The last two of seven teaching segments in this third major division of the book are:
i. Seven angels with the seven last plagues,
ii. A sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast.
In keeping with the scheme he has followed in the first two major divisions, John has the present in mind through the first four teaching segments of each, and in the last three the future.
This must be one of the briefest sections in the whole of Revelation - one short verse.
It is for that very reason a significant clue to the way John has arranged his material in Revelation. We have said that the sequence of visions is not linear but concentric - as each section succeeds the last he does not move on from period to period in history, rather he covers the same general ground every time, but views features of it at a deeper level or with a different perspective. This verse is a clear example of that. John is saying, "I include here the usual reference to final judgment which belongs at this point in each major division of my thesis, but I merely mention it in passing now, because I shall give it the full treatment in the next major division."
And so he does; in it (ch. 16), under the symbols of seven angels pouring out seven bowls of wrath upon the earth, he describes fully the final judgments God will pour out on the earth.
The only comment I make now on this brief verse is to call attention to its second half: "The seven last plagues - the last, because with them God's wrath is ended."
The word 'ended' is etelesthe - it reaches its end, it realises its purpose. There is a purpose to judgment - it is not senseless recrimination, not punishment for punishment's sake. The point may be grasped by reflecting on the dilemma governments face in their management of prisons: are they for punishment or for rehabilitation? If they are run simply as punishment institutions prisoners tend to be brutalised; if they are run purely as rehabilitation centres crime tends not to be adequately punished.
God has the problem too. In administering His judgments He must keep a balance between punishment and restoration, but there is no question in the Bible that God's first purpose in all His judgments is rehabilitation.
But they have an end. God's judgments have an end - His mercies do not! His wrath is but for a moment, but His compassion is for ever.
Isa. 54:7 "For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a little while I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the Lord your Redeemer."
James 2:13: "Judgment without mercy will be shown to those who have shown no mercy ... but mercy triumphs over judgment."
Judgment is not God's last word - mercy is! ... "blessed be He," as the Jewish rabbis used to say. The final truth of things is not harsh but kindly. The inmost truth of God - His Spirit - is to be represented, not as earthquake, wind or fire, but as a dove.
Behind a frowning Providence God hides a smiling face ...
The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower."
Note that John describes this as a "portent, great and marvellous."
'Portent,' as we have noted before, is a word that points to something beyond itself. It is the judgments we are to see, not the literal 'bowls.' John is saying that God's judgments are "great and marvellous." We may not always appreciate that, but we should always bear in mind a thing God said to Ezekiel: "You will be consoled for the evil that I bring upon the city; the day will come when you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it," says the Lord. (Ez. 14:22-23)
We have seen how full of allusions to the Old Testament Revelation is; in this verse they are most of them to the Exodus story.
First though, John has spoken of a sea of glass before: "Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal." (Rev. 4:5)
i. That sea of glass before the presence of God is reminiscent of a vision Moses and the elders of Israel once had: "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up (the mountain) and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, like the very heaven for clearness." (Ex. 24:9) That was one of those rare experiences, one of those high hours, in which men have a vision of God. "They beheld God ..." The pavement, or the sea, speaks in part of the distance that separates sinful men from a holy God; but it speaks also of the precious truth that sinners though we are, we may, even if only across that sea, behold His face. He shows Himself to us.
For that very reason it is reminiscent also of the 'molten sea' that stood in Solomon's Temple between the altar of sacrifice and the Holy Place where the priests on their way from altar to sanctuary washed: noone may draw near to God except he crosses that sea, and to cross it one must be cleansed of sin and guilt at Calvary's altar of sacrifice, where the Lamb of God was slain to take away the sin of the world.
John says the sea of glass is "mingled with fire." He has in mind what we noted when we saw that the prayers of the saints "cast fire on the earth" - there is no avoiding the element of judgment in God's near approach to us. As we grow in sanctification we become more aware of it, not less. There is a proper fear of God that is never eliminated from our love.
How much must be destroyed,
how much renewed must be
before we fully stand complete
in likeness Lord to Thee! (C. J. C. Spitta)"Still smite, still burn, till nought is left
but God's own truth and love ..." (Thomas Hughes)
ii. Did John have in mind also the Red Sea through which the Israelites passed when they crossed over from Egypt to the Sinai? It was the same sea in which God's enemies would perish, though they would pass through it safely. For we must understand that there is no way sinful men can draw near to God except they pass through a sea of judgment. If we have the protection of Him Whose blood was shed for us because our trust is in Him we shall survive it, but if we have no trust, and therefore no protection, we shall perish in it.
