Revelation 7-9

In chapter seven Christians are comforted with the fact that after their turbulent lives on earth, facing persecution and hardship, they will be present with Jesus. Their robes will be washed white with the blood of the lamb. It is no mistake that a robe covered in blood is responsible for making Christians’ robes as white as snow. In chapter eight, the seventh seal is opened but instead of a conclusion we are introduced to seven trumpets. These seven trumpets unleash various hardships and punishment upon the people of the earth. This results in the destruction of one third of something. However, the entire process ends in failure because “The rest of the people who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts” (9:20-21).

I wrote a blog post some time ago wondering what it would take for God to get our attention today. Certainly earthquakes and fires and famine is not enough because these things happen quite often but people do not turn to God. We are even prevented from seeing God at work in these things. Why would God allow suffering in this world? Perhaps to prevent us from experiencing eternal suffering in the world to come. C.S. Lewis called pain God’s megaphone to wake up a complacent world. What do you think?