Theological Commentary: Click Here
In Revelation
8, true judgment comes. We move from an
analogy to the history of the world to a look at God’s response. Angels are brought forth with judgments to
dispense. The tone turns darker.
Before the
judgments come, though, the last of the seals is opened. God has a surprise for us. The last seal brings silence. There is a time before judgment comes for
reckoning. This is that moment when you’ve
done something wrong and you’ve been caught.
It’s the moment where you decide to continue the lie or to fess up to
the truth. There is a moment of silence
before, quite literally, all hell breaks loose.
When the
trumpets blast, God unleashes natural fury.
A third of practically everything is destroyed. Nothing is outside of God’s grasp. People
frequently note how these trumpet blasts are reminiscent of the plagues in
Egypt. Note that those plagues were also
judgment!
What is
going on here? God is making the same
point here that He made in the Exodus story.
He is in charge. Nature is on His
side. His judgments are a warning of a
greater impending danger. He uses the
judgments to allow us a moment to give Him our attention.
In the end,
we are greeted with a woe. Woe to those who
remain on the earth. Things were bad,
but they are about to get worse. The
judgment is about to go from warning to grave danger.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment