There is an often-quoted observation about change that says we change for two reasons: Either you learn enough that you want to or you hurt enough that you have to. It sounds true enough and if you think about it that statement assumes that change does not come easy. It’s something we have probably all seen in our own lives or in the lives of others – even when change is desperately needed it is often stubbornly resisted. Here’s another quote maybe you have heard. What’s the difference between school and life? In school you are taught a lesson and then given a test. In life you are given a test that teaches you a lesson. When you read the Bible you see God doing this in the story of individual lives and in the story of human history. God works in many ways, sometimes through grace and beauty and sometimes in pain and suffering to bring us back to him and who we were meant to be in relationship to him. One of the truths of Revelation is that as human history draws closer to the final judgment God is going to increase the pressure. Terrible evils that have been restrained by God in grace are going to be released by God in judgment. We may never see these apocalyptic scenarios but there are spiritual lessons embedded in these visions that provide helpful warnings for today.