The
Bible has 66 books in which there are 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books
in the New Testament.
The
last book in the Bible is the Book of Revelation.
Ironically,
in spite of the name of this book many people think that this book is full of
hidden meanings as well as very difficult to read because of all the imageries
seen by John (author of the book).
It talks about seals, trumpets, red dragon, wild beast, bowls and lastly in chapter 21 and 22 the new heaven and the new earth.
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Have
you read the Book of Revelation? What do
you think? Is it difficult or is it easy?
I
think it is both difficult and easy.
It is easy to read
Let’s
go over the easy part.
This
book is written with the very purpose of revealing things from Jesus
Christ. Revelation 1:1 (The Revelation
of Jesus Christ …) explicitly spell out that this book is the revelation of
Jesus Christ for us to understand. Also
in verse 3 it points out that those who read, hear and practice whatever is
written in this book will be blessed.
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
The
whole Bible is inspired by God and profitable
- for teaching,
- for reproof,
- for correction,
- for training in righteousness
and
that man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work (II Timothy3: 16 –
17).
With these
2 ideas, we can be sure that we are not supposed to be confused by the content
of the book in the Bible.
It is
true that there are a lot of imageries in the Book of Revelation in which we
can interrupt this way or we can interrupt another way. What can this be and how it is being done?
If we
look at these imageries, they are not the focus of what the Book of Revelation
is about. The book is to tell of God’s greatness,
His wrath to sin and what is to come with the purpose that we will be ready for
Jesus’ second coming.
Many people like to speculate who the Anti-Christ is? But how does it matter if we know who the Anti-Christ is? How will this affect us if we can clearly identify who the Anti-Christ is?
Take for example: If you are standing on the street and I suddenly say to you "A car is coming". What do you do? Do you immediate step back to the sidewalk? Or do you take your time to look at what car is coming? Is the car big or is the car small? What color is the car? Is it a late model? The car is domestic made or foreign made?
It does not matter the exact detail of the car. The point is that a car is coming and is going to hit you if you still stand on the street.
The reason that I tell you that a car is coming is that you can step back to the sidewalk and avoid being hit.
This is the main idea for the Book of Revelation - we are to listen and take heed so that we are ready for Jesus' second coming.
It is difficult to read
God only reveal what we need to know and nothing more. There are things in the Book of Revelation is interesting to dig deeper. How it is related to the OT?
One example is in Rev 5:4 John wept greatly when he saw that no one is worthy to open the seal of a book that he saw. Why did John wept? Is it because no one is worthy or the book cannot be open or both? We do not know. There are no hinds in the Bible to tell us.
Another reason that the Book of Revelation is difficult to read is that we are not Jews and we are not familiar with the Old Testament especially the book of Ezekiel and Daniel.
I myself is interested to be able to link the imageries describe in the Book of Revelation to the Old Testament and if we can better understand of the Bible. But I don't think this will be hindering us to understand the true purpose of the Book of Revelation.
It is for us to read
With this I hope I can provide one perspective for you to read the Book of Revelation and to be blessed because you read, hear and take heed of what is written in this book.
Chapter 4 and 5 is what I called the ultimate worship. The 4 Living creatures and the 24 elders respond to God's greatest who is sitting on the throne and bow down to worship.
My favorite verse is Ephesian 1:17: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know
- what is the hope of His calling,
- what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and
- what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe
I hope our hearts are enlightened so that we can see/know (fully understand) the riches of the glory of the inheritance that we are to receive. As I have mentioned in a previous post, we are to sit on Jesus' throne along with Him and not that He will have a big throne and we get some other smaller throne but we got to sit on His throne also. How glorious it is to be sitting with Him on His throne.
Can you see how glorious this is? Are you ready for Jesus' second coming?
