REVELATION 6:9-11
When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I
saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the
word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained, and they
cried out with a loud voice, saying "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will
You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwelt on the
earth?"
And there was given to each of them a
white robe, and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer,
until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be
killed, even as they had been, would be completed also (NASB).
INTRODUCTION
Sometimes the cup of iniquity is full and people are ripe
for judgment. In such a case, it may happen as it did in the flourishing and
extraordinarily beautiful city of Messina,
Italy.
In the early morning of December
28, 1908, an earthquake struck, and 84, 000 human beings died. Only
a few hours before that devastating earthquake, which laid Messina and the
surrounding districts in ruins, the unspeakably wicked and irreligious
condition of some of the inhabitants was expressed in a series of violent
resolutions that were passed against all objections.
The journal II
Telefono, printed in Messina,
actually published in its Christmas issue an abominable parody, daring the
Almighty to make himself known by sending an earthquake! And in three days, the
earthquake came! (Cited by John Lawrence, Down
to Earth [Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale, 1983] p. 51).
I.
THE VISION OF THE FIFTH SEAL V. 9
In the first four seals we have examined thus far, the
events were all taking place on the earth. However, when the fifth seal was
broken the action shifts from the earth to heaven. In verse 9, John sees the
souls of those who have been murdered because of the word of God, and because
of the testimony of Christ, they have maintained. This verse and many others in
the Bible including the Book of Job smack the preaching and teaching that say
that a Christian should not suffer. I have related to you that by the time John
wrote the Book of Revelation many of his contemporary apostles have been
killed. The Book of Revelation was written between A. D. 90-95. By this time,
Peter and Paul had been killed by Nero, who was the predecessor of Domitian,
the Emperor who banished the Apostle John to the Island of Patmos.
You recall that John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ was killed by
Herod Antipas, because John the Baptist condemned his immoral relations with
his brother’s wife. The first Christian martyr was Stephen who was stoned to
death. At his death, he prayed for the forgiveness of his enemies who took his
life (Acts 7-8). As the Christian Church continued to spread or grow
exponentially, Herod Agrippa seized James the brother of John and killed him
with the sword (Acts 12). There are countless numbers of Christians who have
been murdered because of their unwavering devotion to Christ.
It has been estimated that since 1950 over ten million
Christians have been put to death because of their faith in Jesus Christ. This
statistics came out of the Manila Conference on World Evangelism. The
persecution yet to come will be much worse—in fact, it will be the worst
persecution the world has ever known. The world that has witnessed in this
century the Jewish Holocaust in Nazi Germany; the “killing fields” in Cambodia;
the machete-style butchery of Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda; the eradication of
the intellectuals, the educated, and the wealthy during the Cultural Revolution
in China; and the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina has yet to see its
most evil days. At the time of preparing this message, Christians in Pakistan are
asking prayer for God’s protection and intervention for their lives. The reason
is that the militant Muslims in Pakistan
have vowed to bomb all the Christians unless they convert to Islam. Many of the
Christians are leaving the country and others are in hiding.
It seems to me that some Christians and politicians in the United States
and the Western world have put their heads in the sand or ignorant of the aim
of the Islamic Jihadists. Their main intention is to eradicate Western ideas
and technology and to annihilate all Jews and Christians unless we convert to
Islam. However, the victorious Christ would thwart all their evil plots and
intentions.
The persecution of Christians yet to come will make all
other bloodletting combined seem pale in comparison. John sees those who have
died for their faith in Christ. One thing is clear. That is, their death is not
in vain, because their souls are underneath the altar. The altar is a
representation of the altar of sacrifice in the temple, where animals were
sacrificed to atone for sins. However, instead of animals, John sees the souls
of martyrs who have paid with their lives for preaching the gospel of Christ.
In the face of war, famine, persecution, and death, Christians will be called
on to stand firmly for what they believe. Only those who endure to the end will
be rewarded by God (Mark 13:13).
These are part of the reason that Jesus challenges us who want to be His
disciples to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him. The call
to take up the cross was the call to suffer with Christ. The souls of these
saints are preserved for John to see in this vision because they refused to
recant their devotion and commitment to Christ while on earth. The question is
“If you were threatened with death for your faith in Jesus Christ what would
you do?”
A story is told of an Indian Evangelist who was apprehended
by some extreme Hindus and was threatened with death. They said to him, “If you
do not stop preaching Christ, we would kill you. He said to them I am already
dead and to die is gain.” They asked him what he meant by that statement. He
said to them the day I said yes to Jesus Christ, I died and therefore to die is
gain because I am going to be with Jesus forever.” They said to him then we are
not going to kill you but to beat you up. He responded, to suffer with Christ
is joy. Finally, he said to them if you kill me I win, if you beat me I win, if
you leave me I win. They did not know what to do with him so they let him go.
II.
THE VOICE OF FAIRNESS V. 10
At the time of unjust suffering what do many people
say? For example, when a parent loses her child to death due to a debilitating
disease what does the parent say? Lord, why me? Lord, why did you take my child?
