Revelation Part 13

Shabbat Shalom and Good morning, my name is Michael Vowell, and I’m the Rabbi here at Beth El Shalom, I’d like to welcome all of our guests here today!

I’d like to welcome all of our guests here today!

Introduction: 10 Minutes (1.25 Minutes for 225 Words)

And I’d like to say hello to everyone watching this online. …we know most people will check us out online before they ever visit …so, we really look forward to seeing you soon…

Jab 1:It is an Honest Book (225 Words, 2 Minutes)

I want to start today by saying that in full disclosure here is much about the book of Revelation that rubs me the wrong way. I do not like its violence, its menacing tone, its opaqueness, its horrific visions, enemy thinking, and what feels like a vacancy of love. And, if I am brutally honest, people who like the book of Revelation frighten me sometimes, since so many of them use it to justify their crazier ideas about God and scare other people with what they think they know. Right this minute, someone is turning the situation in Syria into a predictor of apocalypse and using the book of Revelation to do so. I don’t wish this book had been left out of the Bible, I just wish it would have come with a “how-to” read it and “how to not” read it guide.

Full disclosure: There is much about the book of Revelation that rubs me the wrong way. I do not like its violence, its menacing tone, its opaqueness, its horrific visions, enemy thinking, and what feels like a vacancy of love. And, if I am brutally honest, people who like the book of Revelation frighten me sometimes, since so many of them use it to justify their crazier ideas about God and scare other people with what they think they know. Right this minute, someone is turning the situation in Syria into a predictor of apocalypse and using the book of Revelation to do so. I don’t wish this book had been left out of the Bible, I just wish it would have come with a “how-to” read it and “how to not” read it guide.

If you want an idealistic vision of humanity, you will not find it in these pages. People are sensual, vulgar, fallen, adulterers, greedy, and stuck-up, and I am just talking about the saints. I have not even gotten to the sinners. Revelation does not have perfect saints nor perfect sinners; they are real people acting, feeling, and behaving like real people. There are no cookie-cutter clerics nor cuddly communes here. There is just none that are righteous, not a single one on planet earth.

Jab 2: It Confronts Toxic Forgiveness Theories (321 Words, 2:35 minutes)

This is really what bothers lots of people about this book. But this book also really bothers professional theologian. One prominent North American Pastor and Author who I do highly regard said this about it, “I wish it had been left out of the Bible” (Barbara Brown Taylor, Nov 4 Sermon “This Way Home.”

Why does this acclaimed spokesperson of the Gospel feel this way? Because the Book of Revelations takes nicely packaged theology and rips it to shreds like a three year old during Chanukah.

This passage requires us to come face-to-face with a dangerous and dark questions. None could be more dangerous than the question that emerges from our text today, “Is vengeance consistent with forgiveness?” We must be careful because we are not just on holy ground. This is dangerous ground.

When you land on a question like this it i a bit like Jack Ryan holding a liver grenade with the pin out while a terrorist five feet away holds a gun at him and is ready to cut him down. The problem, you shoot jack you will get blow to bits. This is one of those questions, it is just that volatile.

It is volatile because it surfaces toxic theories about forgiveness that have become the boss of you.” All of us have some toxic bible theories in our hearts. If I speak in some vague general way like, “All of us have some toxic bible theories in our heart,” you will say, yes and indeed, because I am speaking so opaquely and generally that it hardly means anything. But, if I look you in the eye and lean in and say, “You hold some toxic ideas about forgiving your husband, your wife, your child, your abuser, about forgiving yourself.” Well, those might be fighting words. What if I told you what makes your forgiveness toxic is that it lacks any cry for vengeance. Well, you would publicly tell me I am out of my mind, but privately, secretly, you would know that there is something right about that.

Jab 3: Is your forgiveness theory toxic? (429 words, 4:00 Minutes)

Think about this for a second:

Nov 4, 2019, 9 members of a Mormon family killed. Six of the nine were children. Gunned down by rival gangs.

Jan 1-Dec 31 of 2017 1,366 rapes were reported in Houston. That is four women being raped per day in the city we call home. Since 2013 there has been a 121% increase in rapes. And HPD reports only being able to solve 39% of these cases.

