Day 84

“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” Rev 4:1 NASB.

It is important to bring to the following chapters a sound interpretation, not an interpretation based on feeling, or a gut-sense of current events, but an interpretation based on what we actually find in the text. The only safe course in texts like these is to determine, as far as possible, the author’s actual intention in writing these passages. To the degree that we can determine his intention in the original setting, we will be on much safer ground in drawing out applications for our own time.

Our opinions about the Bible are not the thing that matters. What matters is God’s purpose through a human author and the method by which we discover that purpose. We need to begin by committing ourselves to the Word of God, no matter what opinions we may have brought to our study. We must then give careful attention to the words of the text in context, and allow each word to have its place in revealing the message God would have us see. The only truth that matters is the one God intended.

After writing out the letters to the seven churches, John moves on to describe a scene he is invited to observe in heaven. From here on in the book, the primary focus is on things that are future from John’s point of view (perhaps AD 95). Why a book on future events? Because God wants us to know that we can trust Him to get us where we need to go. We don’t need to know everything He knows, as long as we stay close to Him and follow Him.

The Book of Revelation was given to us in order to spare us anguish. Remembering its instructions will keep us from getting lost as the future unfolds.