Day 343
Zechariah 9:1-11:17, Revelation 1:1-20, Psalm 140:1-5
For some people Revelation is one of the more difficult books of the Bible. The vision that was given to John is quite vivid and so the imagery that is used can be quite graphic. One thing that we have to remember is that John was indeed given a vision and we therefore have to focus more on the message that lies behind what is being said rather than the actual pictures and words.
One thing that we see right at the outset of the book is the amount of deep theology that we find in there. There is so much contained in this first chapter from which we draw a lot of what we believe about God.
Christ …
… the faithful witness …
… firstborn from the dead …
… ruler of the kings of the earth.
That Christ loves us … and had freed us from sin … by his blood.
That he has made us a kingdom of priests
That we believe in God the Alpha and the Omega
All of these statements are in just a few verses in the middle. Beyond theses statements I haven't even touched on John being n the spirit (a place we should all seek to be), God the first and the last and the living one who was once dead. All of these amazing statements in a book that many people actually avoid.
Yes we will come to some more difficult images later, but it you never read Revelation you would never read some of these amazing thoughts of God. God surprises us in many places, even at the heart and the very end of scripture. As we come to the end of this journey, we need to be as constantly open to surprise as we were at the very beginning. When we let him surprise us we journey deeper into Him and His love.
For some people Revelation is one of the more difficult books of the Bible. The vision that was given to John is quite vivid and so the imagery that is used can be quite graphic. One thing that we have to remember is that John was indeed given a vision and we therefore have to focus more on the message that lies behind what is being said rather than the actual pictures and words.
One thing that we see right at the outset of the book is the amount of deep theology that we find in there. There is so much contained in this first chapter from which we draw a lot of what we believe about God.
Christ …
… the faithful witness …
… firstborn from the dead …
… ruler of the kings of the earth.
That Christ loves us … and had freed us from sin … by his blood.
That he has made us a kingdom of priests
That we believe in God the Alpha and the Omega
All of these statements are in just a few verses in the middle. Beyond theses statements I haven't even touched on John being n the spirit (a place we should all seek to be), God the first and the last and the living one who was once dead. All of these amazing statements in a book that many people actually avoid.
Yes we will come to some more difficult images later, but it you never read Revelation you would never read some of these amazing thoughts of God. God surprises us in many places, even at the heart and the very end of scripture. As we come to the end of this journey, we need to be as constantly open to surprise as we were at the very beginning. When we let him surprise us we journey deeper into Him and His love.
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