Scripture Daily

Context No. 2046 of 4322 · Revelation

Context · Reflection

Revelation 7:9-17: in context

9After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. 10They cried with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11All the angels were standing around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before his throne, and worshiped God, 12saying, “Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might, be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 13One of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and where did they come from?” 14I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great suffering. They washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb’s blood. 15Therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. 16They will never be hungry or thirsty any more. The sun won’t beat on them, nor any heat; 17for the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne shepherds them and leads them to springs of life-giving waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

John sees a vision of the end: a great multitude beyond counting, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing before the throne of God and the Lamb, robed in white, crying out salvation to God. These, he is told, are those who came out of the great suffering, who washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And the vision closes with tender promise: they will hunger and thirst no more; the Lamb will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

This vision holds out the hope that awaits the suffering faithful, and it is a hope of every sorrow ended. These are people who came out of great suffering; their robes were once stained, their lives marked by affliction and grief. And now they stand before God, and everything that pained them is undone. They hunger and thirst no more; the scorching heat no longer beats on them; the Lamb himself shepherds them to springs of living water. And God does the most tender thing of all: he wipes away every tear from their eyes, his own hand removing the last trace of the grief they carried. There is deep comfort here for all who suffer and grieve. Our present is often marked by hunger, thirst, hardship, and tears; and we can wonder whether the sorrow will ever end. This vision answers that it will. For those who are God's, there is a future in which every sorrow is undone, every tear wiped away, every hunger satisfied, every wound healed, and God himself is the one who does it. The tears we weep now are not forever; a day is coming when God will wipe them away, not merely comforting us in our grief but ending it, removing every tear with his own hand. He will wipe away every tear, Revelation says again; death will be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain. This does not deny the reality of present suffering; the multitude came out of great suffering, real and hard. But it sets that suffering against the certain hope of its ending, so that the tears of now are held within the promise that God will wipe them away. When we hunger, thirst, and weep, we may lift our eyes to this vision: that a day is coming when the Lamb will shepherd us to living water, when hunger and thirst and heat and grief will be no more, and when God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes. The sorrow is real, but it is not the end; the end is God wiping away every tear, and that hope holds us through the weeping of now.

When I hunger, thirst, and weep under present suffering, wondering whether the sorrow will ever end, can I lift my eyes to John's vision of those who came out of great suffering to stand before God, hungering and thirsting no more, the Lamb shepherding them to living water, and God wiping away every tear from their eyes, and let the certain hope that God will himself end my sorrow hold me through the weeping of now?

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