Beginning of the End

 

There are many interpretations of Revelation and much disagreement. I have a commentary that looks at this last NT book through OT thinking. It helps with the symbolism. Also, someone recently pointed out that what John saw could be tanks, helicopters and other items that were not in existence at that time so he described them the best he could. 

However, God always reveals what His people need to know; therefore, I can trust Him to do that. He also says I will be blessed as I read this NT book. Today, it is chapters 7 to 12.

John saw 144,000, sealed from every tribe of Israel and then: 

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!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 

One of the elders said: “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” My commentary says these were the martyrs of John’s time, but the text does not confirm this, only that they worshiped Jesus Christ.

Then an angel offered incense and prayers of all those before God’s throne and this rose before God. Then seven angels with seven trumpets begin to cry out. The first four told of woes that would destroy one-third of almost everything. Another angel cried, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!” (Revelation 8:13)

The first of these last three woes is described with detail:

Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them. (Revelation 9:3–6)

The next woe was the release of four angels to kill one-third of humanity, but even those who were not killed “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. . . . nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.” (Revelation 9:20–21) Such a horror!

Then, as John was about to write what he was seeing, he was told, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” 

There is more. Two witnesses show up “who will prophesy for 1,260 days” then be killed by “the beast that rises from the bottomless pit” and those still alive will, “make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.” 

Then an earthquake and more deaths, and the third woe soon to come, without any description, except the the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying: 

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15)

More severe cosmic events and a war in heaven follow as the angels fight the “dragon” and defeat him. Then Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, is thrown down with his angels. Then John hears this: 

Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Revelation 12:7–11)

PRAY: Oh Lord, after this, another war ensues, but its meaning and symbolism are not clear to me. What is clear is that those enemies — the world, the flesh, and the devil — are defeated and You win and all who trust You are conquerors also.