118 REVELATION 6 will, or servant,” or employee?), and “free man” (eleutheros, “unrestrained, or not bound”) will equally be gripped with fear. They are hiding from the cataclysmic upheavals of the earth and sky. This is the warning before the storm. In the midst of plagues, pestilences, wars, cruel injustices, and massive convulsions of nature yet still human depravity refuses to recognize and seek God. Reflection: The global simultaneous nature of these eruptions and calamities can only be attributed to God yet notice how John describes the reaction of the majority: Rev 9:21 Rev 16:11
GETTING MAD INSTEAD OF SAD
6:16
and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 6:16 Notice that this “prayer” is to the Earth or Nature, not to God. All insurance policies have a phrase, “Act of God,” to blame the unexpected and unexplainable on God, as though He is the cause of all disasters. In this day, there will be a general acknowledgement of God’s wrath and the notion that final Judgment Day has come, but like the demons who are seducing the world population (1 Tim 4:1), they believe God is there and they are fearful of Him, but they refuse to repent (James 2:19). They just get madder and madder at Him. When people are led by demonic influences they reap the consequences. Reflection: How did Paul describe these consequences in 2 Thes 2:11-12?
6:17
For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand? By refusing to repent and trust in Christ, their hearts become hardened, and God that hardens their hearts further such that they are unable to repent and believe, but face the just consequences of their heart’s decision to reject God in their lives. This is the same process that Pharoah experienced when responding to the ten plagues of Exodus. Everytime he hardened his heart, God hardened it more.