(“Must” Part 5)

(4) To Avenge His Covenant People

            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.)

            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 Romans 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, (Isaiah 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.

 

(b-1)  To avenge His Covenant People, as their God.

            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 to a climax in the destruction of Mystery Babylon.  Following this, the saints rejoice in triumphal praise to God for vengeance has been executed, (Revelation 18:20, 24; 19:1-3).

            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:

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).  

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.[1]

            The sixth seal, Revelation 6:12-17, continues this promise of vengeance by proclaiming that “…the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?”

            The seventh seal consists of the seven trumpets.  After the sixth trumpet, an angel proclaims

That there shall be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God, as He announced to His servants the prophets, should be fulfilled (10:6b, 7).

 This is reminiscent of Ezekiel 12:25, performance of the predictions will not be delayed beyond the generation to which it was spoken.

            The seventh trumpet describes the translation of the fleshly kingdom into the kingdom of Christ.  It opens with the scene in heaven and the proclamation:

The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever, (11:15).

This echoes Christ‘s words from the Gospel of John 18:36: “My kingdom is not of this world.”

The earthly, fleshly kingdom was fully translated into the greater, more perfect kingdom of Christ.

            This translation of the kingdom is accompanied by a time of wrath upon the earth, (11:18):  “The nations raged, but thy wrath came.”  God’s servants, prophets and saints, were rewarded by being avenged, while the destroyers themselves were destroyed.  The true Temple was seen in heaven, along with the true Ark of the Covenant, (v. 19); the earthly copies were destroyed, and these symbols of the kingdom were translated into the heavens.

            The theme of wrath resumes in 14:7: “…the hour of His judgment has come,”

that fateful hour so long anticipated.  The judgment is against Babylon, verse 8:

Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, she who made all nations drink the wine of her impure passion. RSV

The judgment of the “beast“, (that is, unredeemed flesh and the fleshly claim to covenant relationship without the spirit), and the reaping of the land, (Gk. ge, Hebrew ’eretz), corresponds to the historical events of the wars in Judea which immediately preceded the fall of Jerusalem.  The land was reaped and cast into “the wine press of the wrath of God”, (v. 19), “…the wine press was trodden outside the city.“[2]

            The theme of wrath builds until in chapter 15 the seven “bowls” fill up the full measure of God’s wrath.  As a corollary, the overcoming saints in heaven sing “The Song of Moses“, Deuteronomy 32, and “The Song of the Lamb.”[3]  To complete this scene, one must read and include Deuteronomy 32.  It is a song about justice and judgment.  It deals directly with God’s judgment upon Israel because of their fall into sin and idolatry,[4] as foretold by Moses.  After the indictment for sin, the theme is set forth which became so important to the early Christians suffering persecution from the Jews:

            Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.  (See also Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30, etc.)

             In the “Song of Moses” the fallen ones are no longer Israel:

They have acted corruptly toward Him, to their shame, they are no longer His children, but a warped and crooked generation, (NIV Deut. 32:5).

 

Note also that Jesus used the term “warped and crooked generation” as found in Luke 9:41 and Matthew 17:17, no doubt with this reference in mind.  Romans 11:28: “As regards the gospel they are enemies of God.”  The fleshly nation had become God’s adversary, but even so, God still had some persecuted servants in the midst of them:

For the Lord will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants. (Deut. 32:36). 

 

Praise His people, O you nations; for He avenges the blood of His servants and takes vengeance on His adversaries and makes expiation (or atonement) for the land of His people. (RSV v. 43).

            These conditions had prevailed from the time of Christ‘s ministry to the fall of Jerusalem.  The nation as a whole had ceased to be His children.  Furthermore, He had taken to Himself a nation “who were no people,” the Gentile believers, to provoke the Jews to jealousy.  This was also predicted in the Song of Moses. (Deut. 32:21; see also Romans 10:19).

            The contents of the seven bowls are God’s wrath, but it is the wrath of the moral imperative and His justice is repeatedly praised; for example:

For men have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink.  It is their due! (Revelation 16:6 RSV).

            The first bowl is poured out upon the “land” (or “earth”, fulfilled historically upon the land of Judea, but to be further fulfilled upon the whole world in the end of the Gentile age.)  The theme of wrath builds toward its climax in the seventh bowl.  In the seventh bowl the cities of “the nations” fell, (16:19).  The twelve tribes were sometimes called “the nations.”[5]

            In the New Testament era the Jews in dispersion, although only of one racially identifiable tribe, Judah, were sometimes called “the twelve tribes scattered abroad,” for scattered individuals of other tribes had joined themselves to them.  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, is Mystery Babylon: 16: 19b: “And God remembered great Babylon, to make her drain the cup of the fury of His wrath.”

            Chapters seventeen and eighteen 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 and positively identifies her as apostate Judaism as represented by their religious capitol, Jerusalem.  God’s moral obligation is 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.

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

            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)

            Two references from the Gospels make it very clear that the saints expected to be avenged soon of the persecution they were experiencing at the hands of the Pharisaical Jews.  One is the parable of the unjust judge in the context of the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem:

Will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night?  Will He keep putting them off?  I tell you, he will see that they get justice quickly.  (Luke 18:3-8, NIV).

Also see Luke 21:28, (NIV):“Lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.”

             Paul predicted that the saints to whom he wrote, as well as himself would be avenged by the revelation of Jesus Christ, executing wrath upon their enemies.  In his letter to the Thessalonians Paul mentions the suffering of the churches in Judea at the hands of:

The Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out..  They displease God and are hostile to all men…In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit….The wrath of God has come upon them at last. (1 Thess. 2:14-16. NIV)

But the saints will not be under that wrath:

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thess. 5:9.)

That wrath is described in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10:

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well.  This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels.  He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power on the day He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.  This includes you because you believed our testimony to you. (NIV)

            The early Church believed that these Scriptures were true as evidenced by the fact that they accepted them into the Canon.  They must, therefore, have seen the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews as the fulfillment of their promised vindication, and must have believed that Jesus Christ was revealed from heaven in some publicly attested way such as was recorded by Josephus in the passage cited above.