God works with massive scale and force

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:

What did I like about today’s passage?

I love it when the Old and New Testament books we are reading fit together. Numbers and Revelation are both about God establishing his Kingdom with his people, but with some significant differences. In Numbers, God is planting a seed to grow and multiply, eventually to show the world what God is like, and it starts in a desert space where God can form up his people without much interference. In Revelation, this seed has become a mature vine, the world has been shown what God is like, and people have taken sides for and against. For God's Kingdom to finish being established, it has to overcome entrenched opposition, and God is about to break out the heavy weapons.

We get a sense of scale of what God is doing - and it's not small. We've already seen countless multitudes of saved people from all nations, and now we've got a special choir made up of 12 (a complete number) times 12 (a complete number) times 1000 (a "make this much bigger" number) = "a ridiculously huge and wondrous number", or 144,000 if you want to be literal about it. If we want to read these numbers like the people this was first written for, we have to bring a feel for what they mean, not just imagine a town the size of Peterborough...

The force of what God does next I think we can write up as "totally overwhelming", and more than a little humiliating for opponents of God to be defeated by festering sores and blood swapped for water. God's bowls of wrath are a full spectrum response to opposition. The encouragement for us is that God is going to fight like this to establish the Kingdom life we believe in. Weirdly, demonic spirits are still just about influential enough to gather leaders who oppose God to the place called "Armageddon" to make a stand. But would you want to be in their position if this prophecy is true?

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God rules. As it says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything - a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. This happens to be the time for God to kick yo ass if you've chosen to prefer someone else, worship something else, or get in the way of God transforming our world forever for the better.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

I really have no idea how to prepare for this other than to be on the right side. In Jesus, by his grace, I already am. However, I need to remember these prophecies if I want to avoid faith seeming weak, powerless, irrelevant or in any way ordinary. I want to be filled afresh with enthusiasm to praise and point people towards an amazing future with God.

Who am I going to share this with?

Out of context, this seems at least a bit odd to us, let alone people who don't yet believe in God. However, I'll look for appropriate opportunities to talk about God's plans for us and the world - especially as I know lots of people who believe the world can and should be better.