Revelation 6: The 7 seals: Part Two

Outline

  • The details of the judgement
  • The day of judgement

Introduction

If you were part of a suffering church and many of your friends and family had been martyred, and then God wrote you a letter to comfort you, what would you expect to find in that letter? A traditional promise of comfort, which would seem like cold comfort to us today is God’s promise to judge the persecutors of His people. It might seem a very strange promise to make but it really is greatest one. Think back to the very beginning when satan tempted Adam and Eve in rebellion and judgement. Remember the very first promise of salvation, it was a promise to crush satan’s head under the Saviour foot, Gen. 3:15, ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This astounding promise outlines a war, the ongoing struggle that has characterised all of time as God’s people have been the persecuted people by those who are of the world and satan’s seed. However, it also promises an end to the war with a final and decisive victory. God does not merely promise us a holiday in the middle of a war, but the end of the war itself. The promise to judge enemies is God fulfilling His oldest and greatest promises; to bring to a head every promise that He has ever given; to fully and finally fulfil His covenant promises as a faithful Husband-Redeemer. It is a reminder that the long sad history of God’s people will end in victory. As we look at the final part of chapter 6 which has already spoken in broad brush strokes of the birth pains and trials that will trouble the earth and the persecuted yet safe position of the church, we catch a glimpse of this great victory in the 6th seal. The first four seals are given less detail, the fifth seal of the persecuted church and the sixth seal of the defeat of the persecutors dominate the horizon and are the main message of this chapter.

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