Does Revelation teach us the permanent principles hidden but active in every phase of history? Or does it show us a final, climactic period of history, when everything is at last ‘revealed’ (`revelation`) as it truly is (eg 15:4)?
Probably both. `Permanent principles hidden but active`: Peter says of old testament prophecy, ‘The prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing’ in what He predicted through them (1 Peter 1:10-11, NIV as usual). They didn’t always understand what, under His inspiration, they had written, but it had so much to bless them. And if some parts of OT prophecy were ‘closed up and sealed until the time of the end’ (Dan 12:9), it’s not surprising if parts of Revelation were equally ‘sealed up’, not written to be entirely clear or immediately `relevant`, to John’s contemporary audience. And likewise to us! But even so, the book clearly embodies permanent principles which the Church in that and every era urgently needs to feed upon; again including ourselves! So one vital way to read chapter after chapter of Revelation is to ask how it empowers us to be ‘overcomers’, even in the most difficult of times. And these central chapters 8 to 11 also help us – the Church in every age – to have a vital better understanding of God’s judgments, and also of His sovereignty; how what His authority is doing even in the darkest of times. We need this!
So we can and should read these sections as having application throughout history. But it also seems that in Revelation God is focusing our attention on a very specific time (see 9:15); as we said in last week’s post, a final ‘short time’ of crisis (cf 12:12) at the end of history, described frequently in the three equivalent phrases of 1260 days, forty-two months, or three-and-a-half times (years) – when for a brief period God steps back and allows humanity to experience the full consequences of its rebellious desire for independence. The brevity and unequalled horror of this carefully numbered (Rev 11:2,3; 12:6,14; 13:5; Dan 7:25; 9:27; 12:7,11) period is drawn attention to by Jesus: it is a time of `great distress unequalled from the beginning of the world until now`, but mercifully ‘those days will be shortened’; ‘If those days had not been cut short, no-one would survive’ (Matt 24:21-22). There does seem to be a repeated prioritisation in Scripture of this brief period; it’s the consummate time of ‘revelation’ climaxing human history, the end of the spiral when everything (eg 2 Thess 2:7) is revealed for what it is, when all greys become black or white; and when what is in our era a sealed book will be shown (as in Job) to have meaning. It’s also the time, as we see from ch12 onwards, of Satan’s ultimate, unrestrained, and completely open challenge to God and His people.
So in Revelation we seem to be given three sequences of seven judgments – seven seals, seven trumpets (here in chs 8 and 9), seven bowls – not overlapping entirely, but all apparently culminating in a climax of ‘earthquake, thunder and hail’ (6:12-17, 11:15-19, 16:17-21), which appears to mark the End. (Revelation 10:7 states that, when the seventh trumpet is sounded, the ‘mystery of God will be accomplished’, that is, completed; 15:1 speaks similarly about the bowls.) Revelation reveals; and as such it is a book of judgment, as revelations of prophecy often are. It helps us see that ultimately the terrible things such as are chronicled in chs 8 and 9 happen as a direct consequence of human sin and rebellion. (Both in our disconnection since the Fall from God’s loving power for good, and in the fact that there is so much evil – war, famine, economic injustice, and environmental destruction for example – that would not occur if our race as a whole were following Christ; and indeed yet more that probably wouldn’t occur – natural disasters? – if our race as a whole were praying?) In ch6 we have seen John weeping because of the unexplained suffering, yet in these chapters we are also being brought face to face with these tough
realities: these are not accidents, rather human sin and rebellion really do result in horrendous consequences; and so in this brief time of clarity and revelation we see that as one evil after another impacts the human race it is because it `was given’ them (a repeated phrase, 6:2,4 (twice),8, 7:2, 9:1,3,5, 13:5,7 (twice), 16:8; cf 2 Thess 2:6-7 and Job 1) to do this. In `judgment’, then, the evils arising as consequences of human sin, but normally restrained by God, are finally and briefly let loose (eg 9:1-2,14, probably 7:1-3). (I worship you, Lord; you are Judge, and your judgments are righteous. And I thank you for Jesus who `redeemed us from wrath’ at such huge personal cost, so that we need never go through it…) John Lennox notes that, before each set of judgments (ie in chapters 4–5, 7, and 15), John is given a vision into heaven, to see the spiritual reasons why these things come, and to help us grasp that they are neither arbitrary nor irrational.
In short then, as we saw last time, even when evil seems most rampant, God is still sovereign. And all this is underlined in a different way in chapter 10, which for me personally is the most obscure chapter in Revelation; but if we follow the wisdom of focusing on what is clear, and leaving – for now – what is unclear, chapter 10 becomes for us a powerful reminder that, amid all the evil, the Lord is the one ultimately in control.
