Tag Archives: martyrs

Lesson 12 Of Series – To Avenge His People As Their Kinsman-Redeemer

Revelation Commentary, , , , ,

This lesson continues to show the “things which must shortly come to pass” of Revelation 1:1. These things were morally necessary.

To Avenge His People As Their Kinsman-Redeemer

According to the Law, the Kinsman-Redeemer was to slay the murderer: Numbers 35:19-34.  God, Himself, claimed to be the Kinsman-Redeemer of Israel: Deuteronomy 32:35-43, quoted in Romans 12:19: “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Because of the Jewish persecution and murders of the Christians and the crucifixion of Christ, it was morally necessary that God carry out His duties as the Kinsman-Redeemer of His people.

In the New Testament era the Jews were in dispersion throughout the Roman world. Although of only one racially identifiable tribe, Judah, they were sometimes called “the twelve tribes scattered abroad,” for scattered individuals of other tribes had joined themselves to them in the past. The Jewish trade-routes throughout the Roman Empire had produced flourishing communities of Jews and their synagogues. The wrath of God’s judgment came also upon these, for they too had persecuted the Christians in their synagogues.

Historically we know that there were Jewish uprisings against Rome in Alexandria and other major centers of Jewish populations. Rome put down these rebellions with terrible violence as the instrument of God’s wrath.

But the ultimate recipient of God’s wrath, the seventh bowl of the Book of Revelation, is Mystery Babylon: Revelation 16: 19b: “And God remembered great Babylon, to make her drain the cup of the fury of His wrath.”

Mystery Babylon Accountable For Deaths of the Martyrs

Chapters seventeen and eighteen of the Book of Revelation are devoted entirely to describing her destruction. Her identity is not left in doubt when considered in the light of Matthew 23:34-35. In Revelation 17:6 John sees that this woman, Mystery Babylon is: “drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” This is a direct allusion to Matthew 23:34 where Jesus told Jerusalem that they were accountable for the blood of all the martyrs. It positively identifies her as apostate Judaism, represented by their religious capitol, Jerusalem. God has a moral obligation to avenge His people upon her.

In Revelation 18:20, while the world laments, heaven rejoices: “Rejoice over her, O heaven, O saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!” (RSV).

And again in 18:24: “And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth,” – another direct allusion to Matthew 23:34-35.

The Rationale For God’s Judgments Against Jerusalem

Again in Revelation 19:2 the reason for her destruction is made explicit: “For His judgments are true and just; He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth [land] with her fornication, and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants,” (RSV).

Christ’s Garments Of Vengeance

In Revelation 19:11 our eyes are turned to the glorious appearing of Christ. In the context of the destruction of Jerusalem, this is the fulfillment of Matthew 24:30, (also 16:27-28). Note that Christ is clothed in “a robe dipped in blood,” (Revelation 19:13).

This is the “garments of vengeance” described in Isaiah 59:17b-18: “He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in fury as a mantle. According to their deeds, so will He repay, wrath to His adversaries, requital to His enemies,” (RSV).

The vengeance of God in the Book of Revelation vindicates the faith of the saints based upon such Scriptures as Isaiah 63:1-6: “Who is this that comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, He that is glorious in His apparel, marching in the greatness of His strength? ‘It is I, announcing vindication, mighty to save.’ Why is thy apparel red, and thy garments like his that treads in the wine press? ‘I have trodden the wine press alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my raiment. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption has come. I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me victory, and my wrath upheld me. I trod down the peoples in my anger, I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth,’” (RSV).

Next Lesson: Lesson 13: Parables of Vengeance

Lesson 10 Of Series – To Fulfill The Promised Vengeance

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The Promised Vengeance

At the time of the writing of the Book of Revelation, another piece of unfinished business which God was morally obligated to fulfill was that of vengeance. He had promised:

  • (A) To avenge the breaking of His Covenant;
  • (B) To avenge His saints and martyrs, both as their God and as their Kinsman-Redeemer; and:
  • (C) To avenge the shedding of innocent blood and to cleanse the land from defilement

(A) To Avenge The Breaking Of His Covenant

The passage in Leviticus 26:14-46  describes the penalty for the national sin of breaking the Covenant. The penalty was to be exacted through sword, famine, pestilence, wild beasts, destruction, desolation, and dispersion. The Babylonian captivity had come because Israel had broken the Covenant, yet God in His mercy used it to rebuke and chasten His erring children rather than executing His full measure of divine wrath.

At the time of the writing of the Book of Revelation, fleshly Israel was again in full disobedience except for those in Christ. The penalty for breaking the Covenant was therefore due and it was morally imperative that God fulfill the wrath promised. The Book shows these penalties being executed. The pattern of sevens in the Book may be a reminder of the oath of the Covenant, reflecting the seven-times-over nature of the penalty that was promised in Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28. (See “The Number Seven in the Bible” Commentary on 1:4.)

The Goodness And The Severity Of God

In reference to this passage in Leviticus, it was morally imperative that God fulfill His Covenant while at the same time, He was morally obligated to forgive the repentant who confessed their sins, (26:40); and, when their “uncircumcised hearts are humbled,” (26:41, see also Rom. 2:28-29), then He would reinstate them into His Covenant, (v. 45). In the destruction of Jerusalem vengeance was accomplished and in the Revelation of Jesus Christ reinstatement into the New Jerusalem was possible. Since Christ was made the New Covenant, (Isa. 42:6-7), when Judaism rejected Him, if for no other reason, they had broken both the Old and the New Covenants. That put them on equal footing with the Gentiles; there was no difference. Salvation for all depended upon God’s mercy in Christ.

To Avenge His Covenant People As Promised

Vengeance is a major theme of the Book of Revelation and shows that God has fulfilled this aspect of His Covenant. In Revelation 6:9-11, the opening of the fifth seal reveals the souls of the slain martyrs as they cry out to be avenged. This vengeance is promised as soon as their number is completed. From here the tension builds throughout the seals and the trumpets.  The climax comes and the vengeance is completed in the destruction of Mystery Babylon, the fallen city of Jerusalem, chapters 17 and 18. Following this, the saints rejoice in triumphal praise to God for vengeance has been executed, (Revelation 18:20, 24; 19:1-3).

Jerusalem Had Become the “Mystery Babylon”

Revelation 18:24 corresponds to Christ’s prediction in Matthew 23:29-36 of vengeance against Jerusalem for “all the righteous blood shed on earth,” (v. 35), when the full number of martyrs should be accomplished. That Christ’s prophecy was spoken directly against Jerusalem is clear from verse 37a: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent unto you!”

Christ foretold that many of these martyrs were to be the Christians sent by Himself. Addressing Jerusalem He said: “I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,” (v. 34 RSV).

This vengeance was not to be delayed beyond the lifetime of the generation that heard Christ predict it, (v. 36). So the complete number of martyrs for which fleshly Judaism was held responsible was to be fulfilled within “this generation” of time.

Next Lesson: The Sixth and Seventh Seals