12. MORAL NECESSITY TO AVENGE
HIS COVENANT
Another piece of unfinished business which God was morally
obligated to fulfill was that of vengeance. He had promised:
(A) to avenge the breaking of His
Covenant;
(B)
to avenge His saints and martyrs, both as their God and as their
Kinsman-Redeemer; and:
(C)
To avenge the shedding of innocent blood and to cleanse the land from
defilement.
A) To Avenge the Breaking of His Covenant:
The
passage in Leviticus 26:14-46
describes the penalty for the national sin of breaking the Covenant. The penalty was to be exacted through sword, famine,
pestilence, wild beasts, destruction, desolation, and dispersion. The
Babylonian captivity had
come because Israel
had broken the Covenant, yet God in His mercy used it to rebuke and chasten His
erring children rather than executing His full measure of divine wrath.
At the
time of the writing of the Book of Revelation, fleshly Israel was again in full
disobedience except for those in Christ. The penalty for breaking the Covenant was therefore due
and it was morally imperative that God fulfill the wrath promised. The book
shows these penalties being executed. The pattern of sevens in the book may be
a reminder of the oath of the
Covenant, reflecting the seven-times-over nature of the penalty that was
promised in Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28.
(See “The Number Seven in the Bible” Commentary on 1:4.)
In
reference to this passage in Leviticus, it was morally imperative that God fulfill His
Covenant while at the same
time, He was morally obligated to forgive the repentant who confessed their
sins, (26:40); and, when their "uncircumcised
hearts are humbled," (26:41, see also Romans 2:28-29), then He
would reinstate them into His Covenant, (v. 45). In the destruction of Jerusalem vengeance was
accomplished and in the Revelation of Jesus Christ reinstatement
into the New Jerusalem was possible. Here we behold the goodness and the
severity of God. Since Christ was made the New Covenant, (Isaiah 42:6-7), when
Judaism rejected Him, if
for no other reason, they had broken both the Old and the New Covenants. That
put them on equal footing with the Gentiles; there was no difference. Salvation
for all depended upon God's mercy in Christ.
(B-1) To avenge His Covenant People, as their God.
Vengeance is a major theme
of the Book of Revelation and shows that
God has fulfilled this aspect of His Covenant. In the Book of Revelation we find three series of
judgments, the seals, trumpets and plagues.
In
Revelation 6:9-11, the
opening of the fifth seal reveals the souls of the slain martyrs as they cry
out to be avenged. This vengeance is promised as soon as their number is
completed. From here the tension builds throughout the seals and the trumpets
to a climax in the destruction of Mystery Babylon. Following this, the saints rejoice in triumphal praise
to God for vengeance has been executed, (Revelation 18:20, 24; 19:1-3).
Revelation 18:24 corresponds
to Christ's prediction in Matthew 23:29-36 of vengeance against
Jerusalem for "all the righteous blood shed on earth,"
(v. 35), when the full number of martyrs should be accomplished. That Christ's
prophecy was spoken directly against Jerusalem is clear from verse 37a: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets
and stoning those who are sent unto you!"
Christ foretold that
many of these martyrs were to be the Christians sent by Himself:
I send you
prophets, and wise men, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify,
and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, (v. 34).
This vengeance was not to be delayed beyond the lifetime
of the generation that heard Christ predict it, (v.
36). So the complete number of martyrs for which fleshly Judaism was held
responsible was to be fulfilled within "this generation" of time.[1]
The
sixth seal, Revelation 6:12-17,
continues this promise of vengeance by proclaiming that "...the great day of their wrath has come, and
who can stand before it?"
The
seventh seal consists of the seven trumpets. After the sixth trumpet, an angel
proclaims
That there shall
be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by
the seventh angel, the mystery of God, as He announced to His servants the
prophets, should be fulfilled (10:6b, 7).
[Underlines of Scripture are my emphasis throughout.]
This is
reminiscent of Ezekiel 12:25,
performance of the predictions will not
be delayed beyond the generation to which it was spoken.
The
seventh trumpet describes the translation of the fleshly kingdom into the
kingdom of Christ. It opens with the scene in heaven and the
proclamation:
The kingdom of this
world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall
reign for ever and ever (11:15).
