In the book of Revelation there are three major judgments that come to the earth. The first wave is called the seal judgments. They unfold as the Lamb breaks the seals of the scroll. As each seal is broken, it unleashes a new barrage of God’s judgment against an evil and Christ-rejecting world. Then, in chapter 8, another round begins as the angels blow the seven trumpets. Finally, the bowl judgments begin in chapter 16, as the final measure of God’s wrath is poured out on a world which refuses to budge from its position of willful unbelief. Each series of judgments is worse than the other, and the bowls complete the work during the great Tribulation, just prior to the return of Christ.
It is not pleasant to read about the carrying out of God’s judgment on the world. There are plagues, famine, war, and death. There is great suffering in the world as a result of what God is doing. There are many questions surrounding God’s activity and his purpose in all this. It all seems so terrible. Why would God do these things which cause such misery and pain?
Let me make several points today, and the first is that the purpose of these judgments is: To bring people to repentance. The purpose of these judgments is redemptive. It is an effort to get people to turn from their sin and turn to God — so that they might live. We need to remember that the Lord has said, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die. . . ?” (Ezekiel 33:11). The call to this kind of redemptive repentance is found throughout the book of Revelation. Jesus warned the churches in the beginning of the book, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent” (Revelation 3:19).
As these judgments are being carried out, it is the express purpose of the judgments to turn people from their sin so that God can turn from carrying out from his judgment against their sin and forgive them. He wants to save, not to harm. The purpose of the judgments is redemptive, not punitive. God seeks through these measures to correct, not merely to punish. God desires reconciliation, not retribution. In fact, the word for punish if found only one time in the entire book of Revelation (17:1), and then it is speaking about the punishment of the great prostitute who represents the evil, one-world government of the end times.
What is interesting is that there is a sense of wonder on the part of the inhabitants of heaven that the people of earth are experiencing all these judgments and still remain willfully and stubbornly rebellious. It says in chapter nine: “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood — idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts” (Revelation 9:20-21). There is a sense of amazement that the judgments did not produce the intended effect. In fact, the people only seem to harden their hearts further. We read later where it says, “They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him” (Revelation 16:9). Their willful rebellion and stubborn refusal to submit their hearts to the God who gave them life, and acknowledge that he is King of the Universe, demonstrated their appropriateness of God’s judgment.
Our stubbornness in regard to surrendering our wills to the will of God is a major problem of the human family. Listen to the warning of Scripture: “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger” (Romans 2:5-8). It is interesting that the word for stubbornness in the original language comes from the root word skleros. Skleros means callous, or hard. We use it in the word “arteriosclerosis,” which is the medical term for the thickening and hardening of the arteries which blocks circulation. Stubbornness is when we have callous hearts. We harden our hearts toward God and we find no room for repentance. The circulation of the Spirit in our lives is blocked.
The second purpose of the judgments is: To demonstrate the patience of God. The really amazing thing is that God does not exercise this kind of judgment against our sins on a daily basis. We certainly deserve it. Judgment means that the abuse which human beings have practiced against each other for their own selfish purposes will meet with justice. What is amazing is that God is willing to wait to bring about his final justice. Of course, if he did not, no one would survive.
In the second chapter of Revelation, Jesus reprimands the church of Thyatira for tolerating a female false prophet who was advocating sexual immorality as being a part of an acceptable lifestyle for a Christian. She is a threat to the church spiritually, but Jesus said, “I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways” (Revelation 2:21-22). The patience of God is seen in that he gives us a chance to turn from our sin and turn to him. He would be just if he did not wait, but he gives us time to turn — even the worst of us.
In fact, God is more patient with other people than we are. There is an old Hebrew story about Abraham sitting outside his tent one night, when he saw an old man walking in the distance. Abraham rushed out to greet him and invited him into his tent. He washed the old man’s feet, and placed before him something to eat and drink. Immediately, the old man took the food and began to put it into his mouth without giving thanks to God. “What?” said Abraham, “Aren’t you going to pray and give thanks to God for his goodness?” The weary old man said, “I worship only fire and reverence no other god.” Abraham became full of fury. He grabbed the old man and pulled him to his feet, and then began to shove him out into the cold of the night. Awhile later, God called his old friend Abraham, and said to him, “Where is the stranger whom you invited in to share your food and lodging?” Abraham said, “I cast him far from me, for he did not worship you and follow your laws.” Then God said in a low voice, “I have put up with him these eighty years although he dishonors me, and you could you not endure him one night?”
Remember the story of Jonah? God was patient with the people of Nineveh. He had endured their evil rebellion and violence for many years. And then he asked Jonah to go and preach to them that they might be saved, and so that he could avert his justice. But Jonah was angry that God wanted to spare them, and refused to go — preferring to die in the belly of a great fish than help the Ninevites escape the judgment of God.
