A Revelation Invitation

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:12-17 ESV)

While not explicitly an answer to the martyred souls’ earlier question of “How long?”, their cries for vindication are finally addressed when the Lamb opens the sixth seal. What we see is disturbing. It helps to appreciate that this passage is steeped in Old Testament, apocalyptic imagery and should be interpreted as such (compare to Isaiah 34). This is not a picture of the earth’s destruction. It is a metaphorical depiction of what we would call earthshaking events. It portrays catastrophic political and social upheaval through the imagery of the cataclysmic disintegration of creation. As the Roman Empire began to collapse politically and socially, our ancient brothers in the faith witnessed such events. Their persecutors saw their world come crashing in on them. As one commentator succinctly framed this scene, it was not the end of the world; but it was the end of their world.

Every stratum of society was affected from the rich and powerful to the lowly and enslaved. What dawned on them was that their schemes had accomplished them nothing. People panicked. Neither their positions of privilege, their political connections nor their military strength could protect them as they had expected. Their social status was no longer advantageous. The wealth they had amassed was fleeting. The things they had devoted their lives to, the very things they turned to for safety, were proving to be of no help to them. Their money, positions and power did not provide the security they had hoped for.

Ironically, these disturbing and difficult times brought them to faith in God (“hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne”)—unfortunately not a saving faith. In their hearts they wanted to hide from God much as Adam and Eve did after eating the forbidden fruit. They had rejected the Lamb and now he was calling them to account. The strongholds they had built for themselves had crumbled. They even preferred to face death rather than the wrath of the Lamb. Christians know that only the cross shelters a person through trying times like these.

These terrors drove the kings, the generals, the rich and the powerful to ask a question—rhetorical in their minds: “Who can stand?” They finally realized that no one can oppose the one who sits on the throne. They realized they were powerless before the wrath of the Lamb. However, what they had thought was a rhetorical question, the Spirit answered unexpectedly and beautifully in the scene that follows.

Gracious Lord, I am so grateful that I need not fear what the world fears. I will not place my trust in my wealth or achievements or position or status. I trust you. I can endure any tribulation that you send on the world because I find my refuge in the shelter of the cross. Evil cannot threaten my hope in eternal life with Christ. Death cannot separate me from your love. When the world seems to crumble around me, I will not fear because you hold me in your powerful and loving hand. Amen.