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Fulfilling the Mystery
And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared (Greek, EUAGGELIZO - to announce good news, to preach the gospel) to His servants the prophets.
Notice that God had evangelized the prophets. He had preached to them the good news about a coming time when the mystery of God would be fulfilled. It would occur in the days prior to the sounding of the 7th angel’s trumpet At that point there would be delay no longer – the time for the end of all things having arrived.
What is the mystery of God? The OT prophets prophesied that the Messiah would one day be revealed. But because their perception was limited, they inquired and searched carefully concerning the grace of God to come (1Peter 1:11). They wanted to understand what the Spirit of Christ within them was revealing. But of one thing they were certain: someday the mystery would come into clarity and be fulfilled.
God’s mystery is Christ. Notice Paul’s prayer for the believers at Colossae. He asked the Lord that their hearts would be encouraged, that they would be knit together in love, and that they would attain to great spiritual wealth. The result would be:
…a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
(Colossians 2:2-3 NAS)
The mystery of God is God Himself revealed as a man. All the truth and wealth of eternity is now found in this One who is God put into human terms. Salvation, wisdom, and eternal life can now be realized because we have been immersed into Christ – the mystery of God personified. As we behold Him we gain insight into the works and ways of the Lord. How foolish it is to try and obtain eternal wisdom apart from intimacy with Christ.
The Lord declared that the mystery of God would be fulfilled in the days of the 7th angel when he is about to blow his trumpet (Revelation 10:7). But when exactly does the final trumpet sound?
Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”
Sandwiched in between Revelation 10:7 and Revelation 11:15 is John’s vision of the two witnesses (more on them later). But notice the two specific events that occur at the sound of the final trumpet. First, the elders fall down and worship the Lord in song for His righteous judgments (Revelation 11:16 - 18). Secondly, God reveals the Ark of the Covenant in His sanctuary.
Then the temple (Greek, NAOS i.e., the sanctuary – the inner realms of the temple) of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.
God revealed His covenantal ark in the inner parts of His house at the sounding of the last trumpet. What does this part of the vision symbolize for us? In the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant was made of wood overlaid with gold. What a beautiful symbol of human nature joined with the divine. Wood is often seen as typifying human nature. For example, Isaiah prophesied of trees in the field clapping their hands – a picture of believers worshipping the Lord (Isaiah 55:12). Later he prophesied that one day Messiah would come preaching the Good News so that spiritual prisoners would be set free and become “oaks of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:3 NAS).
At the same time, gold symbolized the purity and incorruptible nature of God. No matter what you do with pure gold, you cannot depreciate its value. If you hammer it very fine or melt it down, its worth remains the same.
So God’s covenantal ark of wood overlaid with gold symbolized the joining together of the human and the divine. In other words, it foreshadowed the Lord Jesus – the gold and the wood combined in one man. Humanity and deity were joined together and the mystery of God was revealed on earth. Eternal Wisdom was manifest in a body of flesh and walked among us confounding many who thought they knew the ways of God.
But that is not the end of the story. Jesus ascended back to heaven in order to pour out His Holy presence into the hearts of His people. Again, we see wood fused with gold; humanity and deity mingled together. Obviously, the Church has not become deity, but we have been joined to Him.
But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
In other words, the mystery continues. Today, God is in the earth. Only now, He dwells in and is revealed through fallen people who have been born of His Spirit. The mystery of God has been slowly coming into clarity since the ascension of Christ. But there is coming a day when all will look and understand that the mystery of God is finished.
Today people look at the Church and do not see much difference between God’s house and all the religious groups and cults that dot the countryside. One reason is because the glory of the Lord is masked in many ways in our lives. But the truth is we are not simply human beings doing religious activities; we are those in whom God has come to dwell. And one day when the final trumpet sounds, the glory in our hearts will explode and permeate every fiber of our beings and the work of God will be clearly revealed. All will see His glory revealed in His people. The second coming of Christ will finally bring clarity to the whole earth concerning the mystery of God.
When the last trumpet sounds, when the last great prophetic emphasis of God’s heart sounds forth across the earth, the Lord Jesus will return and the glory that has been resident within His house will erupt within His people and we will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. Good news indeed!
Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.” And I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.” And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.” And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.
When God speaks a word to us it is often sweet to our taste. The experience is enjoyable. But when He begins to take us into the outworking of that very word, the sweetness begins to turn to pain. God has a process of effecting in our lives what He has been saying to us. His goal is that we become an expression of the word we heard.
For example, I remember when the Lord sent me into a particular city to plant a church. At first, everything went well. Many people started attending the meetings we were holding and were saved, healed, and filled with the Holy Spirit. I thought, “This is great!” It was sweet in my mouth. But when we preached on commitment, many left and we wound up with a much smaller group. And I thought, “Lord, where did You go? Am I called to be doing this? Maybe the devil has deceived me.” What had been sweet became to me a painful experience. Over time that church did increase, but through my experiences, the Lord taught me much about the very words I was teaching others. It can be easy to teach from a pulpit about trusting the Lord; it is quite another thing to have the Lord write the words “trust Me” into our own hearts. But this is how He establishes in us the reality of His kingdom.
In fulfillment of the above scripture, John received many wonderful spiritual insights from the Lord and he also went through great persecutions and trials of his faith. Similarly, the Church has heard many wonderful truths from the Lord over the centuries. Now, some 2000 years after Calvary, we are amazed at what He has brought us through. Even though we still fall short of His ultimate goal for us, we know that He is bringing us to the full realization of everything He has spoken over the years.
And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
I do not know if the above verse refers to John being released from captivity and again prophesying among the churches or if the Lord meant that many people would read what he was yet to see in the concluding parts of his revelation. Either way, John was going to have an ongoing influence on the nations of the earth.
In the next chapter, we will look at God’s call upon His people to discover, enter into, and learn about the holy places in His house.
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