White robes

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

WHITE ROBES

Rev 7:13-17

13 Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes — who are they, and where did they come from?" 14 I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

NIV

As John views this scene as it is revealed on the scroll one of the twenty-four elders asks him who all those people in white robes are. But John does not know and so he tells this elder that he knows in a way that says, “Tell me”. So here we are, all the people who came out of the great tribulation. Here we have to stop and consider are we to go through what we call the tribulation, the seven years referred to as the tribulation when in the halfway point Satan reveals himself to the world and offers sacrifice on the rebuilt temple. This is the only time in this version of the scripture this word tribulation appears. The King James Version uses that word several times, but all of them mean the same as it means here, to be under pressure. This Greek word has been used to mean, persecution, affliction, suffering, troubles and hardships in other translations as well as in this one we use here. Could this imply those seven years? If we think about all those words wrapped up in the word tribulation we might also consider that simply living the Christian life here among this pagan world is tribulation enough. We are faced with temptation upon temptation each and every day being under pressure to succumb to such temptations. If we think for one minute that we have no temptations then we deceive ourselves. These white robes are the ones given to him who overcomes, remember we are overcomers because we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, but that does not mean we are perfect in this flesh and that we still have to deal with the troubles of life, the affliction of our flesh, the persecution of our faith, the hardships of life itself. Remember to those of us who have overcome we will be made a pillar in the temple of God, never again to leave it. As far as his tent being spread over us,

Ps 91:1

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  

NIV

David wrote those words as he was inspired by the Spirit of God, and here we have the same scene. We will find rest in the shelter, the tent, of the Most High and we will find rest in the Shadow of this tent of the Almighty. We also have this phrase of never again will we hunger or thirst and the sun will not scorch us. We are reminded of the words of the prophet Jeremiah:

7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

NIV

Our roots are deeply planted by the spring of living water and we draw all we need for not only life, but eternal life from this spring, Jesus is this spring, he is the word of God, for we are told also by John that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and was God and he became flesh and dwelled among us. Jesus also told us:

John 4:13-14

13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 

NIV

All this truth is wrapped up in the song we will sing before our Almighty God. We will experience all this and we will be there dressed in those white robes. We also should note they are our white robes, which signify purity. This is not the righteousness of Jesus, for Jesus is also there, but we will have a righteousness before God because we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. We will no longer have to be subject to temptations, to trials, to persecutions, to hardships, nor any other form of tribulations. We will never again shed a tear, for we will be in constant rejoicing for we will be in his presence for ever and ever. Because of all this, we should make sure we live our lives in a manner that is worthy of such a great reward. Always trusting in our God, always rejoicing because we are his children and he is our Father. Always filled with faith, hope and love. The time is coming when we get our white robes.