Who Can Stand?

by Ryan Boyer

In Revelation 6, Jesus (the Lamb) is opening the scroll's seals one by one. The first four are the famous four horsemen of the apocalypse. These are not only punishments against people who have persecuted God's people but also wake-up calls and opportunities to repent (like the Egyptian plagues). They are also purifying trials for God's people who get caught up in the whole mess.

When Jesus opens the fifth seal, we see martyrs crying out, "How long!" before God will finally avenge their blood. The sixth seal answers that question, which is something like, "Don't worry. I will judge my enemies, and when I do, it will be cataclysmic."

That cataclysmic judgment results in its victims crying out, "Who can stand!" Revelation 7 is an answer to this question.

The first part of God's answer to "Who can stand?" is that God will mark his people before judgment so they will not be swept away by the wicked. God's people being sealed on their foreheads in Revelation 7:3 refers to Ezekiel 9:1-5. Ezekiel 9:4 says, "Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it."

I want to draw attention to the fact that those marked out to stand on the day of judgment are not the wicked sinners who make the city such a morally terrible place. They are those who look at the sin in the world around them and are sick about it (i.e., sigh and groan). These are the people whose souls are sealed for God.

There is an example of the opposite later in Revelation. When Babylon falls in Revelation 18, the kings of the earth weep and wail over her destruction because they committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her (Revelation 18:9). The merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her since no one buys their cargo anymore (Revelation 18:11), and because they gained wealth from her (Revelation 18:15). "All shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea" cried out because the party is over (Revelation 18:17).

All these did not necessarily do the sin of Babylon. Still, they participated in it, and rather than sighing and groaning over her depravity, they sighed and groaned when she fell, and they couldn't benefit from her any longer.

This is my main takeaway: Those who are sealed or marked as God's people are disgusted and appalled by Babylon's sin. The solution is Revelation 18:4: "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues." If we participate in Babylon's sin, we also participate in her punishment.