This echoes Christ's words from the Gospel of John 18:36: "My kingdom
is not of this world."
The earthly, fleshly kingdom was fully translated into
the greater, more perfect kingdom of Christ.
This
translation of the kingdom is accompanied by a time of wrath upon the earth,
(11:18): "The nations raged, but thy wrath came." God's servants, prophets and saints, were
rewarded by being avenged, while the destroyers themselves were destroyed. The
true Temple was seen in
heaven, along with the true Ark of the Covenant, (v. 19); the earthly copies were destroyed, and these symbols of the kingdom were
translated into the heavens.
The
theme of wrath resumes in 14:7: "...the hour of His judgment has come,"
that fateful hour so long anticipated. The judgment is
against Babylon, verse 8:
Fallen, fallen is
Babylon the Great, she who made all nations drink the
wine of her impure passion. RSV
The judgment of the "beast," (that is, unredeemed flesh and the fleshly claim to
covenant relationship without the spirit), and the reaping of the land, (Gk. ge, Hebrew ’eretz), corresponds to the historical
events of the wars in Judea which immediately
preceded the fall of Jerusalem. The land was reaped and cast into "the wine press of the wrath of God,” (v.
19), “...the wine press was trodden
outside the city."[2]
The
theme of wrath builds until in chapter 15 the seven bowls fill up the full measure of God's wrath. As a corollary the
overcoming saints in heaven sing "The
Song of Moses," Deuteronomy 32, and "The Song of the Lamb."[3] To complete this scene in Revelation, one
must read and include Deuteronomy 32. It is a song about justice and judgment. It
deals directly with God's judgment upon
Israel because of their fall into sin and idolatry,[4]
as foretold by Moses. After the indictment for sin, the theme is set forth
which became so important to the early Christians suffering persecution from
the Jews:
Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. (See also Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30, etc.)
In the “Song of Moses" the fallen ones are no longer Israel:
They have acted
corruptly toward Him, to their shame, they are no longer His children,
but a warped and crooked generation, (NIV Deut.
32:5).
Note
also that Jesus used the term
"warped and crooked generation" as found in Luke 9:41 and Matthew
17:17, no doubt with this reference in mind. Romans 11:28: "As regards the gospel they are enemies of
God." The fleshly nation had
become God's adversary, but even so, God still had some persecuted servants in
the midst of them:
For the Lord will
vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants. (Deut. 32:36).
Praise His people,
O you nations; for He avenges the blood of His servants and takes vengeance on
His adversaries and makes expiation (or atonement) for the land of His people. (RSV 32:43).
These
conditions had prevailed from the time of Christ's ministry to the fall of Jerusalem. The nation as a whole had ceased to be His children. Furthermore,
He had taken to Himself a nation "who
were no people," the Gentile believers, to
provoke the Jews to jealousy. This was also predicted in the Song of Moses. (Deut. 32:21; see also Romans 10:19).
The
contents of the seven bowls are God's wrath, but it is the wrath of the moral imperative and His justice is
repeatedly praised; for example:
For men have shed
the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink. It
is their due! (Revelation 16:6 RSV).
The
first bowl is poured out upon the "land" (or "earth,"
fulfilled historically upon the land of Judea, but to be further fulfilled upon the whole world in
the end of the Gentile age.) The theme
of wrath builds toward its climax in the seventh bowl. In the seventh bowl the
cities of "the nations" fell, (16:19). The twelve tribes were
sometimes called "the nations."[5]
In the
New Testament era the Jews in dispersion, although only of one racially
identifiable tribe, Judah, were sometimes called "the twelve tribes scattered abroad," for scattered individuals
of other tribes had joined themselves to them. The wrath of God's judgment came
also upon these, for they too had persecuted the Christians in their synagogues.
Historically we know that there were Jewish uprisings against
Rome in Alexandria and other major
centers of Jewish populations. Rome put down these rebellions with terrible
violence as the instrument of God’s wrath.
But the
ultimate recipient of God's wrath, the seventh bowl, is Mystery Babylon: 16:19b: "And God remembered great Babylon, to make her drain
the cup of the fury of His wrath."