We wonder about God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but we forget that God waited until the situation became hopeless. Don’t forget that Abraham begged God to spare the city even if there were only ten righteous people left, but ten were not found (Genesis 18:32). Only then did God send his judgment on them.
In the days of Noah, prior to the great flood, God wanted the people to turn from the error of their ways. He waited 120 years to send the flood while Noah preached to the people. The Bible talks about those “who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water” (1 Peter 3:20). God saved all who could be saved, and it will be the same at the end of the world. And we have to be patient until that time, for the Bible says, “What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath — prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory — even us. . . ?” (Romans 9:22-24).
Which brings us to the third and final point. The purpose of these judgments is: To establish God’s justice. We who live in the United States with all our freedoms, privileges and protection by the law do not feel what other people feel when they read about God’s judgment at the end of the world. If there was no law here, you would long for justice, as people do in other parts of the world today. If you had no rights and you were oppressed by those who had power over you; if you lived where others took your property or abused your family without recrimination, you would welcome the judgment of God which would settle the score. If you were powerless, you would long for God to come to your defense. If there were no judges then you would long for someone before whom you could plead your case, so that you might receive justice.
During World War II, when the Jews were being systematically annihilated and no one seemed to care, they cried out for justice. But Germany was placing them in ghettos and eventually into death camps, and the European countries would not allow them to imigrate. The United States pretended not to notice. The Jews suffered more than any group of people in history, and no one came to their defense until it was almost too late. It was carefully planned genocide. They looked for justice anywhere they could find it, but no one came to their defense. When the nations of the world finally did bring a judgment against Germany and liberated the Jews from the death camps, there was a global sigh of relief as though the world had been set right. That is the way it will be in the end. God’s justice will be done against the cruelties, injustices and violence of the world, and those who have perpetuated them. God takes sin seriously.
Perhaps we have so overreacted to the past where only hell fire and damnation were preached, that we have swung too far to the other side in believing that sin is not serious, and God is not really going to judge it. That would be a serious mistake. We will all stand before the judgment throne of God to give an account for our lives. The Bible says that “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). We all belong to God, whether we want to acknowledge that is another matter. But the fact remains that we are accountable to our Creator. The world is accountable, and the time is quickly coming when we will have to render an account to God. That is what the book of Revelation is all about. The judgments in this book are an important part of God’s plan to overcome the world’s evil with good. Justice will come to injustice and righteousness will be rewarded. God will expose evil for what it is and show his power over it. God will redeem the world. The hope that justice is coming is a source of joy for those who remain faithful. The Bible says, “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5).
The admonishment is that we must be ready for that day. The Bible says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat” (2 Peter 3:10-12).
Jesus said, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matthew 24:42-44).
The May 1984 issue of National Geographic displayed color photos and drawings of the volcanic destruction that wiped out the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in A.D. 79. Mount Vesuvius’ eruption was so sudden that the people were killed in the middle of their routine. Men and women were at the market, the wealthy were caught in their luxurious baths, and the slaves were still at their labor. They died as they were covered by volcanic ash and superheated gases. It is hard to imagine the horror of that terrible day. The saddest part is that no one had to die. Scientists tell us that the ancient Roman writers record weeks of rumblings and other signs which preceded the actual explosion. There was even an threatening pillar of smoke which could be clearly seen several days before the eruption. If only they had paid attention to Vesuvius’s warning!
There are similar warnings that God is giving to us. We are told in Scripture about what to expect. We are told that we are accountable to God. We are warned to be prepared. There is a coming day of judgment. We do not need to be unprepared. There is a way to avoid the coming judgment. But we must be ready.
Rodney J. Buchanan
January 20, 2002
Mulberry UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (January 20, 2002)
1. Why is it so hard for us to admit that we are wrong?
2. Read Romans 2:5-11. What are the rewards of repentance?
3. What questions do God’s judgments raise about the nature of God himself?
4. What would it be like to live in a world where there was no ultimate justice? Would you want to live in it?
5. Romans 2:4 states that God’s kindness leads us to repentance. How does that work?
6. Was God patient with the people of Noah’s day, Sodom and Gomorrah, Nineveh? How will he show his patience during the end times?
7. Read Revelation 3:19. How are love and discipline a part of the same experience?
8. Read Romans 9:22-24. What is this passage saying?
9. What would your feelings be if the events of September 11 did not lead to some kind of justice, and our country did not have the will to wage a war on terrorism?
10. Where is hope as you read about the events of the world’s last days?
11. The end of your world may come before the end of the world? Do you feel ready?
