The Book of Revelation DecodedSample

In light of God’s patient mercy, the “plagues” of His judgments in the last days take on new meaning, don’t they?

I believe the seals, trumpets, and bowls of His wrath will become increasingly worse because the Lord actually wants people to turn to Him when these plagues begin to fall. The Lord desires that when these calamities take place, humankind will respond by turning to Him and being saved. By the time the bowls of wrath are poured out again, all those who could have turned to Him will have already done so—and all that will be left to pour out is His full wrath, to expedite the process of cleansing the earth. Even in His just wrath, then, the Lord displays His heart of mercy for mankind.

One of the Torah’s most powerful and profound revelations of God highlights this twofold nature of His mercy and justice. Moses asked God to show him His glory, and the Lord responded by promising, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Exodus 33:19). Immediately, we see that God’s glory—which will cover the earth when Jesus returns—is permeated with His goodness and mercy. In the next chapter of Exodus, God reveals this even more fully when Moses experiences His glory up close.

"The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.'" — Exodus 34:6–7

What is the very first characteristic the Lord reveals to explain to Moses who He is? His mercy! “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious” (v. 6). But He is also just (“who will by no means clear the guilty,” v. 7). Indeed, His justice ensures that those who revel in their sin will feel its effects “to the third and the fourth generation” (v. 7). He is both merciful and just. What He showed Moses in the cleft of the rock is what He wants to reveal to people today—namely that He is first full of mercy! He has been “merciful…gracious, [and] slow to anger” since before creation, and He will continue to be that way through the seemingly “extreme” events surrounding His judgments and wrath. The Lord does not change (Mal. 3:6). The God of the Hebrew Bible is the same God today, and He will be the same God in the last days. Hallelujah!