Today’s reading is Revelation 1.
In 1973, the year I was born, Hal Lindsay wrote, “To the skeptic who says that Christ is not coming soon, I would ask him to put the book of Revelation in one hand and the daily newspaper in the other, and then sincerely ask God to show him where we are on His prophetic time-clock.”* He wrote multiple books in that decade trying to encourage Christians to believe God’s prophetic clock was winding down and Jesus would return any day then. Fifty-one years have passed. And men like Lindsay continue to tell us the modern newspaper is our best source for interpreting Revelation. Some get more specific in their date-setting than others, but they all have one thing in common. They are all wrong.
On Monday, I shared the apocalypse experienced by Elisha’s servant surrounded by a great Syrian army full of horses and chariots in 2 Kings 6. Question: did Elisha’s servant need the curtain pulled back on what God was going to do 2000 years after him? Of course not. He needed to see God’s perspective and plan for what was happening to him right in that moment. He needed to see God was in control right then. He needed to see God was going to win in his situation. When we read about the chariots of fire surrounding Elisha, we don’t search our modern newspaper headlines to understand the apocalypse. Nor do we do so to make application from that man’s experience to our modern needs. God opened that servant’s eyes to His heavenly army protecting him and Elisha. We do not have to see the chariots of fire around us in Jesus Christ to make application. When enemies surround us, we can trust “those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Or, we might say it this way, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4, ESV).
With this in mind, we should not be surprised to catch some repeated statements. Notice how John begins the book.
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.
Revelation 1:1 (ESV)
When are the things in this book to take place? 2000 years later? No. “Soon take place.” Not soon to us; this book wasn’t written to us. Soon to the original audience 1900 years ago.
Then John states a blessing:
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
Revelation 1:3 (ESV).
Did you catch that last statement? The time is near. Near to whom? Not to us. It was near when John wrote the book.
Here’s the point. If we interpret this book with a modern newspaper in our other hand, we are doing it wrong. John was not revealing what would happen two millennia later. He was revealing God’s plans to deal with the enemy and persecution the Christians of his day were facing. We need to start there. As we asked what Elisha’s servant needed to see in his apocalypse, we should ask what John’s first readers needed to see in theirs. Then we will know how to determine what we need to see in Revelation.
Praise the Lord!
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PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family
How does Revelation 1 prompt or improve your trust in God?
*There’s a New World Coming: A Prophetic Odyssey, Vision House Publishers, Santa Ana, California, 1973, p306.
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