The Most Important Reality

READ Revelation 6–10

My last bout with flu was in 1996. I cannot remember my last cold. Yesterday, it felt like a cold, but since I was supposed to fly to Vancouver today, my hubby gave me a rapid test, actually two of them. Both were positive for Covid. Shocking, especially for a healthy person. I slept six hours yesterday and all night. We called the health link today and were asked dozens of questions. He said to take another rapid test tonight and if it negative, to ignore the first two results. Whatever this is, I feel weak, tired, and just want to sleep.

In two books of prayers, one reminded me of the new names God gives His people: citizens of His kingdom, saints because He marked me and claimed me as His own, and members of His family — all because of Jesus! This makes my weary heart rejoice.

The other prayer book’s entry is timely. It begins with, “Be our primary disease, and infect us with your justice.” Feeling ill tends to make me feel sorry for myself, but God says this ‘disease’ is nothing. He wants me to be utterly infected with His righteousness, not a disease but a release from the ‘sickness’ of ruling my own life. The question I hear from Him is, “Do you trust me with your life, no matter what happens to it?”

Then today’s reading. It begins with John watching Jesus open the first of seven seals and a voice bidding Him to Come. These seals that He opens are a way more frightening than Covid. The first three lead up to this one:

When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:7–8)

The fifth seal gets personal. It is about God’s people slain for “the word of God and for the witness they had borne.” They asked: “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

They were given white robes and told to rest until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (6:9–11) I’ve heard Christians say they would like to be alive when the end comes and Jesus returns, but I’m not so sure I want to be!

At this point, John saw another angel who told the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” (7:2–3) Then he tells of a “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9–10)

These are believers who came out of the great tribulation and washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.

“Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (7:14–17)

This makes me feel better. Jesus wins — and with Him we share the victory. It is not so for those who refuse His offer of eternal life. The bad news is:

The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. (9:20–21)

Despite the way I feel, thinking of what Jesus has done in my life brings joy to my heart and that amazing peace that passes understanding. Thank You, dear Jesus for reminding me of what is the most important, for granting me repentance, and for giving me assurance of eternal life.