READ: Revelation 1.1. "Things which must shortly come to pass." READ ALSO: Deuteronomy chapters 29 and 30 for the context of the Covenant promises.
At the time of the writing of the Book of Revelation, 68 AD, the probation period that God had announced through Daniel, that is, seventy weeks of years and a time, times and dividing of time, had been completed and the time was up for the judgment to begin. Also, the time had come that Christ's prophecies that all these judgments upon Jerusalem would be fulfilled in that generation.
(1)
First, a moral God cannot lie. The promised blessings had been fulfilled
many times over,[2]
but God had delayed his ultimate wrath because of his longsuffering and
mercy. When the people sinned in the
Wilderness, He had threatened to destroy the entire people and make of Moses His nation, but
Moses interceded and they were spared.
The
moral dilemma was that the entire fleshly race of Mankind had been infected by
Sin and was therefore corrupt and subject to death,[3]
but the Covenant required holiness
as a condition of the eternal promises. It was therefore impossible that a fleshly people could inherit eternal
promises. The eternal aspect of the
Covenant required that there be an eternal Heir, which could not be if the
sinful fleshly nation were all destroyed because of sin. This had provided a false sense of security
for the descendants of Abraham, for they thought their fleshly nation was
indestructible because of God's promise.
However, they had not reckoned with God's power to raise the dead.
Although
the entire nation had gone astray, in the resurrection Christ became the eternal
Heir to the promises because of His unending life, and so the promises continue
in effect through Him. From the moment
of the resurrection onward, there was no necessity for any other fleshly heir
in order to fulfill the promises.
Because His flesh was descended from Abraham, the promises to the fleshly seed became eternally
effective in Christ in His resurrected body It was
therefore possible for God to bring the promised curses upon the entire
remainder of the fleshly lineage of Abraham as necessary to
fulfill His word.
Delayed
fulfillment of the cursing was not to be taken as permissiveness, nor
slackness, but rather as a token of mercy and grace in order to bring men to
repentance. God rebukes and chastens the
sons whom He loves, but when corrective measures are unheeded, the wrath of His
judgment is sure, for God cannot lie.
For the Jewish nation in the
time of John the Revelator the time was up
and they were due for repentance or judgment.
Romans 2:2-11 sets forth
the rationale for God's righteous judgment against the Jews. In verses 2-3 we see that it rightly falls
upon those who do these evil things, in order to deter sin lest sinners should
hope to escape, and lest God's purposes should be misunderstood, (verse
4). It is God's nature as a holy God to
bless the righteous and to condemn the wicked, (verses 5-8). He shows no partiality in judgment, (verses 6
and 11).
Since
salvation was to the Jew first, then to
the Gentiles, (Rom. 1:16),
it is also just that God's righteous wrath be revealed first against the Jews,
but also against the unrepentant Gentiles in their time. This order, "the Jew first," does not reflect any respect of persons in
judgment, nor a superior position in grace.
It simply shows God's sovereign choice of method in revealing Himself
and His salvation to the world. He chose
to use the Jews as an example, a pattern, and as a type and shadow. Having had the privilege of receiving God's
revelation in the Law, the Covenant and the Prophets,
they were held accountable for recognizing Jesus Christ as the
fulfillment of all that was previously foretold and promised. By the same token, after Gentiles receive the
Gospel, they too are equally responsible.
The
life, works, death and resurrection of Christ had been fully
revealed to the entire Jewish world in the
period prior to 70 A.D, (Col. 1:5-6).[5]
It was therefore morally imperative that they be brought to
account. Romans 1:18-32 declares
that God's wrath is being revealed against those "who hold the truth in unrighteousness"; at that time, this
applied specifically only to the Jewish nation.
It was they who were without excuse, (v.20), because they had been fully
exposed to the knowledge of God, (v. 21), had had the truth of God, (v. 25),
and knew about the promised judgments of God, (v. 32).
To
those Jews Paul declared that "...the name of God is blasphemed among
the Gentiles through you." (Rom. 2:24). It was morally
imperative that God defend His Name against
blasphemy.
Indeed,
the name "Jew" itself was being misused by these unbelievers,
for Paul shows that true
Jewish identity depends
upon faith, not upon circumcision of the flesh, but that of the heart,
"...in the spirit, and not in the
letter", (Rom. 2:28-29. See
also Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 32:29.) In fact this passage in Romans 2 from verse 17, "Behold, thou art called a Jew",
through verse 29 furnishes a definition of the kinds of people "who call themselves Jews and are not, but do
lie," as mentioned in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9.
In
Romans 3:5-6, Paul chides those
"Jews" for suggesting that God might be unjust to take vengeance upon
them for their sins. Then he says:
"God forbid, for then how shall God
judge the world?" This clearly
indicates that judgment and vengeance against these "Jews" was a prerequisite,
and was morally imperative if God was to judge the entire Gentile world later for
these same sins.[6]
Therefore,
this word must, (Revelation 1:1), indicating
a moral imperative, foreshadows what is about to be revealed to John. It was
fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem. God's righteous
wrath upon the unbelieving wicked is described symbolically as the destruction
of "Mystery Babylon," (Rev. 17 and 18).
This lesson is from the book Revelation in Context, pages 75-77. To get the full truth of this lesson, please read and meditate the Scriptures.
Revelation in Context is available at Amazon.com, and www.XulonPress.com, and locally at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net
[1] Christian love requires that we understand both the
goodness and the severity of God. The
only hope of salvation for any and every soul is the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. It must be clearly understood that the way of
salvation in Christ is open today to all, even those who follow the doctrines
of the ancient Pharisees and therefore call themselves "Jews." However, unless they repent and turn from
their evil doctrine, they too will suffer the wrath of God, just as did the
"Jews" in the time of John the Revelator. The issue of Christian love,
therefore, is to try at all costs to give them the Gospel message and pray for their souls.
It must be clearly understood, also, that
Christian sympathy and pity cannot deter
God from His purposes. God's will must
prevail in the earth as it does in heaven and His Word is clear that there must
be judgment against sin. If men, of any
race or creed, refuse to accept the atonement in Christ, they will
be destroyed without remedy. Either they
will be slain "by the sword which goeth forth from the mouth" of the
Son of God, the Gospel, or they
will be slain by God's wrath.
[2] Contrary to popular teaching, the promise of the land had been
fulfilled according to Joshua 21:43-45 and 23:14.
[3] It is evident that there were none left, even of the Jews, who could
claim that they had satisfied God's requirement that they keep the covenant:
Romans 3:21-23; 11:32; Isaiah 53:6.
It is equally evident that Christ came for the express purpose of making
atonement for sinners: Isaiah 53:6-12.
[5] There were approximately forty years, after the rejection of the
Messiah, (about AD 30) to the destruction of the nation, (about AD
70). This period was comparable in some
respects to that of Num. 14:34. This
analogy is confirmed by Heb. 3:7-4:11 and 1 Cor. 10:1-11. This was the period of time in which the
gospel was preached throughout the Roman Empire to all the Jews, Colossians 1:5-6, 23.
(The twelve tribes are sometimes called 'nations' Gen. 35:11; Exod.
19:6; Acts 2:5. The Roman
Empire is called "all the world" in Luke 2:1.)
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