Revelation 7:17
At the end of Revelation Chapter 7, the
Bible is continuing to tell us about good things that the Lord will do for us
in heaven. Revelation 7:17 says, "For the Lamb
which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto
living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes." In this verse we are told of three things that Jesus will do
for the people who are in heaven. First, Jesus will feed them, and He will lead
them to living fountains of waters. Of course, when the Bible says that Jesus
will feed them, it is talking about spiritual food. You are fed spiritual food
when you are taught spiritual truth. Jesus is the greatest teacher of all. When
Jesus was on the earth, apart from dying for our sins, the greatest thing that
Jesus did was to teach. The teachings of Jesus Christ that we have recorded for
us in the gospels are the greatest and the highest and the most noble of any
teachings that have ever been given anywhere in the history of the human race.
Blessed are those who have heard and have read and have understood the
teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. When we get to heaven, there will be many more
things to learn and our primary teacher will be Jesus Himself. When we get to
heaven, how happy we will be to sit at the feet of Jesus and to hear His
wonderful words from His own mouth. There will be so much more to learn. It
will be wonderful. First Corinthians 13:12 says, “For now we see through a glass darkly: but then face to
face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
Jesus will feed us, and He will also lead
us. We know that one of the major characteristics of the Christian life is that
a Christian is dependent upon being led by Jesus. One of the first things that
Jesus said to the disciples was, "Follow
me." One of the favorite Psalms of believers over the centuries has
been the 23rd Psalm that says, "He
leads me beside the still waters." There is a great, old hymn that
captures the blessedness of being led by God that is entitled "He Leadeth Me," and the first verse is:
He leadeth me, O blessed
thought! O words with heavenly comfort raught! Whatever I do, wherever I be,
Still ‘tis God’s hand that leadeth me!
If we were not led by God, our lives would
be in vain. It is because of the grace of God and the power of God that we are
led by Him. There are no coincidences in the life of a Christian. The more that
we understand and believe that Jesus is leading us because of His promises and
power and love for us, the more content we will be with this life and the more
able we will be to face what happens to us. God does not leave us to our own
devices. Thank God that we are led by Jesus in this life, and we will be led by
Him in eternity. We will need to be led by Him in heaven, because there will be
many things for us to do, and we will not be able to do them without His
guidance.
Notice that when Revelation 7:17 talks
about our existence in heaven, it says that Jesus "shall
lead them unto living fountains of waters." The emphasis should be
placed upon the word "living."
Jesus is the source of all life, physical and spiritual. When Jesus was on the
earth, He told the woman at the well that He could give her living water so
that she would never thirst again. When we all get to heaven, we will meet the
woman at the well, but we will meet her at a different well than the one
recorded in the gospel of John. We will meet her at the living well.
The last part of Revelation 7:17 says that "God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes." Everyone who is a Christian will have tears sometime in
their life. Sometimes it is not an easy road. Jesus told the disciples, "In the world you shall have tribulation." Jesus
Himself followed a road that led to the tortuous death on the cross of Calvary,
and He reminded us that "the servant is not
greater than his Lord." There are many situations in life that can
start with hope but end with tears. The American Indians know this all too
well, and they called one of their journeys the trail of tears. A young person
might fall in love, and make plans and have great hopes for the future,
thinking that the love will last for a lifetime. But sometimes a tragedy takes
place, and the love goes unrequited and the young person is left with tears.
Many young couples have children, and of course they always have hopes and
dreams for the future concerning their children, and of course they always
think that they know just how children need to be raised. But this is a
dangerous world in which we live. Sometimes bad things happen to good people,
and things may not work out the way they had hoped, and instead of seeing their
dreams for their children realized, they end up with tears. Some good people
will learn the hard way that when children are young they will step on your
toes, but when they are older, they will step on your heart. Many people who
have followed God and who have tried to do the right thing have gone to bed at
night with tears in their eyes.
In this life God has ways of wiping away
tears from our eyes. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be
comforted." In John 14:16 Jesus said, "I
will not leave you comfortless." In John 16:33 after Jesus said, "In the world you shall have tribulation,"
He also said, "But be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world." God wipes away the tears from our eyes by the
Holy Spirit who is within our hearts. The Holy Spirit reminds us of the
promises of God and the promises of Christ His Son, and then we are comforted.
When we are reminded that there is a purpose to all things because God is
leading us, we can also be comforted. And so it appears that we are comforted
in this life in a very similar way to how we will be comforted in heaven. In Revelation
7:17 before we are told that God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes, we
are also told that Jesus will feed us and lead us. If you feed upon the Word of
God, you can be comforted in any sorrow, because His teachings and promises
will be real to you. If you allow Jesus to lead you, you will be comforted
because you will be in a position to realize that God will only permit things
to happen in your life for which there is a divine purpose. God can make good
come out of bad, and He can make joy come out of sorrow. God has a wonderful
future prepared for us. Because of Jesus, we are going to a place where God
shall wipe all tears from our eyes forever.
In Revelation 8:1 the Bible says, "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was
silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." We remember
that Jesus is opening the seven seals of the book that was in the hand of Him
that sat upon the throne. We have now come to the last of the seven seals, and
many more things are described for us once the seventh seal is opened. The
period of the Great Tribulation has come to the earth as a result of the seven
seals being opened, and when the seventh seal is opened even more sorrow and
more destruction and more terrors are described as happening to the earth and
the inhabitants thereof. Perhaps the reason for the silence that is mentioned
in Revelation 8:1 is like the silence before a storm. A storm of destruction
will come to the earth when the seventh seal is opened, and before the storm
there will be silence in heaven.
