Revelation15:1-2 “And I saw another sign in heaven, great and wonderful–it was seven angels, with seven plagues which are the final ones, because in them the wrath of God reaches its climax. And I saw what I can only call a sea of glass intermingled with fire; and I saw standing beside the sea of glass, with the harps of God, those who had emerged victorious from their struggle with the beast and with his image and with the number of his name.”
“The storm is passing over! The storm is passing over! The storm is passing over! Hallelujah!” The choir from an inner city church sang those words triumphantly, and I have never forgotten them. So many have weathered terrible storms – physical, spiritual, emotional, and financial attacks that have left them reeling. Despite their faithfulness, they suffered martyrdom. But now the time has come for these persevering saints to be rewarded. Jesus said: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25).Barclay states: The real victory is not prudently to preserve life but to face the worst that evil can do and if need be to be faithful to death. “May God deny you peace,” said Unamuno the Spanish mystic, “and give you glory.”
15:3-4 ”and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: Great and wonderful are your works, O Lord, God the Almighty; Just and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? Because you alone are holy; Because all the nations will come and worship before you; Because your righteous judgments have been made plain for all to see.”
These victorious martyrs sing two songs: the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Moses first sang his song when the Children of Israel were delivered from the Egyptians at the Red Sea, and it is found in Exodus 15:1-19. The short version of the Song of Moses is “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation…. Who is like thee, 0 Lord, among the gods, who is like thee, majestic in holiness, terrible in glorious deeds, doing wonders?… The Lord will reign for ever and ever.”
The Song of the Lamb is one that only these martyrs can sing and is made up of quotations from the Psalms. “Great and wonderful are your works, O Lord, God the Almighty; Just and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? Because you alone are holy; Because all the nations will come and worship before you; Because your righteous judgments have been made plain for all to see.” Notice that these martyrs don’t mention themselves at all; they are lost in their praises of the magnificence of the God whom they have served and for whom they have died, the God who has redeemed them. All suffering is past and now those who have suffered can see how that suffering has contributed to building the Kingdom of God.
Many times, people become discouraged and begin to hate God when bad things happen. “If God were REALLY a God of love, my child wouldn’t have died of a drug overdose!” “If God were REALLY a God of love, my elderly parent wouldn’t have died by himself in a nursing home isolated from the rest of the family by COVID restrictions!” “If God were REALLY working in my life, I wouldn’t have lost my [job/house/car/business/family/money]! We easily forget that we are living in a fallen sinful world, one in which all of us are subject to things going wrong. God has created us as beings with free will, not as puppets; and when we or others make bad choices, then terrible things can result. St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that we see “but a dim reflection as in a mirror;” in other words, we only get a small part of the big picture.
Bad things can happen. The question is, how will we respond? Will we blame God or will we allow God to use the bad things that happen in our lives to mold us and to perfect us into the men and women God wants us to be? Moses said in Psalm 90:10 “The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty if we are strong— yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.” Our lives are only moments in eternity. The suffering that seems to go on forever will pass; the question is, how will we respond? Will we allow God to mold us or will we become increasingly bitter?
PRAYER: Father God, thank you that our suffering does not go on forever! Thank you that no matter what we are facing, you are always there watching, encouraging, and shaping us. Lord, help those who read these words to turn to you so that you will be able to shape them into the glorious beings you want them to become. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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