistent theme throughout Revelation. Earlier he just saw them, now he gives context; they are coming out of the temple, out from God’s presence, implying they come with the authority of God. The judgment of God is delegated, but it is God’s nonetheless, just like the dictates and wishes of any ruler. As for these angels, they are the only ones in Revelation who have their clothing described by John, echoing his description of “one like a son of man” in chapter 1. Then,

⁷ Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. ⁸ And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

Things are about to get serious. The four living creatures play a significant role in the cosmic drama of Revelation, as we’ve seen, and here they are again part of executing God’s judgment. The golden bowls they give to the angels point us back to the other mention of golden bowls in chapter 5, but there instead of being filled with the wrath of God, they were “full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” So God’s wrath, his judgment against sin is connected to the prayers and laments of his people. Living by site, only what we can see with our physical eyes, it appears the world system, in their context the Roman Empire, always has the upper hand, and always will. Oh, no it won’t! Our prayers for justice and vindication are heard. To me it’s important to not confuse these noble sentiments with the base sentiment of revenge. God doesn’t do revenge, and in our deepest hearts all human beings’ cries for justice is that things be made right, not just that bad guys suffer. The reason is very important, and speaks to the sovereign grace of God.

The beauty of Christianity is that it is exclusively a function of God’s sovereign grace. Many Christians throughout history, and today, are very happy to proclaim God’s sovereignty in all areas of life, but when it comes to grace, they stutter and stammer. If God’s favor is sovereignly dispensed, it is completely unmerited, which is after all what grace is, unmerited favor. Most Christians balk at this because they are concerned that God give everyone a chance at salvation. It doesn’t seem fair to them that God picks some to be saved and not others. They also believe that would destroy human accountability and our free will. The problem with this is that if God didn’t sovereignly pick some to be saved, none would be saved. All human beings are dead in sin, alienated from God, his enemies; none seek him. It is only his supernatural power that raises us spiritually from the dead. The reason I wade into theological controversy is because of judgment, and what I spoke of above, revenge. The truth of the matter is that, there but for the grace of God go I. This is why I don’t like to think about hell because if it was not for God’s sovereign grace, I would be there too, and deserve it. His justice demands it, the wages of sin.

The temple filling with smoke would evoke images of the temple’s dedication after Solomon built it (2 Chronicles 5, specifically verses 13 and 14). It was filled with a cloud so the priests couldn’t perform their duties, “for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.” As one of the books I’m reading says, “The full disclosure of the glory of God brings all human activity to an end.” This God, “who lives for ever and ever,” will bring to completion his final judgment against sin, as we’ve seen, not to destroy everything, but to transform all things from the stain of sin so out of it can come something infinitely more glorious, as we shall see.

Revelation 15:2-4 – The Song of God’s Servant Moses and of the Lamb

I stopped my last post starting a discussion of verses two and three, after some thoughts on “God’s wrath is completed” from verse 1. I’ll continue to expand starting here:

² And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God ³ and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:

The image of the sea in the Bible, and in the ancient world in general, symbolizes chaos, but this sea appears to John not at all chaos like, so he describes it as glass. He’d previously seen a sea of glass in chapter 4 that was before the throne, so it’s likely to be an image of the opposite of chaos, of God’s being, his holiness, his set-apartness from all things created, fallen or not. Because John connects the saints who are victorious with the Exodus, the “glowing with fire” is likely symbolic of God’s judgment through which God’s people come into victory. The connection with the Exodus comes with the reference to the song of Moses (Exodus 15), which the Israelites sang after they went through the sea on the dry ground, and it swallowed up the Egyptian army perusing them. Here it also becomes the song of the Lamb because his blood has freed his people from the bondage of sin, and brought them into the promised land of the kingdom God.

Regarding “those who had been victorious,” all the English translations I looked at place this victory in the past tense, that their victory has been accomplished and now they sing. That’s plausible from the context because the Israelites were on the other side of the sea looking back on all the dead Egyptian bodies on the shore, so these are the victorious in the Lamb looking back at the carcass of the beast. But I don’t think that’s the best understanding of the passage from the Greek. It certainly does mean that, but the Greek verb for conquer is better rendered, “those conquering over the beast.” The verbal form John uses here is the present participle active, which means “it refers to an action that is currently taking place or which takes place repeatedly.” The same verbal tense is used in Jesus’ letters to the seven churches, where in the NIV they read, “To him overcomes (conquers) . . .” In Greek it is, “the one overcoming.” It is what they do, who they are, not something they’ve accomplished. It’s odd all the translations treat it as past tense, but I’m not Greek or New Testament scholar, so what do I know.

