6:10
The souls of the martyred call out to the Lord, “How long until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” This tends not to sit well with our current mindsets, but it is our mindsets that need to change. There needs to be justice upon the earth. Injustice leads to death and exploitation of the poor and weak. Most political or revolutionary organisations will be claiming to be seeking to bring justice, and may even be genuine in their claim. However, history has proved again and again that men are not good at bringing justice and so often simply replace one injustice with another form of injustice, often an even worse form. It is only the Lord who will bring true justice. This will only happen perfectly when He returns. In the meantime it does not mean we do nothing! What we need at present is governments dedicated to justice and recognising the limits of their humanity and respecting the Lord. This will never achieve perfection, but it can improve things. “And avenge our blood”. It is wrong for Christians to be persecuted and even killed. This should be avenged, but it is the Lord who avenges (Rom 12:19). There are two mistakes we can make. One is to take vengeance into our own hands. That will always end badly, usually resulting in untold horrors. The other is to discount vengeance altogether. That is not actually a Biblical concept! There will be vengeance, but we must leave that in the Lord’s hands, which is what the martyrs are doing here.
6:11
Vengeance and justice would come, but not yet. The martyrs were each given a white robe. Then they are told that the reason they have to wait is so that the full number of the martyrs is completed! More people have to die for their faith, and that is still going on today. This is a hard teaching, but it is part of the Bible, and we cannot ignore it.
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