Redeemed

Today’s reading is taken from the Revelation to John, a series of revelatory visions that its putative author, John the Elder, received on the Lord’s Day, a Sunday, while in exile on the island of Patmos, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. At the time it was written apocalyptic literature was not uncommon and followed specific conventions and those who read it would have understood its symbolism and literary devices far better than we do.

Because we have difficulty interpreting Revelation, we are apt to read it into the book, various meanings which have nothing to do with what the author or authors originally meant. Some Bible scholars attribute Revelation to more than one writer.

One thing that it is important to know about Revelation is that the visions described in it are not in any particular sequential order. Today’s reading, Revelation 7: 9-17, may be one of the clearest visions in the book. It describes the huge throng of the redeemed standing before the throne of God and praising God and the Lamb.

The Lamb of Revelation is Jesus, the Lamb of John 1: 29 in which John the Baptist, upon seeing Jesus, exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." It is used again as a title for Jesus in John 1:36. It alludes to the lamb that was sacrificed before the first Passover and whose blood was smeared on the lintel and posts of the doors of every house in which the people of Israel lived. The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt at the time this happened. You can read about it in the Book of Exodus, Chapter 12.

The angel of death would spare the occupants of the house whose door lintel and door posts had the blood of a sacrificed lamb smeared on it. Those whose door lintels and door posts were not so marked and who were a firstborn died.

Lambs were highly-valued in Biblical times and the Old Testament contains many references to the sacrificing of a lamb.

It is also worthy of note that all firstborns belong to God, both animals and human beings, according to the Old Testament. They must be redeemed or sacrificed. They are redeemed by the sacrificing of a prescribed animal in their place.

This helps to explain Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. To affect a reconciliation between himself and humankind, God offered himself in the person of Jesus as a sacrifice for our redemption, a sacrifice to spare us from the consequence of our sin, our impaired relationship with God. God himself paid the price of that redemption, saving us from the bad results of our rebellion against God, including death. This is how the early Christians came to understand the need for Jesus’s death.

Among the things in this passage, which are noteworthy is how vast the crowd of redeemed people is. There are so many of them that they cannot be counted. They come not just from one people group but all people groups, from all of humanity. They have endured suffering but in the process they have been made holy. They worship God in his very presence. The Lamb is their shelter and their shepherd. They no longer experience hunger, thirst, or the scorching heat of the sun. They drink from wells of living water. They no longer experience sadness or unhappiness.

This imagery would have resonated with the people living around the Mediterranean Sea and in the Mid-East in ancient times as it should resonate with people living there today. In some places vegetation and water is scarce. Pastoralists living these areas must constantly move their cattle, goats, and sheep in search of grazing and water. A pastoralist is a farmer who breeds and takes care of animals. They would be exposed to the elements as well as often hungry or thirsty.

Those whom God has redeemed and made holy we learn from this reading will no longer suffer these privations. They will be filled with unspeakable joy.

What are the things about God, Jesus, and ourselves we can learn from this passage? With Jesus’ death God has redeemed more than a handful of people, a select few. God has redeemed a great multitude!

God does not promise us an easy life as a follower of Jesus. God, however, will use the events of our life to sanctify and perfect us, to transform us into the likeness of Jesus—obedient, loving, and holy.

Our worship of God in this life is just a foretaste of the worship of God in the life to come. A foretaste is “something that gives you an idea of what something else is like by allowing you to experience a small example of it before it happens.”

Think about that for a moment.

Worshiping God involves more than praising God in song. While singing God’s praise is a part of it along with proclaiming God’s marvelous deeds, at the heart of worshiping God is living a life of faith and love, a life centered on God, a life in harmony with God’s will, a life lived according to Jesus’ teaching and example.

If we love God and others in this life, how much greater will be our love for God and others in the life to come.