Revelation-Part 17

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THE BEGINNING OF BIRTH PAINS, PART 2

Last month we saw certain devastating effects of the first four seal judgments in Revela­tion 6, culminating in the deaths of one-fourth of the world’s population. Someone might ask, “How could anything be worse than this?” Just stay with us for the answer to that question as we investigate the last three seals.

This month we take a close look at the second part of “The Beginning of Birth Pains,” the title that Jesus gave to the period covered by the first six seals. In other words, our task this month is to investigate the meaning of the fifth and sixth seals. Here are two more of the outpourings of God’s wrath directed against the “earth-dwellers,” those in rebellion against God. In Revelation 3:10 we saw earlier that “those who dwell upon the earth” were to be objects of the testing during the period called “the hour of trial.” In the prophetic drama being enacted before the eyes of John, that period which arrived with the opening of the first seal now continues.

The Fifth Seal: Prayers for Divine Vengeance (6:9-11)

When the Lamb broke the fifth seal on the scroll, John saw no more horses and their riders as he had with the first four seals. This time the scene involved people who had been killed because they insisted on a faithful proclamation of and obedience to the Word of God (Rev. 6:9). They had loyally testified to the world that Jesus, the Lamb of God, was their Savior. As a result the forces of evil had taken their earthly lives in an effort to silence this testimony. That such hardships will come to Christ’s followers during the period of “birth pains” agrees with Christ’s teaching in His Olivet Discourse (see Matt. 24:9-10; Mark 13:9-13; Luke 21:12-17). Their preaching and obedience were prominent parts of the testimony that served as the badge of their allegiance to Christ.

Some have mistakenly supposed that this seal represents the difficulty of sharing one’s faith, even to the point of pouring out one’s blood on the altar of sacrifice. That assumption misses the point of the seal judgments, however. The seals are God’s wrath against the “earth-dwellers,” not against God’s redeemed people. Martyrdom for Christ’s sake can hardly be a form of the judgment of God against rebels.

The nature of the fifth seal is rather the cry of the martyrs to God, asking for His judg­ment and vengeance to be poured out on those responsible for their deaths (Rev. 6:10). God heard their prayers for vengeance and assured them that vindication against their slayers was certain (6:11). Herein lies the character of the fifth seal. The prayers of the persecuted for judgment has a recognized influence in bringing about end-time happen­ings, as Luke 18:7 notes: “Will not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?” The earth-dwellers have had a taste of suffering under the first four seals, but the worst for them is yet to come under the sixth and seventh seals. From a human perspective the prayers of the souls under the altar made the rebels’ dismal future even more frightening. The intercession of those precious to God seals the earth-dwellers’ doom even more certainly. Herein lies the awful impact of the fifth seal.

“Imprecatory” describes the type of prayers prayed by the martyrs because they invoke God’s imprecation or curse on other people. These prayers resemble a number of the psalms that are called “imprecatory psalms,” such psalms as Psalm 2, 37, 69, 79, 109, 139, and 143 that express a vengeful attitude toward the psalmist’s enemies in each case.

Such imprecations are not, however, examples to be followed by Christians in their prayers. The difference between the psalmist and us lies in his being inspired by God to write what he did. We possess no such inspiration. The difference between the martyrs under the altar and us lies in their state of being free from the selfish ravages of human depravity. They have passed from this life into a state of glorification whereby they view everything from God’s perspective. That allows them to pray only for what is God’s will, which in this case is the punishment of the earth dwellers. We have not yet achieved that state and must contend with competing motives which may arise from our selfish desire for personal revenge.

The New Testament teaches us that we should pray for all men, not against all men. It teaches us to pray for our enemies (Matt. 5:44). The closest the New Testament instruc­tions to the church come to imprecation is in 1 John 5:16: “There is a sin leading to death; I do not say he should pray for this.” This, of course, is far from imprecation. It simply points to a situation for which a believer should not pray.

John learns in his vision, however, that a time will come in the future when those martyred for Christ’s sake will in heaven ask God to hasten His judgment against their persecutors, who are opposed also to Him as they are to His people.

