Blessed is he who heeds the words

Revelation 6 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come.” ² I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.

³ When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” ⁴ And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.

⁵ When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. ⁶ And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

⁷ When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” ⁸ I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

⁹ When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; ¹⁰ and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ¹¹ And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.

¹² I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; ¹³ and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. ¹⁴ The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. ¹⁵ Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; ¹⁶ and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; ¹⁷ for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

Amos 3:7 says: Surely the Lord God does nothing Unless He reveals His secret counsel To His servants the prophets.   Prophecy is a revelation, to the prophet, of God’s heart, His will and His plan for a person, people or a situation, for the benefit of that person, people or situation. It can be in the form of encouragement, exhortation or warning. We should take seriously then, the words of the prophecy of Revelation. In Revelation 22:6-10 it says:  “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place.“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.” I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, “Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God.” And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.”

Blessed is he who heeds the words. The problem with our human nature is that we have a tendency to be more focused on the when than on the what. We hear that the time is near so when we see the words from today’s text we tend to try to create a timeline of these events. The text says:   I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.  It says:   And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.    So we tend to look around the world at the lack of peace, the violence, the number of people killed in wars and the number of people killed in the streets and we think this must be the time. In Matthew 24:6-8 Jesus said:  “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”    So again we see in today’s text that it says:    I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth…  We see that there is indeed famine throughout the world. There is or are pestilence, as insects, spiders, fish and reptiles, foreign species are introduced into new habitats wreaking havoc on the natural balance of ecosystems.     

The text continues:    I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.   There are more people in more places around the world being persecuted and killed for faith in Christ than at any time in the world. The text continues:   there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.    How often in recent years have we heard people referring to blood moons, meteors, eclipses and other signs in the heavens as evidence that the end is near?

It may indeed be, but the thing is in Matthew 24:36, after describing all that will take place when He returns, Jesus says: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”   In Acts 1:6-7, Jesus after the resurrection, was appearing to His disciples:   So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.”    We need to resist the temptation and the tendency to try to determine the time of the things in Revelation, whether they have happened, are happening or are yet to happen and instead we should heed the words.  The text says:  Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;  and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”    The one thing I do know about the time of the Lords return is this:  Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)   We don’t know for sure when He will come, but the reason He has not yet come is to give time for all to come to repentance.  Rather than trying to discern the time, we should use the time wisely. We should heed the words.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You for Your love and patience. Thank You for Your grace, time for all to come to repentance. May we heed Your words. Amen.