Posts
Revelation 11
14 The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe comes quickly. 15 The seventh angel sounded, and great voices in heaven followed, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ. He will reign forever and ever!"
the third woe comes quickly
I saw, and I heard an eagle, flying in mid heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe! Woe! Woe for those who dwell on the earth, because of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, who are yet to sound!" (Revelation 8:13)
The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this. (Revelation 9:12)
These verses refer to the first two woes, and now we have arrived at the last of the three woes originally announced. This transition into the seventh trumpet parallels similar transitions between six and seven in the other sets and is extremely significant but also can be very confusing. The patterns of these sets of seven are a point of study on the part of many who are seeking to understand the deeper meanings of these prophecies, and we do well to tread lightly and to constantly seek guidance from the Spirit for wisdom instead of driving stakes deep in the ground anchoring our opinions in conflict with anyone disagreeing with us. The spirit brings life while the letter can kill.
Let's review some passages that involve woe, keeping in mind that we have examined this rather thoroughly in previous discussions already.
Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time. (Revelation 12:12)
Moses said to Aaron, Take your censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and lay incense thereon, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from Yahweh; the plague is begun. (Numbers 16:46)
When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD your God so as to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. (Deuteronomy 4:25-26 NAS95)
For he will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and he will destroy you quickly. (Deuteronomy 7:4)
I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God; you had made you a molten calf: you had turned aside quickly out of the way which Yahweh had commanded you. (Deuteronomy 9:16)
Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me. (Deuteronomy 28:20)
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11)
The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly. (Zephaniah 1:14)
Isaiah cries concerning Israel, "If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved; for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth." (Romans 9:27-28)
great voices in heaven followed
I heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here!" They went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies saw them. (Revelation 11:12)
It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him. (Joshua 6:5)
The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ
The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour. These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings. They also will overcome who are with him, called and chosen and faithful. (Revelation 17:12-14)
Who wouldn't fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed. (Revelation 15:4)
Yes, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him. (Psalms 72:11)
All nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord. They shall glorify your name. (Psalms 86:9)
It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many peoples shall go and say, "Come, let's go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:2-3)
yes, he says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth. Thus says Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you. (Isaiah 49:6-7)
Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my banner to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am Yahweh; and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed. (Isaiah 49:22-23)
Behold, you shall call a nation that you don't know; and a nation that didn't know you shall run to you, because of Yahweh your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you. (Isaiah 55:5)
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about, and see: they all gather themselves together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms. Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. (Isaiah 60:3-5)
Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, even vanity and things in which there is no profit. (Jeremiah 16:19)
There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:14)
Many nations shall join themselves to Yahweh in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you. (Zechariah 2:11)
Thus says Yahweh of Armies: "Many peoples, and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come; and the inhabitants of one shall go to another, saying, 'Let us go speedily to entreat the favor of Yahweh, and to seek Yahweh of Armies. I will go also.' Yes, many peoples and strong nations will come to seek Yahweh of Armies in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favor of Yahweh." Thus says Yahweh of Armies: "In those days, ten men will take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, they will take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, 'We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'" (Zechariah 8:20-23)
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you. For the kingdom is Yahweh's. He is the ruler over the nations. (Psalms 22:27-28)
In what way does the kingdom of earth become the kingdom of God? Do they keep their identities?
In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty of it be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. (Daniel 2:44)
The kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole sky, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High: his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. (Daniel 7:27)
Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. (Matthew 6:10)
There is another angle from which we need to view this declaration, that involving one of the core issues of the great cosmic war over authority on this earth. It also involves the methods relied on by each side as to how to achieve authority over the world and the more importantly, the nature of that authority. Authority has been contested for millennia and will continue until the final day of full revelation. A pivotal event in this war was when Satan attempted to seduce Jesus to embrace his methods, his version of authority in a slight of hand to trap Jesus through deception just as he did our first parents when they lost their dominion given them by God. This setup to entrap Jesus just as our first parents were duped, happened at the very outset of the public ministry of Jesus as a human who had come to challenge Satan's assertion of authority over this planet.
By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to share ill treatment with God's people, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward. (Hebrews 11:24-26)
If you are the Son of God... The devil, leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. The devil said to him, "I will give you all this authority, and their glory, for it has been delivered to me; and I give it to whomever I want. If you therefore will worship before me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "Get behind me Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'" (Luke 4:3, 5-8)
Note the parallel of derived identity. Moses had to choose who would be his source of identity with all the implications this would involve. The same issue is seen all throughout the life of Jesus on earth.