The reason I think this is important is because John is writing to people who are very much alive and having to live their lives in the presence of the beast. He’s using a bit of positive thinking psychology on them, and us. They and we are overcomers. The beast has no ultimate power over us, which is why we sing! We rejoice! Here God gives them harps to sing his praises; he provides them the music in their lives, as he does in ours. The harps connect these victorious with the 144,000 in chapter 14:

² And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. ³ And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 

We saw that number is not literal, but symbolic of the perfect number of all the redeemed. And the song they, and we, all sing is what Moses proclaimed after God’s great salvation of his people, which was a picture of the far greater salvation from our slavery and oppression to sin and death in the Lamb:

“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
    Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
    King of the nations.
⁴ Who will not fear you, Lord,
    and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
    and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

The great and marvelous in verse one that relates to the seven last plagues and God’s wrath being completed is connected here to his deeds, which are also great and marvelous. They, we, sing because of the awe inspiring immensity of the greatness of our God revealed in his deeds, in what he does for us! For his people. His redeeming and saving his people. As he did this for Israel physically and temporally, he did for us spiritually and forever. The promise of the land was never about a plot of land in the Middle East, but pointed to something much bigger than mere land. All of God’s working with Israel was symbolic of something that would in due course encompass all of reality and, as we’ve seen, those “from every tribe and language and people and nation.” That’s why Jesus told his disciples in Luke 24, twice, that the entire Old Testament, the entire history of God redeeming his people Israel was about him.

The proclamation that God’s ways as “just and true” is something I’ve discussed in great detail as we’ve considered the gruesome nature of God’s judgment on the world and rebellious sinners. I’ve linked to or quoted Deuteronomy 32:3,4 many times to remind us of God’s justice, that he can do no wrong, and ultimately he stands in judgment over us, not we over him. That seems axiomatic, hardly needing to be mentioned, but J.P. Moreland once told me that nobody gets mad at the Tooth Fairy. God, though, engenders anger, especially from people that don’t believe in him, because our sinful tendency to think our perspective on reality is the right and true perspective. If things don’t go like we want them to, or we don’t understand why they happen, we naturally blame God. His redeemed, however, those the Lamb purchased with his blood, proclaim the greatness of his name and his works as just and true.

In due course all mankind will have no choice but to acknowledge his “righteous acts,” both in judgment and salvation, in wrath and in mercy and grace. That is what I take from the words, “Who will not.” It is exactly because of the multi-ethnic, multi-national nature of God’s salvation that they, we, sing words of praise to our God. His salvation was never meant just for one people, and the time will come when every knee will bow and every tongue confess “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Amen!

Revelation 15:1-3 – The Great and Marvelous of God’s Wrath Completed

John now moves his vision back to heaven from the earth, seeing “another great and marvelous sign:

seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. 

We have seen another mega or “great” sign, so John intends us to connect the two (interesting, the word great is used in Revelation more than only two other books of the Bible, Psalms and Jeremiah, and that is apropos because if Revelation is anything it is mega!). The other, in 12:1, is in reference to God’s people, the church. It is important, I think, to pay attention how John signifies these two signs as it relates to our understanding and response to God’s judgment, God’s wrath against sin. It is difficult to see this in the English translation, but I think the Greek captures what I’m trying to say.

John uses the word sign, sémeion-σημεῖον, a perfectly biblical seven times in Revelation (like he does other words and ideas). The reference in chapter 12 is simply “great sign,” whereas here it is qualified with two other words, another and marvelous. The word sign for John, both here and in his gospel, is not the thing on the side of the road that points somewhere in a literal sense, but it is a sign to point us to bigger and deeper truths about the nature of reality, thus miraculous, and typically so in the rest of the New Testament.

Using the first qualifier, another, john is pointing us back to the great sign of the church in chapter 12, and connecting them in some way. Both are signs and thus miraculous, and what Christian does not see the church as the miraculous work of God’s power and mercy and grace. Specifically, it is built on the most absurd contention in the history of the world, that a religion should be built upon a man claiming to be God dying a brutal death on a Roman cross. Then that man coming back from death three days latter, and having up to 500 people witnessing it at some point. Then fifty days after this man ascends into heaven in the sight of his closest followers, he sends the promised Holy Spirit. It wasn’t the idea of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, or even the message of it, that built the church; it was the power of God himself in the person of the Holy Spirit applying to God’s people what Christ accomplished in redeeming them from sin and death, and God reconciling himself to them in Christ. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it exactly because it is a great sign.