Nov 8, 2019, Ashley Bianco was fired from her job at CBS unjustly. Bianco was accused of being the person who leaked the now-famous ABC Epstein cover-up clip. She fervently denied she was the leaker, bursting into tears at the “humiliation” of being run out of the network where she had worked for just four days, without even the “professional courtesy” of allowing her to mount a defense. Claiming ignorance of who might have shared the clip, she insisted “everyone” at ABC had seen and been scandalized by it. It is rumored the person who leaked the clip is still on staff at ABC.

Murder…Rape…Corruption

Does your forgiveness theory demand that no vengeance be prayed for? No hope of God’s vindication to be sought?

This last week I heard a very well-known preacher would argue “yes” that is what you must do. He was giving a talk about “toxic emotions” that are competing for control of our hearts. I have no doubt that if he were asked, “Is vengeance consistent with forgiveness?” He would say, “No, it is not consistent, and then, he would probably quote , “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Messiah forgave you ()”

Ephesians 4:32 TLV

Instead, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other just as God in Messiah also forgave you.

And my response would be, but isn’t it okay to ask for vengeance alongside forgiveness? What about ? O Lord our God, You answered them; You were a forgiving God to them, And yet an avenger of their evil deeds. I imagine he would say to me, “that is the old testament, and we are now under the new. And God may lead those very criminals to the cross or deal with them one day.”

Psalm 99:8 TLV

Adonai our God, You answered them. A forgiving God You were to them, though You avenged their misdeeds.

I imagine I would say in response, “Let me clarify my question to you. Do you believe a believer can ask God to avenge a moral evil done against them and at the same time still be forgiving?”

Right Hook: If I have done my job well today, then by the end of this message, you will Stop allowing a toxic forgiveness theory to be the boss of your prayer life. Let’s look at

Ha-Foke-Bah, Ha-Foke-Bah, De-Colah-bah

Ha-Foke-Bah, Ha-Foke-Bah, Mashiach-bah

Turn-it, and turn-it, everything you need is in it.

Turn-it, and turn-it, the Messiah is in it!

(TLV) — 9 When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those slaughtered for the sake of the word of God and for the witness they had.

Evil Has Its Day ( )

Revelation 6:9 TLV

When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those slaughtered for the sake of the word of God and for the witness they had.

Remember, the first four seals let loose the four riders who bring about the systematic breakdown of all national, social, economic, and personal safety. And, when the Lamb opens the fifth seal, John sees the souls (or bodies) under the altar that had been slaughtered.

The imagery is violent. Later in the book of revelation, we find out what it means for them to be slaughtered. It says in (TLV) — 4 Then I saw thrones, and people sat upon them—those to whom authority to judge was given. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Yeshua and because of the word of God.”

Revelation 20:4 TLV

Then I saw thrones, and people sat upon them—those to whom authority to judge was given. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Yeshua and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image, nor had they received his mark on their forehead or on their hand. And they came to life and reigned with the Messiah for a thousand years.

(Go Back to ).

Revelation 6:9 TLV

When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those slaughtered for the sake of the word of God and for the witness they had.

They were part of the systematic breakdown of the world, but God got a hold of their hearts, and they gave testimony to His redemptive purposes in judgment. For this, they joined the great rollcall of Jewish suffers, victims and martyrs, and the Messiah Himself.

The imagery is also strange to our modern ears. It seems odd that victims are placed “under something.” That feels oppressive, like adding insult to injury. If they are sacrifices, why are they not on the altar? Why have they placed anything?

Yet, John’s audience would have understood it right away. First, this is not the bronze altar of sacrifices that we find in the courtyard. This is the altar of incense that is located in the Most Holy Place. This altar symbolically mediated the prayer of God’s people into God’s presence. In Jewish thinking, to be placed “under” something is to be set “under” it’s care. Like when you are “under the shadow of the wings of the Most High.

Though evil has had its day, they are under the protection of the altar of prayer. If this seal had never been opened, we might be led to believe that there is no hope, no gospel, no mercy, no hearing the voice of the Spirit at this time, but He is speaking. It is just that evil has turned up the volume. Though sin is having a field day, these believers have come under the protection of the altar of prayer. Don’t get me to preaching here, but when you come under the protection of the altar of prayer, that means your voice, your prayer matters, God does not smell the incense he hears your voice. That means your prayers are protected, guarded, and will be heard. And evil’s victims do pray.

