Rev. 11:18 ... "And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth."
The Bible features two categories of people as God views man. First, there are "the nations." They are characterized as being angry and destroying the earth. From the context of this chapter specifically, and the entire book of Revelation generally, "the nations" represent the masses of people who will not submit to God, who reject His appeals to them to repent, and oppose His kingdom in the world. Their anger mentioned here is anger directed against God, His word, and His kingdom. Their act of destroy-ing the earth involves their warfare against God and His people. This anger is evident throughout the New Testament, as the Jews persecuted Jesus and His apostles, and as the gentiles later took up and continued this persecution. Secular history from the close of the apostolic age to the present abundantly records the hostility of the world toward the church and the Lord it represents.
The second category of people is represented in the phrases, "Your bond-servants the prophets, the saints," and finally "those who fear Your name." This means the people who tune their hearts to God, listen to His word, gladly obey it in faith, and live out the rest of their lives in the fear (reverence) of God. These are Christians, who are variously referred to as the children of God and members of His family, citizens of His eternal kingdom, and members of His church. This chapter sketches in brief out-line what the rest of Revelation treats in far more detail, the warfare between God and those who rebel against Him. Without attempting to interpret it in detail, (which is impossible within the limited scope of this short article), we may observe the general course of this struggle. Verses 1-7a present the period when the Lord's church is active and victorious in the world. It successfully fulfills its mission of testi-fying to God before men and drawing all who will believe and obey into the Holy Kingdom. But the time God allots to the ministry of the church is limited (v.7a), and the tables begin to turn. The forces of evil rise up against the church and seem to annihilate it from the earth. While it lies in apparent global death, the host of rebellious mankind even "celebrate and ... send gifts one to another" to revel in their victory. Verses 7b-10 describe the reign of evil on earth as the church lies dormant and apparently dead.
Then comes the third phase, (v.11), when God breathes life back into His church, and it rebounds into vigorous life, striking fear into the heart of its foe. But very shortly the church is commanded to 'Come up here," and it ascends into heaven in a cloud while the wicked left behind on earth stare up in wonder after it. At this point we find the setting of the chosen text above. God deals with the two cate-gories of people mentioned in the first paragraph. He bestows the gift of eternal life on those who have served Him, sanctified themselves by His word, and feared His name. But He destroys those who have lived in rebellion against Him and devoted their lives to persecuting His people.
Dear reader, we can rest assured that the picture drawn in this chapter is true and shall come to pass at the appointed time without fail. It is now within our ability to choose in which category of people we shall be, whether among the rebellious who resist God, or among the obedient who respect His will. This chapter seeks to persuade us to make the right choice so that God's wrath will not dominate our eternity, but rather that His supernal blessings will rest upon us. As Jesus so often said, "If any man has an ear, let him hear," (Rev. 13:9).
