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Revelation 14, The Lamb and the 144,000

Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today

Then I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation and tribe and language and people. He said in a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgement has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.’
— Revelation 14:6-7

NL Daily Devotion for Monday, September 1, 2025

by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff


Here’s some more Metzger to help you parse this. “One of the characteristics of [Revelation] is the alternation of sharp contrasts between scenes of frightful horror and scenes of welcome security.” The beginning of Revelation 14 is another respite, where God is standing with the elect, who have not engaged in idol worship of any kind, and the angels are proclaiming how awesome God is.

Honestly, right now things are such a colossal horror in my country and in Gaza, among other places, that I need a reminder that God reigns, and that even if the very worst happens, we are not alone, and ultimately, in the words of Julian of Norwich, all will be well and all will be well and all manner of thing will be well.

This doesn’t mean that I sit back and watch and do nothing. But it does mean that I recognize my own limitation and that I don’t have the power all on my own to change anything. I pray. A lot. And find out what my church community is doing to stand up for the marginalized (quite a bit actually) and how I can plug in. And I turn everything over to God. And over. And over again. The God “who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water” moves in and through me—and all of us—and can make all things well.

How do I maintain equilibrium in the face of troubling news?

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Metzger, Bruce M. Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1993.