Revelation 19:1-21 “1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
2 For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.”
Before I go any further, I must share what I discovered when I followed the Scripture reference for the first two verses (above) in the side column of my Bible. It is Deuteronomy 32:43
“43 Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.” Deut. 32:43
When I read this, I wondered why they quoted this. So I just had to go back to learn more, and I read chapters 31 & 32 of Deuteronomy. How awesome God is. He told Moses way back then that the people he'd been leading would turn from Him and turn to false gods, and even new gods not known yet. That was what inspired The Song of Moses, and I understand now why some interpret the great whore of Babylon as religions that are not following God’s Word, but have allowed corruption by men and women to lead people astray. I don’t want to go off into something I am not versed to speak on, but may I encourage you to read Deuteronomy 31 & 32? I believe you won’t stop there. You’ll probably want to begin at chapter one!
It tells of what God told Moses about the people he was leading to Canaan, and how God knew they would turn away from Him once they were led into Canaan and “were waxed fat” and enjoying the blessings from God that He had promised to their fathers and grandfathers. And He told Moses what He would do when they angered Him, and how He would cause them to suffer, too.
God is a jealous God, and does not tolerate indifference to His laws and commands, and does not tolerate us changing His Word, or not sharing all of it to His creation (all of us), and/or only obeying what we want, and disregarding parts of His Word, or withholding part of it from a congregation that needs to hear all of it.
As an example, in the beginning of the book of Revelations Jesus dictated seven letters to John addressed to seven churches, and He began the letters by exhorting them for what they were doing well, but then rebuked them for what they were still doing wrong.
Sometimes preachers and teachers lead their congregation to focus only on the blessings from God for obedience and being joint-heirs to Christ Jesus through our faith in Him, but fail to warn us of all the curses for disobedience or inform us of His intolerance for being lukewarm in our faith. We can’t straddle the fence; we must choose life, and not allow the world to twist our minds by feeling like it’s okay to tolerate a little bit of wrong, or compromise our morals in order to “not hurt someone’s feelings!”
Deuteronomy 30:19 “19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”
There’s right and wrong, it’s been established, and we’d better choose the straight path, and not turn left or right from it.
Deuteronomy 5:27-33 “27 Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it.
28 And the Lord heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken.
29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!
30 Go say to them, Get you into your tents again.
31 But as for thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.
32 Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
33 Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.”
We’ll continue Revelations 19 next week!
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