all revved up on horsepower

So I was reading Revelation 6 where the 7 seals are addressed and I am reading,

Seal 1 – White Horse

Seal 2 – Red Horse

Seal 3 – Black Horse

Seal 4 – Pale Horse

And then you get to Seal 5 and instead of another horse, you have martyrs crying out for vengeance.

Why not a blue horse? What about a rainbow horse? Why pass on a silver horse?

Colored horses aside, Seal 5 presents an interesting prayer request.

Revelation 6:9-11

 

⁹ When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the people slaughtered because of God’s word and the testimony they had.¹⁰ They cried out with a loud voice: “Lord, the One who is holy and true, how long until You judge and avenge our blood from those who live on the earth?”¹¹ So a white robe was given to each of them, and they were told to rest a little while longer until the number would be completed of their fellow slaves and their brothers, who were going to be killed just as they had been.

Is it right for us to pray for Gods’ judgment to fall upon those who openly defy Him and His servants? Yes. The very premise of God stating, “Vengeance is mine” is to accomplish 2 (if not more) things:

(1) Do not take vengeance yourself. Withhold retribution. It is not ultimately you who is most offended by another’s sin. It is God’s battle to fight. Do not fight God’s battles. You cannot win them. They are too big for you. And it is not your place. Stop trying to be God. We went over this when you first came to Christ, remember?

(2) God will vent His vengeance. He is promising to do so. If He asked you to forego vengeance only to punt on it Himself, He would be a liar. He really is going to punish sin and wickedness. He has done so on the Cross for those who by faith enter into His courts in confident humility. He has prepared a place for those who by rebellion enter into His Hell in eternal humiliation and suffering. "Heaping fiery coals on their heads" is not merely a hyperbole as it turns out.

It is right to pray that God would put an end to evil by upholding justice. It is right to affirm His punishment of Jesus on the Cross and the eternal punishment of hell. Both affirm God’s commitment to His own holiness. Our sins will be paid for by someone.

either by Jesus on the Cross

or

by us in His hell.

Which leads me to:

Revelation 6:16-17

¹⁶ And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, ¹⁷ because the great day of Their wrath has come! And who is able to stand?

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This is a beautiful depiction of His humility in becoming like us to serve us and  die by our hands. The wrath of the Lamb is a beautiful depiction of His power, honor, glory, dominion, and justice to punish evil by His hands. Peace and Wrath are found in and executed by Him.

It is the wrath of Jesus that will make right what was wrong by putting an emphatic end to evil. Jesus came to serve. He lives to intercede. He will return to gather His. He will punish forever those who are not.