Revelation - The Hope: The Reaping

Modern Coast of Turkey

In both writing or public speaking, a “hook” makes or breaks an entire presentation.  When teaching English, I spent a great deal of time explaining  “the hook.”  I created PowerPoints offering suggestions on how best to engage an audience so messages would be well received. If no one listens or immediately tunes the speaker/reader out after the hook, the information falls on deaf ears.  

Examples of hooks are rhetorical questions, shocking statements, statistics, analogies, famous quotes, a polarizing statement, a strong declaration, applicable metaphors, or brief stories/anecdotes.  I encouraged students to find the method best suited to their writing style and stick with it.  A person’s voice is their personality on paper, and there is no better way to showcase your personality than in your hook. 

So if you have read many of my blogs, you know my favorite hook is the story.  Anthropologists teach that each generation produces a “keeper of the stories.”  Think about your family.  Who always begins the tale telling over the Thanksgiving dinner table or the Fourth of July picnic?  That is your family storyteller. 

Who is your family Storyteller?

My dad kept the stories of our family and now that privilege has passed to me.  Because what is a family without its stories?  I hypothesize that without family stories, we are simply a collection of individuals who share the same DNA or collected experiences without any significant connection.  Our stories bind us together into a unit. Whether the story is good or bad doesn’t matter. Each tale adds another stitch in our layers of kinship.  I may criticize aunt so and so, but let an outsider chime in with their unfavorable opinion and see how fast I shut that down!     

But here’s the thing with family stories.  What binds us together can be both joyful and painful.  As I think back over the years, there are so many good stories to tell.  There’s the story of Katie’s third word, used correctly in context, that drastically changed how I spoke while driving.  There’s the time when Caroline was four, and we checked into a hotel, and she asked for the concierge.  There’s the endless climb up the stairs of Notre Dame. When we all thought exhaustion would claim us, we stepped onto the ledge of heaven itself.  All of Paris lay before us, a gargoyle sentry keeping watch nearby.  I could literally go on for days with the happy stories.

But there are many painful narratives too.  As young parents newly located in Kansas City, baby Katie’s lips turned blue as she gasped for breath.  Rushing to the ER in an unfamiliar city, and the weight of those moments of terror do not fade.  Hearing a loud thud and seeing a catatonic Caroline walking down the stairs cradling her arm that is shaped like a U.  Again, rushing to the ER and the overwhelming fear.  And marriage is hard.  Will we be able to stay a family or has that chapter finally closed for good?  

Revelation Chapter 14 contains  the story of the family of God  in both joyful and painful reality.

The Chapter begins with “the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000.”  Remember that 144,000 is  a symbolic number that indicates completion.  John goes on to talk about the 144,000, and the new song that they sing that no one else can learn.  This crowd follows the Lamb wherever He goes.  They are completely blameless, have never defiled themselves, and no lie has ever crossed their lips.  All the commentaries I’ve read over Revelation 14: 1-5 state that this group of saints has been redeemed from the earth by the blood of the Lamb and are blameless because of His sacrifice.  We’ve seen this scenario multiple times in Revelation already.  But I have questions about these children of the Lamb.

Now, I do not claim to have any “right” answers with my interpretations of Revelation, but I do believe the Holy Spirit has given me a sound mind and honors my biblical study.  As a mother, these verses strike me very differently.  John has reported numerous groups of martyrs and saints singing glory to the Lamb, so why is this group so different?  

Maybe because I read this passage after studying the slaughtering of the innocents under both Herod’s and Pharaoh's decrees?  Maybe because I read this passage after a dear friend suffered yet another miscarriage?  Maybe because the abortion debate seems to be in the news daily?  But my story telling brain tells me that this 144,000  is special:   these who sing a unique song known to no others, these utterly blameless ones,  these who remain virgins, these who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, these who have never uttered a lie, these who are the firstfruits of humanity. Are they the forgotten and lost children of our world?  Didn’t Jesus say, “let the little children come to me.  Don’t stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Mark 10:14.  

3 D Ultrasound

In my Nancy brain version of heaven, Jesus tenderly draws these babes to his side, and they sing to him a song only they can sing - the song of a life cut short. We live in a fallen world of sin.  Yet these innocents claim their family status in the story of Jesus too.  I may only be trying to apply meaning to unspeakable and unfathomable earthly tragedies, but I find comfort in the care of Christ in verses 1-5. 

Because now the story takes a drastic turn.  After the joy of the 144,000, now comes the pain. The angel declares “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of judgment has come.” Revelation 14:7.  

