Revelation 16: A Just and Holy God

Today’s reading is Revelation 16.

It’s a Bit Harsh, Isn’t it?

The judgments in Revelation seem a bit harsh, don’t they? I mean, turning the water to blood and giving them blood to drink? That sounds awful. How does that fit with the loving God of Exodus 34:6-7 who is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Not to mention, doesn’t the Bible say God is love? Yes, it does. Twice, in fact. In 1 John 4:8, 16.

As God gave John the apocalyptic vision, He clearly anticipated this objection. After pouring the two bowls of wrath on the water, turning them to blood, the Lord’s angel in charge of the waters declared:

Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!

The angel makes it clear. God’s judgments are not harsh. They fit the sins perfectly. The enemies shed the blood of God’s people, God gave the enemies blood to drink.

What Goes Around Comes Around

When God plagued Egypt leading up to the death of the firstborn, He explained it this way:

“Israel is my first born son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son'” (Exodus 4:22-23, ESV).

Don’t forget Pharaoh’s planned execution of the Israelite infants. Pharaoh slaughtered the Lord’s firstborn. I admit, the tenth plague seems harsh until we discover it is God merely brining on Pharaoh and Egypt’s head their own sins.

This is very often the picture of God’s judgment. God brings our own sins back on our own heads.

Even the picture of hell as presented in the teaching of Jesus is anchored in this notion. The word translated “hell” most often in Jesus’s teachings is transliterated “Gehenna.” Literally, it means the valley of Hinnom. This picture comes from Jeremiah 7:30-34; 19:1-15. The people built altars in the valley of Hinnom and burned their children as sacrifices to their gods. The notion of being tossed into the the valley of Hinnom or Gehenna, meant having such consequences of idolatry brought back on their own heads. Whatever hell literally is, it is suffering the consequences of our actions and letting our sins come back upon our own heads. But keep in mind, lest you think, “Oh, my sins are no biggie, so Gehenna won’t be a big deal for me,” in Jesus’s teaching, Gehenna will be so awful it would be better to cut your hand off right now or pluck your eye out right now in order to have life than to enter Gehenna with your whole body (see Matthew 5:29-30).

Sin is Just that Bad

The reason we struggle today so much with God’s judgment, especially as pictured in Revelation or pictured as Hell, is because we don’t see sin as bad as it is. This is one of the reasons we need an apocalypse.

If we could see sin the way God sees sin, we would see judgment the way God sees judgment. According to Romans 3:23, sin is not simply falling short of God’s law or God’s rules (though it is that, 1 John 3:4). Sin is falling short of God’s glory. We have been created to be the very image of God. We have been created to display God’s manifold wisdom and glory. When we sin, we distort and pervert that image of God. We mar God’s glory.

That is not simply upsetting to God. It is a violation of the very nature of things. Such a violation needs to be disciplined, punished even. At the same time, the punishment is not arbitrary but natural. When we decide to twist the very image in which we have been created by sinning against it, let us not be surprised when we ourselves become twisted. Our very being within and without become a twisting, a distortion, a perversion of what we have been created to be. We become unfit for the perfect glory that is God and unfit to dwell in the perfect glory that is God’s heavenly kingdom. And, though we may find this hard to comprehend, we actually twist ourselves away from choosing God’s heavenly kingdom. Having become hellish, we freely choose hell.

Of course, none of us given the choice so starkly will choose the chute leading to torment, pain, and agony when the other chute will lead to pleasure, joy, and love. But, having chosen sin over God, having twisted our souls, we push God away. He warns us what being away from Him is like, but we don’t listen. We push farther and farther, twisting more and more. When we finally experience the full consequences of being separated from God and find them just as hellish as God warned, we get mad at God for giving us what we asked for. But be sure, we asked for it.

God Is just and Holy

I am thankful the angel in charge of the waters broke in and praised the Lord. Our God is Holy and Just. He gives what we deserve, unless we repent and let Jesus redeem us. Then He gives us glory.

Praise the Lord!

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Revelation 16 admonish you?

John 4: Greater than Moses

Today’s reading is John 4.

Jesus traveled back into Galilee and came once again to Cana where He had turned the water to wine. John goes out of his way to remind us of that first sign in Cana. He even connects the two by telling them in such a way he can call turning the water to wine Jesus’s first sign and the sign we are about to discuss His second, not because they were Jesus’s first and second signs ever or even the first and second signs demonstrated in the book, but because they were the first and second in Cana of Galilee. John is clearly providing a rhetorical connection to grab our attention and prompt our meditation.

