The God of War--shaking our complacency

 

Yes, love, ...but not the love that loves for something, to gain something, or because of something, but that love that I felt for the first time, when dying, I saw my enemy and yet loved him. I knew that feeling of love which is the essence of the soul, for which no object is needed. And I know that blissful feeling now too. To love one's neighbours; to love one's enemies. To love everything - to Love God in all His manifestations. Some one dear to one can be loved with human love; but an enemy can only be loved with divine love. And that was why I felt such joy when I felt that I loved that man. What happened to him? Is he alive? ...Loving with human love, one may pass from love to hatred; but divine love cannot change. Nothing, not even death, can shatter it. It is the very nature of the soul. And how many people I have hated in my life.  --Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Life is full of contrasts--black and white, light and darkness, love and hate.  Living, and loving, is navigating not only human misunderstandings, but also divine contradictions:  God is Love, but without Hate how would you know what Love looked like? We all espouse a God of Peace, but most of the wars on earth have been based on religion, man's study of God.  We all aspire to a heavenly Joy, but only in contrast to the earthly sufferings we have experienced.

Last week we started a study of the Seven Seals in Revelation chapter six.  We started with the rider of the white horse, who brings all things on earth to light and conquers sin.  All those who dwell in darkness will have nowhere to hide; all who deal in deception will have no course to take.  They will all stand naked and unprotected from the second seal, the rider of the red horse.

When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!"  Then another hose came out, a fiery red one.  Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other.  To him was given a large sword. --Revelation 6:3-4

 What did the second living creature look like? In Revelation 4:7, it says "The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox...."  What is the difference between a lion and an ox? A lion is stealthy and brave, quick and fast.  An ox is plodding and slow, but also powerful and not very graceful.  There is an old saying, "He is like a bull in a china shop."  This describes a person who is not graceful, or who does not care about his surroundings--he leaves a trail of destruction in his wake.  But here is something interesting: Ezekiel 1:10 describes an angelic creature with four faces, the faces appearing like the four beasts in Revelation 4.  The four beasts are again described in Ezekiel 10:14: Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle."  Instead of an ox, he sees a cherub.  The first time we see mention of cherubim in the Bible (there is no such word as "cherubs"--one cherub, two or more cherubim) is in Genesis 3:24: "After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." Artistic renderings of cherubim make them look like baby angels, but in reality they are all strong as an ox.  The sword of God's judgment, and these four strong creatures, stood between fallen humanity and God's garden.  Only through God's redemption in Christ do people  have access again to the tree of life.

This is the creature that introduced the second horseman described in Revelation.  The horse was red like fire; he may have even had the appearance of a red-hot flame.  Its rider was told to make War on earth.
In a natural progression, if all state secrets are known, then war erupts between states.  It is the same with families and individuals--families feud against other families when insults are made, and individuals quarrel when they dispense with polite "little white lies" and express how they really feel about one another.  So when truth is brought to light, conflict follows.  "Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend.  Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words.  For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--a man's enemies are the members of his own household." (Micah 7:5-6)  Jesus himself quotes this passage in Matthew 10:35-36, when he said, "For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--a man's enemies will be the members of his own household'."  This is antithetical to those who preach that God is Love to the exclusion of his wrath, and that Jesus is the Prince of Peace without mentioning that he is the Lion of Judah, the conqueror of Sin and Death.

Matthew 10:34 says, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace on the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."  Could this be the large sword that was given to the rider of the Red Horse in Revelation 6?  Again, at first glance, this sounds like a contradiction of scripture--Isaiah 9:6 talks about the "Prince of Peace"; Luke 2:14 talks about an angelic blessing, "on earth peace to all men"; John 14:7 talks about Jesus taking leave of his disciples, saying "my peace I leave with you."  It is true that Christ came to bring peace--peace between the believer and God, and peace among humans.  Yet the inevitable result of Christ's coming is conflict--between Christ and the antichrist, between light and darkness, between God's children and the devil's children.  This conflict can even occur between members of the same family, as we have already discussed.

But there is hope.  Mark 10:29-30 says:

"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mothers or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions), and in the age to come, eternal life."

Jesus seems to be saying that if your belief in Christ causes you to break family relationships, He will give you a support system that can replace your family; one that will encourage you in the faith as much as a sister or a brother, a father or a mother.  And even beyond your immediate family, your spiritual family is a network that extends all across the world, so that wherever you go, you can find a spiritual kinship that will provide mutual support, mentoring, fellowship and love.  And on top of that, there is also the hope of heaven.  This extended family is available through Christian friends and churches; heaven is a reward for being faithful in life.  But it will not be easy--it does not come without persecution.

So, looking back at our passage, remember that the scroll is the Last Will and Testament of God; the Lamb (Jesus) was found worthy to execute the Will; and that the seven seals represent seven Witnesses to that Will.  The first one was a rider on a white horse, and that represents Light, and whose job is to reveal Sin.  The second was a rider on a red horse, and that represents War, whose job it is to cleanse the world of Sin. It is counter-intuitive for most of us to think of War as an attribute of God.  But throughout the Old Testament, God commanded His people to fight against the enemies of God, and to drive them out of the Promised Land.  Most wars throughout history have left a huge mess that took years to clean up.  This final War will clean up after Man, who introduced Sin into the world.  The sinful will be left without any means of support, as we will see when we study the Black horse next time.

This part of Revelation is setting the stage for future Judgment, but it is taking baby steps toward that end.  In fact, we will see that there are six seals opened in chapter six, but the seventh seal is not opened until chapter eight.  John was very meticulous in his description of his vision, and God showed him quite a lot of detail about the end of the world, and what we can expect to see in the coming age. Some of it is disturbing.  But whatever comes, we have the confidence that Christ is faithful, that even though our faith will be tested, God will allow us to overcome, if we put our trust in him.  We need to prepare now for the end times.  We need to shake our complacency and ask ourselves hard questions, like what does God have to do with War, Famine, or Death?  These are recurring themes in the Bible, but we tend to overlook them often.

We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?               --Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451