The Chapel Light - March 2009

Somewhat to my surprise I’ve received very positive response about the sermons and articles on the book of Revelation.  Along those lines I have a few more interpretive keys to the book of Revelation to offer for your consideration. The vision itself begins in Revelation 4.  The setting is the throne room of God, and the action centers on a scroll written on both sides that no one is worthy to open.  And then the Lion who is a slain Lamb comes forward.  He alone is worthy to open the seals on the scroll.  Now, a scroll full of writing that is sealed with seven seals and which no one can open or read or look at, but which everyone wants to see opened and read and looked at, is an intriguing thing, isn’t it?  In that sense the scroll – or should I say “the contents of the scroll—” becomes the main character.  We all want to know what the scroll says -- so the key is getting the whole thing opened so we can read it! Students of prophecy spend a lot of time trying to figure out the images that flash up on the screen each time Christ opens one of the seals on the scroll.  But are the images that are seen – the four horsemen, the martyrs under the altar, and great earthquake and falling stars – really expressing the contents of the scroll?  Or are they representing things preparatory to the real message of the scroll, things that must take place before the message of the scroll can be read?  I’m inclined to believe the latter. As the scroll is almost open, six of the seven seals having been undone, there is a great pause as John sees the sights of Revelation 7 – four angels holding back winds of judgment until the servants of God are sealed, and then a great innumerable crowd from every tribe and nation and language who are going to “come out of the great tribulation” and live peacefully and joyfully in God’s temple.  Why is John shown these sights while the scroll hangs almost completely open – just prior to the message of the scroll being FINALLY revealed?  It seems as though the vision of Revelation 7 is also preparatory – things that must be put in place, revealed for some reason, before the message of the scroll can actually be read.     In Revelation 8:1 the last seal is broken, and we expect now to be able to read the message on the scroll.  Instead, after all the noise and hubbub that we’ve seen in chapters 6 and 7, there is suddenly silence.  John says it lasts for half an hour.  Try a half hour of total silence some time, especially after there’s been all sorts of noise and commotion.  It’s quite a pregnant pause.  We are all holding our breath waiting to hear what the scroll that couldn’t be read has to say. But instead of the contents of the scroll, seven angels take their turns blowing trumpets, and we get to see more commotion – hail and fire and blood falling to earth and killing the vegetation, a great mountain falling into the sea and poisoning the water, a great star falling into the fresh waters and poisoning them, the lights of the sky are struck and dimmed, an army of locusts emerges from the pit and wild demonic horses are turned loose across the Euphrates River.  Six of the seven trumpets blow – and we’re waiting for that last one, just like we waited for the last seal of the scroll to be broken. And then we are introduced to Revelation 10.  It’s an odd chapter; commentators often seem unsure what to do with it.  In it, a large angel with a little book (or scroll) in his hand comes down to John.  The only other detail that we’re given about this little scroll is that it’s OPEN.  And John is commanded to eat it (just as the prophet Ezekiel had eaten a scroll that was written on both sides, full of judgment).  He does so, and then is told “that he must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.” What is this little scroll, or as the KJV puts it, “the little book”? I want to suggest that we consider what the vision has been building toward up to this point.  It has been a vision about a sealed scroll that we all wanted to read.  The opening of the scroll is stretched out dramatically.  When the scroll is opened there is a very pregnant pause of silence.  As the action moves forward and is moving toward completion, a large angel gives John an OPEN scroll to eat – and then commands him to prophesy.     Why introduce this little scroll out of nowhere?    Isn’t it more likely to find its meaning in the previously established context?     What might the relationship be between the scroll of seven seals and the little scroll that John eats?     And might there be some connection between all of this and the statement in the introductory verses of Revelation 1:1 which says that the risen Christ sent the Revelation to John “and signified it by His angel to His servant John.”     It’s just a thought … Chew on it; if it makes sense and you find it helpful, swallow it.  If not, just spit it out.