Revelation 7:17

Revelation 7:17

At the end of Revelation Chapter 7, the Bible is continuing to tell us about good things that the Lord will do for us in heaven. Rev. 7:17 says, "For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." In this verse we are told of two things that Jesus will do and one thing that God will do for the people who are in heaven. Jesus will feed them, and He will lead them to living fountains of waters. Of course, when the Bible says that Jesus will feed them, it’s talking about spiritual food. You are fed spiritual food when you are taught spiritual truth. Jesus is the greatest teacher of all. When Jesus was on the earth, apart from dying for our sins, the greatest thing that Jesus did was to teach. The teachings of Jesus Christ that we have recorded for us in the gospels are the greatest and the highest and the most noble of any teachings that have ever been given anywhere in the history of the human race. Blessed are those who have heard and have read and have understood the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. When we get to heaven, there will be many more things to learn and our principle teacher will be Jesus Himself. When we get to heaven, how happy we will be to sit at the feet of Jesus and to hear His wonderful words from His own mouth. There will be so much more to learn.

Jesus will feed us, and He will also lead us. We know that one of the major characteristics of the Christian life is that a Christian is dependent upon being led by Jesus. One of the first things that Jesus said to the disciples was, "Follow me." One of the favorite Psalms of believers over the centuries has been the 23^rd Psalm that says, "He leads me beside the still waters." There is a great, old hymn that captures the blessedness of being led by God that is entitled "He Leadeth Me," and the first verse is:

He leadeth me, O blessed thought! O words with heavenly comfort raught! Whatever I do, wherever I be, Still ‘tis God’s hand that leadeth me!

If we were not led by God, our lives would be in vain. It’s because of the grace of God and the power of God that we are led by Him. There are no coincidences in the life of a Christian. The more that we understand and believe that Jesus is leading us because of His promises and power and love for us, the more content we will be with this life and the more able we will be to face what happens to us. God does not leave us to our own devices. Thank God that we are led by Jesus in this life, and we will be led by Him in eternity. We will need to be led by Him in heaven, because there will be many things for us to do, and we will not be able to do them without His guidance.

Notice that when Rev. 7:17 talks about our existence in heaven, it says that Jesus "shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." The emphasis should be placed upon the word "living." Jesus is the source of all life, physical and spiritual. When Jesus was on the earth, He told the woman at the well that He could give her living water so that she would never thirst again. When we all get to heaven, we will meet the woman at the well, but we will meet her at a different well than the one recorded in the gospel of John. We will meet her at the living well.

The last part of Rev. 7:17 says that "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Everyone who is a Christian will have tears sometime in their life. Sometimes it’s not an easy road. Jesus told the disciples, "In the world you shall have tribulation." Jesus Himself followed a road that led to the tortuous death on the cross of Calvary, and He reminded us that "the servant is not greater than his Lord." There are many situations in life that can start with hope but end with tears. The American Indians know this all too well, and they called one of their journeys the trail of tears. A young person might fall in love, and make plans and have great hopes for the future, thinking that the love will last for a lifetime. But sometimes a tragedy takes place, and the love goes unrequited and the young person is left with tears. Many young couples have children, and of course they always have hopes and dreams for the future concerning their children, and of course they always think that they know just how children need to be raised. But this is a dangerous world in which we live. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and things may not work out the way they had hoped, and instead of seeing their dreams for their children realized, they end up with tears. Some good people will learn the hard way that when children are young they will step on your toes, but when they are older, they will step on your heart. Many people who have followed God and who have tried to do the right thing have gone to bed at night with tears in their eyes.

In this life God has ways of wiping away tears from our eyes. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." In John 14:16 Jesus said, "I will not leave you comfortless." In John 16:33 after Jesus said, "In the world you shall have tribulation," He also said, "But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." God wipes away the tears from our eyes by the Holy Spirit who is within our hearts. The Holy Spirit reminds us of the promises of God and the promises of Christ His Son, and then we are comforted. When we are reminded that there is a purpose to all things because God is leading us, we can also be comforted. And so it appears that we are comforted in this life in a very similar way to how we will be comforted in heaven. In Rev. 7:17 before we are told that God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes, we are also told that Jesus will feed us and lead us. If you feed upon the Word of God, you can be comforted in any sorrow, because His teachings and promises will be real to you. If you allow Jesus to lead you, you will be comforted because you will be in a position to realize that God will only permit things to happen in your life for which there is a divine purpose. God can make good come out of bad, and He can make joy come out of sorrow. God has a wonderful future prepared for us. Because of Jesus, we are going to a place where God shall wipe all tears from our eyes.

In Rev. 8:1 the Bible says, "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." We remember that Jesus is opening the seven seals of the book that was in the hand of Him that sat upon the throne. We have now come to last of the seven seals, and many more things are described for us once the seventh seal is opened. The period of the Great Tribulation has come to the earth as a result of the seven seals being opened, and when the seventh seal is opened even more sorrow and more destruction and more terrors are described as happening to the earth and the inhabitants thereof. Perhaps the reason for the silence that is mentioned in Rev. 8:1 is like the silence before a storm. A storm of destruction will come to the earth when the seventh seal is opened, and before the storm there will be silence in heaven.