The other qualifier is the adjective, thaumastos-θαυμαστός marvelous or wonderful, to wonder at. The extended definition is helpful for our purposes, “describing an awe-evoking sight (dramatic sense of wonder), moving the beholder to their deepest emotions.” Think about that, God’s judgment and wrath, fully carried out, is something that should evoke awe in us, his people. Instead of that, though, I tend to think of the suffering he’s inflicting on what might appear to be fine, decent people, wishing he didn’t have to pour out his wrath in this way. I don’t think of it as a “wonderful sign” in John’s sense, but as an unfortunate necessity because of man’s fall, and God’s justice. It must happen because the moral universe we live in is an extension of his being, which is why death, separation from the source of our existence, was the consequence of sin. For his people he paid that price, death, in the person of Christ, which is why we will never experience his wrath, and why it is called the gospel, the good news, the very best news!

The reason John identifies seven angels and plagues as the last is because as we’ve seen over and over, seven is the biblical symbolic number of completion and fulfillment. God’s wrath will finally have been fully poured out on a sin infected world to rid it of the stain of sin. The point of God’s wrath isn’t destruction but transformation, as in the cross, behold, new creation! As the way to the garden was guarded after the fall so man could not have access to the tree of life, and infect eternity with sin (i.e., rebellion against God), so God’s judgment must be executed to transform the old, fallen reality to the new glorious reality of the children of God. That’s why we should be amazed and awestruck. He is making all things right, all things new! Only our holy Almighty God can do that. Imagine if he didn’t completely judge sin. The misery of earthly existence, all it’s pain and suffering and sorrow would go on for eternity. We’d call that hell. By contrast, in Paul’s magnificent prayer in Ephesians 1, God is preparing for us a “glorious inheritance,” and that can only be fully delivered when his wrath is completed. Then John sees something else:

² And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God ³ and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:

What a beautiful picture! Remember the specific historical context I’ve referred to numerous times, and as it has been in many places throughout time. Only, in the first century when John is writing, Christians don’t have much history to look back on. Faithfully surviving in the Roman Empire could seem like a lost cause. Try to imagine anything like what we’re seeing around the world today in the Roman Empire, truckers’ protests in Canada, and people in Western countries like Australia, Austria, Germany, France and others, protesting tyrannical governments for their freedom. There were no protests in the Roman Empire; it was obey or die, horribly. Could those who heard John’s message (remember is was read in the seven churches it’s addressed to in Asia) dare to hope they could actually ever be “victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name”? Yes! Judgment and wrath is coming regardless of how it looks at the moment. Their faithfulness to the Lamb is victory! Even if it costs them their mortal lives. They, and we with them, will be standing beside this sea.

Because this is getting long, I will have to wait to my next post to comment in more detail on this beautiful picture because it is so filled with meaning. I will give a hint, though. It evokes images of the Exodus, and God’s victory for his people, apparently powerless and hopeless, against the might of Pharaoh and his army. Stay tuned . . . . for more hope!

Revelation 14:14-20 – The Harvest of God’s Justice

John transitions again with another declaration of seeing something else, but it continues the theme of judgment from the last section, this time much broader than before, and both positive and negative. Always keep in mind when reading Revelation, there is no chronology. John isn’t saying one thing happens, then after that another thing, and so on. He’s painting pictures of differing perspectives on similar events, and that is what he’s doing here. Here he sees one “like a son of man” seated on a white cloud. This is his second reference to Daniel 7:13. He clearly means it is Jesus, and John says he has “a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.” There are several angels in this passage, but what happens next seems kind of strange:

¹⁵ Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 

If this one like a son of man is Jesus, how can a mere angel tell him what to do? But notice from whence it comes, the temple. That is, from the presence of God and representing his authority, so we’re to understand judgment belongs to the Lord, even as Jesus is the Lord. There are two verses in John’s gospel that indicate judgment is something the Father and Son do together. In one he says, “the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,” and in the other, he judges only as he hears, and his judgment is just. The word sickle is used a perfectly biblical seven times in this passage, indicating that God’s justice and judgment are perfect and perfectly fulfilled. We have two choices when coming to passages such as this. Either God is perfectly just and his judgments are perfect, or they are arbitrary and capricious. If you’ve read thus far, you’ll know I come down on the former, especially when from my perspective things are hard to understand.

