Opening Cacophony

The banquet hall at the Taipei International Conference Center was nearly full with several hundred delegates who arrived for the opening ceremony of an international medical conference.  The official name of the conference was "The 4th World Congress of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition", but it's unlikely that anyone in attendance could actually remember all that.  I milled around stiffly around the food tables, not quite feeling comfortable in my striped dress shirt, tie and brand new slacks that I just bought.  I rarely paid as much attention to my clothes unless someone is getting married or buried, but as I scanned the room, I noticed that all the men from the Taiwanese contingent wore dark business suits, and the Taiwanese women also were seriously attired as if they were having job interviews.  The Japanese delegates also looked quite sharp, though their business suits showed a bit more variety.  Most Europeans and North Americans dressed a bit less formally, and not everyone wore a jacket.  The most casual appearing ones were from Latin American nations, with some of the men wearing open collared shirts and blue jeans, while their female delegates were either dressed to party or to go shopping.  Only a few came from Africa, but they represented their nations well in ethnic garb.  It was quite an inhomogeneous crowd, with all sorts of sizes, faces, personalities, interests, origins, and attire.

And languages.

As I walked around the crowded hall, I heard conversations in Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Scandinavian languages, African languages, and a smattering of English with various regional accents representing the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.  The sights and sounds brought to memory the description of the "great multitude" that the apostle John wrote in the book of Revelation:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,  (Revelation 7:9)

The opening ceremony started with official words of welcome from the conference organizer, followed by the presidents of each of the participating medical societies.  I did my best to demonstrate respect to these prominent leaders in medicine by listening to their carefully chosen words, but I could not help but hear something else...I heard conversations in Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and tongues representing all tribes and nations.  No one was really listening.  The conversations throughout the room would continue until the reception got under way, when mouths would then be used for eating instead.

Clearly, the comparison between the doctors at a banquet hall and "a great multitude...standing before the throne and before the Lamb" turns out to be very poor indeed.  How wonderful and contrasting is the sight and sound of that great multitude before the Lamb, for while they are each diverse and unique in innumerable ways, they are yet united in the purpose of giving God all the glory, and cried out to God in "one" voice - intelligible, beautiful, and harmonious.

and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  (Revelation 7:10)