..........Myspace Codes An Extraordinary Life: Revelation 14 ~ A Tale of Two Wraths

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Revelation 14 ~ A Tale of Two Wraths

There are two kinds of contrasting wraths in this world. The first is an evil wrath, a form of sinful anger. It is malicious where we put others down to exalt ourselves. The second type is the righteous wrath. It constitutes retribution by paying back those who deserve it. We shall see how these two types of wrath are interspersed in Revelation 14.

The chapter opens with the picture of the Lamb standing on Mount Zion. Psalm 2:6 tells us that God has set His King on Zion, which is His holy hill - a similar image to that in Revelation 14. This is a vision of victory of the Lamb of God contrasting the earlier vision of defeat of the beast with its number "666". And this victory is shared by those who had been redeemed from the earth (Revelation 14:3) as opposed to those who dwell on the earth i.e. those who are not God's people (as previously illustrated in other parts of Revelation). The virgins in verse 4 are contrasted with sexual immorality in verse 8 - it is not merely the issue of physical sex being dealt with here but also seduction by the pagan ways of Babylon and the subsequent question about faithfulness to Christ (a similar idea of being presented as a pure virgin to Christ is introduced in 2 Corinthians 11:2).

Verses 6 to 13 bring forth messages from three angels of coming judgment. The first angel proclaims an eternal gospel to those who dwell on earth i.e. non-Christians. Every nation and tribe and language and people are told to fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come (Revelation 14:6-7). In line with Jeremiah 51:6-9, the second angel in verse 8 warns against worshiping materialism, consumerism and all that is mighty of man's power, riches and wealth (as symbolized by the paganism of the evil superpower of Babylon) but to instead worship the one true God. And keeping consistent with Jeremiah 25:15-16, the third angel tells us that those worshiping the beast will be judged as he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger and there is no rest for the wicked (Revelation 14:9-11). To summarize this three-point gospel message, it can simply be summed up like this:

  1. God is Creator.
  2. Whatever you trust in will fail you.
  3. Judgment calls for the need to turn back to God.

Echoing the previous chapter, again the saints are called to endure and keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus (Revelation 14:12).

The second half of the chapter shows how one like a son of man (alluding to Jesus as also illustrated in Daniel 7:13-14) has been given authority (together with the help of the angels) to reap for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe (Revelation 14:15), to gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe (Revelation 14:18). This is the fulfillment of the vision of judgment played out in Joel 3:9-13. One can be sure that the awful picture of judgment as illustrated by the blood flowing from the winepress (Revelation 14:20) is not a pretty one.

Back again to the main tale of two wraths, we have seen evil wrath as portrayed by the dragon's wrath in Revelation 12. How then are we to respond as Christians? The Bible tells us to endure and to defend with the gospel, the blood of the Lamb, the truth. On the other hand, we have righteous wrath in God's wrath. There is zero tolerance of sin because of His holy nature. That said, He waits for the harvest to be fully ripe - He is slow to anger and patient to wait for the right time of judgment. So for those who are yet to be Christians, may I strongly urge you to consider the consequences of your actions if you are to continue rebelling against God? While the harvest is yet to be fully ripe, repent of your sins and turn to God for forgiveness instead before judgment day comes and it becomes too late...

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