Read with Me
Revelation 7:9-10 (NET)
After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands. They were shouting out in a loud voice,
“Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Listen with Me
After John had witnessed the sealing of the 144,000 Jewish Christians in order to shield them from God’s retaliatory wrath, his attention is drawn to a different scene. In this scene he was shown an ocean of people, not just Jewish believers, but believers from all over the world.
John was almost immediately told (7:13-14) that these are believers who had suffered and lost their lives in the Great Tribulation imposed on the Church by the emperor. He sees them all standing before God’s throne dressed in long, white robes symbolizing purity. And they are not just standing and milling about. They are carrying and waving palm branches, an ancient symbol of victory throughout the Middle East and around the Mediterranean Sea. Even though these believers were killed during this Great Tribulation, they are not victims, but martyrs, divinely empowered witnesses declaring the great victory that is theirs in Jesus.
At the same time, they realized that the victory that has been won is not theirs, but that it belongs to God and to Jesus through whom they have been given the power to be victorious. Thus, their song is not about themselves at all – it is completely directed to “our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.”
Pray with Me
Father, it seems that a lot of people these days figure that Your protection of Your people means that nothing bad will ever happen to us. A corollary of that is that if anything bad does happen to us, it shows that either You dropped the ball through neglect, or that You are somehow unable to protect us. But this passage, along with 6:9-11, shows that those who have actually suffered and died for the sake of Your mission in the world see the bigger picture, and know that even if their lives end in this world (which, barring Jesus’ return will ultimately happen to everyone eventually), You still have us firmly in your hands and will receive us into eternal glories. Thank You, Lord, for that solid assurance. Amen.