The Victorious Hallelujah
(Rev 19:1~19:8)
The word Hallelujah, which means 'Praise God' occurs four times from verse 1 through 6. When we are very happy, we have no other words to shout but 'Hallelujah' or 'Amen.' Lets think about our victorious Hallelujah when we have victory. We should shout Hallelujah because of the following reasons.
1. Salvation, glory and power are from God. After Gods judgment upon the great prostitute, who stood against Him, a great multitude in heaven shouted 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,' The Hallelujah follows Gods judgment on Babylon. The burning sulfur that rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah was not a natural disaster but a woe from God. The place that abounded in pitch became a dead sea after it sank because of the judgment. The sinking is still ongoing, which might cause it to be salt field. The book of Matthew talks of 'famines and earthquakes in various places.' Gods judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah was a perfect and final form of disaster. Those who have money, knowledge, and appearance, which are not used for Gods sake are already under the imminent judgment of God because their life is pointless. Yet, the scripture mentions the recovery beyond the destruction. We go to church in order to listen to the warning of Gods judgment and resurrection. There we hear many testimonies that leads us to Gods guidance to salvation. We can sing a new song when we say 'God lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand' as David did.
2. Gods judgment is right. While people suffer from the smoke on one hand after Rome fell, Gods people praise the Lord for his righteous judgment and vengeance on Rome the blood of his servants. They shout 'Hallelujah' because Gods judgment is righteous, faithful, and precise. The most dreadful power mankind fear is death, the wage that non-believers receive for their slavery. It is the power of the great prostitute. As in Hebrews 9: 27, man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. However, Satan nullifies Jesus crucifixion and the gospel by saying that theres no judgment. The core values of postmodernism is saying Im God, the lord of my life. This is also Satans catchphrase, which leads us to death, darkness, and hell. The great prostitutes strategy is to incite people to be Satans followers by rationalizing their greed, desire, and depravity. Yet Jesus broke the power of death by his resurrection, through which Christians are also able to overcome death, shouting Hallelujah for avenging their blood. Thus many incidents that occur around us are Gods judgment pulling down our evil city. I also shouted Hallelujah after my husband fell. We can shout a true Hallelujah when facing Gods righteous judgment.
3. Everything on earth and in the sky is to worship God. The twenty-four elders stand for Jesus twelve disciples and the twelve elders in the Old Testament. The four living creatures glorified by the elders refer to all creatures on earth. Therefore, all living beings on earth and in the sky should praise God by saying 'Amen, Lord, You are right!' Psalm 150 starts and ends with Hallelujah. It is the song sung by the Israelites during their Babylon Captivity about Gods righteous judgment, through which they were saved from the world. Hallelujah is not the song of Christians only. It can be the song of the people in the world. We should help them sing the song. David broke up the fixed idea and consecrated seemingly insignificant instruments by using them for worshiping God. So it was with us. We also consecrated our shameful stories by using them for testifying to Gods glory and shouting Hallelujah. As in Psalm 150, everything that has breath should praise the LORD. People in the world fail to do that because they dont know.
4. God Almighty reigns. We are blessed when God reigns us as the Lord of our lives. My husband was saved through his physical fall. However, I wondered how to glorify God as a mere widow. God consoled me through 1Pe 3:1~7, saying that he was saved by my deeds, and that obedience is a wifes best inner beauty, which saved me from the fear of my husbands death and made me shout Hallelujah. Thus God clothed me in bright fine linen, calling my deeds righteous. Yet the righteous deeds come from Gods grace, not from me. They are neither boasting nor despairing. In my mission of restoring families, I came across lots of things that made me depressed and expect more trials to come, yet still more I rely on God still more, who will guide me. Notice the word 'us,' meaning the spiritual community, in Verse 7, 'Let us celebrate, let us rejoice, let us give him the glory!' It was through relationship that the gospel was spread over the world in a century. The Greek word of relationship is oikos, which means a family. It also refers to a physical and spiritual house for Gods family. Just biological kinship without faith doesnt guarantee a true oikos. We can enlarge our spiritual territory through our relationship network, such as our small group, or through nurturing. May God bless our Homecoming Day so that our church will be filled with those who are in distress or in debt or discontented!
After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God (Rev 19:1).
