John’s Revelation is to a large extent structured by sevens.
In his commentary on Revelation, Simon J. Kistemaker points out that Jesus dictates letters to seven churches (chapter 2–3). He then makes the following comment: “The number seven precedes many nouns, including spirits (1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6), golden lampstands (1:12; 2:1), stars (1:16, 20; 2:1; 3:1), lampstands (1:13, 20:2:5; 11:4), seals (5:1; 6:1), horns (5:6), eyes (5:6), angels (8:2, 6: 15:1, 6–8; 16:1; 17:1; 21:9), trumpets (8:2, 6), thunder (10:3), crowns (12:3), heads (12:3; 13:1; 17:3, 7, 9), plagues (15:1, 6), bowls (15:7; 16:1), hills (17:9), and kings (17:10).” These are the explicit sevens.
Kistemaker notes some implicit groups of seven: the songs of praise song in heaven describe seven attributes of God (5.12, 7.12), there are seven beatitudes in Revelation (1.3; 14.13; 16.15; 19.9; 20.6; 22.7, 14), the locusts of 9.7–10 have seven characteristics, etc. “This number should not be taken literally,” Kistemaker writes, “but must be understood as an idea that expresses totality or completeness.”
(By way of contrast, the number of the Antichrist is 666, threefold falling short of perfection [13.18].)
Structured by sevens, then, the book of Revelation is one expressing the totality and completeness of God’s actions in the end times. Revelation 15.1 drives this point home: “Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.”
It seems to me that the finished wrath of God John is describing refers to history, not hell. In Revelation, after all, hell is a judgment that goes on throughout eternity (14:10, 11; 20.10); it has no finish. What John describes in 15.1 is the wrath of God that works itself out in present history, that serves as a temporary punishment in order to turn recalcitrant humanity from sin to God. Driving people to repentance seems to be the point of all the ills God sends to the earth. Unfortunately, despite these ills, many do not take their cue and turn to God (9.20, 21; 16.9, 11).
Now, I freely admit that all this talk about God’s judgments in hell and history gives me the willies. If my personal preferences were all that mattered, I think I could do very well without either kind of judgment. But both are inescapable, both biblical. If we want to follow Jesus, we must deal frankly with both, despite our personal preferences.
We cannot, you see, construct a religion based merely on our transient likes and dislikes. In fact, we cannot construct a religion at all, at least not Christianity. The title of John’s book says it all: Revelation. Christianity is a religion based on what God reveals of his own character and works, a revelation that has been captured in the words of Scripture. Since Scripture speaks about divine judgment in hell and history, we must too.
But if we can set aside our personal likes and dislikes for a moment, we can see the logic, even the justice of both kinds of judgment. In this life, we demand that the law punish those who break it. Why then do squirm when God judges those who have broken his commandments? As parents, we discipline our children—through reprimands, time outs, and spankings—in order to disincentivize bad behavior and incentivize good behavior. Why then are we squeamish when God uses the events in history to accomplish a similar goal in our lives, namely, repentance of sin and turning to him?
Martin Luther King Jr. once said that the arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice. The only question for us is whether we are using this time profitably to bend with it and toward God.
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