START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Revelation 7:9-17
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM
OBSERVE:
There are so many different approaches to the interpretation of the Revelation that we may sometimes lose sight of its underlying purpose — to offer hope and encouragement to a persecuted church.
Once again in this passage we are introduced to a vast worship service in the courts of heaven.
Just prior to this passage, John has described the opening of six seals on the heavenly scroll by the Lamb of God. And the 144,000 have been sealed as those who are set apart in advance of the disasters that are to come. Who the 144,000 are is a debatable point that is beyond our scope just now.
But it is very significant that John describes the myriad number of those who are gathered before the throne of God:
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.
Whatever the symbolic interpretation of the 144,000 who are sealed (and there are many conflicting interpretations), what is made clear is that those who are gathered here are beyond numbering. Not in the thousands, or hundreds of thousands, but perhaps in the millions if not billions!
His description of the great multitude suggests that John sees a vision of the souls who are to be gathered at the end of time. They are diverse nationally, ethnically, racially and linguistically. This is a fulfillment of the Great Commission of Jesus to:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).
This vast crowd, dressed in white, are waving palm branches — typically a Biblical symbol heralding a festive occasion, and of course associated in the Gospels with the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.
Now, these souls in heaven are praising the risen Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father with their uplifted palm branches!
Imagine the chorus of voices as they proclaim in unison:
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Then the angels and the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures who have already been introduced in the heavenly court all join together in this massive worship experience:
they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Frequently in the Revelation of John, there are dialogues between John and members of the heavenly court. Here, one of the elders asks John a question:
“Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?”
He is asking about the vast congregation who come from every nation and tribe. John either doesn’t know, or he is too humble to answer:
“Sir, you are the one that knows.”
This is reminiscent of the encounter between Ezekiel and the Lord in the Valley of the Dry Bones. The Lord shows Ezekiel the bones and says:
“Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know” (Ezekiel 37:3).
This dialectal style of question and answer was fairly typical in the ancient world — we see it in Plato’s Dialogues when Socrates asks questions that eventually lead to discovery.
The elder does know the answer to the question he has asked:
“These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
Are these all of the martyrs of the church? Is the great ordeal (also known as the tribulation in other translations) John’s description of the Roman persecution of his time, or a later more universal period of persecution? We can’t be sure, because there are many opinions on this aspect of The Revelation.
What is clear is that those who have been martyred are honored as those who are gathered before the throne of God, where they:
worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
John describes the comforting shelter that God provides for them:
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Note the irony — the Lamb, who has been sacrificed for these martyrs, now becomes their shepherd. Only now the Good Shepherd guides them to the water of life that flows through the Holy City.
APPLY:
Anyone who has worshiped in a huge, packed church or attended a large Christian concert or outdoor festival, might have a faint appreciation for the kind of experience described in Revelation 7:9-17.
Except, of course, that the “special effects” and the distinguished guests — such as the twenty-four elders, the four living creatures, and the vast crowds of the martyrs — are real in this scenario.
What we must not lose sight of is the message of shining hope that permeates the Book of Revelation, despite all of its descriptions of woe and judgment. Those who have passed through the great ordeal will be in the very presence of God in the heavenly throne room. And no matter what suffering they may have experienced, they will be comforted by the Lamb, they will drink from living water, and every tear will be wiped from their eyes.
Whatever else the great Apocalypse may bring, we know that the Lord will care for his own.
RESPOND:
[Note from Celeste: Tom wrote this post in April, 2016. I do not know if the following statistics have changed in the last 6 years.]
This passage reminds me that we are living in a terrible age of Christian persecution — not in the United States, where I live, but in many nations around the world.
The description of the multitude of the martyrs who:
have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb
is a reminder to me that I have suffered very little, relatively speaking, for my faith.
I am comforted that Revelation 19 seems to open the door for the rest of us who are believers, but not martyrs:
Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).
But I am prompted to pray for and support those who are suffering for their faith even now.
Persecution Worldwide, which is a ministry of the Voice of the Martyrs, says that Christians are persecuted in at least forty countries today. Another source says that as many as 60 nations practice discrimination against Christians.
Christianity seems to be undergoing systematic elimination in countries controlled by Muslim radicals like ISIS and the Taliban.
In Communist North Korea, Christians face detention in prison camps, torture, and possible execution for the practice of their faith.
An average of 180 Christians are killed every month for their faith around the world according to reports. Some reports allege that the numbers are even higher, at 100,000 a year!
Most experts believe that the time in which we live far surpasses the early church in terms of the numbers of martyrs.
Ironically, while Christians in the Middle East and in Communist and authoritarian governments are dying for their faith, we in the United States seem to be scrambling to compromise with “this present age.” Western Christians seem eager to accommodate the culture rather than to be light and leaven.
Perhaps that explains why the church in such areas of persecution seems to grow!
Tertullian, the early church Father, wrote:
The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
A North Korean Christian is quoted as saying,
“We’re just like nails. The harder you hit us, the deeper you drive us; and the deeper you drive us, the more peaceful it becomes!”
Perhaps because there is a cost to their faith, it means something to follow Christ! In the West, if there is a ball game at the same time as the church service — the ball game unfortunately becomes the priority.
To paraphrase Juan Luis Segundo, perhaps the church will flourish with a heroic minority rather than a consumer majority. Paradoxically, the church under such circumstances becomes more muscular, and actually grows!
So — I pray for the persecuted church; and I pray that I might be more faithful and committed in my own faith.
Lord, your vision for your church is a vision of hope and comfort. I pray for those who suffer for their faith. And I pray for that day when suffering and tears and hunger and thirst are no more. Amen.
PHOTO:
"persecuted church" by Imagens Cristas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.
START WITH SCRIPTURE:
SOAR Lectionary Bible Study 