Here Comes The Bride - Prophetic Gallery SeriesSample

The Bride - The last section of this Art Gallery  

Thoughts on the Passage

In this last section of the book of Revelation, it starts with a celebration as the Bride [the Church] is now ready. However, before she is brought to her heavenly home, God deals with one last situation – sin and evil. God makes sure that the evil that corrupted this world is removed and wickedness is punished. Up to this point all of the judgments of God have been released by the angels – there was a reason for this. God can mingle His judgment with mercy when it is done through the angels. However, in this section we see two things. God Himself dispenses the judgment and the His judgment is complete.

There are three measures of judgments. 

First, we see the return of Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and He judges the antichrist and the false prophet (and everyone who follows them). 

Second, we see God deal with satan (and everyone deceived by him to follow him). 

Third, we see the great white throne judgment where every man and woman are given their eternal rewards – eternal life or eternity apart from God in hell. 

There are other important concepts discussed as well – the Second coming of Jesus, the millennium and the second death. These will be brought out as well as we go through the verses of this section. The purpose of these judgements are to clear out the one area of rebellion that has been allowed by God to exist – sin and rebellion by mankind against God. 

Finally, this section starts with a special introduction – heaven is opened again. It was opened in Revelation 4 where John starts this amazing vision. Then he saw the broad picture of God’s redemption of mankind and how God will bring His people through the challenges that face them. Now, heaven is opened again – and we see how God will judge sin and wickedness and release eternity to mankind. It is a special breaking open of heaven. God starts with judging those who set themselves up in opposition to Him; He then moves to the source of evil – satan – and He deals with him; then God deals with all the sinfulness of mankind.

Prayer

Father, as I look at this final section of the book of Revelation, we finally see how You will remove sin and darkness. This was Your promise. You will restore that which was lost due to sin and darkness by dealing with it. In my life today, that is a promise that I hold on to tightly. Sin has robbed Your children of so much. We could focus on the destruction Your judgment brings – but I choose to focus on the destruction that sin brought to mankind. It is nearly time to put an end to this. Father, You have promised to make up for the things that sin has stolen from us, destroyed for us, and turned against us. That does not need to fully wait until heaven. You give a measure of that even today to Your children. So as we wait – heaven will be worth the wait – restore a measure of what sin has robbed from Your people – peace, rest, hope, joy, fruitfulness and blessing. We will wait for the rest. In Jesus Name, Amen.