… they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10)

The cry of the heart reverberates through the heavens to the Sovereign Master of the Universe: “How long, O Lord …” The underlying Greek word, “despotes,” often used for the master in a slave relationship, is not used of God very often in the Bible. In modern parlance, the familiar-sounding English word, “despot,” commonly refers to a ruler with absolute power and authority, often exercised in a brutal or oppressive way. However, the Greek word does not imply that negative connotation; it simply conveys the idea of absolute authority without reference to intent or character.

Simeon used this word when he first laid eyes on the Christ child, in his prayer to God at Jesus’ dedication: “Now Lord [“despotes”], You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace …” (Luke 2:29). What faith he had to see in this child the act of the all-powerful, absolutely ruling potentate of the universe!

Peter and John, after the Jewish council’s menacing inquisition over the first miraculous healing in the early church, “lifted their voice to God with one accord and said, “O Lord [“despotes”], it is You who made the heaven and the earth …” (Acts 4:24). They recognized that God was indeed able “to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur” (Acts 4:28). Their prayer for protection came from their confidence in God’s absolute sovereignty.

So also in our passage today, we see an appeal to the absolute Sovereign of the universe from “… the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained…” (Rev 6:9). During the future tribulation period, when untold destruction is poured out, the tribulation martyrs echo the pleading of persecuted believers through the ages: “How long …?” At times like these, nothing other than a confidence in the God whose authority and power is unchallenged will do. When persecution is unremitting, suffering unending and hope stretched to the breaking point, faith calls out to the sovereignty of the God who is the ultimate master, controller and potentate of all that exists. The other major English translations render the word as “Sovereign Lord.” He is the One who made the heavens and the earth, and “apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3). He is the One for whom all His enemies will become His footstool (Heb 1:13).

Sovereign Lord, I come with all my struggles knowing that nothing escapes Your authority and nothing is greater than Your power.