In the ancient world when the grain was ready to harvest in the fall, it would be dried up and easier to reap or gather in using a sickle. God has decided the time of perfect ripeness or dryness has come for judgment of the living and the dead. We need to remember this as we gaze in frustration at the evil done in our world and we cry out, How long O Lord! As long as it takes, knowing at the perfect time perfect justice is coming. Then John says something that seems a bit strange:

¹⁶ So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

Sitting and harvesting with a sickle rarely, meaning never, go in the same sentence. In the modern world the one doing the harvesting can do it sitting in a big combine, but not in the ancient world when it was done by hand. And it appears Jesus gives one swing of the sickle, and it’s done, the harvest is in, easy peasy, no sweat. I have no idea why John presents judgment this way, but it is comforting to know all the raging of the nations in rebellion against their Creator is addressed with a metaphorical wave of his hand or snap of his finger. Sovereign almighty power gives him that prerogative. But there are two harvests here, and it’s likely we’re to see a parallel between these angels, and those in verses 6-8, where the first angel declares a positive message, “the eternal gospel,” and the second a negative declaration of judgment. The ripeness of Jesus harvesting here is likely similar to what he declares in John 4:35, that the fields are ripe or white for harvest for the gospel. The contrast here the same as earlier in the chapter, and how John wants us to understand the two harvests.

Then another angel comes “out of the temple in heaven,” that is from the presence of God, and he also has “a sharp sickle.” Then we read of yet a third angel:

¹⁸ Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.”

There is some debate about who the second angel with the sharp sickle is, whether it’s Christ, but the text is very clear that it’s an angel, a messenger, and not “one like a son of man.” Yet, he also has a “sharp cycle” like Jesus but harvests grapes. However, sickles were not used to harvest grapes, but correct horticultural practice isn’t the point; judgment is. The reference to fire from the altar brings back the historical perspective we discussed in my last post, and points us back to 6:9,10 and three verses before and after which tell us of the prayers of the saints that go up before God and their longing for God to avenge their blood. It is not for them, or us, to avenge, but God alone. This is their answer, not specifically to their cry of “How long, Sovereign Lord,” but to the certainty of it happening. That is John’s point throughout Revelation; evil my prosper now, and some may suffer and die for their faith, but God’s judgment us coming, and it is sure, as we read:

¹⁹ The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. ²⁰ They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.

In the earlier declaration against Babylon (i.e., Rome), we read of how she “made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” God is now going to return the favor. From our perspective not understanding the history and ancient context we might think this this is a bit of overkill. Why does God, we might be tempted to think, have to be so bloody! But the point isn’t actual, literal, physical human blood, but the metaphor of suffering caused, so in justice suffering deserved. Rome was incredibly bloody to any who crossed her; life was cheap. She will now reap what she sowed, as will all those who chose loyalty to her over the Lamb. Flowing blood, and measuring it by the height of horses, is an exaggerated picture that would bring to mind for John’s readers Ezekiel 32:5,6. Comparisons to rivers of blood for great victories was also common in ancient apocalyptic literature. The symbolism and metaphor is to let us know justice is coming, and we can count on it.

Revelation 14:8-13 Continued . . . The Eternal Rest of The Blessed Who Die in Christ

I ended my last post with some thoughts on the disturbing images in these verses:

⁹ A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, ¹⁰ they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” 

I now want to focus on the second half of the passage, and put it in its theological as well as historical context. That, however, will require us to look at the next two verses which are critical for both:

¹² This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

¹³ Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

In order to have a better chance at understanding the strangeness of Revelation, we must always remember it was written to Christians in a very specific first century context, and for Christians throughout the rest of history. Many Christians, alas far too many, will read the passage above about eternal torment and think it applies to all the worshippers of the beast for all time. Given the minute nature of my knowledge about everything (I was tempted to use the word miniscule), it very well could, but even then Revelation is a book of metaphors and symbolism meant to communicate truths our mortal finite minds cannot conceive or fathom. I think it more fruitful for us as worshipers of the Lamb to focus on the theological context of eternity, than to speculate about what happens when we get there, be that for the saved or the damned.

We saw that references to beasts and dragons are specifically about Roman imperial power as it had been used to persecute Christians, and often murder them. It frequently took immense courage in the first century, and more, to faithfully proclaim the name of Christ. For most Christians in our day, it costs nothing, which is one reason most don’t take it seriously as the all consuming passion of their lives. John also referred to a beast that appeared to be fatally injured and was healed, very likely a reference to Nero. It would be difficult to convey the terror that name would illicit in the hearts of early Christians. None of us have had family members or friends put in the middle of a colosseum, and then have wild beasts maul them to death. Or, see or hear of them put on polls and burned to death as night lights for the city. This would have been happening in the late 60s, while in the early 80s another horrible persecution happened under the emperor Domitian. You can read some of the gruesome details in Fox’s Book of Martyrs.

