How Long

The question is in the Bible, and it is asked by people nobody could accuse of a lack of faith.

Revelation 6:9-11 is a short scene, and it is one of the few places in the book where somebody speaks up from the human side of things.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?Revelation 6:9-10, King James Version

How long.

Read who is asking. These are people who were killed for the word of God and for the testimony they held. Whatever else is true, nobody in that scene can be told they did not believe hard enough.

And they are not asking quietly. They cried with a loud voice.

I want to be careful with this passage, as this site always is with this book. There is no date in it, no sequence to chart, and nothing here to line up against anything happening in any country. It is an unveiling, and what it unveils in these three verses is a question, an answer, and something given.

Look at what they are given and what they are not

Here is the answer, and it comes in two parts, and only one of them is words.

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little seasonRevelation 6:11, King James Version

First: white robes were given unto every one of them.

Something is handed over before anything is explained. And note the phrase every one of them, which is a way of saying nobody was missed, in a group nobody was counting.

Second: they are told to rest for a little season.

That is not an answer to the question they asked. They asked how long, which is a request for a duration, and they are given a little season, which is not a duration. It is a reassurance with no number in it.

You are not asking a forbidden question. Revelation 6:10 has it asked with a loud voice by people who died for the word, and it is the Holy Spirit who keeps that in front of somebody who has been told their question is a failure of trust.

Now I want to stay on the fact that the question is not answered, because pretending otherwise would be dishonest and this passage is honest.

They are not given the number. Nowhere in this scene does anybody supply a date, and the text does not soften that by explaining why. It gives them clothing, and a word about resting, and the scene moves on.

Which means the passage does two things at once that most comfort refuses to do: it takes the question completely seriously, and it does not answer it.

You have a question that Scripture records and does not resolve, and both halves of that are deliberate. Revelation 6:11 says a little season rather than a length, and the same Spirit who kept it unnumbered is the reason nobody can hand you a date and call it faith.

Now the robes, because I think they are the pastoral center of it.

A robe is a thing somebody else puts on a person. It is not information, and it is not a fix. It is a garment given to somebody who is waiting, and it is given first, before the word about resting.

That is what people do when they cannot end somebody's wait: they bring something. A coat, a chair, a plate, a presence. The instinct is right and the scene endorses it.

And it is worth saying that the instinct usually gets apologized for. People arrive with a casserole and say sorry, I know this does not help. It is the most scriptural thing in the room and they are embarrassed by it, because we have been taught that comfort means having something to say. This passage has heaven arriving with clothing and no explanation, and calls that the answer to a question about time.

You have been dressed while the waiting continues, and the giving came ahead of the explanation. Revelation 6:11 puts the robes before the word about a little season, and it is His Spirit who is the reason that order is a comfort rather than an evasion.

And then the last thing, and it is the word rest.

They are told to rest. Not to be patient, which would be an instruction about attitude, and not to keep watching, which would be a task. Rest, which is permission to stop holding something up.

You have been given permission to stop straining while the answer is outstanding. Revelation 6:11 says rest to people who had just cried out with a loud voice, and the same Spirit who kept that word there is the reason waiting well is not the same as waiting hard.