Revelation

The Victims of Evil Pray (6:10)

The Victims of Evil Pray ()

Revelation 6:10 TLV

And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “O Sovereign Master, holy and true, how long before You judge those who dwell on the earth and avenge our blood?”

These are loud prayers. In Revelation, there is the noise of thunder, lightning, riders being released, angles in worship, but in this scene, there is a sound whose volume is defining. It is the loud cry of the victims of evil. What John wants us to see is that Heaven is full of prayers of the victims of evil.

Listen to their cry, “O Sovereign Master, holy and true, how long until you forgive those who evil people?” Is that what is says they prayed? I must have got it wrong. They say, “O Sovereign Master, holy and true, please don’t hold our blood against them?”

They cry out, “O Sovereign Master, holy and true, how long before You judge those who dwell on the earth and avenge our blood?” The basis of their prayer is God’s justice and truthfulness. These victims are not seeking some kind of petty vengeance because they did not get the job they wanted, or because they were not nominated most likable. They are asking God to deal justly with real moral evil on planet earth, which has reached its zenith in the slaying of these people whose only crime was speaking the truth about evil, corruption, and the need for salvation in the Lamb of God.

These are New Testament blood-bought believers praying like those people under the Law.

(TLV) — “Make His people rejoice, O nations, for He will avenge the blood of His servants. He will return vengeance on His foes, and atone for the land of His people.”

(TLV) — Why should the nations say: “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, let it be known among the nations that You avenge the shed blood of Your servants.

These victims of evil are praying like the victims of evil have always prayed. How Long O Lord until you bring justice on the perpetrators of real, moral evil. The believer’s in the seven congregations who are trying to decide how they must respond to the pressures of the Roman emperor cult recognize their own anxious cry in the “How long?” reverberating through the heavenly throne room. They are not promised an escape from the challenge to martyrdom. Those who have been killed are triumphant in heaven; they are protected by the altar of prayer. They don’t have some toxic theology about forgiveness being the boss of their prayer life. Their prayers are real, honest, vulnerable, and they are heard.

In her book Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott said, “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.” But that is not what the victims of evil are saying who are protected by God’s altar. “Not seeking justice for those who commit moral evil is like drinking rat poison and hoping the rat will die.” God sides with the victims of evil rather than Anne Lamott.

Vengeance! Will Have Its Day ()

Revelation 6:11 TLV

Then a white robe was given to each of them, and they were told to rest a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants was complete—their brothers and sisters who were to be killed as they had been.

I want you to notice there is no theological corrections at this point. No editor has stepped in and said, “This is the exception, not the rule.” No one has tried to come in and erase these lines from sacred text because no one in the first century would have ever thought that praying for God to judge evil was wrong, mean-spirited, or legalistic.

Instead, notice that those protected by the altar are also rewarded at the altar.

Revelation 6:11 TLV

They are given white robes. You may not remember this, but the believers in Laodicea, Lukewarm, were promised white clothes if they changed their way. The 24 elders are wearing white garments. The white robes are not a sign of purity, but they are a sign of the victory of God’s redemptive purposes in the Lamb of God. That is why it says, “ “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

They are told to be at peace. To rest. This does not mean they should just sit there and be quiet. No, it means they can relax because God is a God of Justice who will avenge the victims of evil. Some modern readers are bothered by the martyrs to cry for justice. They are equally horrified by God’s rewarding of their prayer. I have heard plenty of people argue that these victims of evil do not pray like real Christians because they are not turning the other cheek, not loving one’s enemies, not being truly forgiven.

You cannot just erase their cry for justice and their reward of being protected by God with toxic teaching about forgiveness. And you also can’t delete the troubling news, “Evil will persist until a full number of evil’s victims have been reached.” This is both disturbing and gladdening. Disturbing because evil will continue for a while and those who are its victims will have to live in a world where God is going to bring about justice, ultimate justice, but it may be delayed. On the other hand, God is a God of justice who has not forgotten your tears, not forgotten the evils committed against you, not forget your scars, your pain, not forgotten your real prayers for justice to roll down the hills.