When a calamity of an unimaginable proportion hits a city or country what do
people say? When the tsunami hit Indonesia and the Islands of
Southeast Asia what did some of the people say? Why didn’t God do something
about it? When bad things happen to us we want to blame it on God. However,
when good things happen to us we conclude that we are lucky. In verse 10 the
martyrs address God as the Sovereign Lord. The word Lord used here is not the
usual kurios. The word "Lord" as used
in this context is the Greek despotēs,
which in the English is “Despot.” It is the word used for a master of slaves
and thus emphasizing God’s complete power. That is the same word that the
disciples used in Acts 4:24 in their prayer when Peter and John had been
arrested by the Sanhedrin. They were calling on God as the divine sovereign
ruler over all things. Not only that, these martyrs also address God as holy,
thus He is transcendent above all evil and who therefore cannot tolerate the
evil that had been perpetrated upon the martyrs. He is also the true one, the one faithful to His
covenant to His promises, who will finally save His people even though they
have suffered martyrdom, and bring them into the full redemption of the kingdom of God. The expression emphasizes God’s
goodness and reliability. These souls were crying for God’s vindication. They
were standing upon the character and nature of God to address Him to vindicate
their cause. The martyrs are crying for justice from God. Their prayer is that
the divine judgment on wicked men who have slain the righteous, which is
certain because God is holy and the true One should also be speedy and swift.
Sometimes when we see or hear of how our Christian brothers
and sisters suffer in some of the nations that persecute Christians what is our
reaction? Some of us ask, “Lord, why don’t you come and end it all?” I recall
praying for Christians in the former Soviet Union
when I was in Germany
and learned of their plight. I wanted the persecution to end then and now, but
it took several years before God dismantled the Soviet
Union. One thing you must understand is that retribution is a
divine prerogative.
What the martyrs are doing is that they are calling for the
reversal of the world’s judgment on God’s people. The cry is intelligible only
on the basis that the supreme power in the world is God’s power and that He
exercises it in a moral way. One thing is clear. Those who have mistreated,
persecuted, and killed Christians will not go unpunished unless, they repent,
ask for forgiveness, and yield their lives to Christ. God will certainly
vindicate His people. God will eventually balance the scale of justice in His
own time. One of the mysteries of God that you and I do not understand is that
God operates on a different timetable. We are limited by time and space. We are
limited to twenty-four hours a day but God is not. We cannot see things in
advance but God can. We have limited vision but God has limitless vision. He
knows what will happen ten and hundred years from now. He has the big picture
and He sees the end from the beginning. Nothing is hidden from Him and nothing
escapes His attention. His patience in dealing with us is unbelievable. If God
had not been patient with us, He would have killed many of us when we were
living in rebellion against Him.
III.
THE VERDICT THAT DEMANDS PATIENCE V. 11
As the martyrs were crying for vindication each of
them was given a white robe. The
white robe is a symbol of blessedness and rest, even though the state of final
and perfected blessedness awaits the return of Christ and the resurrection of
the body. The souls of the martyrs are seen as still resting beneath the altar;
they have not yet entered into the enjoyment of the full presence of God. The
martyrs must rest a little longer until the consummation of their blessedness,
but in the meantime they are in the state of rest. The martyrs appear to have
been defeated by their enemies. Actually they have been given the victory by
God. When Jesus was crucified, the enemies thought that they had defeated Him,
but what seemed to them a defeat actually became victory and vindication. The
enemies could see only the cross and the grave but they had no clue of the
resurrection. The enemies of Christ were conscious of that fateful Friday, but
they were oblivious to the victory Sunday when Jesus came out of the tomb.
The martyrs must wait in patience “until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be
complete.” This statement does not mean that God wants a specific number of
martyrs and He waits until somehow that number is reached. God is working out
His plan and in that plan there is a place for other martyrs. That plan will be
neither hastened nor delayed. God is not in a hurry; neither is He behind
schedule. Our God is patient in dealing with sin but when His patience is
exhausted nothing can stop His wrath and judgment from falling on sinful and
rebellious people. The first Christians found a problem in the fact that God
does not punish sin here and now. We sometimes do the same. The earlier
believers saw part of the answer in the cross. The cross of Christ does not
mean the abolition of judgment. It means that people will be judged by their
attitude to the sacrificial love of God shown on Calvary.
But the cross also shows that God has no truck with evil. Finally, evil and
evil men and women will be totally overthrown and condemned. God waits and the
number of martyrs grows to its completion. Nevertheless, the final destruction
of evil is certain. It is not a question of "whether but of when.”
God has promised in this verse that those who suffer and
die for their faith in Jesus Christ will not be forgotten. The Bible says, “Blessed are those who die in the Lord.” Before
Jesus went to the cross, He told the disciples that a time would come that
those who kill you would think that they were doing God a favor. Our Omniscient
and Sovereign God sees all the evils that are perpetrated against His children
in this world and He will act at the appropriate time. When Christ returns to
establish His eternal Kingdom every persecution, every unjust suffering, every
tribulation, and every wicked act that had been inflicted on His followers will
receive a just retribution. Those who are murdered for their faith in Jesus
Christ are singled out for special honor. Today when we see how our brothers
and sisters in Christ are suffering in countries such as China, Indonesia, Sudan, Eritrea, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, India, Pakistan, Northern Nigeria, North Korea, and others, we cannot
wait for immediate justice, but we must be patient. We must allow the patience
of God to run its course. One thing that we need to understand and rest assured
is that no suffering for the sake of God’s kingdom, however, is wasted (1 Cor. 15:58). Judgment day is coming for
the enemies of Christ who mistreat and abuse Christians, and the day of
Vindication is being prepared for the redeemed in Christ. Which side are you?
Are you prepared for the day of Christ's judgment on this fallen world?
