"Fear God and give him glory! His hour of judgment has come! (14:7)It's a little disorienting and disconcerting to see John's visions and come to the stark realization that Judgment Day is coming. It's not just some fantasy for which we just hope and pray. In fact, this truth is one of the foundational beliefs that makes us Christians - Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. (Apostles Creed)
John shows us what that promised final harvest will look like, for unbelievers and believers, for those who have sown to the flesh and those who have sown to the Spirit.
"If anyone worships the Beast and its image and takes the mark on forehead or hand, that person will drink the wine of God's wrath, prepared unmixed in the chalice of anger, and suffer torment from fire and brimstone in the presence of Holy Angels, in the presence of the Lamb. Smoke from their torment will rise age after age. No respite for those who worship the Beast and its image, who take the mark of its name. (14:9-11)
The Angel swung his sickle, harvested earth's vintage, and heaved it into the winepress, the giant winepress of God's wrath...As the vintage was trodden, blood poured from the winepress as high as a horse's bridle, a river of blood for two hundred miles. (14:19-20)Anyone who takes the mark of the Beast will be subject to God's wrath and eternal separation from Him. Ignorance or fear doesn't appear to be a valid defense. The action of taking the mark is judged regardless of motive. Everyone is forced to make a choice in these final days and live with the eternal consequences.
But God promises blessings for those who stand passionately patient, keeping God's commands, staying faithful to Jesus (14:12), for those with his Name and the Name of his Father inscribed on their foreheads, the firstfruits of the harvest for God and the Lamb. (14:1, 5)
"Write this: Blessed are those who die in the Master from now on; how blessed to die that way!" "Yes," says the Spirit, "and blessed rest from their hard, hard work. None of what they've done is wasted; God blesses them for it all in the end." (14:13)As I consider the reality of two very different harvests, one to eternal damnation and one to eternal life, Paul's warning to the Galatians comes to mind and seems remarkably relevant:
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8)My daily choices reflect my true priorities and have eternal consequences. What am I sowing - with my actions, with my words, with my thoughts - and what will I reap in the end? Will I yield to my sinful nature, or to the Spirit of God who lives in me? Will I love myself first, or allow God to love others through me?
How I long to sow to the Spirit, not my flesh, but it's a continual struggle to yield to the Spirit and invite Him back onto the throne of my life. Lord, have mercy.
"If you see the distance between how My Son loves and how you love, you will know that His kingdom has more work to do...You will not stand strong in My holy Presence till, like John, you fall helpless before My Son. You will not live in My Spirit till you die to your flesh." 66 LL
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