Word of Encouragement (11/18/2021)
And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth” (Rev. 11:16-18).
In this prayer of thanksgiving, the entire human history (after the Fall) is simply described as “the nations raged.” This description is taken from Ps. 2, which begins, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain” (Ps. 2:1)? Ps. 2 makes it clear what the “rage” of the nations and peoples is about. It is not about the hostility and rivalry among the nations in international politics; it is against God and His Anointed. No matter what the political, military landscape of the world may look like at any given point, no matter how suddenly and unexpectedly it changes and shifts, the nations are united in their rebellion against God and His Anointed.
Everything they do is ultimately to “burst their bonds [i.e., the bonds of God and His Anointed] apart and cast away their cords” (Ps. 2:3). They see God’s sovereign lordship over the world as oppression and God’s providential care of the world as intrusive interference. They detest the idea that they are accountable to their Maker, that they even have a Maker, to whom they owe their existence. From the divine, spiritual perspective, not only their explicit hatred of God but also their indifference to God (and everything related to Him) are all part of the “raging” of the nations against God. Just as the nature of the institution of marriage makes one spouse’s indifference to another unacceptable and offensive, the absolute authority and infinite honor of God makes even indifference to Him a grave sin.
This is not to say that God is hindered in any way to accomplish His good and gracious will to save His people out of the raging nations. He has set apart “the offspring of the Woman” from “the offspring of the Serpent” and delivered and preserved them. So, this prayer mentions “your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name...,” who will be rewarded by God. The nations raging is a general description of the world, which is in rebellion against God.
We can understand why God responds to the raging of the nations with His wrath (Ps. 2:12). What if your child used the college tuition money for gambling? God endowed man with unique abilities to know Him and have communion with Him in love. But the fallen man refuses to acknowledge God’s goodness to Him and give Him thanks. Instead, he uses his God-given intelligence, will, and other faculties to escape from God’s presence, deny His existence, defy His laws, make a mockery of His Word, scorn His honor, and spurn His gospel invitation. And he misconstrues God’s goodwill toward humanity as tyrannical, unreasonable, cruel, and evil. How wicked is man’s rebellion against God, to whom he owes his abilities, health, blessings, and his life itself! If he chooses to oppose his Maker as his Enemy, he will have God oppose him in wrath for all eternity in hell.
How dreadful it is to stand in opposition to God! But what a blessing it is if God should be for us, not against us! And that is true of all those who put their trust in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:31), whose death has removed the enmity between a holy God and His sinful people. If so, shouldn’t we use all our facilities and strengths to know Him better and love Him more instead of being resentful and indifferent toward God and His kingdom work? Let us start with giving thanks to God for opening our eyes to see His loveliness. And let us think of at least one thing we can do to deepen our communion with Him.