August 28: JUST AHEAD (part 2)

… and that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth. Revelation 11:18b

We continue in the verse begun yesterday: In vision, John witnesses the song of gratitude of the twenty-four elders in heaven. They are expressing excitement as the time nears for Jesus to return to the earth and gather His people. It is a time of judgment, for He will gather the saved (John 14:3) and there will be no mistaking who’s who. This preparatory, or investigative, judgment, based upon flawless record-keeping, is currently in process and will continue until everyone – those who have died already as well as the living – has been measured. Those who are saved, [His] servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear [His] name, small and great, is expressed in such a way as to make clear that people from every socio-economic division will be in this group. This highlights the positive aspect of judgment. Notice the borrowed phrase from Psalm 15:13 below.

God’s wrath will fall upon those who destroy the earth. This is not to be taken as a political statement on ecology, even though religious and political leaders are misusing it that way. It is the negative aspect of judgment that inevitably falls upon all who have insisted upon bringing corrupting influences into their lives and the lives of those around them, fostering an atmosphere of corruption. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt: for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth (Genesis 6:12). In Noah’s day this widespread calamity was made possible because people were complicit with the influences of Satan. It is the same today, only on a much broader and more modern scale. God states in the next verse: The earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth (v.13).

John’s recording of the heavenly vision contains details that identify where we are in the stream of time. The events of the sixth trumpet are behind us. Like the seventh day of the march around Jericho (Joshua 6:4), we are living during the time of the blowing of the seventh trumpet. The trumpet call is being mercifully repeated again and again. The rest of the book of Revelation will lay out in great detail the fulfillment of the seventh trumpet, which will include the final seven plagues. This culmination of “sevens” constitutes the third, and last, woe mentioned in 8:13. We are living in intense and exciting times. And the best news of all is that there is still time to come to Jesus! He said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” (John 6:37)

He will bless those who fear the LORD, both small and great. May the LORD give you increase more and more, you and your children. May you be blessed by the LORD who made heaven and earth. Psalm 15:13-15