I adore the stories of God’s love.  I like to read the ones where broken, sinful people find redemption at the feet of Jesus.  I love the patience God shows when Israel messes up again, and again, and again.  All the fallible people of the Bible who find their place in the family of God give me hope that no matter how much I mess up my life, Jesus still sacrificed Himself so I can spend eternity with a holy and perfect Creator.  The story is so beautiful.

However, “It has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen.”  Revelation 14:8.  Consequences are real, and judgment is part of the story too.    

“Then I looked,and there was a white cloud, and one like the Son of Man was seated on the cloud..Another angel cried out, ‘Use your sickle and reap for the time to reap has come, since the harvest is ripe.’ So the one seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth and the earth was harvested.”  Revelation 14:14-16.

What happens with this heavenly harvest?  The reaping throws sinners into the great winepress of God’s wrath, and blood flows out of the press up to the horses’ bridles for about 180 miles. Horrific image for a visual person immediately after the joyous singing of the 144,000. 

Understanding suffering and God’s judgment takes a broad stroke paint brush to see a bigger picture. Many want to stamp their feet and scream that God is not fair.  Many question God’s methods.  Why do things have to be this way?  But remember what stories do. They bind us together as a family.  They are so important that scientists study generational storytellers, and how their stories impact family units.

So here is the story of the family of God.

Family of God

God created a perfect world, including perfect humans, and everything was good.  Then, God’s creation was broken by sin.  Because of sin, each person alive will suffer.  No one is born without sin, no matter how “good” they are. If you deny this statement, think about your daily thought life being projected on a TV or phone screen for anyone to tune in and watch.  I know I have mentally murdered at least one bad driver this morning and one extremely loud talker. And God does not make distinctions about sin.  Remember what Jesus said?  “You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.  But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” Matthew 5:21-22. 

So what hope is there?  Now remember John 3:16-17.  For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”

All who believe in Christ as the Son of God are part of the family.  But earthly suffering is hard for me to swallow.  This is the most difficult part of reconciling my understanding of a loving Creator and daily news headlines.  Pain will find each and every one of us on this earth. There are many reasons why we experience these horrible moments:  we make poor choices, and choices have consequences; others make the choices, and we are collateral damage; we or someone we love receive a diagnosis that is unfair;  there is an unfair accident with tragic results;  or simply life does not deal in fairness.  All will ache.  We can never anticipate to what degree. 

But that is not the totality of the story.  There is a  flip side to the suffering. Remember all those moments of unfathomable joy?  Remember finding peace when there should only be pain? This is the paradox of being human. 

Revelation 14 shows the glory of an endless number praising the Lamb who was slain for every single person ever conceived.  This song shows everything made right - all suffering at an end.  But Revelation 14 also shows the agony of living apart from the family of Christ.  God in his gracious goodness has provided centuries for humanity to pull itself together.  He offers  opportunity after opportunity for each individual to come into relationship with the Holy Creator by professing belief in His one and only Son.  Revelation 14 highlights the two choices each human faces in this earthly existence. 

1. ALL are created by a Holy loving God who continually seeks us through  the chaos of just being human. He wants to reconcile with us with such fearsome  desire, He sent Jesus to become the Lamb that was slain so that we may believe in Him and not perish but have everlasting life.

   
   

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2. ALL are born into a random, imperfect world of both joy and suffering. Pain has no meaning, and we simply hope life brings more happiness than agony. We seek release from pain and attempt to find a comfortable equilibrium.  We live the best life that we can and simply hope the joy outweighs the pain. Then we die. End of story. We reject the family of God.                  

Do you belong to the family of God? 

Revelation 14 promises the reaping will happen. Revelation 14 affirms that so many will choose not to join the family of God.  They will continue as a collection of individuals, pursuing their own agendas, and never developing any significant connection to the Lamb of God who patiently waits to bring them into the fold.  Revelation 14 does not sugar coat that one day, the opportunity to join the family will be no more, and God’s wrath will finally happen.

If you know someone who is not a part of the family of God, there are so many stories to share. Share your own story.  Share the story of broken and sinful people of the Bible upon whom God still showered His mercy.  Share stories of how God’s own chosen people rejected Him over and over, yet God still sent His Son so we could be redeemed.  Stories are powerful, and whether they are joyful  or painful, they connect us to each other and to God.  The reaping will happen. Will you find yourself singing in the heavenly chorus or crushed under the wine press?

Share a story today. You never know when you’ll gain a new member of the family.