Rev. 8:2 says, "And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets." In the ancient world in certain royal kingdoms a trumpet would be sounded to announce the beginning of some important event. Evidently God is using these trumpets for the same kind of thing. The seventh seal of the book has been opened, and we are told about seven trumpets. Before the trumpets are sounded we are told something else in Rev. 8:3-6. The Bible says, "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth; and there were voices and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound."

There appears to be a direct correlation between the prayers that have been made by all the believers in God and the sounding of these seven trumpets. The trumpets do not sound until the prayers of the saints are poured out before God. What have we prayed over the centuries, we who have believed in God? We have prayed that the will of the Lord be done, and not our own will. Notice that the prayers are poured out on an altar. An altar is a place where sacrifices are made. When a believer is pressed down by the sorrows or the difficulties of life, and when such a person cries out to God from the depth of their soul and says, "not my will but thine be done," it’s similar to death and to a sacrifice being made.

We also pray and implore God just like Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come." God has made many precious promises about His kingdom to come, and the more that we understand these promises the more that we know that many of our hopes and dreams will only be fulfilled when God establishes His kingdom. Some people put too much hope in the kingdoms of this world, but we know that it’s the kingdom of Christ and of God for which we wait and for which we pray. Our prayers have not gone unheard. They are a sweet fragrance and incense that will be poured out before the throne of God. The day will come when God will say that enough is enough. Enough prayers have been prayed, and the longings of the pure in heart have waited long enough. The time will be right, and God will answer the prayers of the humble ones who have placed their hope in Him. God will tell the angels to sound their trumpets.

Rev. 8:7 says, "The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up." The hail and the fire could be from several different sources: perhaps more meteorites that will rain down upon the earth, perhaps volcanoes that will erupt, or perhaps bombs that nations will shower upon each other. The blood is undoubtedly the blood of the humans who will be killed by them. Whatever the source of the hail and fire, we are told very clearly the result: one third of the trees and all of the grass will be burned up.

Rev. 8:8-9 says, "And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood, and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died, and the third part of the ships were destroyed." This sounds like a great and massive volcanic eruption in which the volcanic mountain is totally destroyed. Perhaps it will be the worst volcanic explosion in the history of the earth, and perhaps the destruction of the ships is a result of a great tidal wave that would surely follow an explosion of this magnitude should it be in or near the sea.

Rev. 8:10-11 says, "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called wormwood, and the third part of the waters became wormwood, and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter." This sounds like a large meteorite of some sort shall fall to the earth, and the destruction that it will bring will be much greater than just it’s impact of striking the earth. Evidently it will contain chemicals or substances that will poison 1/3 of the water on the earth. We think that we have seen pollution in our lifetime, but the worst pollution that the world will ever see will come during the time of the Great Tribulation and it will come from outer space. One more way that people will die during the Great Tribulation: they will die from drinking polluted water.

Rev. 8:12 says, "And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for the third part of it, and the night likewise." Perhaps as a result of the smoke and the ash from the other calamities, 33% of the sun’s rays will be blocked from reaching the earth. Such a blockage of the sun would cause great climactic changes on the earth. Crops would fail, temperatures would drop, and the misery that would befall the human race would increase dramatically.

Just when human misery seems to be at a point where it could be no worse, it does get worse. Rev. 8:13 says, "And I beheld and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound." We have heard about many great natural disasters that will befall the earth, causing horrible suffering and death. What could possibly be worse? Evil. Evil forces will be unleashed such as they have never been loosed before.

Rev. 9:1-2 says, "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." We know quite clearly from what we are told in verse 11 of this chapter that the star that fell from heaven is not another meteorite, but is the devil himself. The devil was originally an angel. The place where the devil spends most of his time is on the earth tempting man to sin, causing sorrow and woe. It appears as though the devil still has access to heaven. In the book of Job we are told that the devil appears before God to accuse the believers. But the day will come when the devil will be no longer permitted to visit heaven, and he will be cast to the earth. Because the devil is cast out of heaven, he knows his time is short and therefore his determination increases to cause as much death and destruction as possible while he still has time. The devil is the leader of many millions of other fallen angels who will also be loosed upon the earth. They will enter the hearts of evil men. The Great Tribulation will be a time of murder and violence and war such as the world has never known, because of the sinfulness of man and because of the power of evil.

One of the reasons for the horrible crimes that human beings are capable of committing is because of the forces of evil that work so hard to influence man to commit great sins against humanity. But right now in our day and age the forces of evil are held back and restrained to a great degree. What we are being told here in Revelation Chapter 9 is that one source of misery during the Great Tribulation is that evil will be loosed upon the earth as it has never been before. The message should be very clear: turn to God while there is still time. Without Jesus as your Savior you have no hope against the forces that can come against you.

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