Happy Day

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

HAPPY DAY

Rev 14:13

13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."

NIV

First things first. Because this voice from heaven tells John to write, to record certain words, we have to come to the conclusion, as we have always thought, that he was experiencing this revelation on the Island of Patmos while he was there and not some later date, from memory, as some scholars would have us believe. Now as to what he wrote the voice from heaven said. “Blessed or happy are the dead who die in the Lord from now one.” This could possible apply to those who are martyred or die on account of their testimony. This could apply to all people who profess to be in the Lord. This seems to be the intent of that phrase. Death in the natural is not something most of us look forward to with happiness. The grave is a cold and lonely place.  Death separates us from all that is dear to us. It removes us from our loved ones, people who we care deeply about. It separates us from the enjoyment of life itself, and the pleasures we experience. Death makes us leave all the things we have gathered in our life which have some meaning to us. Yet nothing has more meaning than our relationship with our Lord. This is the intent here. When we die we will be happy because we will be with our Lord. As the grave could not hold him, it will not hold us either. In his presence there are no tears, no sadness, no unhappy times. In fact the Spirit, who is simply referred to as the Spirit, but is meant as the Holy Spirit, confirms we who are in the Lord when we die we will rest from our labor and our deeds will follow us. Now that could mean everything we have ever done will follow us, including all our bad behaviors. This would sort of be like the Mel Brooks movie, defending your life. But this is not the deeds that will follow us.

Heb 8:12

12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."  

NIV

God declares here he will not remember our sins no more. Of course that is our confessed and repented sin. We cannot go on sinning willfully doing whatever we desire to do and expect to enjoy the happy state of forgiveness. Yes, we fail God daily, we make miserable mistakes that grieve God, but we are but man, and we cannot enjoy the state of perfection we would like to, not that this is an acceptable excuse, but it is a fact. Nevertheless our sins will not follow us, as suggested by Mel Brooks. It would appear the deeds that will follow us are those things we do in life for the sake of the gospel, our good deeds as it were. We will rest from our labor, this again is finding rest in our Lord. It could also be said we will rest assured of being in his presence when we die. It would seem if our deeds follow us, it might appear as if we all will be standing around looking at each other seeing who has more following deeds than we do. That would make some of us either a little prideful because we have a great big trailer full of deeds, or a little shameful because we don’t even have a trailer, all our deeds can fit in a little suitcase. No, that is not the meaning here. The point is that we who love the Lord will find rest in heaven, no longer trying to share the gospel, no longer trying to live the good life, doing good, trying to overcome temptations. The Greek word here for deeds is not actually plural. It means toil or an act.  The only deed or act that actually follows us is the one deed we did when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Everything in heaven is about God, about Jesus, about the Spirit. The deed of accepting him is what will follow us, and in that acceptance of him we find rest from all else. Soon John will see the harvest of the earth, in fact it is next to come. But what we know for sure is that Oh death where is thy sting! For death holds no gloom for those of us who love the Lord and are in him, for we will be happy, glad, rejoicing because we did the one good deed in life that matters most of all, we acknowledged Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. That is the only good deed that will gain us eternal life, which will follow us into eternity. Oh happy Day! What a day that will be when my Jesus I will see, oh happy that day will be.