In this second sign, Jesus learns of an official’s son who is at the very point of death. If something isn’t done immediately, the boy will die. Instead of calling a crowd together, leading an entourage to the boy, making a grand display, and then presenting the boy in perfect health, Jesus simply tells the man to go home and find a healed son. That is precisely what the man does.

Why does our author go to great lengths to connect this sign with the water turned to wine. I admit, I don’t believe it is because he is encouraging us to count the signs and discover how many there are in the book, whether you want to count to seven or ten or potentially eleven. John draws attention to these two signs in particular by numbering only them. Why? Because John is still introducing us to the new Moses, the one who performs signs like Moses and is The Prophet coming into the world.

Recall, the first sign corresponded to and contrasted with Moses turning the water to blood, the first plague on Egypt. This sign now corresponds to and contrasts with the tenth plague, death of the firstborn. Between these two signs, John encapsulates in Jesus the great signs and wonders of Moses. Moses’s sign brought death to the healthy firstborn in Egypt, Jesus’s sign brought life to this man’s all but dead son. Which is greater? Which would you prefer to come into your home?

Don’t misunderstand. The point is not Moses was bad and Jesus is good. The point is Moses is incredible, Jesus is even better. It’s hard to do better than Moses. It’s hard to do better than the Law God gave Israel through Moses. In fact, only one other person in all history did better. Jesus.

Will you turn to Jesus? Jesus is the only one who brings life. Jesus is the only one who will lead you to resurrection. Will you follow Him? Can we help you give your allegiance to Him? Let us know by hitting the contact button at the top of the page.

Next week’s reading is John 5.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

What do you want to share with others from John 4?

You Have Come to the Heavenly Jerusalem

Today’s reading is Hebrews 12.

After their “baptism” in the Red Sea, Israel came to Mt. Sinai. They were told not to touch it. They saw blazing fire and also darkness, gloom, and a tempest. They heard the trumpets blow and the voice of God utter the 10 Commandments. They begged to never hear the voice of God again. Even Moses trembled in fear.

However, when these Hebrews had come to Jesus, they had come to a different mountain. They had come to Mount Zion. More than that, they had come to the city of the living God. But wait, he isn’t talking about a geo-political land mass in the Middle East. He says they had come to the “heavenly Jerusalem.” Remember what “heavenly” signifies in Hebrews. The priests under the Law served a copy and shadow of “heavenly things” (8:5). But Jesus is actually at the “right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (8:1). The copies of the heavenly things were purified with animal sacrifices, but the true “heavenly things” themselves were purified by Jesus’s sacrifice, a better sacrifice (9:23). Grasp what we need to see here. The geographical area we call Jerusalem and geological land feature we call Mt. Zion are also copies of the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the city of the living God. They are not the real thing; they point to and foreshadow the real thing. As geographical Mt. Zion surpasses geographical Mt. Sinai and as the temple surpasses the tabernacle, the heavenly Jerusalem and Mt. Zion surpass both of the copies preceding them. We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem.

Further, can we not see this is the heavenly city God has prepared for which Abraham was looking. It is the city whose builder and designer is God. It is the better, heavenly country (11:16). And in this city we have come to the assembly or church of the firstborn who are in enrolled in heaven.

I understand, of course, in eternity and in the resurrection, this city will have a more marvelous form and ultimate realization. This is one of those “already but not yet” kind of things. We who are enrolled in heaven are in the heavenly city even now, but of course we look forward to its eternal fulfillment. But we are there. The promises were never truly about the land in the Middle East. They were always about the heavenly reality God was forming. And we are now in it. We have come to it.

Why would we go back to the copies? Why would we go back to earthly Jerusalem, earthly Mt. Zion? We have come to the very presence of God, brought their by the mediation of Jesus the Son which makes the presence of God not a frightening place from which to run and hide, but a magnificent presence to seek and to draw near.

Praise the Lord!

Have you come to Christ’s church? Have you come to the heavenly Mt. Zion and Jerusalem? Can we help you? If so, let us know in the comments below.

Tomorrow’s reading is Hebrews 12.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. How can we be in the heavenly city but also looking forward to God’s heavenly city at the same time?
3. What do you think would cause some people during this time in which we are in the heavenly city, but not quite experiencing it as the heavenly city to abandon it and pursue what is earthly?
4. What advice would you give to us to help us stay true to Jesus the mediator of this new covenant and king of this heavenly Jerusalem, His church?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?