Wednesday - Revelation 8 - Thy Kingdom Come

 

I

 love the book of Psalms. There is a certain beauty in the honesty of David's prayers, a beauty that attracts me back to that book again & again. But there is one particular thing about the prayers of David that has always caused me to pause. David prayed many imprecatory prayers. In other words, David prayed for God's judgment to fall on evil men. Now, we might at first be tempted to dismiss those prayers as unique to the Old Testament, but then what would we do with The Model Prayer? Planted in the heart of it is the little phrase, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."   There is only one way for God's kingdom to come, & that is with great wrath & judgment. The oldest prophecy in the Bible involves the bruising of the head of Satan. And we know that the devil is the prince of this world.  The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord & of His Christ, & He shall reign forever. But this can only happen with the demise of Lucifer & of everyone who follows him (Jude 1:14-15). Just as John the Baptist warned that the first coming of the Lord required a smoothing & a straightening of the runway, when He comes again His coming must necessarily be preceded by a major adjustment of this world.

 

There is much that is said about the prayers of the saints in conjunction with the first 4 trumpet judgments.  (The 7^th & final seal is so significant that it is subdivided into 7 trumpet judgments; the 7^th of which is subdivided again into 7 bowl judgments). What do the prayers of the saints have to do with God judging the world? Well, righteousness requires judgment. Holiness necessitates exclusion. Mercy can't be granted to God's children without justice being meted out to His enemies.