Whose in Charge?

The late Leon Morris, the respected New Testament scholar, offers this observation in his commentary on Revelation: “We feel ourselves caught up in the world’s evil and misery and we cannot break free . . . we all, at times, feel a sense of hopelessness and helplessness in the grip of forces stronger than we. The world’s agony is real. And the world's inability to break free from the consequences of its guilt is real.” (Tyndale NT Commentaries, IVP, 1987, p. 91). When we hear of a powerful politician flexing his muscles, daring others to stop his incursion into a neighboring country, or read of a yet another sect of religious zealots murderously seeking to establish a crushing theocracy, we sense the kind of helplessness to which Morris refers seeping into our souls. For the believers in the first couple of centuries after the resurrection of Christ, when ambitious Rome, invincible Rome, pagan Rome, had control over more than 25% of the world’s population, the future must have seemed even more precarious. How was it all going to end?

A powerful antidote for such fears is found in the vision granted to us through John (see Revelation 5). The heavenly scene that we are introduced to leaves no doubt about who is in charge of history and the goings on of the world. The victorious Lamb is the one who breaks the seals on the scroll of God’s purposes, setting all in motion. What transpires involves divine justice and gracious redemption. Evil, all evil, will be overcome, and those who the Lamb ransomed for God “from every tribe and language and people and nation,” bask in the glory of his triumph.

We need to be reminded of this super-reality when the closer reality closes in. The knowledge that the exalted status of our Savior was gained by his redemptive obedience, coupled with the truth that our prayers in the midst of such troubling times will not go unanswered, must shape our responses. Tyrants and terrorists do not have the final word. That is reserved for the one to whom the multitude in heaven declares, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.”