Deeper Reflection
A great multitude…from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (v.9) gives us a picture of what Swete calls a “polyglot cosmopolitan crowd”¹³ . And that crowd “standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (v.9) “signifies their position of acceptance and honour as God’s true servants”¹⁴ . This great multitude declaring “Salvation belongs to our God” (v.10) express their praise to God for His salvation in Christ. What a beautiful picture to behold – nations, tribes and people groups worshipping our God! Christ-followers today await that coming day when we will be part of that countless multitude of worshippers from all nations and generations.That beautiful picture will certainly come to pass. But in the meantime, we are still facing the unfinished missional task of reaching all the nations, i.e. people groups, with the Gospel of salvation. Among the 17,445 people groups, 7,391 are unreached people groups.¹⁵ Currently, Bible translation is happening in 2,846 languages in 157 countries and impacting 1.11 billion people, or about 15 percent of all language users.¹⁶Missions is not yet over. “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”¹⁷ Let us press on in proclaiming the Gospel in every nation, so that all the elect will come before God’s throne to worship Him. Every generation of disciples must do their part in going and sending in missions. Let us place our faith in the Lord and put our hands to the plough – and work while it is still day! And “when this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more”¹⁸ .

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¹² Psalm 96:2b-3. ¹³ The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 13: Hebrews-Revelation, 666. ¹⁴ Ibid. ¹⁵ An unreached or least-reached people is a people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelise this people group without outside assistance. (Source: Joshua Project, https://joshuaproject.net/help/definitions) ¹⁶ 2022 Global Scripture Access, Wycliffe Global Alliance, https://www.wycliffe.net/resources/statistics/ ¹⁷John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, 3rd Edition (IVP, 2010), 15. ¹⁸ Ibid.