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The Revelation of Jesus Christ
Weekly Devotional for 2007

It was a defining moment of my life. I was fifteen years and two months old. I was at a "teen camp" for boys and girls ranging in age from thirteen to fifteen. I'm not sure if I was the oldest in my group, but if I was, it was by a couple of weeks at the most. As our unit prepared for bed that first Sunday night, one thing was missing. There was no counselor yet assigned to the unit. That may sound like a teen-ager's dream vacation, but it was a bit unsettling, nevertheless.

At two o'clock in the morning I was gently awakened by a group of counselors who took me outside the cabin and told me I had been chosen counselor of my unit. What a daunting task! I was roughly the same age as the group and they would wake up thinking I was just one of them. How would I assert any measure of authority?

The ultimate challenge occurred a couple of days later. A fourteen-year-old locked me in the bathroom of the cabin at a crucial point of the day. When he refused to open the door at my request and then my command, I broke out with a crash. In a rage I ordered him to take off his shoes and run ten times up and down the hill nearby on the gravel path. This was a painful experience and after a couple of trips his feet were scratched and bleeding a bit.

I was mortified. I had overdone the punishment. But if I went back on my sentence no one in the unit would respect me. Instinctively, I made a decision. I joined him in his punishment, finishing the ten laps up and down the hill with him. I had no further trouble with my unit that week and the camper who locked me in the bathroom became my most admiring and loyal subordinate.

The concept "wrath of the Lamb" sounds like an oxymoron. Can you really imagine a "raging lamb?" What would that look like? The slain Lamb, of course, represents the cross. The wrath represents God's unwillingness to compromise with sin. On a very small scale my experience with the camper mirrored the problem God had in the universe. The "campers" were rebelling. He could back off on His authority, but that would lead to chaos. But simply being the "Great Counselor" would mean everyone would serve Him out of fear.

So at the cross He joined us in reaping the consequences of sin. In so doing He won the love of the universe as well as its respect. And in the end, a "raging Lamb" who brooks no compromise with sin, yet identifies with the sinner, proves able to heal a broken universe.

Lord, I respect Your integrity, and love You for Your sacrifice. I want to be like You in my treatment of everyone I meet.