QT 26 Jul 18, Rev 20:7-10, We don't really understand holiness

Revelation 20:7–10 (ESV) — 7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

NOTE: This makes it pretty clear that the lake of fire, the second death, is not elimination but eternal torment. We struggle with that concept. For many, this is a place where people create an idol by saying that "my God would never do such a thing." But the definition of God does not come from our conscience or earthly intelligence, but from the word of God. The problem is not our sense of justice or mercy, it is our misunderstanding of holiness and the ugliness of sin. We don't properly place sin where God places it. Consequently, we can't understand eternal torment. It is not that God is unjust or unmerciful -- the cross is the clear evidence that is untrue -- the problem (in our understanding) is that we don't see God as Holy in the same way that He sees himself (or Isaiah saw him). I think if we truly understood holiness, we would not be surprised.

PRAYER: Father, I don't know if I want to understand your holiness. I would be paralyzed by the world around me. I would faint at how terribly we have strutted and stomped over your holiness. I would be sickened. I would wonder how you could have even showed the mercy you did show at the cross. I would be at a loss to know how to respond. Instead, I ask for small glimpses so that I can understand and know you better.