Hello again SGC and friends. As we have continued our series in Revelation, the Spirit has helped us to understand how God’s judgments against sin and unbelievers and this fallen sinful world are being unsealed (6-8:5), trumpeted (8-11) and poured out of bowls (15-16) upon them all. Of course, among these three are interspersed transitions and sections highlighting the same, while building upon the same. Albeit, with caveats and expanded details. 

As we explored the other Sunday, all of God’s judgements are poured out by angels whom Jesus summons (16:1). Angels who acknowledge the Lord God as the, “Just” and “Holy One” Who has “brought these judgments” (16:5). 

Moreover, in response to these judgments of God, we are told John also envisions those -believers who have died and whose souls have ascended to be with Christ in heaven-  around the altar (16:7a) affirming much the same, “Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!” (16:7a,b).

These judgments of God are envisioned as bowls of wrath in chapters 15-16. This wrath is God’s holy and righteous displeasure and anger towards unforgiven sin against Him. His displeasure and anger expressed in action (opera ad extra) among His Creation and creatures. 

What’s incumbent upon us to once again notice, is how the angel and those around the altar both declare the Lord to be Just, Holy and Almighty in relation to His plagues of judgment. God’s wrath, the judgement our Lord and Savior executes, is born out of His Holy and Just nature (opera ad intra). Wrath is God’s natural and only  reaction or response to anything unholy, unjust, unlawful, unnatural and impure. 

In being Just and Holy, the Lord our God alone is able to execute divine wrath -or divine anger- without sin or guile or imperfection or flaw. Whereas, among us, as James reminds us in his epistle, “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (1:20).

This is our quandary, to be sure. After all, we are invariably angry.  We’re angry with sin in the world, angry with sin toward others and toward ourselves. And we often should be. 

David expresses this quandary quite pointedly in Psalm 139. He exclaimed angrily, and with justifiable anger, “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise against you? I hate them with complete hatred, I count them as enemies.” (vss. 21-22). Sin and sinfulness is to be hated. And, it will appropriately anger us.

However, David continues. Upon positively affirming personal anger for sin against God (139:19), he subsequently inquires of the Lord to search him and try his thoughts to ensure there is no grievous way in him (139:23-24). This dichotomy of David is our own. While we might hate -or be angry at sin and sinner- with complete hatred (to our minds anyway), our heart and thoughts are never completely pure, righteous, just or holy. This is why our anger never produces the righteousness of God, going back to James. If you notice, James doesn’t qualify his statement on man’s anger (James 1:20). Can you ever recount an occasion whereupon you found yourself working with a completely righteous anger toward sin? An anger without the contagion of bitterness, malice, vengeance, payback, resentment, ire, heartache, headache etc.?

“This is our quandary, to be sure. After all, we are invariably angry.  We’re angry with sin in the world, angry with sin toward others and toward ourselves. And we often should be.”

This brings us back to the altar in Revelation 16:7. And those around the altar. They aren’t only confessing  the quality and veracity of God’s judgments. Their confessions also involve their personal concessions. Back in Revelation 6:9-11 the same believers round the altar are calling out for God’s judgment and wrath. In their anger (justified) about those who sinned against them, they call upon the Lord to avenge them. On the heels of this, Jesus calls them to rest in the time and place of His vengeance. Here in Revelation 16:7, those around the altar have responded in faith to Christ’s promise in 6:9-11 and conceded vengeance to Him. In so doing, they find rest from their anger. Peace of mind from their troubled and enraged thoughts. Calm from their emotional turmoil and vexation. 

This is why turning to the Lord trustingly, via prayer -as David did in Psalm 139- is crucial when grappling with anger. Paul writes to believers, “The Lord is at hand;  do not be anxious about anything (including justice and vengeance), but in everything (including anger) by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

Conversely, Jacobs sons provide us with a slap on our clinched and angry fists (Genesis 34,49:5-7). Upon learning of their sister Dinah being mistreated and abused, they become infuriated (34:7,25). This makes sense to us. We too would be justifiably angry at such sinful violence. And ought to be. However, Simeon and Levi become so incensed with a boiling anger, that it spilled over into the lives of uninvolved men, women, children and livelihoods (34:25-29). Not to mention their own family and future (34:30-31). They murder all the men of the town. And in doing so, invite further violence into their own lives and families. 

Ultimately, their angry vengeance is castigated by Jacob. And thus, Scripture -God’s voice- castigates  such anger and vengeance. As Jacob is dying, he curses the two brothers who ignited justifiable anger into unrighteous anger and destructive vengeance, “…weapons of violence are their swords. . .For in their anger they killed men. . .Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel” (49:5-7).

There are always unwelcome and unexpected outcomes to anger and a vengeful spirit. This is the nature of the anger of man that doesn’t work the righteousness of God. It boils over and spills into our relationships. It spills over into how we interact with our neighbors. It spills over into our own experience. Into our jobs and our conversations. Into how we discipline our children or approach a member of our church. It spills over into our emotional and mental health. Not to mention, what we post on social media!! Lol.  

“There are always unwelcome and unexpected outcomes to anger and a vengeful spirit. This is the nature of the anger of man that doesn’t work the righteousness of God.”

This is why what Jesus says in response to those he has saved around the altar in heaven is so profound and helpful. As they are still embroiled in anger over their unjust deaths. Being angry with those who sinned so grievously against them and their families by extension, they cry out (prayer), “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on earth?” In response to which Jesus clothes them with a white rob and tells them to “rest a little longer”.

As we entrust vengeance to the Sovereign Lord, Jesus speaks peace into our angry experiences. The Prince of Peace graciously clothes us with a consoling peace that brings the boiling water of our anger to simmer down and return to room temperature. Revelation very uniquely reminds that “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). So, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God” (Romans 12:19). And, Revelation makes abundantly clear, Jesus is returning to “finish” pouring out the wrath of God upon all sin and every sinner apart from Him (15:1,8,17).

This “finish” language, reminds us of what Jesus said upon the cross. As He suffered the most incredible injustice of all, having the full cup of God’s wrath poured out upon Himself in our place, while Himself being without sin, Jesus remarked, “It is finished”. In doing so, He was entrusting His life to our Father in heaven as he also remarked, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Our Lord and Savior left His vindication and all vengeance relative to His suffering to God, “entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23). 

Jesus, the Son of man, found peace among injustice and strength to endure as He entrusted Himself to God’s vengeance and vindication. So to can we because we are in Him and He is in us.