Revelation 1:1-8

Revelation 1:1-8

The greatest problem we face when studying or reading Revelation is the apriori assumption of the purpose of the book. Most of the teachers and writers who deal with Revelation act as if the book is about future history. It is treated as a cheat sheet for a timeline, allowing Christians to know events before they happen. If we begin with this presumption, we fall into a morass of confusion trying to match the descriptions in Revelation to events in history and link them to current or near events. This has been a repeated failure of the church and of sects for years.

In this passage there are two references to time in verses 1 and 4, totaling about 10 words. There are in this passage depictions and descriptions of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of angels, and of the church in every verse. This book is just barely about time at all. It is almost entirely about the forces of righteousness and their ultimate victory over the powers of evil. This is a panoramic vision of the defeat of the world, the flesh, and the devil at a cosmic level. It is especially important because in life it often feels like evil is winning. 

Verses 4 through 8 are almost a summary of the whole book and all of history in every age. It is also a beautiful hymn of praise. This expression of praise begins with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (vv. 4 and 5) and ends with the Alpha and Omega, the Eternal One, the Almighty God (v. 8). In the middle is the story of our redemption and our sharing in His victory (v. 5–7). The grandeur of God and the salvation He provides and our sharing in that salvation make the obsessions with dates and charts pale into insignificance. Our fixation on charts, timelines, and graphs about dates, chronology, currency, and marks ends up seeming just a little shallow and silly.

This book was written in a world of incredible suffering and persecution for God's people. They lived in a world where it seemed that evil was the stronger and would ultimately prevail. Into this dark world there comes this message: The whole universe, time, history, and everything else is under God's control, and He with His people shall prevail. To understand this book, don't look at history or time, but rather, look to God and His victory and glory.

"Lord, help me keep my focus on You at all times. AMEN"