Who Is Able to Stand?
Revelation 6:1-8; 7:9-17

Last Sunday we explored and reflected upon the images contained in Revelation Chapter Four. It was an encouraging word. God the maker of all things, the one who lives forever, is seated on the throne of the universe exercising his dominion over the often-chaotic creation.

This Sunday’s reading from Revelation Chapter Six is filled with deeply troubling images. You will recall that Revelation Chapters 4-18 comprise the central unit of the book. The chapters are largely made up of terrible judgments that occur in a series of sevens: seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls.

Eugene Boring in his commentary on Revelation gives a summary of the judgments with these words, “When the lamb opens the sealed scroll, catastrophic violence is unleashed upon the earth and its inhabitants. The world is devastated by war, famine, plagues, and death. People are killed because of their faithfulness to God and cry out for vengeance. Sun, moon, and stars are struck; mountains and islands are displaced, as everyone from King to slave tries to escape the approaching wrath. The earth is struck with hail and fire mixed with blood, and seas and rivers turn to blood. Demonic, locust-like creatures stream out of the abyss to torment humanity, and people cry out for death but continue to suffer. A twilight-zone supernatural horde of 200 million cavalry pour across the Euphrates from the east. Those who worship the beast are tormented with sulfurous fire in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. Horses wade for 200 miles in bridle deep blood. The kings of the earth mount a final battle against God and his Messiah, and vultures are gorged with the flesh of both the lowly foot soldiers who fight the world’s battles and of their high and mighty commanders.”

These images are literally hair-raising! They strike fear in the human heart. Our reading from Chapter Six gives us a taste of the terrors that characterize this section. We meet the “four horsemen of the apocalypse.” The first comes out “conquering and to conquer.” The second takes peace from the earth, and the inhabitants of the world begin to slaughter each other. The third rider brings food scarcity and hunger. The cost of food staples is inflated sixteen times their normal price. The final rider is named death seated on a sickly green steed. He is allowed to kill a quarter of the earth’s populace by sword, famine, pestilence, and wild animals. That would be about two billion people!

What are we to make of all these images? I must note that the book of Revelation is notoriously difficult to interpret authoritatively. John Calvin wrote a commentary on every book of the Bible save one, the Revelation of John. He did not believe he could interpret the book with any degree of certainty. This should give us pause in trying to make sense of the images in this section, and of being too dogmatic in our understandings.

There are broadly two schools of thought in interpreting Revelation. The first school of interpretations understands the language literally and historically. These things will take place sequentially in time, space, and history. The second school of thought understands the language of Revelation metaphorically and theologically. John is describing things that are and will continue to be until Christ comes again. They describe what one commentator termed “history’s pageant of suffering.” I favor the later school of interpretation.

This means the images of the book are describing things we can relate to, not only to distant events. I could not help thinking of the poor people of Afghanistan when I read Chapter 6:1-8. All four horsemen of the apocalypse have ridden into their nation at once conquering, taking away peace, making food scarce, and killing at will. We might also remember the impoverished nation of Haiti, which is experiencing instability and dire scarcity following the earthquake, or the victims of the catastrophic flooding in Tennessee.

Even we can relate to the images, albeit in much less dire ways than Afghanis or Haitians or the victims of mother nature. The cost of food has gone up significantly. Our cities are plagued by people slaughtering each other. Our nation is being invaded at the southern border, and the pestilence of Delta Covid-19 is raging in our midst.

I do not think we should rule out the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the woes of the seals, trumpets, and bowls as being future historical events, but I think they also apply to the here and now. Furthermore, if we see these visions as applying to us in the present, they will have their intended effect. John’s words strip away any pretense of security we may cling to. John’s images force us to wrestle with the deep uncertainties that affect us all. The visions force us to ask with the inhabitants of earth, “Who is able to stand?” (Rev. 6:17).

Thankfully, Chapter Seven begins to answer this all-important question. The first thing to note is that the number of those who are able to stand is vast. “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands” (Rev. 7:9).

As I noted in previous sermons from Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, we are usually focused on the visible, local church, but there exists a catholic, universal Church that is comprised of all the elect whose vast number is known only to God. At times we may feel we are a small, marginalized group, but the Church is comprised of a great multitude that no one can count but God. We are not alone in the world. We have each other, the larger communion of the saints, and we have the LORD. Together, even in the face of terrible odds, we can shout, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb” (vs. 10).

The Lamb, of course, is Jesus Christ. Revelation Chapter Five, verse six, describes Jesus this way. “Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” Jesus is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8) who comes to save his people from sin and death. Because of Jesus we can stand.

The second thing we should note is that those who are able to stand have come through “the great ordeal’ (v. 14b). Again, the great ordeal is usually thought to be the “Great Tribulation” that Jesus describes in Matthew 24 which appears to be a future event. “For at that time there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be” (vs. 21). The great tribulation seems to take place at some future time, but there is a real sense that we are living through a great ordeal in the present. Just think of the wars, hurricanes, floods, fires, and social and political tensions of our time.

In any case, those who are able to stand in the great ordeal can do so because they have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb” (v. 14c). This is an odd image; washing a white robe in blood would render it red not white. John’s language is metaphorical, of course.

We used to sing about the blood of Jesus in the old revival hymns: “Are You Washed in the Blood,” “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus,” “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” and “There is Power in the Blood." One of our few remaining hymns that mentions the blood of Christ is “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less.” It speaks of our hope being founded on “Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”

It is Jesus’ sacrifice, the shedding of his blood on the cross, that purchased forgiveness for our sin, gives us standing before God, and makes us part of God’s chosen people. It is because of the sacrifice of Christ that a great multitude is able to stand before the throne of the universe and worship the one seated on the throne and the Lamb.

There are also wonderful benefits that accrue to us by virtue of being included in the Lamb’s multitude. He will shelter us (vs. 15c). We will hunger and thirst no more (vs. 16a). The scorching heat will not smite us (vs. 16b). The Lamb will be our shepherd, not only our Savior but also our shepherd (vs. 17a). The Lamb will guide us to springs of the water of life (vs. 17b), and God will wipe every tear from our eyes.

Because of all these things, we can stand even as we pass through the great ordeal of this life. We are not alone in our journey. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us into eternity. Together, we know that salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb. We have the white robe of Jesus’ righteousness secured for us by his blood. God will take care of us in this life and in the life to come. God will shelter us, feed us, protect us, shepherd us, quench our thirst, and wipe our crying eyes.

Even when the four horsemen of the apocalypse appear in history, we can stand on Christ the solid rock, for our lives are safe in God’s keeping come what may.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, who enables us to stand in this life and in the life to come. Alleluia! Amen.