These persecutions, and others surely to come, were the context for the message of Revelation. So, when we read these words of judgment, of God’s fury being “poured full strength into the cup of his wrath,” of “the smoke of their torment rising for ever and ever,” it’s best not to think of your co-worker, that nice family man who wants nothing to do with the gospel. Hell is, literally, an inconceivable reality (to which I’ll try to conceive in a moment) to us. The metaphors to give us some sense of its horrifying nature are all over the place. How can there be eternal fire in a place of outer darkness? It’s best to leave our speculations on the shelf, and trust God.

Rather, reading these words we think of powerless Christians facing the apparently almighty power of a Roman Empire that wants to wipe them out. John is letting them know God has their back, that no matter how it may appear, Rome (or any earthly power) will not get away with this. But it is not they who need to take revenge on their tormentors, as if that would do any good, but they ought to do as Peter says Christ did, “he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” This is not a call to pacifism, but to realism, and to live, or die, in light of the eternal realities in which John is calling his readers to see everything. Only if they know and trust these eternal realities are true because of their risen Savior, can they withstand the temptations to “worship the beast,” and stay faithful to the Lamb who purchased them with his blood, a victim of that very same Roman Empire. But as he defeated death, so will they if they remain faithful. Nobody, least of all Jesus(!), said it would be easy.

Finally, let’s consider a theological perspective on eternal justice. Notice the eternal distinction John makes between those who worship the beast, and those who “die in the Lord” (applies to any death not just those killed for their faith) is a matter of rest. When we think of the word rest, what we do think of? Whatever images come to mind, and there are a very lot of synonyms, rest comes after some kind of exertion, and the more energy and effort exerted, the more appreciated the rest. We can think of rest as more than just a physical state, but mental and emotional as well. In fact, the latter are more important because in the end if our minds and emotions are burdened with labor, stress and anxiety, that has deleterious physical consequences as well. In a way we can think of those who spend eternity alienated from God, not reconciled to him by the blood of the Lamb, as living forever with the worst kind of psychological and emotional stress we could ever imagine. They long for relief, for rest, but it never comes.

Christians, on the other hand, those who have been redeemed and reconciled to God, enter eternal rest from their laborious toil of such a kind that it causes deep fatigue and extreme weariness. Living in a fallen world among fallen people in a fallen body weighed down by the gravitational pull of sin will do that to us; and we desperately want to rest from it all! Those who worship the beast, and all it represents throughout all history, desperately want that rest too, but during life they looked for it in all the wrong places, in all the wrong things, in all the wrong people, and sadly they will take that fatigue and weariness, psychological, emotional, relational, and physical into eternity. What is even worse is something Jesus teaches us (or at least implies from the story) in his parable of the rich man and Lazarus. They will somehow know they could have had that rest, an eternal rest, and they will not be able to get it.

Very briefly, for anyone tempted to think it is our deeds that get us to this eternal rest, I would encourage them to meditate on I Corinthians 1:30. Jesus alone is our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

Revelation 14:8-13 – Babylon the Great has Fallen!

As John has introduced us to an angel who declared the salvation of the “eternal gospel” and a call to repentance, he now introduces us to two additional angels who introduce judgment. He uses a word and concept here for the first time, and an additional ten times in the book:

⁸ A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

Those familiar with the Bible know Babylon plays an important role in redemptive history, though few of us know how central that role is. I’m starting to see that just reading this verse and doing a bit of digging. I did a Bible word search for Babylon, and was stunned to learn it appears, wait for it . . . . 315 times from Genesis to Revelation! I have a decent knowledge of the Bible (although I’m just getting started), and I would never have guessed that. Ten of those references are in Revelation, the first here in verse 8. Most of the references are to the historical place in what today is modern day Iraq (174 in Jeremiah alone because he lived during the exile), but in Revelation they are purely symbolic. The specific verse that commentators point to that has both historical and symbolic meaning, and the one John likely has in mind has he references Babylon in Revelation is Isaiah 21:9:

Look, here comes a man in a chariot
    with a team of horses.
And he gives back the answer:
    ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen!
All the images of its gods
    lie shattered on the ground!’

Here Isaiah prophesies the fall of the great city more than two hundred years into the future, but in John’s reading the fallen city refers to the Roman Empire. John is wanting his readers to believe the unbelievable; just as ancient Babylon fell, so will modern Rome. We also know he intends such a comparison because we read in Jeremiah (51:7), “she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone mad.” The phrase John uses here, “maddening wine of her adulteries,” is translated in different ways, but the literal Greek is strange, “the wine of the wrath of the immorality of her.” This immorality, porneia-πορνεία, is sexual in nature, and means literally, a selling off (surrendering) of sexual purity; promiscuity of any (every) type. Adulteries as the NIV has it is a reasonable inference given the sexual nature of so much of Israel’s idolatry, their unfaithfulness is adultery to God (religion and sex were deeply intertwined in the ancient world given the mystery of procreation in people and nature). Rome, John is telling his readers, is fundamentally evil in the worst way imaginable, and she infects “all the nations” with her STDs, if you will. The final comparison is that when John was writing in the late first century, Rome had destroyed Jerusalem just as Babylon had done 500 years previously. Then we’re introduced to a third angel who proclaims God’s terrifying judgment:

⁹ A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, ¹⁰ they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” 

Those who have decided to drink the maddening wine of Rome’s adulteries, who have declared their loyalty to the beast, will now drink the wine of God’s wrath. Most people diluted wine with water in the ancient world to drink it, but here they will drink of God’s wrath at full strength. John wants his readers to be so sure of their ultimate victory over their tormenters, he places the fall of Rome in the past tense; it already effectively has happened. This terrible judgment will be the destiny of those who have not chosen the Lamb, who have chosen loyalty to the world system over him; his Christian readers can have confidence justice will be served. As I’ve said, we’re presented with a binary choice, one or the other, either the world system (often represented by the power of the state) or the Lamb, those who have received his mark. John likely has in mind these verses from Psalm 75:

⁷ It is God who judges:
    He brings one down, he exalts another.
⁸ In the hand of the Lord is a cup
    full of foaming wine mixed with spices;
he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth
    drink it down to its very dregs.

Then he describes their suffering. For many people, including Christians, which includes me, the nature of God’s eternal justice presents a dilemma. One the one hand we long for justice, we long for evil to be punished, for wrongs to be made right, but on the other the punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime. The nature of the offense, whatever and how bad it might be, is limited in duration and scope, yet the punishment is forever. And the imagery with which John paints the picture is vivid and disturbing. We can’t imagine our Aunt Millie who was a kind old lady, but was completely irreligious, suffering such torment forever. That can’t be right, right? And I find it kind of ghoulish that their suffering, their being tormented with “burning sulfur” will be witnessed (in the presence of) by angels and Christ forever. It seems, you know, overkill, rubbing it in a bit much.

I voice my misgivings and doubts in this way, well, first to be honest. Any Christian who doesn’t read this with some misgivings is not taking seriously the moral nature of the universe, material and spiritual, God created. All things moral have consequences, for good or ill. The question is who decides those consequences. If we consider this carefully, we’ll realize it is always God. To pick an obvious example since we’ve talked about sex: are venereal diseases caused by the natural consequences of sexual promiscuity? Of course they are, but are they “natural”? Do they happen because of viruses or germs, something material only, or because God created reality as an extension of his being and character? So, the nature of his justice and judgment can never be escaped, in space and time, and in eternity. He is eternal, so his justice is eternal. He also created man as an eternal being, who will either live in communion with him, or alienated from him.

That last sentence gets to the crux of the matter, but I didn’t expect to go in this direction, or be this long, so I can’t finish my thoughts on this already too long post. And I think I have many more thoughts. So I will continue those in the next post, and finish the final two verses in this passage.

Revelation 14:6,7 – The Eternal Gospel and God’s Judgment

John makes another transition with a phrase he uses often in Revelation, “Then I saw . . .” Now it’s “another angel (remember, the word angel is also messenger) flying in midair”:

and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. 

Then he has a dreadful message for those who have not embraced this eternal gospel. As we discuss this passage, we need to keep in mind that John was writing to a specific audience in a specific historical context. John has emphasized dichotomies, the either/or nature of faith in a fallen world; it’s the beast or the Lamb, and it is not possible to have loyalty to both. The brutality of the Roman system in which he and his hearers lived is this context, and the spiritual war dynamic underlying all that happens.