Chapters
seventeen and eighteen are devoted entirely to describing her destruction. Her
identity is not left in doubt when considered in the light of Matthew 23:34, 35.
In Revelation 17:6 John sees that this
woman, Mystery Babylon is: "drunk with
the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." This is a direct allusion to Matthew 23:34
and positively identifies her as apostate Judaism as represented by
their religious capitol, Jerusalem. God's moral
obligation is to avenge His people upon her. In Revelation 18:20, while the
world laments, heaven rejoices:
Rejoice over her, O
heaven, O saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you
against her! (RSV).
And again in 18:24:
And in her was found
the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth, – another direct
allusion to Matthew 23:34-35.
Again in Revelation 19:2 the reason
for her destruction is made explicit:
For His judgments
are true and just; He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth
(land) with her fornication, and He has avenged on her the blood of His
servants. (RSV)
In
Revelation 19:11 our eyes
are turned to the glorious appearing of Christ. In the context of the destruction of Jerusalem, this is the fulfillment of Matthew 24:30 (also
16:27-28). Note that Christ is clothed in "a robe dipped in blood," (Revelation 19:13). This is the
"garments of vengeance"
described in Isaiah 59:17b-18:
He put on garments
of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in fury as a mantle. According
to their deeds, so will He repay, wrath to His adversaries, requital to His
enemies. (RSV)
The
vengeance of God in the Book of Revelation vindicates the
faith of the saints based upon such Scriptures as Isaiah 63:1-6:
Who is this that
comes from Edom, in crimsoned
garments from Bozrah, He that is glorious in His apparel, marching in the
greatness of His strength? "It is I,
announcing vindication, mighty to save."
Why is thy apparel red, and thy garments like his that treads in the
wine press? "I have trodden the wine
press alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments,
and I have stained all my raiment. For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
and my year of redemption has come. I looked, but there was no one to help;
I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me
victory, and my wrath upheld me. I trod down the peoples in my anger, I made
them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth." (RSV)
Two
references from the Gospels make it very clear that the saints expected to be
avenged soon of the persecution they were experiencing at the hands of the
Pharisaical Jews. One is the parable of the unjust judge in the context of the
prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem:
Will not God bring
about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice
quickly. (Luke 18:3-8, NIV).
Also see Luke 21:28, (NIV):"Lift up your
heads, because your redemption is near."
Paul predicted that
the saints to whom he wrote, as well as himself would be avenged by the
revelation of Jesus Christ, executing wrath upon their enemies. In his letter to
the Thessalonians Paul mentions the suffering of the churches in Judea at the hands of:
The Jews, who
killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They
displease God and are hostile to all men...In this way they always heap up
their sins to the limit....The wrath of God has come upon them at last. (1 Thess.
2:14-16. NIV)
The saying: "[the Jews] are hostile to all men," we know it is true from the writings of their Talmud
which classes all other men as Gentiles, in the class of animals and worthy of
death.
But the saints will not be under God's wrath:
For God did not
appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thess. 5:9)
That wrath is described in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10:
God is
just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you
who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with
His powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey
the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting
destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of
His power on the day He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be
marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you because you
believed our testimony to you. (NIV)
The
early Church believed that these
Scriptures were true as evidenced by the fact that they accepted them into the
Canon. They must, therefore, have seen the destruction of
Jerusalem and the
dispersion of the Jews as the fulfillment of their promised vindication, and
must have believed that Jesus Christ was revealed from
heaven in some publicly attested way such as was recorded by Josephus in the passage
cited above.
This lesson is from my book Revelation In Context, pages 88-92. Revelation In Context is available locally at Living Word Bookstore, Shawnee, Oklahoma, or online at www.Amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com . Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net.
[1] Charles, Book of Enoch, 135-149, (94.6-103.15), pronounces "Woe" upon
the unrighteous, especially for their persecution of the righteous, as Christ pronounced "Woe" upon the scribes
and Pharisees of Matt. 23.
[4] Lightfoot points out in his commentary on Acts 7:43 that
idolatry began in the wilderness with the worship of the golden calf. The
Rabbinic tradition credits all later
idolatry with partaking of this original sin (CNT vol. 4, 82-3).
[5] See my Commentary at 2:26
"Nations".
