Revelation 15: Justice done.

I saw in heaven another great and marvellous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues – last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:

‘Great and marvellous are your deeds,
    Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
    King of the nations.
4 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.’

5 After this I looked, and I saw in heaven the temple – that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law – and it was opened. 6 Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes round their chests. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed. NIV

The 7 last plagues reflect God’s last attempt to cause people to repent and turn to Him. They are His final warning. He is coming to judge the earth.

Psalms 96 and 98 are songs of joy and both conclude on the same note: ‘’He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth’’ (Psalm 96:13; Psalm 98: 9 says: ‘’and the peoples with equity’’).

Here we read: ‘’All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed’’ (4b)

‘When the Bible speaks about God ‘judging’, or putting into effect his ‘judgments’, it is just as much a cause for celebration as for anxiety.’ Tom Wright: ‘Revelation for Everyone’, p.137.

Why is it such good news that God will come to judge the world? Well, imagine you live day by day with the pain of injustice. You are its victim. It may be this is the real life experience of someone reading this. If government officials are corrupt, the police and judiciary can be bribed, and you are kept in grinding poverty by the greed of others. If crimes against you, your family, your friends and neighbours, seem to go unnoticed and unpunished, won’t you rejoice to know that God sees everything and a day of reckoning is coming. In the final analysis, no sin goes unpunished.