NO PLACE TO HIDE?
“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” — Rev. 6:15-17
The Revelation anticipates “the wrath to come” (see I Thess. 1:10) and the initiation of that wrath, in its earth history at the end of the age is introduced in this sixth chapter of the book under the opening of the sixth seal. It is the infliction of God’s temporal judgments on a rebellious planet bringing “…great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved [Matt. 24:21-22].” All of earth’s natural disasters (except the flood of Noah) pale to insignificance by comparison. Three awesome things are to be noted here.
First, there will be no exception. Neither power, prestige, prosperity or position will insulate men from the coming judgment, nor will any “class” distinction. The world that rejects the Savior will be leveled in the day of His fierce anger. In a striking parallel passage, written prophetically long before our “nugget,” He declared:
“Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. (Isa. 13:9-13)
Second, is the surprising evidence that the damned will recognize at once the source of the judgment that befalls them. “Him that sitteth on the throne…the wrath of the Lamb.” Is it not amazing that those who have had no recognition of the Lord Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God,” will instinctively recognize Him in that awful hour? Men may ignore Him, deny Him, “dismiss” Him, but they cannot effectively exclude Him from their final hour.
And that leads to the third sobering thought implied in this short passage. There will be no place to hide. In the day of His wrath, being buried by an earthquake will be deemed better than facing His judgment, and the dens and the rocks of the mountains will be as transparent as window glass and provide less security! None will be able to stand before Him.
The lesson is obvious: the time to hide is now, and the place to hide from the wrath of the Lamb is in the shelter of the blessed “Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world [John 1:29].”
How well did the poet put it:
Oh, safe to the Rock that is higher than I,My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly,So sinful, so weary, Thine, Thine would I be,Thou blest Rock of Ages, I'm hiding in Thee.Hiding in Thee, hiding in Thee,Thou blest Rock of Ages, I'm hiding in Thee.—W.O.Cushing“Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
For eternal welfare,
"Pastor" Frasier
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