The Sixth Seal: Cosmic and Terrestrial Disturbances (6:12-17)

An entirely different kind of sight greeted John’s “prophetic” eyes when the Lamb opened the sixth seal. He saw a great earthquake, the blackening of the sun, the redden­ing of the moon, falling stars, the separation of the sky into parts, and the moving of moun­tains and islands from their normal places (6:12-14). One group of interpreters finds a symbolic meaning in what John saw, the earthquake standing for the overthrowing of human arrogance and the rolling up of the sky and the shaking of the stars for the punish­ment of powers behind human rulers. In other words, they see the cosmic and terrestrial disturbances as picturing a convulsion of the nations. The problem with such an interpreta­tion lies in a literal description of a convulsion of the nations that follows later in the account of the sixth seal. Following a description of the physical disturbances comes a description of the panic among kings of the earth, chief ones, military commanders, the rich, the strong, every slave, and every free person (6:15-17). The seal would not teach the same thing twice, once in symbolic terms and once in literal terms. In the description of the seal, the upheaval of the nations results from the cosmic convulsions. They are not the same.

Jesus spoke of physical disturbances during this future period in His Olivet Discourse when He described coming earthquakes (see Matt. 24:7; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:11). Un­doubtedly He was describing literal physical disturbances. That is another good reason for understanding the sixth seal in a literal sense. Besides, nothing short of an apparent awesome dissolution of the world as these disturbances portray would wreak such a dev­astating effect on men’s hearts as this seal does. As Revelation 4 has reminded us, God who sits on His throne is sovereign over His creation and is free to deal with that creation in any way He sees fit. Here as part of the sixth seal, He shakes up the physical universe as part of His wrath in dealing with rebellious humanity.

Last month we learned that “the beginning of birth pains” is another name for the firsthalf of the future seventieth week about which Daniel prophesied in Daniel 9:24-27. Whenwithin that period do these cosmic upheavals occur? Some have understood them to occur at the end of the last half of Daniel’s seventieth week, because Jesus described some very similar phenomena as happening “after the tribulation of those days” (Matt. 24:29). That would locate them as the immediate prelude to the return of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom. Such a location would be impossible, however, because in connection with upheavals of the sixth seal rebellious men still have opportunities to seek hiding places (Rev. 6:16). By contrast, when Jesus returns to the earth, they will have no opportunity to do so. The battle of Armageddon will come at that point and remove them from the earth (see Rev. 19:17-21).

A better interpretation places the cosmic disturbances of the sixth seal toward the end of the first half of the seven-year period, the seven years represented as a “week” in the Daniel 9 prophecy. The events will be a divine shaking of the heavens and the earth to awaken mankind to the consciousness of what God has been doing since that seventieth week began with the first-seal judgment.

The cosmic and terrestrial disturbances will accomplish their purpose as Revelation 6:16-17 attest. Every category of humanity will recognize the earlier arrival of God’s wrath­ful dealings and will seek some place of refuge from the wrath of God and the Lamb. They will proclaim, “The great day of Their wrath has come.” The Greek verb tense behind “has come” refers explicitly to something that has already arrived. The cosmic upheavals have identified for them this wrath that is already in progress. They may think this is the end and that no one will escape, but little do they know that more is yet to come. At that future point in world history men will fear God to the point of being utterly terrified. They will have a true picture of His great power and the penalty for violating His standards of holiness.

As we at the beginning of the twenty-first century anticipate the imminent start of the period of the seals, we have the glorious opportunity of availing ourselves of the grace of God through trusting Christ and His sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. We can fear God in a much more positive sense and thereby remove ourselves as members from the “earth-dweller” group. We can turn to Him in repentance, acknowledging our past rebellion, and join those whom Christ will remove from the earth prior to the outpouring of God’s wrath. May He move in the lives of all who read these words to cause them to join God’s re­deemed people through personal faith in the Lamb.

Note: For more details about the fifth and sixth seal judgments, see my discus­sion in Revelation 1–7 (Moody Press, 1992), pages 430-460. To order this volume, you may contact Grace Books International at (800) GRACE15 or www.gbibooks.com.

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