That’s part of the reason he uses a phrase, eternal gospel, only found here in the New Testament. In his gospel, John uses the phrase “eternal life” eighteen times, so his natural focus is always on the forever nature of this good news (euaggelion-εὐαγγέλιον), as contrasted with the temporary and fleeting nature of Roman or any worldly power or system. Neither John nor his readers had any idea, or could they fathom, that in a mere three hundred years the Roman Empire as they knew it would would cease to exist. Contrast the longest lived empire in the history of the world with eternity, with forever, with never ending, and there is no comparison.

That this angel was “flying in midair” is also an indication of the universal Scope of the message (every nation, etc. used numerous times in Revelation), and the universal nature of the challenge that is given to all people. He uses the same phrase “flying in midair” in 8:13 of an eagle who is proclaiming three woes to the inhabitants of the earth, to those who have not embraced the Lamb. Midair indicates these are very public declarations that all people cannot miss, and the choice is clear. This angel declares:

⁷ He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

This “mega” voice is another indication of the universal nature of the call, in this case a call to repentance, thus fear God and give him glory. The reason the angel is giving for the call is two-fold. One, judgment is coming, and is in fact already here. This passage (6-13) seems to indicate the final judgment has already come, but a phrase that makes clear what John is doing, not only here but throughout Revelation, is realized eschatology. If you search online for that phrase, you’ll find many different understandings of it, so I will take mine from one of the books I’m reading to help me through Revelation. The word eschatology in simple terms means the events at the end of time, when history ends and God’s judgment and vindication are final. For John, we are living our daily lives in light of that, in a real sense, already being fulfilled. We saw in previous chapters various natural disasters are part of God’s judgment throughout history, and that both judgment and our salvation in the Lamb are eternal in nature. That is why we can trust it; we don’t look at events, human or “natural” as if they had a life of their own. We’re living now in the fulfillment, the eschaton, the already that is not yet. As John says, for those saved and unsaved, the hour has come: Repent!

The second reason for the call is creation, or more accurately the Lord of creation, the Creator God who made all things, and thus controls all things. They are his! To do with as he likes, as we’ve seen throughout Revelation so far. All the seals and trumpets we’re specifically a result of God’s passively commanding, or from our finite perspective, allowing, nature to reflect his judgment. We must remember, and believe (trust) that God is just, ultimately, and can do no wrong (Deut. 32.3,4). We must also remember the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. God warned man in the garden that if he ate from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” he would certainly die. We can’t say we haven’t been warned, but yet when death happens most people ask why, as if such a thing as death shouldn’t happen. Of course, this feeling of wrongness doesn’t seem to apply so much to older people who have lived long lives, but even when why is asked, the implied answer is that it shouldn’t. Death is wrong, and everyone knows it to the bottom of their being regardless of what they believe, yet most people will not admit we deserve it; that God is just, and death is the just sentence for our sin and rebellion against him.

Ever since Voltaire lamented the great Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755, and blamed God, man has put God “in the dock,” or on trial; as if it is God who has to justify himself to man, and not man to God. This was the result of the so called Enlightenment, and the secularization of the Western world, which included seeing nature as “natural,” our outside the bounds of God’s control. By the mid-18th century, for many Western intellectuals God was an impotent despot. This lead to what we call “the problem of evil.” In Voltaire’s mind, if God is good he would never allow a devastating earthquake that kills tens of thousands of innocent people, and that it happened showed he didn’t have the power to stop it. On the other hand, if he has the power to stop it or keep it from happening but didn’t, he isn’t good. Of course, this all assumes there are such things as “innocent people.” We know that is not true, because Paul and our experience and human history tells us, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” It also assumes God doesn’t have the right to do what he wants with what he created. The issue for all of us as we confront this “problem” is God’s character, and whether we choose to trust him or not. Most Christians side with Moses, that God can do no wrong, even when from our perspective things seem very, very wrong.

We must keep all this in mind as we read the rest of this passage, and all of Revelation for that matter. God’s judgment is not a pleasant thing, and none of us likes it, or none of us should. We must always keep in mind, there but for the grace of God go all of us, every single one. Revelation, fortunately, brings great hope amid the terror, and in our deepest being we all want justice to be done, and hate injustice; yet we struggle with the God who determines ultimate justice. We’re sinners, what do you expect. We must brace ourselves for what’s to come because it is not pretty, only necessary.

Revelation 14:1-5 – God’s Redeemed Sing a New Song!