D. T. Niles has a lyrical paragraph on this: he imagines John saying to the churches in Asia to whom he was writing: "Even as I saw this vision I thought of you. I gazed across the waters of the sea from where I stood and visualised you in your little churches. And do you know what happened? It seemed to me that the sea turned red, the setting sun touching it with fire, and I saw you standing on the farther side as Israel must have stood after its deliverance across the Red Sea. And as they did then I heard you strumming to your exalted singing of the deliverance God has given to you." (D.T.Niles "As Seeing The Invisible" SCM p. 83)
Not beleaguered ... belayed!
iii. Those who stand beside the sea are those "those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name." They have not been defeated by the System or the Ideology or the Mystery of Iniquity that animates them.!
No evil can triumph finally over God's people.
In John's day they spoke of the martyrs, not as victims, but as victors. The day of a martyr's death was the day of his final triumph.
Wm. Barclay comments: "The real victory is not to live in safety, to evade trouble, cautiously and prudently to protect life; the real victory is to face the worst that evil can do, and if need be, be faithful unto death." (William Barclay, "The Revelation of John" Daily Study Bible, St Andrew Press, p. ) It was their very dying that constituted their victory. When a man dies because he will not bow, he has kept the faith to the point where nothing thereafter can ever undo it. To die rather than yield is to win the last, decisive victory - to win, not just a battle, but the war.
iv. "Harps of God" - befitting the symphony of heavenly worship. What is of curious interest is that harps are instruments of accompaniment - God accompanies the singing of the redeemed! (If they had had them in his day, would John have said pianos or organs ... or even [God save us] guitars?)
i. It is no accident that John should combine the two, for the Exodus event was the focus of faith for God's people under the Old Covenant as Calvary is their focus of faith under the New.
Faith must have a focus - it must be faith in something.
God provides facts for faith, not fancies. Christian confidence is always grounded in real events. The true and living God is not only a God Who speaks, but a God Who acts; and whilst in any age He gives us only His Word for faith, His Word is validated by His deeds. If He gives us His Word that He will raise us up at the last day, He has also given proof of His ability to speak and keep that word by raising Jesus from the dead. "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise." Hallelujah for the Cross and the Empty Tomb. "We know Whom we have believed ..."
The parallel between the Exodus event and the Calvary event is obvious: as God acted to deliver His people from the bondage of Egypt and Pharaoh by giving them a leader from among their ranks who had shared that bondage with them and led them across the sea of judgment in which God's enemies perish to the promised land of life and liberty, so He has acted to deliver us from the bondage of sin and Satan by giving us a Leader Who has shared with us our life in the bondage of the flesh and led us across the sea of judgment in which God's enemies perish to the Kingdom of His beloved Son where all is light and life and liberty.
ii. The verses of the song are all quotes from the Old Testament.
"Great and wonderful are Your works ..."
Psalm 98:1 "Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things; his right hand and his holy arm have gotten him the victory."
"Just and true are Your ways ..."
Psalm 145:17 "The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works."
"King of nations."
Jer. 10:7 "Who should not revere you, O King of the nations? This is your due; among the wise men of all the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you."
(John repeatedly affirms God's sovereignty - he knew how his troubled readers needed that assurance.)
"Who shall not fear and glorify your name O Lord?"
Psalm 86:9 "All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord bringing glory to your name. For you are great and do marvellous deeds; you alone are God."
"For you alone are holy."
Psalm 111:9 "Holy and awesome is his name."
"For your righteous acts have been revealed."
Psalm 98:2 "The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations."
If we "hide God's word in our hearts," our lips shall never be found wanting in praise.
iii. Moses' own song is itself an inspiration to faith:
Deut. 32:1 "Listen, O heavens, to my song; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. May my teaching fall like rain and my speech descend as dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. For I proclaim what the Eternal is. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! Steadfast He is, the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A God trusty and true, upright and honest is he."
iv. The final blessing we must distil from this passage is the recognition that though it is sung by those whose faith has triumphed, there is not one single word in it about their own victory.
"From beginning to end the whole song is a lyric outburst on the greatness of God. Heaven is a place where men forget themselves, forget their own achievements, and remember only God. Heaven is heaven because in it all self and all selfimportance are lost at last in the joy of the greatness and glory of God." (William Barclay, "The Revelation of John" Daily Study Bible, St Andrew Press, p. 157)
In Rev. 13:4 we read, "Men worshiped the dragon, for he had given authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast saying, 'Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?'"
But in Rev. 15:4 we read, "Who shall not fear and glorify Thy Name O Lord, for Thou alone art holy? All nations shall come and worship Thee."
Christians are people who have learned to rest in the greatness of God.
As the marsh hen secretly builds on the watery sod,
Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God:
I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh hen flies
In the freedom that fills all the space 'twixt the marsh and the skies:
By so many roots as the marsh grass puts in the sod
I will heartily lay me a-hold of the greatness of God.Sydney Lanier, "The Marshes of Glyn."
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