Saturday 04 August 2012
"Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, 'Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?' I said to him, 'Sir, you are the one that knows.' Then he said to me, 'These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'" (vv. 13-14)
Background
A cartoonstrip, popular with students during the exam season asks: "If asingle teacher can't teach all the subjects then how can theyexpect a single student to learn all of them?" In similar veinanother cartoon poses the question: "Why do teachers ask questionsto which they already know the answer?"
John's vision in Revelation 7:13 seemsto share a similar viewpoint. John is asked by one of the 24 elderswho surround the very throne of God, what is the identity of a vastmultitude clothed in white drawn from every nation, tribe, people,and tongue.
Can you imagine being asked by one ofthose who sit in the very throne room of God, 'Who are thesepeople?' It's a bit like being invited into Buckingham Palace andthen being asked by Prince Phillip about the identity of all theother people visiting the palace that day. How would you know?
John's response is a master class indeference and wisdom: "Sir, you are the one that knows". Herecognises that, just like teachers' questions, this question isnot an attempt to elicit information. Rather it is a mechanism forimparting information.
Teachers ask questions not becausethey want to learn something from their students (though they oftendo); rather teachers ask questions because they wish their studentsto learn something from them.
So it is with God - who tests us notin order that God might learn something about or from us throughthe test. Rather it is that we might learn something of God andabout ourselves through testing times.
Those whom John saw in his vision werethose who had come through "the great ordeal", a time of greattesting.
To Ponder
- What 'testing times' have you been through recently?
- How do you go about figuring out what it is that God might wishyou to learn about yourself and about God when you endure testingtimes?