Revelation 1:1

I began reading some notes that a friends of mine (Samuel Clough) has on the book of revelation and I was struck by his notes on the first verse as He began to expound on Revelation 1:1. I have not spent much time meditating on this verse until today and the spirit of revelation came and struck me. In the past I usually skip over this verse thinking I want to get to the meat of the Book, but I have just realized there is no meat without this verse. It says:

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.”

I am used to hear people say that the book of Revelation is not primarily about getting a sequence of events, but I never really believed them. Today I was struck with this reality. It is not given in order to reveal a sequence of events, but to reveal the attributes of God and show who Jesus really is.

The word ‘soon,’ in the first verse is incredibly significant. Obviously, in the natural it has been 2,000 years since this was written and since the word ‘soon’ was scribed. So is it still coming soon? The reality is that for God 2,000 years is a blip on the map in the span of eternity. 2 Peter 3:8 tells us that for God one day is 1,000 years and 1,000 years is one day. So God is outside of time. If this is true than why would He use the word ‘soon’ if it was more than 2,000 years away for humans inside of time? I began to meditate on what Samuel Clough suggests which is that this word primarily describes the urgency that is Gods heart for that hour.

This is a profound reality and my heart has been pricked by the Lord. It could have just said, ‘to show his servants what must take place,’ and omit the word soon. But instead He included it. This shows the deep desire and passion in Gods heart for Jesus to receive the reward of His suffering as described in Eph 1:18. God desires for the earth to return to the way it was with Adam in Gen 1-3. He longs for us, as humans, to dwell in fellowship without any hindrance of sin. The problem is that we are so fallen we have no clue what we are missing. We do not know what it was like when God dwelt with man. But the reality is that this is the ultimate end in Gods heart and it is where the end of all things is going. He wants this so much that we desires that Jesus be revealed soon. He longs for men to dwell with Him again.

I hope this encourages you to ask the Lord for a spirit of Revelation into His word. Sometimes I think I have things figured out, but then the something like this strikes me and I realize I hardly know anything. This book is so profound and it reveals the heart of God. Bob Sorge says, “The more time you spend in the ‘logos’ (written word), the greater your chances of receiving a ‘rhema’ (spoken word).” We usually ask for the thunder and lightning encounter with the Lord and don’t realize that He has given us an incredible way to encounter Him in His word. Yes the dramatic encounter will come, but until then I am going to encounter Him as much as I can in the written word!