The Wait is Over

Sometimes it feels as if we spend most of our lives waiting. Couples engaged to be married mark the months until the wedding. Workers wait for the weekend. Schoolchildren long for summer vacation—and once it has begun, parents tick off the days until they can send them back to school.

Heaven experiences the same sense of expectation. Prior to the sounding of the seventh trumpet a mighty angel announces, “There will be no more delay! But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets” (vv. 6–7). The term mystery does not refer to a puzzle but rather to something that had been hidden and is now revealed. The seventh trumpet portends the fulfillment of all that God promised. It will usher in the final events of the tribulation period, which culminate in the establishment of Christ’s kingdom, the final judgment, and the creation of a new heavens and earth.

Notice that even though the angel declares that there will be no more delay, things must still take place before the mystery of God is finally accomplished. The angel is not being contradictory. His declaration is both an indication that the seventh trumpet is the beginning of the end and a reflection of the certainty of the outcome. It is similar to the victory cry that Jesus uttered from the cross when He declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

We find the same perspective in Revelation 13:8, which describes Jesus as “the Lamb slain from the creation of the world.” From God’s perspective, the victory is already complete. We are just catching up in time to what God has already accomplished in purpose.

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BY Dr. John Koessler

John Koessler is Professor Emeritus of Applied Theology and Church Ministries at Moody Bible Institute. John authors the “Practical Theology” column for Today in the Word of which he is also a contributing writer and theological editor. An award-winning author, John’s newest title is When God is Silent: Let the Bible Teach You to Pray (Kirkdale). Prior to joining the Moody faculty, he served as a pastor of Valley Chapel in Green Valley, Illinois, for nine years. He and his wife, Jane, now enjoy living in a lakeside town in Michigan.