Revelation 14:7; Fear God and Give Glory to Him

Revelation 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. 

Isaiah 52:10 The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. 

May His kingdom come and His will be done on earth. Messiah, please come!

When it comes to power struggle, a wrestling match is at work between forces of good and evil, light and darkness, God and Satan. There is going to be arms that will be engaged in mortal combat. The arm of God representing His power, His force in the world system. We are going to be very impressed as we see what God’s arms can do as the prophet Isaiah proclaim above. [Whitcomb]

Interestingly it is for the arm of the Lord that the world hopes, should the world look in hope anticipation in perfecting human laws and human systems of government? Surely not! If the 20th century should have taught us anything, it should teach us that the confident 19th-century claim of imminent human perfection was not only highly fallacious but ludicrous. Instead of looking at the light of what Isaiah spoke 2700 years ago, however, we are willing to settle as humans have for 5000 years or more for the trappings of personal pleasure, comfort, security while human civilization crashes down around us. We have fastened the spurious light to ourselves rapidly devouring us. We long for someone who is both strong enough and good enough to rule in justice. Given the realities of human nature, order requires rule, and rule requires power. But power of what sort? Here is the truth that God is trying to get His people to hear throughout the book of Israel [And we have transited 2700 years now, the message is even more needful]. It is the power of self-denial, the power of self-sacrifice, the power of innocence, the power of faithfulness, the power of holy love, this is the power which the world waits in breathless anticipation. Does it always know it waits in this way? Hardly. Yet the Servant Messiah, the arm of the Lord is revealed to them, there is frequently that immediate sense of recognition and that satisfy like the right key fitting the lock, where vague memories will come to full consciousness. Yes, when we come to the ultimate supreme power of the living God, He turns out to be a helpless dying Man on the cross surrenders without a whimper to the forces of darkness and says as He did to Judas, this is our hour, the power of darkness. Jesus says paraphrasing, “Do with me, what you will, what you can, I surrender to your kudo and your hatred because I am the God of love incarnate” [p. 336, Isaiah 40-66, John N. Oswalt]

So we learn through the Apostle Paul that it is through dying that we live, its through defeat that we have victory, its through loss that we have gain, its through weakness that we have power, through suffering that we have joy, though we are poor we make many rich having nothing. These are the contradictions, the anomies, the mysteries of how God wins His ultimate battle. May God help us as His servants to realise that the very time we think we are losing, is the very time we could be winning. The great battle against the evil one who only can know how to smash the opposition, Hollywood style, like some kind of cosmic force that knows nothing of love, grace, mercy, innocence and truth. That is the kind of arm Jesus has. Like a Shepherd, He will tend His flock, in His arms He will carry His lambs, and carry them in His bosom, gently lead (nursing), the believer in a hostile satanic, demonic, depraved world by the everlasting arms. My arms will judge the peoples, not just Babylon but all the nations of the world, come into focus, in this magnificent panoramic of redemption, and the coastlands will wait for me, for my arm they will wait expectantly, the arm of the Lord and the fear of men now dominate the rest of Isaiah 51. Where are we in the midst of this tension, this everlasting tension, are we in the arm of the Lord, resting in Him, or are we terrified of the finite opposition that He will bring along the way to make us make our choice, so God says, you can look everywhere outside the Lord but you can find nothing but horrible, irreversible curse of God on a once-perfect world that scientist call the Second Law of Thermodynamics, namely, any system in this physical universe left to itself with no outside tune-up, repairing, by God, angels or men, any system left to itself, a closed system, will deteriorate, disintegrate and collapse. [John Whitcomb]

Isaiah 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. 

Isaiah 51:7-8 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart ismy law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation. 

Indeed, may men choose to fear God and serve Him. Amen.