It has been extremely moving to watch the D-Day commemoration celebrations on our news screens over the last few days. Hundreds of old men gathering to remember comrades who fell and to celebrate the victory that has delivered to Europe a period of (mostly) peace that has lasted almost 70 years. Had they failed in their mission then I doubt very much that our church would be able to meet at all, and less still would I have the freedom to share these thoughts from the Bible with anyone who was interested enough to read them!
However we cannot get away from the fact that the D-Day celebrations are a celebration of evil and tyranny being defeated. A series of then-and-now pictures in the Huffington Post that a friend drew my attention to graphically illustrates how the peace that we now enjoy had to be fought for. While some might recoil at the violence and bloodshed that were involved, few would argue that the defeat of Hitler and the 3rd Reich was unnecessary. Yet too often when people read of the wrath of God in the Bible they complain that Christians are somehow twisted to believe in such a Being without stopping to consider whether or not His wrath might actually be a good thing.
Maybe a part of the problem is that while society has conditioned most of us to recognise Hitler and his colleagues as evil, it has failed to help us recognise much else that is. Indeed, when we open the Bible our moral compass is challenged to believe that God really meant all that He said in the 10 commandments, or that the Lord Jesus in His sermon on the mount was serious.
Working through the book of Revelation, and especially in the chapters leading up to ch 15, Revelation 15: 1 – 8 all sorts of ideology and accepted norms have been characterised as truly ‘beastly’. Therefore it is with great enthusiasm that the apostle John introduces the final judgement of God on such things as wonderful (he literally says its ‘mega’!). Yet as he does so our sensibilities are challenged. Indeed, though Revelation 15:5-8 leave us in no doubt that these things are from God, in our culture we might be tempted to find the whole subject of God’s wrath embarrassing. That is, until we see the people of God gathered around His Throne Revelation 15: 2 – 4:
The security of their position and the excitement of their song all contribute to tell us that the people of God singing the song of victory are absolutely thrilled at God’s wrath! Their song is of Moses & the Lamb – and a quick glance back to the Passover and Exodus (Exodus chs 12 – 15) combined with the words of the song itself in Revelation 15: 3 – 4 tell us that when all is said and done God’s people will praise Him for His evil-destroying wrath and His amazing plan of salvation. If anything is going to challenge our ideas then their song will!
As Christians we are usually unhesitating in our enthusiasm to sing of God’s rescue plan and Jesus sacrifice on the cross, but can you imagine a praise song about God’s wrath? But if these words of scripture are going to make their full impact, we need to grasp properly what’s being celebrated here: false ideologies and evil tyranny will be no more – and so will godlessness. In fact, anyone who bears the mark of the beast, which we have previously seen is not some weird tattoo but simply the badge of failure worn by anything and anyone that doesn’t want the Gospel. In practice that is going to mean that we see the world through eyes which are tuned-in to a totally different value system. Our morality, our aspirations, our spending, our priorities, what we deem attractive, how we use our time – suddenly they need to be tuned into God’s view of things. Just like the apostle Paul describes in 1 Cor 1: 20 – 31, so our thinking needs to be radically altered. Ask yourself how yours will be?!
Set in the context of the final delivery of God’s wrath on a rebellious world, what is clear from this passage is that nothing will be left in any doubt that the Lord is over all, and so perhaps the greatest challenge is to ask which side we are on? For in addition to a reassurance that one day evil will be over, this passage serves to remind us that right now we still have the opportunity to repent and believe and be saved by the Lord Jesus.