Revelation 8:2 says, "And I saw the seven angels which stood before God;
and to them were given seven trumpets." In the ancient world in
certain royal kingdoms a trumpet would be sounded to announce the beginning of
some important event. Evidently God is using these trumpets for the same kind
of thing. The seventh seal of the book has been opened, and we are told about
seven trumpets. Before the trumpets are sounded we are told something else in Revelation
8:3-6. The Bible says, "And another angel came
and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him
much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the
golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of incense, which came
with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast
it into the earth; and there were voices and thunderings, and lightnings, and
an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared
themselves to sound."
There appears to be a direct correlation
between the prayers that have been made by all the believers in God and the
sounding of these seven trumpets. The trumpets do not sound until the prayers
of the saints are poured out before God. What have we prayed over the
centuries, we who have believed in God? We have prayed that the will of the
Lord be done, and not our own will. And we prayed for the Lord to fix things
and to make them better. And we prayed for Jesus to return and set up His
kingdom of God on earth. And we prayed that the violence and the hatred and the
crimes would cease. Notice that the prayers are poured out on an altar. An
altar is a place where sacrifices are made. When a believer is pressed down by
the sorrows or the difficulties of life, and when such a person cries out to
God from the depth of his soul and says, "not my will but thine be
done," it is similar to death and to a sacrifice being made.
We also pray and implore God just like
Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom
come." God has made many precious promises about His kingdom to
come, and the more that we understand these promises the more that we know that
many of our hopes and dreams will only be fulfilled when God establishes His
kingdom. Some people put too much hope in the kingdoms of this world, but we
know that it is the kingdom of Christ and of God for which we wait and for
which we pray. Our prayers have not gone unheard. They are a sweet fragrance
and incense that will be poured out before the throne of God. The day will come
when God will say that enough is enough. Enough prayers have been prayed, and
the longings of the pure in heart have waited long enough. The time will be
right, and God will answer the prayers of the humble ones who have placed their
hope in Him. God will tell the angels to sound their trumpets. And God will
throw fire in among the prayers in order to answer them: the fire of judgment.
Revelation 8:7 says, "The first angel sounded, and there followed hail
and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third
part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up." The
hail and the fire could be from several different sources: perhaps more
meteorites that will rain down upon the earth, perhaps volcanoes that will
erupt, or perhaps bombs that nations will shower upon each other. The blood is
undoubtedly the blood of the humans who will be killed by them. Whatever the
source of the hail and fire, we are told very clearly the result: one third of
the trees and all of the grass will be burned up.
Revelation 8:8-9 says, "And the second angel sounded, and as it were a
great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of
the sea became blood, and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea
and had life died, and the third part of the ships were destroyed."
This sounds like a great and massive volcanic eruption in which the volcanic
mountain is totally destroyed. Perhaps it will be the worst volcanic explosion
in the history of the earth, and perhaps the destruction of the ships is a
result of a great tidal wave that would surely follow an explosion of this
magnitude should it be in or near the sea.
Revelation 8:10-11 says, "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great
star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of
the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is
called wormwood, and the third part of the waters became wormwood, and many men
died of the waters because they were made bitter." This sounds like
a large meteorite of some sort shall fall to the earth, and the destruction
that it will bring will be much greater than just the impact of striking the
earth. Evidently it will contain chemicals or substances that will poison 1/3
of the water on the earth. We think that we have seen pollution in our
lifetime, but the worst pollution that the world will ever see will come during
the time of the Great Tribulation and it will come from outer space. One more
way that people will die during the Great Tribulation: they will die from
drinking polluted water.
Revelation 8:12 says, "And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of
the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the
stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for the
third part of it, and the night likewise." Perhaps as a result of
the smoke and the ash from the other calamities, one third of the sun’s rays
will be blocked from reaching the earth. Such a blockage of the sun would cause
great climactic changes on the earth. Crops would fail, temperatures would
drop, and the misery that would befall the human race would increase dramatically.
Just when human misery seems to be at a
point where it could be no worse, it does get worse. Revelation 8:13 says, "And I beheld and heard an angel flying through the
midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of
the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels
which are yet to sound." We have heard about many great natural
disasters that will befall the earth, causing horrible suffering and death.
What could possibly be worse? Evil. Evil forces will be unleashed such as they
have never been loosed before.
Revelation 9:1-2 says, "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall
from heaven unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as
the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason
of the smoke of the pit." We know quite clearly from what we are
told in verse 11 of this chapter that the star that fell from heaven is not
another meteorite, but is the devil himself. The devil was originally an angel.
The place where the devil spends most of his time is on the earth tempting man
to sin, causing sorrow and woe. It appears as though the devil still has access
to heaven. In the book of Job we are told that the devil appears before God to
accuse the believers. But the day will come when the devil will be no longer
permitted to visit heaven, and he will be cast to the earth. Because the devil
is cast out of heaven, he knows his time is short and therefore his
determination increases to cause as much death and destruction as possible
while he still has time. The devil is the leader of many millions of other
fallen angels who will also be loosed upon the earth. They will enter the hearts
of evil men. The Great Tribulation will be a time of murder and violence and
war such as the world has never known, because of the sinfulness of man and
because of the power of evil.
One of the reasons for the horrible crimes
that human beings are capable of committing is because of the forces of evil
that work so hard to influence man to commit great sins against humanity. But
right now in our day and age the forces of evil are held back and restrained to
a great degree. What we are being told here in Revelation Chapter 9 is that one
source of misery during the Great Tribulation is that evil will be loosed upon
the earth as it has never been before. The message should be very clear: turn
to God while there is still time. Without Jesus as your Savior, you have no
hope against the dark spiritual forces that can come against you.
___________________________________________________
Copyright; 2000 by Charles F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved