Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #18 of Revelation, chapter 7, and we are going to be looking at Revelation 7:17:
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
We have been looking at this chapter for a few weeks. In these last few verses, we have seen that God, here, is describing the great multitude which has “come out of great tribulation,” and He is discussing the events that are taking place on this earth, because it said, back in verse 15, that the great multitude is “serving him day and night in his temple,” which means there is still “time” on the earth. This fits our present situation where the Great Tribulation is now past; God has saved all of His elect, so we have “come out of great tribulation.” Yet, “time” continues while the Lord is pouring out His wrath upon the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.
During this time, God’s people serve Him in his (spiritual) temple, doing service to God as He commands us to “Feed my sheep.” It said, “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them,” and this is a big emphasis of the Lord for these days. We are still here and He will try us and test us severely, but He also has a great concern that His people be spiritually fed; and the way He intends to do this is through the opening up of the Scriptures, which God opened up at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, and continuing to “reveal” information from Scriptures in the Day of Judgment, as we read in Romans 2:5. It says there that “the day of wrath,” is also the day of the “revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” That is why we have been learning a great many spiritual things in “those days after that tribulation.”
Here, the Lamb is the one feeding them because He is the one that is in complete control of the process of opening up His Word and granting understanding to His people. God is the one that is also moving in His people to understand these things and to share them with others, so it all reverts back to Him because He is the one that is actually doing it. He is accomplishing these things, as He has always done, through His people.
Our verse also goes on to say that He “shall lead them unto living fountains of waters,” and we were discussing this in our last Bible study. The Greek word translated as “lead” is the same word that is translated as “guide” in John 16:13, where the Lord said that the Holy Spirit will come and “guide you into all truth.” Now we realize this statement explains that the whole outworking of God’s salvation program has been an imparting of His truth to His people: first, a little bit; then a little more with the Old Testament; then the New Testament expanded and increased that truth; and, finally, at the time of the end, there was the opening up of the sealed Word of God and the amount of truth greatly increased. Yet, it was not “all truth,” and even as we entered into the Day of Judgment, further understanding has been given to the people of God, but still it is not “all truth.” That is something that can only be completed in eternity future, so God is continuing the process of guiding His sheep “unto living fountains of water,” and that process will never, never end. We will always “thirst,” in that sense, after the Word of God – after truth – and God will always quench our thirst through the leading of His Spirit as He opens our spiritual eyes and ears to comprehend and understand the Word of God. This will continue into the new heaven and new earth.
Will it not be wonderful? Will it not be glorious when we can all be with the Lord Jesus Christ and He is our Bible teacher? It will be like one wonderful Bible conference, where Christ is teaching each one of us. He has the ability to personally instruct an individual and, yet, at the same time, instruct multitudes. I do not know how God does that. It is the same thing when we pray to him; here are hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people praying to God all at the same time, but each one is given individual, undivided attention and concern and care from the Father above. He is able to do this with multitudes of people and no one is ignored; no one is lacking the full undivided attention of God.
When God teaches His people in the future world to come (when this world is past), He, likewise, will be instructing us concerning Himself. We just have to realize that the Bible is a Book that reveals the infinite mind of God and we are only able to scratch the surface of it.
Remember that statement in John 21 (and this is very significant when we think about what it is that God could be teaching us for evermore), and it says in John 21:25:
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
It is really incredible how God could probably take any verse, of the many verses of the Bible, and He could go into great depth and detail, analyzing everything that is stated there, and we would be in awe of the wonderful truths that God has hidden within His Word. Then we would go to the next verse, and the next verse, and the next verse. The Lord Jesus Christ will be instructing His people about Him – about the Person of God – and there is an “eternity past” in which God has existed and He has been involved in all sorts of things. We will be able to learn about this God and it will be an eternal joy for the child of God to learn of the great God that has saved us.
Just as the true believer rejoices and is happiest today when we realize something new from the Bible, this will be a big part of our joy for evermore, as we will be eternally learning about the Person of Eternal God.
Going back to Revelation 7:17:
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
God will wipe away all tears. This is repeated in Revelation 21:3-4:
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And I am going to read the next verse because there is an important statement there, in Revelation 21:5:
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
These are “true and faithful” words. We can count on these things coming to pass. We can depend upon it and trust in it. We can be assured of it because it is from God, who cannot lie (and, actually, it is impossible for Him to lie), and He is telling us: “This is what you have to look forward to and this is what you can expect. And, yes, I know who I am talking to. I know I am talking to creatures that live in a world where it seems, at times, there is nothing but death and sorrow and crying and pain; there is nothing but misery and disease and the ugly consequences of sin. I understand that this is the world you are presently in and you cannot imagine a world without these things. Yet, this is my plan.”
This is the plan of God for His people – to create a new heaven and a new earth and “Jerusalem a rejoicing, and his people a joy.” He will give them eternal life and this means no more death, no more disease, no more sickness and sorrow; and sin will be no more, and there will be no more pain that all these things bring. There will be no more tears. All tears will be wiped away. This is a fact and God is stating that it will happen in the eternity to come and His people will live in perfect happiness, peace and joy. They will have all the good things, all the blessings and all of the fruits of the spirit and none of the things that come through sin, because sin will be removed for evermore.
Well, that is a true statement that God is giving us and, yet, we have seen that Revelation 7 has been discussing the great multitude that are living on the earth in the Day of Judgment. We have seen how the statements that they will not hunger or thirst any more and how the sun will not fall on them oor any heat, and how this applies to God’s people living at this time. We have also seen how the Lord is desirous to feed His people and guide them “unto living fountains of waters,” and this also has application at this time, as well as into eternity future.
But how can we understand that God will wipe away all the tears from their eyes? We can understand that for the next world, but certainly now in these days after the tribulation, it has been very grievous, very trying and very troubling of mind. It has been so difficult for the people of God. God’s people certainly have shed tears over the situation in some in their family members, as they give no evidence of salvation, with the realization that the door of heaven is shut. The sorrow is present now. Tears are certainly falling now from the eyes of God’s people, so we would have to say that maybe God is just speaking in the future tense: He does say that he shall wipe away all tears. And, yes, it is true that there is going to be a literal fulfillment of that statement that God will wipe away all tears and tears no longer will be shed by God’s elect, once they enter into the new heaven and new earth.
But, could there be a spiritual understanding of this statement? “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” Perhaps, a spiritual understanding could apply to the time of judgment while God’s people are alive upon the earth. But what could that be? Let us look at a few verses and see if we can begin to understand this a little bit. It says in 2nd Corinthians 2:4:
For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
Here, God moved the Apostle Paul to declare that he has written to the Corinthians “with many tears.” We could understand this to mean that Paul has shared the Word of God, because that is exactly what Paul wrote to them – he wrote the Word of God; it was inspired, in fact, and is part of the Bible and, therefore, he was sharing the Gospel with them “with many tears.” And that idea matches what the Apostle Paul was also moved to say in Acts 20: 28-31:
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
Well, does the Apostle Paul mean this literally? Did he cry “night and day” for three full years, as he warned people (with the warnings of the Gospel)? Did he cry every single night and day every time he shared the Word of God? I do know someone that does get very emotional when he shares the Gospel and he does tend to “tear up” sometimes, but this would be highly unlikely for someone like Paul. (Maybe, on occasion, one could get overtaken with emotion with the thought that some are going to perish and one could shed some tears.) But, “night and day” for a period of three years, did he literally warn them with tears? And the answer is: no. It should not be understood literally. It is a spiritual reference to “sowing the Gospel” or sharing the Gospel and it is a sorrowful thing because so many are going to perish and so many are not going to take warning; so many remain in their sins, under the wrath of God and subject to that eternal destruction. They are all around us.
I remember the days leading up to May 21, 2011; first, the months and the weeks and then the days; as that day approached, it got all the more sorrowful because the more we shared the Word of God and we warned people that this day was coming – the day that God would judge the world – and we told people that God was going to shut the door to heaven, and as we saw so many not take warning, it was grievous; it was especially grievous if they were relatives and friends and neighbors and others we were acquainted with. Yes, there was the occasional tear, but there was not crying every day. No – this verse is referring to the sorrow in which the Gospel seed is sown and we can know this for sure because God tells us that in Psalm 126:5-6:
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Here, God is speaking of one of the seasons of His spiritual harvest. There is a time to sow, or a time to plant, as we read in the Book of Ecclesiastes, and then there is a time to pluck up that which has been planted, or a time to reap. The day of salvation was a time of “sowing seed,” a time of scattering the seed of the Word of God upon the hearts of men and hoping and praying: “Oh, Father, could this be one of your chosen? Could this be one of your elect that you have predestined to hear these things and become a child of yours?” And this was done in sorrow, in a spiritual sense, with tears “night and day,” as God’s people sowed the Gospel. God identifies that as “sowing in tears,” and as one going forth and weeping, “bearing precious seed.”
But the time of reaping is a time of rejoicing and a time of reaping in joy. That is the time we are presently living in. God has ended the program of evangelization. He has ended the program of “sowing seed” so that sinners might hear and become saved and, therefore, since God identifies and associates “sowing seed” with “tears,” He can say that He has “wiped away all tears from their eyes.”
Let us “step back” again and realize the context of Revelation 7. The great multitude has “come out of great tribulation,” the final season of God’s harvest. The “latter rain” fell simultaneously with the Great Tribulation and produced that final harvest (that precious fruit) that will be brought in during the Feast of Ingathering. All the seeds have been sown and, therefore, all the tears have been shed by God’s people as they went forth with that precious seed and as they sowed the seed.
And, now, in this Day of Judgment, it is a time of reaping, according to Revelation 14, and there is, figuratively and spiritually, “rejoicing” going on. This does not mean that God’s people will not shed physical tears during these days. We have already mentioned how that is certainly not the case – we cry and we sorrow, physically and literally – but, spiritually, God says we are not to sow seed upon desolate land (upon land that has been destroyed by fire and brimstone) and, therefore, He has wiped away all tears from our eyes. He does not say it here, but this would also mean that in a spiritual sense, this is a season of rejoicing – of great joy in what God has done, as He has saved everyone He intended to save. That is a great cause for which to praise God and rejoice before Him.