Application

Jab 1: Don’t let toxic forgiveness boss you into believing you can’t seek God’s justice. (208 Words)

One of the greatest horrors of my early days in ministries was the meeting where a young woman, usually a teenager, would come to me and report that a relative or friend had sexually assaulted her. And it was in these meetings that I had learned just how toxic most teachings were about forgiveness because most of these young women were told by someone they trusted, a parent, or pastor that they just needed to forgive the person and pray for their soul to be saved.

That is like making them a victim thrice. Once being raped, once being told that they could not get justice; only, forgiveness and they had to wish and want for the predator to become Christian so they could sit in a chair next to them in church or synagogue. This is not forgiveness; this is biblical pietism run amuck. This is toxic forgiveness, not biblical forgiveness.

Toxic because it says that God is only merciful and not just. It means that God’s people, renewed in His image, can only see justice from afar but not close up. I can only hope for it but not seek it. That is toxic.

Jab 2: Don’t let this toxic forgiveness boss your heart around anymore. (248 Words)

And if this model of forgiveness is the boss of your heart, it is toxic, and it will kill a real relationship with God, who is both merciful and just. Our culture gets its better than God’s own people that vengeance is not an evil thing altogether. It is a worldwide culture that made the “Avengers” movies a Billion-dollar enterprise. A series of films with one theme: real moral evil must be stopped and held accountable.

The Scriptures never say that Vengeance is categorically wrong or incompatible with our loftiest ideas of forgiveness. Not even Paul held to a toxic theology of forgiveness he said, to Timothy

2 Timothy 4:14–15 TLV

Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm—the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Be on guard against him too, for he vehemently opposed our message.

God’s vengeance is a good thing. Paul is not taking matters into his own hands; he recognizes that God’s work of revenge is also a good thing.

When people commit moral evil and do not repent, when they repay good with evil, repay innocence with violence, repay adoration with abuse, the victim should cry out for just to be done. This is not petty vindictiveness. As James Hamilton said so eloquently, “They want justice to be done so that God’s goodness will be vindicated. So they call for vengeance. They do not take vengeance into their own hands. The call on God to avenge” (Hamilton, Revelation, p. 182).

Knock-Out: Say to toxic forgiveness, “You are not the boss of me.” (319 Words)

Last week I listened to a powerful podcast, a conversation between two women, both the victims of violent rape. One of those women was Oprah Winfrey who was raped as a young girl by a family relative and the other Chanel Miller, the Stanford rape survivor previously knows as “Emily Doe.”

If you remember she was raped by a star swimmer at Stanford University, a guy named Broch. Remember, two swedish students were riding their bikes when they saw a guy raping a woman who has unconscious on a dumpster. They immediately leapt into action, chasing him down, sitting on him until police arrived.

Listening to her story made me think about things I would never think about as a man. What it was like to be violently raped while unconscious and the first shower she took where she just hated her body, couldn’t get the water hot enough to make her feel clean.

To have to endure 18 months of a trial where people paraded this young man’s accomplishments but she was told she was not the “perfect victim.” After all, she was drunk, she was flirty, she was no virgin before that night. Maybe if she was a more perfect victim the crime would be more serious, that is disgusting. So this young man got a 90 day jail sentence even though the minimum was supposed to be one year.

Pastors and religious leaders said to her, “We are praying for you that you can heal and forgive...” But what about Paul’s words to Timothy or in Romans about “God will avenge?” What about justice for victims, don’t they have an altar also? An altar where they should feel safe, protected, loved, and secure in God’s justice. Yes they should and so should Chanel Miller.

“You are not the boss of me.”

The Scriptures say that I can both forgive and seek justice at the exact same time. That I can release you of the horrible moral evil you did against me, but at the same time, I cant seek God to bring justice to this moral evil. I can give the burden to Him, and he alone can work his plans for redemption in judgment on that person.

I don’t want anyone here to be silenced by toxic forgiveness. I want you to pray those gut-wrenching tears at the altar, don’t worry about what others will say. You know that you have an altar where you are protected. I want you to cry out to your God of justice “how long O Lord until you avenge that man who raped me? That parent that abused me? That spouse that silenced me, how long?”

I want you to tell that toxic form of forgiveness, “you are not the boss of me!”

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