The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ
Can we see the real issue here? This war is over who has authority over the social organization of the humans living on this planet. It is too simplistic to simply spout the cliché that God is sovereign, or that because God is all powerful and He created this earth, He owns it and no one can undermine His authority. Many insist that saying Satan has dominion over this world is inaccurate, but that does not square with the history of our world as revealed in Scripture and especially in this book that gives us the most complete explanation of the real backstory. We need to come to understand much better the issues being fought over if we are to understand the far greater significance of this bold assertion that the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.
When Jesus was confronted directly by Satan at the very outset of His earthly ministry, this issue of identity and authority was at the very heart of every temptation pressed on Jesus with great intensity and with all the advantages in Satan's favor. Jesus was on the verge of death by starvation, making Him physically weak. Many of us find it difficult to resist reacting negatively if we are feeling hungry after just missing one meal on time. Jesus had the same physical body that we have with all the affects of low blood sugar and everything else working against Him. The instinct of survival was just as strong inside of Him as it is with any of us, and the enemy was using this to leverage the appeal of his enticements to get Jesus to compromise in one way or another simply to survive. The devil hoped that in this way He could trick or seduce the Son of God into reacting in some way that would give credence to Satan's assertions that God has a hidden dark side that if exposed would prove that putting self ahead of others was only one aspect of His character, yet there was also more. This is at the core of the war, for it involves which entity authentically represents the hidden side of God, Lucifer or Christ. Again, this is laid out in Hebrews 1 and was the cause of division from the very outset of the rebellion and is still the ongoing issue that must be settled before peace can ever be restored to the entire universe.
His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself made purification for our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; having become so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they have. For to which of the angels did he say at any time, "You are my Son. Today have I become your father?" and again, "I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a Son?" Again, when he brings in the firstborn into the world he says, "Let all the angels of God worship him." (Hebrews 1:3-6)
Many have correctly observed that the issue of worship is central to the war brought to light in Revelation. However, worship has long been a rather vague term that needs to be clarified so that we can see the greater dimensions here. Worship involves several factors that must not be overlooked. One of them is authority, but we must keep in mind the kind of authority and the means used to acquire it. Does authority operate in a top-down structure as in hierarchy? If so, then we will assume things about God that are counter to the methods of the Lamb and will not be able to appreciate the real issues here when it comes to winning the war. God does not do hierarchy despite all our objections to the contrary. If we get that settled in our thinking, our perspective of worship can be greatly enlightened and expanded. Worship is about giving authority to a source of power, but also from which we receive what we need in terms of provisions, security and especially identity.
The reason worship is central in this war involves how we relate to the very design of what it means to be human. Humans always reflect the god they believe is in charge and to whom they look for identity, purpose, value and as the original they will reflect. Worship means that we will emulate whomever it is we admire and value and want to be like more than any other. Worship means turning our attention and imagination towards an original that we will reflect in our lives and in the way we feel about ourselves and how we will relate to others. This is summed up in the two great commandments but is often missed in the word love. If we imagine that love is an emotion we have to feel toward God and those around us, we will likely struggle to make sense of the real issue at stake, for emotions are merely chemical dumps that come from what we think about or what we just ate or injected or experienced.
Love is a principle, not merely an emotion. Love involves the principle of worship, so we need to better understand how we worship instead of fretting over how much we feel love for God and others. Feelings are after-affects of choices and thoughts and must not be allowed to control our choices. Yet this is very difficult for most of us because we are so used to believing our feelings as defining truth for us. This is why the greatest tests of the Son of God while living on this earth involved overwhelming pressure of emotions and feelings designed to get Him to react based on physical feelings rather than reflecting only the love of the Father. If the enemy can get us to follow the dictates of our feelings over the principles of the kingdom of light, love and truth, he has gained our worship, for we have been trapped by his temptation just as surely as was Eve when she encountered him at the Tree.
True agape love originates in God and is completely selfless in nature. This is the truth Satan hates the most, for so long as we believe this to be the truth about God, we will reflect this light that exposes the fraud and deception of the enemy. God is light with no darkness at all in Him, and when this light comes close judgment is the inevitable reaction (John 3:19-21). This judgment has been going on ever since the assertions of Lucifer began to question agape love from the inception of the war. But the principles involved are being allowed to fully work out into the open before evil can ever be defeated and cease to exist. This can only be achieved through the methods of overcoming as relied on by the Lamb, the only true representative and Son of God who reflects perfectly and explicitly the heart of the Godhead and the true nature of love.
Agape love, the very definition of God, always and consistently puts others and their welfare ahead of one's own welfare. This is the light that exposes all the twisted theology we still have about how God will win over evil. Jesus never achieves victory to acquire full authority over this world by relying to a single element of Satan's counterfeit ways. The Lamb of God is the grand exposé of how God's government operates and how the kingdom of love overcomes all the power of evil and lies and darkness and fear. This must be taken into account as we analyze the true meaning of this phrase about the transition of authority over this world to Christ.
