Who is Able to Survive.
‘And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to survive?” – Revelation 6:16-17. NLT
In the 5th seal, we saw God’s people suffering injustice in a hostile world, as they cry out for God’s intervention on their behalf. The time has come for God to intervene in answer to the prayers of His people. Remember to keep the conceptual symbolic mindset flowing in your thinking.
The concept “wrath of the Lamb” sounds like an oxymoron. Can you really imagine a “raging lamb?” What would that look like? The slain Lamb, of course, represents the cross. The wrath represents God’s unwillingness to compromise with sin. God must be seen by the universe as dealing with sin. God is love, and justice is a dimension of love. He could back off on His authority, but that would lead to chaos in the cosmos. Simply being the great Judge and administrator of Justice would make His creation follow Him from fear.
There was once a story of a father whose son had transgressed. By way of illustration, he had his weeping son administer the punishment on himself. At the cross, Jesus joined us in reaping the consequences of sin. In so doing He won the love of the universe as well as its respect. In the end, a “raging Lamb” who brooks no compromise with sin, yet identifies with the sinner, proves able to heal a broken universe.
Fire, like the wrath of God, cannot burn twice in the same place. Jesus has experienced the wrath of God against sin and your eternal security is to now be where the fire of God’s wrath has already been – on the lamb, at the cross.
Failing that, you must experience your own punishment for sin, as the “wrath of the Lamb” exacts the penalty for sin.
In our text, the very presence of God and the Lamb instils terror in those who experience the Coming of Christ. Without the mercy and protection of Jesus our Saviour, sinners will not be able to endure the shock of God’s presence.
It seems that the signs that “opened” the Time of the end will occur universally at the end of it. In Matt.24:29-30 Jesus described the same signs as depicted here in the 6th seal as occurring “after the great tribulation.” The use of the words “as” or “like” paints a picture of an actual thing or event – the sun became black as sackcloth, the moon became like blood, and the stars fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs. Using the language of Isa.2:19 and Hosea.10:8, the scenes portray people of all walks of life in a panic trying to hide from the terror of the upheaval at the coming of Christ. The time has arrived for justice to be dispensed as Christ comes “to be glorified in His people” (2THess.1:10). The end of those to be unsaved is described in Rev.19:17-21.
The scene concludes with the rhetorical question by the terror-stricken wicked (unsaved): “The great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (6:17; see also Hahum.1:6, Mal.3:2). The answer to that question is given in Revelation 7 those who will be able to stand in that day are the sealed people of God.
The message of the seals, as with all of Revelation, conveys the heart and substance of the entire biblical message – that God cares for His people on earth and that throughout history He has sustained them. Now comes their final vindication.
Indeed, as Revelation emphatically points out, the ‘Living One’ – the One who conquered death and the grave (1:18) – will never forsake His faithful followers and that even when they suffer martyrdom, they are victorious (12:11), with the ‘crown of life’ awaiting them (see 2:10; 21:1-4; and 22:4).
Tragically, God’s providential ministry to the world, as depicted in the seals, has been chronicled with the reaction to the Gospel through the ages. The seals had shown a progressive resistance to God and the Gospel which will intensify in the time of trouble. The signs already fulfilled in the 6th seal (to announce its opening) will be repeated on a worldwide scale before the end of time. We are currently in between Rev 6:13 and v14. We also need to note the interlude of Chapter 7 and ask ourselves the question that closes chapter 6 “who can stand before it.” If you are not amongst the group of chapter 7 then you will be amongst the group who will deny God. Either “for me or against me” Jesus said. (Matt.12:30). Worth contemplating!
Thank you Lord Jesus for dying the death i should have died my prayer is for you to give me the strength to be able stand in the last days and may the Holy Spirit keep drawing me closer to you my Savior