The previous chapters have raised the question, how do we believers cope – `How long?` (6:10) – with the apparently inactive silence of God (6:9-10, 8:1)? – when prayer seems unanswered, even futile? But then this whole section begins with prayers being heard, indeed breaking the silence of heaven (8:3); as Lennox says, a huge practical encouragement – this is how our prayers look from heaven! And in these next chapters that silence is replaced, as Lennox notes, by plenty of meaningful sound – trumpets (ch8), thunders (10:3), loud voices (11:15); and in particular we have an enormously impressive `mighty angel` (whoever he is!- some think Christ (cf 1:15-16), some not (cf 5:2)!), who gives `a loud shout like the roar of a lion` (10:3). And he then makes the adamantly sworn promise that `There will be no more delay!` (10:6, cf 11:18). That is, the 1260 days of 11:2-3 are coming to an end, and God will intervene, keeping His covenant (11:19) and beginning to reign (11:15-16). (Haddon Robinson notes that this majestic being who ‘stands with mighty authority upon land and sea alike … finds its message in the unimpressiveness of a little book [10:2,8ff] … Thus, when the weak, human voice of preaching gives expression to the message of the opened book, the actual speaker is he whose voice is as a lion and who commands all the forces of creation’! This is what happens when we preach Revelation!)
And one thing this mighty being makes clear is that there will be ultimate vindication for the persecuted prophets (10:7) who were faithful throughout even a time of God’s apparent silence. (Again, a calling to commitment and faith…!) Ridiculed watchmen who warned of judgment (like Jeremiah, Amos, so many others); do we want to be like that? Especially if the message is painful, as a message of judgment should be (10:9-10)? Chapter 11 gives us two particularly significant prophets, and we can reflect on two things about them, remarkable supernatural power (vv5-6), yet wearing sackcloth (v2); because of the depth of sin they are seeing; or the depth of judgment to come; or both? Anyway such true prophets need not expect popularity, v10. And chapter 11 brings home the lessons of these chapters to us even more, because although these prophets’ authority (again, whoever they are) is so clearly validated by amazing divine (vv5-6), the `Lord of the earth` nevertheless allows them to be violently overcome (v7; cf Dan 7:21)!
And that certainly makes it look as if the satanic Animal has even more power than God; so it can sometimes appear. But this is how God’s sovereignty (note the clear sense of timing in ‘when they have finished their testimony’, 11:7) and providence sometimes work; God is silent indeed here (cf 8:1). A challenge here to any of us who wish to be overcomers: do we still believe in God, are we willing to be faithful longterm to Him, when for a short time the Enemy seems cruelly triumphant, and God seems totally silent?
But that is emphatically not the end of the story! ‘A breath of life from God entered them… And they went up to heaven in a cloud’ (vv11-12), just like their Master’s resurrection and ascension! Their apparent defeat was a mark of conformity with Christ who was crucified (v8), not something final. And so it is that God is glorified! (Thank You, Lord – I need to be reminded of all this!) Now, indeed, we read, is the very time when God has ‘taken [His] great power and [has] begun to reign’ (v17), and the elders ‘give thanks to You’ (emphasis mine) – Amen! Thanks now for the planet’s sake, that an end is being put to its destruction (v18 is a very striking verse; God is `destroying those who destroy the earth` – God surely cares about the environment – it’s His environment!); thanks too because the desperate time of a world under evil is now over; thanks because at long last His martyred followers (v18 again) have been vindicated (cf 6:10); thanks that now the Lord will `reign for ever and ever` (v15); and thanks simply because the restoration of God’s direct rule is right (cf 15:3-4)!
So as Nigel Lee notes, this section, like each part of Revelation except the very first, ends with singing, with the people who have chosen to follow Jesus being rescued and redeemed!
**And Lord, I want to say a really worshipful and loud (like v15!) AMEN to all that’s in those verses!**
A minor PS: It should be said that some writers (eg Tim LaHaye in The Rapture) argue that the whole of Revelation is ‘chronological and consecutive’; thus for LaHaye the seals of chapter 6 describe the first twenty-one months of the seven-year tribulation, the trumpet judgements take matters up to halfway through it, and the rest of the book describes the final forty-two months. But surely it is very difficult to see 6:14-16, 10:6-7 or 11:15-18 as describing anything but the absolute End. Rather, it seems that Revelation repeatedly recapitulates.
