That is news the devil does not want anyone to know. He is risen and now sits upon the throne in heaven. Oh, how he must have laughed with hellish glee when the Lord of life breathed His last and succumbed to the power of death.īut Christ did not stay in the tomb.
Satan was holding high carnival as the Son of God died upon the cross. The enemy certainly seemed triumphant then! It was his hour - the hour of darkness. In spite of all the torment and anguish, Jesus stayed on the cross and died. The same angels who sing praise to Him who is worthy in Revelation 5 were at His beck and call ready to come to His aid should He have desired them to do so. He could have consumed His enemies with a single word. Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb, could have stepped down from the cross at any time. He bore it all in patience and majestic silence. At Calvary, Jesus Christ the Lamb offered no resistance. What a switch! Contrast the wrath of the Lamb in that day of judgment over against the meekness of the Lamb upon the cross. They will acknowledge the Lamb that was slain. They will face Him who sits upon the throne. Those who fall under the wrath of the Lamb would rather be annihilated - destroyed completely - than face the wrath of God and the Lamb. So great will be the wrath of the Lamb that men will cry out for the mountains to fall upon them and the rocks to cover them. The day of judgment will be upon all those who have stubbornly refused to bow their knees before Christ or confess His lordship over their lives. The great day of His vengeance will come. Suddenly, like a thief in the night, His anger will break forth like lightning. They have united their forces against Him and against His people. The enemies of God have attempted their worst. The Bible is clear that when the measure of man's iniquity is full, we shall be ripe for judgment. He waits long - but at last His righteous anger is aroused, and He breaks forth in all the fury of His wrath. Revelation makes clear that, although Christ defers punishment, there comes a time when His patience is exhausted. While we may tend to downplay the wrath of the Lamb of God, the Bible does not let us forget it. One would not, however, take a weapon to protect himself against a lamb. No one would care to meet a lion unless he was armed with a weapon. We would think the Lion from the tribe of Judah would be a more fitting image to depict the Christ at this point. Other animals are associated with wrath and considered ferocious. They are tender and mild little creatures.
We usually associate lambs with meekness and humility. The opening of the seals ends with people shouting for the mountains and the rocks to hide them from Him who sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Only the Lamb was able to open the scroll. The picture we have before us in Revelation 6 is of the opening of six of the seven seals that were upon the scroll. False leaders may deceive, but God says, "This is the future." He unveils it for us so that we might be prepared and that our souls might be delivered out of the tribulation. They will paint a rosy picture of human nature and how the human race is constantly getting better, even though God says it will end with destruction. Cheap and worldly optimists cry out words of peace when there is no peace. God is a God of truth, and He reveals things as they are and as they will be.
It is not a pretty picture that these two verses paint for us.
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