We now leave the beast on earth, and John’s vision turns back to heaven:

Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. ² And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 

Mount Zion in biblical reference is Jerusalem, the place where God dwells, and we’re reminded again of this number from chapter 7, those who were sealed from the tribes of Israel who were protected from God’s wrath. That seal was on their foreheads as well, so indicates these are those same number, but here we’re told what that seal is, the name of the Lamb and Father written there. The number in chapter 7 consisted of 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel, symbolizing some kind of perfect number of God’s chosen people, and with them was an uncountable multitude of “every every nation, tribe, people, and language,” and they sang in worship to the salvation that belonged to God and the Lamb. Here will be singing too, as the sound of harpists indicate, but it is introduced by an awesome sound. All of us have experienced thunder, and add to that some something like the sound of the rushing water falling over Niagara Falls, and we get the send of something magnificent about to happen. Here, though, it’s just the symbolic 144,000:

³ And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 

In chapter 7, those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb “cry out,” but here we’re told what they sing, “a new song,” which is a common Old Testament theme magnifying the salvation of God for his people. It is the second time it is used in Revelation, also in 5:9, there of the twenty-four elders who proclaim that song about those purchased for God by the slain Lamb. Here we’re told this is a very special song only certain people, the redeemed, can learn. We know this is not limited to the symbolic 144,000 because “from the earth” indicates it is also the same people from chapter 7, “from every nation, tribe, people, and language.” Anyone who has the mark of the beast, who is loyal to the earthly system, cannot learn this song. It is impossible, while those who are washed and cleanse cannot help singing it! And because this song has been sung by God’s people prior to Christ, we know he has been saving his people the entire time, only now is the fulfillment and consummation. The song is no longer sung just by Israel, by God’s initial covenant people, but all his covenant people of all time over all the earth.

We can also see that by following the terrifying images of the beasts of chapter 13 with this, John is making a contrast between those who belong to them, who have been marked with his number, the number of ultimate imperfection, 666, and God’s people marked and sealed with God’s name on their foreheads. Human beings belong in one of these two camps; there is no in between, there is no neutrality. We read in 13:8, all whose names have not been written in the book of life will worship the beast, the world system that opposes God and his Christ. The issue is loyalty, and whether John’s readers at the time, and Christians throughout all time, will worship the beast, the state or anyone who claims ultimate authority, or God and the Lamb. We who have been sealed with God’s mark are his property, and protected forever from sin and death by it. Earthly beasts whatever they might offer us, or no matter what they do to us physically, cannot harm us eternally, and that in the end is all that matters. But we see in this chapter something special or different about these 144,000:

⁴ These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. ⁵ No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

There is a lot of symbolic imagery in these words. As we saw, this number reflects all the chosen and saved people of God, so it is not just men. John gives us a perfect biblical seven characteristics of God’s people:

• They did not defile themselves
• They remained virgins

In the Old Testament, Israel’s armies were required to remain ceremonially pure to do battle as the Lord’s people, and that concerned various aspects of the human body, including sex.

• They follow the Lamb

When Jesus called his disciples, he told them to follow him, and he would make them fishers of men. He said elsewhere, anyone who would follow him, must take up his cross, and thus be willing to follow Jesus (which sometimes may include death). In other words, ultimate loyalty.

• They were purchased

God owns them. In 5:9 we learn that purchase was made by the blood of the Lamb, and was people “from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Further indication this is not limited to a specific number, 144,000.

• They were offered as firstfruits

This looks back to an ordinance of God (Leviticus 23) celebrating God’s first portion of blessing of his provision, which indicates to his people there is fullness to come. Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks would come 50 days later.

• No lie was found in their mouth

This is almost an exact quote from Isaiah 53:9 where it is said, “there was no deceit in his mouth,” and quoted by Peter as well (1 Peter 2:22). And finally

• They are blameless

We’ll see in the next verse something John calls “the eternal gospel,” and these three words are it! All seven characteristics are part of this forever blessing, but the heart of the gospel is God making for himself a holy people reconciled to him, a people partaking of his very own righteousness. In other words, all this is his work not ours! How can it not be? We can’t make ourselves blameless by what we do or don’t do, by following the law, by how hard we work at it. And as Jesus said, perfection is required. There is only one way to be blameless before a holy God, and that is to be made blameless. That most counter intuitive truth imaginable to religious man is the gospel. Part of the inferred meaning of the Greek word John uses is unblemished from the marring effects of sin. All of the ugliness of sin that still resides in us, in our flesh as Paul says, and is slowly being eradicated in sanctification now, will be completely wiped away. When that day comes, we with all God’s people will be presented to God the Father as a pure virgin bride to Christ, his church.