Turn to God

Reading Amount: Revelation 8:1-9:21

Central Verse:

The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts.

Revelation 9:20-21 NRSV

Central Truth:

The heart of Revelation is Salvation and the desire for the salvation of the world. As the plagues begin we find reason to mourn, people still don't turn to God when things are bad.

Food For Thought:

The description of the locusts in these chapters are often seen as a parody of the divine. We see they have golden crowns, like God, human faces like the creatures around the throne of God, and their hair has been understood as representing certain frenzy religious practices in the emperor cults. There are also biblical ties to the image of the locust. Locust were understood to be a damaging plague like seen in the exodus story but perhaps more importantly there are some similarities between what these Locust look like and the leviathan in the book of Job (Job 41:10ff). It is important to remember in Revelation that all evil is a parody of the goodness of God and the Lamb. Evil's power is at best a sham.

Connections:

I remember in seminary sitting with an individual who in class maintained that there was no God. In fact this person claimed to be a wiccan and in essence worshiped nature. A group of us went out to eat one evening and as the evening progressed she started to ask my wife and I questions. "Why does God hate me?" Our response may have been a little less sympathetic than it should have been but I wondered if you don't believe in God what do you care? When bad things happen in people's lives even if they claim to not believe in God they often begin to ask questions about God and what God's intent in the world is. Unfortunately this isn't usually a sign that the person is turning towards God. That they have repentance and acceptance of God in their lives. Often the questions are just that, questions. Questions that they won't change their mind on regardless of any answer given or tragedy experienced.

It amazes me, and this is reflected in our central verse, that when something bad happens many people don't turn back to God. I have been in some religious settings where when people don't turn back to God it is rejoiced because God has made the decision who is saved and who is not. People especially seem to celebrate people not going to God when they are so different than themselves. Lack of repentance isn't a cause for us to rejoice but actually should be a reminder of sadness. When things fall apart we can look towards God even if we don't understand things. We can turn to God and know that in the end he will see us through. John and the churches in Revelation recognize and mourn that not everyone will do this. Not everyone will turn away from what hurts them to what can heal them.

As Christians we can't make people repent and rely upon God. We can lead by example. I don’t mean that you should make a big show of repenting from a sin or a situation so that others see. I mean a quite leadership. That when someone asks us a question we can answer in the best way possible by the example of our lives.