This
post begins with an ominous warning concerning the final seven vial judgments. These judgments will be experienced worldwide
and will finally culminate in the return of the King of kings.
Revelation 14:13 “And I heard a
voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith
the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow
them.”
John
declares that the coming judgments are so severe that those who die “in the
Lord” will be blessed because they will not have to endure more than they
already have. Note that important
qualifier—“in the Lord.” Only those who
die accepting the gift of salvation offered by God through the sacrifice of His
Son Jesus can ever be blessed in death.
At death they pass into the presence of God. As we learned in the last post, those who die
having rejected that gift are destined for everlasting torment.
Revelation 14:9–11 “…If any man
worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink
of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the
cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the
presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of
their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor
night….”
John
makes it clear in his record of the last judgment that this torment includes
everyone—not just those that had taken the mark of the beast.
Revelation 20:15 “And whosoever was
not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
Those
that die “in the Lord” will finally be able to “rest” from their labor, their
trouble, their weariness. They will
receive the reward promised them for their work for the Lord.
Matthew 6:20 “But lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal….”
Matthew 5:11–12 “Blessed are ye,
when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and shall say
all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding
glad: for great is your reward
in heaven….”
John
looks again and sees one that looks like the “Son of man” sitting on a cloud
wearing a golden crown and holding a sharp sickle.
Revelation 14:14-16 “And I looked,
and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden
crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And
another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat
on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to
reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust
in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.”
Yet
another angel comes out of the temple loudly announcing that the time has come
for the earth to be reaped. I am
reminded that the Lord Jesus told us that the Father had delegated all judgment
to Him.
John 5:22 & 26-27 “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath
committed all judgment unto the
Son….For as the Father hath life in himself;
so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him
authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.”
I liked
the comments from Joseph Seiss, an old Lutheran minister, on these verses.
“As the destroyer of the works of the devil, and
as the judge of the quick and the dead, it belongs for Christ to reap the earth
and to clear it of the hellish seed of the great enemy....And to this end, the
heaven crowned King holds ‘in His hand a sharp sickle.’ There is nowhere such a
description or holding forth of the instrument in any harvest scene referring
to the gracious home bringing of the good. The earth is to be cleared of its
ill products now, therefore, only a cutting implement is in hand and so
conspicuous displayed. The work is one of vengeance and sore judgment;
therefore, it is sharp. Thus seated in regal majesty, with His terrible
instrument in hand for His appointed judicial work as the Son of Man, there
goes up to Him a mighty cry to send forth His sickle and reap, claiming that
the time of reaping has come, and that ‘the harvest of the earth’ (not the
church) is dried to dead ripeness.”
It is significant that there is a time that has been
predetermined as right for this judgment.
It seems that sin has reached its fullness worldwide. I think that God’s
statement regarding the withholding of judgment from the Amorites established the
precedent for revealing God’s timing for implementing judgment.
Genesis
15:13–16 “And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a
stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall
afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve,
will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou
shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But
in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not full.”
This is yet another example of how God used His
foreknowledge in establishing His plan and purpose in connection with man’s
freedom to make choices.
(to be
continued…)
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