Rev 6:10-11 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.
Sometimes we get impatient, at least I do. I want justice to come faster, but I also want true justice, not just a fast verdict. I want fast food, but not so fast it tastes fast, or makes me want to fast. I want traffic to move faster, but not leave me in the dust.
When we face a devastating health diagnosis and we pray for the LORD’s intervention, we want it now. We want the pain to stop sooner rather than later, right now rather than next minute. We get our sense of time from the news cycle rather than for the perspective of eternity presented in the Scriptures.
Here in the Revelation of Jesus we hear this tension arising. There is a triumphant moment when Jesus is announced as worthy to open a heavenly scroll, a proclamation about the restoration of God’s Kingdom here on Earth. He is the only one worthy to open it, having bridged the gap between the Creator and his creatures by his death and resurrection.
And as the seals on this scroll, seals which limited the amount of text that could be read at any one time, as they are opened a moment arrives when those who have died for their faith are seen. And they call out in a loud voice, “How long.” It is almost as if they are saying, “We have suffered enough. Where is your promised relief?”
But the answer they receive is not a satisfactory one, at least as I read it today. They are not told justice and relief will come at that moment. No! They are instead told to wait longer.
But that is not the worst of it. There are others who will also die in the future who will join their ranks. Why doesn’t the LORD just prevent those future deaths? Why doesn’t He vanquish and bring final victory at that moment?
And that is the rub. We don’t know the LORD’s timing and often misunderstand His reason for that timing. We see only from our twenty four clock.
The Arnold Journey 