Thursday, June 2, 2016

Revelation 15:1-4

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire - and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. Andy sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, 

           "Great and marvelous are your deeds, 

             Lord God Almighty. 

             Just and true are your ways, 

             King of the nations. 

             Who will not fear you, Lord, 

             and bring glory to your name? 

             For you alone are holy. 

             All nations will come 

             and worship before you, 

             for your righteous acts have been revealed." 

A few years ago, I was asked to perform an outdoor wedding ceremony at the Morton Arboretum.  As I was leaving the Arboretum after the rehearsal, I passed by a large maze garden. On the outside of the garden wall was a 15 ft. raised observation platform. There was a man standing on that platform calling down to his young son somewhere inside of the maze. I could not see the little boy, but I could hear him, and I could hear the emotion in his voice. It was obvious that he was lost and his father was trying to guide him out of the maze and back to himself. The father could see exactly where the boy needed to go in order to find his way out, but all the little boy could see were large green hedges everywhere. The young boy needed to trust his father’s voice and obey what his father told him to do.  He needed to trust that his father saw more than he did.  

This story is a powerful image of what we need from God! We must trust that He sees far more than we do. It is easy for us to feel lost in the maze of life, it is easy for us to lose our way or make a wrong turn. We must listen to what God tells us and obey the commands He gives us, if we want to end up in the right place.  

In the passage above from Revelation 5, it refers to "the song of Moses" - those verses include phrases and references to Old Testament passages from Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Jeremiah. For example: Psalm 98:2 says, "The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations", which we can see reference to in Revelation 5:4. The God of Moses and his time, and the God of the prophecies contained in the Old Testament is the same God described in the prophecies contained in the book of Revelation. Because we can see his faithfulness to Moses, Abraham and the people of the Old Testament, and his fulfillment of prophecies in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, we can rest in the faith and hope that he sees more than we see. We are finite creatures with limited understanding, and He is the infinite and eternal God who knows and sees all. God reminds us of something we all desperately need, an eternal perspective. 

When we see how God has worked down through the ages in accordance with what He told His people in advance, it encourages us to remain faithful in our obedience to Him, knowing that the remaining unfulfilled prophecies will surely yet be fulfilled. The many prophecies in Scripture are not given for us to speculate about the future, but to help us be faithful in the present!

Jeff Frazier