And each of them was given a white robe and was told that they should rest yet a little while, until their fellow servants and brothers, who are about to be killed as they were, should be made complete. Rev. 6:11.
The above translation reflects some puzzling aspects of this text. First, what are the "souls under the altar" (Rev. 6:9, 10) supposed to be doing? They are to "rest, wait, relax for a while." Instead of acting, they must remain passive until something else happens. In most translations that something else is waiting for a certain number of martyrs to be reached ("until the number...was completed" [verse 11, NIV]). But the word "number" isn't in the original. Instead, as mentioned yesterday, the translators have put it in to make sense of the passage. But the passage does make sense as it is. The "fellow servants" are being "completed," perhaps a reference to their character in the final crisis of earth's history (Rev. 19:7, 8). They are waiting for God to act in some special way for them.
Being told to "relax" is a bit surprising in a message from heaven. When I "relax," bad things often happen (read "procrastination"). For example. I have a sizable patch of grass not far from the septic tank at me house. I don't know if it is the type of grass planted there or the proximity to natural fertilizer, but it seems to grow twice as fast and twice as thick as anywhere else on my lawn. Particularly in the month of May we have plenty of both sunshine and rain, the grass is seeding itself, and the plants' metabolism is at peek efficiency. But what is good news for plants becomes bad news for me if I "relax" more than a day or two beyond my mowing schedule.
Other parts of the lawn are not as dense and grow more slowly. The grass there is not difficult to mow even if I skip a few days. But this patch in the back quickly becomes nearly impossible to cut down to size. If the grass is the least bit damp (and we have dew almost every day), the mower clogs almost instantly. I have the nasty task of having to raise the mower on all four wheels (and lower it later) and then mow a couple square feet at a time, stopping to clean out the underside of the machine every couple minutes. Not fun.
My point is that waiting or relaxing can be a foolish thing. Yet heaven instructs the souls under the altar to relax for a while in order to let God do His work. It would be nice to have a voice from heaven telling us when God wants us to relax or when relaxing would be procrastination. But wrestling with God's will and His timing can teach us valuable lessons. While relaxing may feel like procrastination, it can also be an expression of faith in God's action.
Lord, my day is already overfilled. I need Your guidance to know what things will improve if they don't get done today. Help me trust that You are working even when I am not.
The above translation reflects some puzzling aspects of this text. First, what are the "souls under the altar" (Rev. 6:9, 10) supposed to be doing? They are to "rest, wait, relax for a while." Instead of acting, they must remain passive until something else happens. In most translations that something else is waiting for a certain number of martyrs to be reached ("until the number...was completed" [verse 11, NIV]). But the word "number" isn't in the original. Instead, as mentioned yesterday, the translators have put it in to make sense of the passage. But the passage does make sense as it is. The "fellow servants" are being "completed," perhaps a reference to their character in the final crisis of earth's history (Rev. 19:7, 8). They are waiting for God to act in some special way for them.
Being told to "relax" is a bit surprising in a message from heaven. When I "relax," bad things often happen (read "procrastination"). For example. I have a sizable patch of grass not far from the septic tank at me house. I don't know if it is the type of grass planted there or the proximity to natural fertilizer, but it seems to grow twice as fast and twice as thick as anywhere else on my lawn. Particularly in the month of May we have plenty of both sunshine and rain, the grass is seeding itself, and the plants' metabolism is at peek efficiency. But what is good news for plants becomes bad news for me if I "relax" more than a day or two beyond my mowing schedule.
Other parts of the lawn are not as dense and grow more slowly. The grass there is not difficult to mow even if I skip a few days. But this patch in the back quickly becomes nearly impossible to cut down to size. If the grass is the least bit damp (and we have dew almost every day), the mower clogs almost instantly. I have the nasty task of having to raise the mower on all four wheels (and lower it later) and then mow a couple square feet at a time, stopping to clean out the underside of the machine every couple minutes. Not fun.
My point is that waiting or relaxing can be a foolish thing. Yet heaven instructs the souls under the altar to relax for a while in order to let God do His work. It would be nice to have a voice from heaven telling us when God wants us to relax or when relaxing would be procrastination. But wrestling with God's will and His timing can teach us valuable lessons. While relaxing may feel like procrastination, it can also be an expression of faith in God's action.
Lord, my day is already overfilled. I need Your guidance to know what things will improve if they don't get done today. Help me trust that You are working even when I am not.
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