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Today's reading
December 16, 2025
Revelation 15:3-4
Imagine, for a moment, a village on the outskirts of Judea—remote, forgotten, far from the flow of trade or regular traffic. Life here is interdependent and fragile. Everyone needs everyone. The fields are worked together, the wells are shared, the seasons are survived as a community. And yet, beneath the surface, there are fractures.
Old family wounds never healed.
Disagreements that hardened into grudges as the years passed.
And a growing list of quiet victims caught in the wake.
In this village, justice does not live in the streets. It arrives only when the judge comes to town. The magistrate oversees many villages like this one and passes through just once a month. Until then, wrongs linger. Power goes unchecked. The strong exploit the weak while faithful wait.
But as the day of his arrival draws near, something changes in the air.
Imagine the anxious hope of the woman who has been living on a pittance because her neighbor had quietly stole part of her harvest.
Imagine the restrained fury of the older man beaten by a group of drunken younger men who thought they would never answer for it.
Imagine the silent desperation of the family taken advantage of in a trade they never truly agreed to.
The judge is the one who they can appeal to, the only one who can make right what has gone so wrong. And when he does provide justice the whole village would rejoice, and know that their endurance, has been worth the wait.
In Revelation 15 John is privy to a pause in the midst of the chaos of wrath. He finds himself in a cavernous temple. The floor was like glass alive with the glow of fire. Standing in the midst of the grandeur were 7 angels about to deliver their final judgements against evil and sin. But before they poured out God’s final wrath, a huge group of people who had remained faithful in the midst of the tribulation began to sing.
“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
Revelation 15:3-4 (NKJV)
The halls of heaven echo with the sound of the persecuted yet glorified church. But the most important detail comes just before the song begins:
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Just before the first notes of their worship are heard John breaks protocol and provides the name of this Heaven song.
It is called the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb. Revelation 15:3a (NKJV)
In Exodus 15, Israel had just experienced the unthinkable. They had watched the plagues fall on Egypt. They had walked through the towering walls of the Red Sea on dry ground. They had seen those same waters crash down on the army that pursued them. And standing on the far side of deliverance, Moses lifted his voice and sang lyrics that declared:
Only Yahweh was strong enough to break the chains.
Only Yahweh was righteous enough to judge Egypt.
And Only Yahweh could set abused slaves free.
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It is the Song of the Lamb because Christ has rendered the final verdict against evil and sin at the cross. What Pharaoh represented on a national scale—violence, pride, oppression—the Lamb confronted at a cosmic one. Sin was judged. Death was defeated. The powers were exposed.
And in Revelation 15, the church gathers in a crowded hall—not on a beach and stands before a sea of glass not the Red sea to praise the only One worthy to judge the nations. The only One worthy to weigh the dread leaders of the world and hold them to account. The only One who is just and true in all their ways.
As Israel once waited for the justice of God to roll against those who had brutalized them for centuries,
so now the church waits in confident anticipation of the Lamb—
the One who takes away the sin of the world,
and the One who will finally set the world right.
We receive this song between two Advents.
In the first Advent, the Light of the world entered the darkness so that sinners could follow Him into forgiveness, healing, and new life. In his first visit, Jesus was justice wrapped in mercy and grace. He came not to condemn but to receive our condemnation and blaze a trail to eternal life.
Now, the children of light wait for the second song of advent—
when the Lamb will come not to be judged, but to judge;
not to be slain, but to reign;
not to suffer injustice, but to finally undo it.
John stands where we stand.
He hears the Song of Moses, sung on the far side of deliverance.
He hears the Song of the Lamb, sung on the edge of final victory.
And like us, he listens from the space between rescue and restoration.
Between the sea that closed behind God’s people
and the fire that will cleanse the world.
Between chains broken
and all things being made new.
And together with John we run the earth but watch the sky with the assurance that
Our thrill of hope will be realized
The Lamb of God is worthy
And in His name all oppression shall cease.