The book of Revelation assures beleaguered
Christians that despite appearances Jesus reigns and is in firm control of
history. His authority is based on his past death and resurrection that
inaugurated his present reign. The kingdom of God may have
a future consummation but is even now underway. Jesus is the “first and the
last, the living one who was dead but now lives for evermore” who has
authority over life and death (Revelation 1:17-18).
A key messianic prophecy used repeatedly in
Revelation to portray this is Psalm 2:1-8, especially its promise
that the “kings of the earth” would be subjected to the rule of God’s
Son. In this, the churches of Asia would have heard references to the
imperial authorities that pressured them to compromise their faith. That very
pressure was an outburst of the “nations raging against Yahweh and against
his Christ.”
(Psalm 2:1-9) – “Why
do the nations rage, and the peoples meditate a vain thing? The kings of the
earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh and
against his anointed…Yahweh said to me, You are my son, this day have I
begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You will break them
with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
Revelation begins by identifying Jesus as “the
faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth” (1:5-6).
He bore witness in his death on the Cross and became “firstborn of the dead”
with his resurrection. Consequently, he has been appointed ruler over the “kings
of the earth,” the promised Davidic Messiah who reigns even now. The verb
tenses are present; they do not look forward to a yet future installation of
the Davidic king.
His death “loosed us from our sins” and
constituted us a “kingdom of priests,” a calling originally given
to Israel (Exodus 19:5). Believers participate in his reign as
they carry out “priestly” functions. Christians that “overcome” sit down with
Jesus on his throne; they overcome and reign the same way he did, through
faithful witness even to the point of martyrdom (3:21; 12:11).
Installation
of the Lamb
John wept when no one was found worthy to
open the sealed scroll (Revelation 5:1-4). One of the “elders” commanded
him not to weep because “the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of
David, overcame to open the scroll and its seals.” The words allude
to a messianic prophecy from Genesis 49:9-10. John looks but sees
NOT a lion but a freshly slain lamb. “I saw in the midst of the throne a
Lamb standing as slain.” Jesus is the “lion of the tribe
of Judah” but fulfills that role as the sacrificial lamb.
The Lamb is standing “in the midst of the
throne,” demonstrating his enthronement. His first act is to “take the
scroll out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne” and begin to
open its seals. Already he reigns. He has “seven eyes, the seven Spirits of
God sent forth into all the earth,” for his authority extends
to “the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.”
This reign is based on the Lamb’s death. This
is confirmed by a heavenly chorus that sings, “Worthy are you to take the
scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with
your blood men from every tribe, tongue, people and nation, and made them a
kingdom and priests; and they reign upon earth.” Not only does Jesus reign,
but that those purchased by him participate in it. The sole stated basis for
this new reality is his sacrificial death.
The Lamb acts immediately by opening the
first four seals of the scroll. It is the Lamb that breaks open each seal and
releases its contents; he is in firm control of events. “I saw when the Lamb
opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures
saying as with a voice of thunder, Come” (6:1-2).
Reign
of the Son
In a later vision, John saw a “great red
Dragon” poised to destroy the child “about to be delivered” from the
woman clothed with the sun. This child is identified as the “son who
is to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron,”
alluding to Psalm 2:1-8. This is none other than Jesus, the
promised Messiah.
Noteworthy is how Revelation follows the
Greek Septuagint version of Psalm 2:7-8 by
translating the Hebrew verb “shepherd” rather than “rule.” Something more is
intended than just subjugating rebellious nations.
This child is God’s Son and the Messiah “caught
up to God and to his throne” before the Dragon can destroy him. This is the
same reality portrayed in chapter 5 by the sacrificial lamb where he appeared
in the midst of the throne. The Dragon has failed to prevent Christ’s accession
to the Davidic throne. A great voice consequently declares, “Now is come the
salvation, the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his
Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down” (12:4-5, 10-11).
The Dragon was defeated on the Cross.
There is no limit to the Lamb’s authority,
even the Dragon’s earthly agents cannot act without his consent. The horrific
“beast from the sea” claims absolute authority over the earth and breathes
great threats against the saints (“it opened its mouth to slander God and
his tabernacle, even them that dwell in the heaven”). The inhabitants of
the earth are overawed by its apparent might and render it homage; “Who is
like the beast and who is able to war with him?” (Revelation 13:1-6).
Since Jesus already reigns, things are not as
they appear. The Beast may possess the Dragon’s authority but cannot act until
authorized to do so by the Lamb. Its right to “wage war with the saints”
must be “given to it,” along with its “authority over every tribe,
people, tongue and nation” (Revelation 13:7). The Beast will “overcome
the saints” for a season, but only when and as far as allowed by the Lamb.
In a later vision, John sees a rider on a
white horse sallying forth from heaven with “a sharp sword proceeding from
his mouth with which he should smite the nations. He will shepherd
them with a rod of iron.” Again John applies Psalm 2:1-8 to
Jesus and again changes “rule” to “shepherd.”
In the present tense this figure is
designated “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” His white robe is sprinkled with
blood, but the blood stains are seen BEFORE he engages battle with “the
beast and the kings of the earth gathered together to make war
against him that sat upon the horse” (19:11-21).
The gathering of forces against the Lord’s
anointed is described in verses 17-21 but not the actual battle. The battle
concludes with the Beast and False Prophet “cast alive into the lake of fire.”
As for the kings of the earth and their armies, it only notes “the rest were
killed with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, even the sword which came
forth out of his mouth.”
Gog
and Magog
The kings of the earth hostile to the Lamb
appear one more time at the end of the “thousand years” (20:7-10).
Satan is released to gather the nations “from the four corners of the earth,
Gog and Magog to gather them to the war.”
The same language from Ezekiel 39 seen
in Revelation 19:17-21 is employed here; the same final battle
is in view. This is no regional war in the Middle East. It involves all
nations and encompasses the entire earth. Not Israel but the
“saints,” those who follow the Lamb, are the targets of this final assault. But
before this force can destroy them, “fire came down out of heaven and
consumed them.”
Just as in Revelation 19:17-21 this
final battle is followed by a judgment scene in which the Lamb’s enemies are
tossed into the Lake of Fire, this time the Devil himself, “and the devil
that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also
the Beast and the False Prophet.” This culminates in the Great White Throne
of final judgment and the end of death itself. “Death and Hades were cast
into the lake of fire,” an event the Apostle linked to the coming of Jesus
in his letter to the Corinthians, the “death of death,” so to speak (20:11-15; 1
Corinthians 15:20-28).
New
Jerusalem
In chapter 21, John sees New Jerusalem
descending to the earth from heaven. This is nothing less than the inauguration
of the “New Heavens and New Earth.” While chapter 19 ended with the defeat of
the “kings of the earth,” they appear again in New Jerusalem where “the
nations shall walk amidst of its light thereof: and the kings of the earth bring their
glory into it… and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into
i:” (21:24).
In the New Creation, the leaves of the tree
of life provide “healing of the nations” (22:2). The reign and
victory of the Lamb mean something more than just the destruction of his human
enemies. Through most of Revelation, the “nations” and the “kings of the earth”
are hostile to the Lamb and his people, yet they now participate in the New
Creation. Is this the result of the Lamb “shepherding” the nations with the
“sword” that proceeds out of his mouth?
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