Who Can Stand On The Great Day Of Wrath? The Church! (Revelation 7:1-8) Series

Last week, we saw the beginnings of God's plan for the world starting to unfold. In the first four seals of Revelation 6, we saw pictures of the wrath of God, and the wrath of the Lamb, being poured out on the world through the four horsemen of the apocalypse. They brought with them conquest, and war, and inflation, and death. And what I argued, is that all of this is happening right now. After Jesus ascended to heaven, he began opening the seals in the first century AD. We, the church, have been living in the time of the four riders since the first century.

Now, what we saw, as we read about the four riders, is a terrible vision. Things are bad. But we also saw that the outpouring of the wrath of God and the Lamb was limited, up to this point. The riders only had authority over 1/4th of the world. The inflation didn't touch the wine, or the olive oil. Things could be worse.

We then saw the fifth seal open, and this seal, is the cry of martyrs. It's here, that I want to start today, to refresh our memory of where we are in Revelation. So, Revelation 6:9:

(9) and when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of the ones having been slaughtered

because of the word of God

and because of the testimony which they had,

(10) and they cried out with a great voice saying,

"How long, O Master-- The Holy and True One-- will you not judge

and will you not avenge our blood from the ones dwelling upon

the earth?,"

(11) and it was given to each of them a white robe,

and it was said to them that they should rest yet a short time until they were filled-- both their fellow slaves, and their brothers-- the ones about to be killed as also they [were],

So the martyrs want to know, how long until God will judge the world, and avenge their blood? The martyrs look at the world, and they want more from God. They want God to make a final judgment, and fully avenge their blood.

And in response, we read that the Lamb opens the sixth scroll (this is how the majority of NT scholars understands the sixth scroll-- as a response to the cry. I'm comfortably following the herd here). Verse 12:

(12) and I saw when he opened the sixth scroll,

and a great earthquake became (=occurred),

and the sun became (same word) black as a sackcloth made of hair,

and the whole moon became like blood,

(13) and the stars of heaven fell toward the earth,

like a fig tree throws its unripe figs,

[when] by a great wind being shaken,

(14) and the heaven was split like a scroll being rolled up,

and every mountain and island from their places were removed,

(15) and the kings of the earth and the ones of high rank and the military leaders and the rich and the powerful and every slave and free person hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,

(16) and they say to the mountains and to the rocks,

"Fall upon us,

and hide us from the face of the one seated upon the throne

and from the wrath of the lamb,

(17) because the great day of their wrath has come,

and who is able to stand?"

What the sixth seal teaches us, is that the day is coming, when the "great" day of their wrath will come. Things will get worse for the "ones dwelling on the earth"-- for the idolaters, and compromisers, and murderers, and the sexually immoral. The judgment will be cosmic on that day, affecting the heavens and the earth. And on that day, those people will find themselves crying out, "Who is able to stand?"

If you've let yourself get caught up into this vision in Revelation, and let it hit you the way it should, then you might find yourself feeling a range of emotions at this point. It's one thing to look at the world, and want God to bring judgment, and make everything right. We understand the desires behind the fifth seal. We find ourselves saying, "Come Lord Jesus."

But if God's judgment results in a total dismantling of the world, and everyone wanting to die... what will that day of wrath look like for me? Can I stand, on that day? Can I survive? It's on that note, that we come to Revelation 7. This chapter is called an "interlude" by almost every scholar. It interrupts the opening of the seals, and keeps us from hearing about the opening of the last seal.

Why the interruption? Part of the answer, is that it builds tension. We expect, at this point, that the seventh seal will be open. We expect that the end will come here, in chapter 7. And our expectation, not being met, builds suspense. But the bigger reason this chapter is here, is because it answers the question of Revelation 6:17. Who can stand? (and again, I'm comfortably following the herd here).