April 15, 2007

Background Scripture: Revelation 4

Devotional Reading: Psalms 111

A number of years ago, my wife Valere and I visited Patmos, the island where The Revelation to John was written.
As we approached it by ferry from Kos, we saw Patmos as a rocky, volcanic island rising dramatically from the iridescent waters of the Icarian Sea.

Our purpose was to visit the place where, according to tradition, John received his revelations.

As we entered the modest chapel, a leaflet informed us: “Dear visitor, the place which you have just entered is sacred.

“This small cave some 2,000 years ago gave shelter to the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ … who around the year 95 A.D. was exiled to Patmos by the Roman Emperor Domitian …”

As the leaflet suggested, the small grotto seemed a sacred place.
We found it easy to believe a recess in the rock close to the ground was indeed where John had slept, that another nook higher up was where he had knelt to pray and that a level place in the rock had indeed been used as a desk by his companion and secretary, Prochoros.

God came down

We were awed by the great crack in the rock ceiling from where it is believed, “God came down in all his glory and majesty to reveal to John and through him to the whole world, ‘the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter’”(Rev. 1:9).

Among the “things which are” were the predominance of emperor worship, suppression and persecution of Christians, the presumed delay of Christ’s second coming and internal dissentions and heresies that threatened the churches.

In short: For Christians, the future seemed bleak.

John’s Revelation was written in response to that bleak outlook.
“Revelation” is the English equivalent of the Greek “apocalypse.”
It is a special type of literature known as apocalyptic and deals with “last things,” such as the fulfillment of God’s plan, the Second
Coming and life after death.

Generally, it was written to inspire believers to retain their hope for the future despite hard times of the present – for God, not Satan, will prevail.

Apocalyptic literature was usually expressed in ecstatic dreams and visions. In some – also true of John’s Revelation – the images were intended as code to hide the message from unbelievers. The problem for us is that we get caught up in the minutia of the imagery and miss the big picture.

The symbols may not be particularly meaningful today, but the message behind them is as vital: Keep the faith and be not cowed by current tribulations – God’s plan and purpose will be fulfilled in

His own time.

A vantage point

Chapter 4, the first of a series of seven groups of seven visions each, presents an ecstatic view of God as the worthy ruler of the universe.

Although the world seems dark and clouded by rampant evil, John is granted a look into the realm of the omnipotent God.

Somewhat like the astronauts of our time, John is lifted above the darkness of the world to where he can see it from a different perspective.

In a hostile, unstable world such as ours, only in turning to God can we find peace and hope to give us assurance.

God presented Noah and his family with a rainbow that assured them of the future. In John’s vision “... round the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald” (4:3b). As Lynn Harold Hough observes, “… after the Flood, the rainbow. After tragedy, the great hope of a good future.”

When the world turns dark, look to the rainbow and bet your soul on God.