REVELATION 22
3. And all curses existed no longer, and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants will serve Him.
4. And they shall see His face, and His name is on their foreheads.
5. And night does not exist there, and they do not need the light of a lamp, and the light of the sun, because the Lord God enlightens them, and they shall reign (do the king thing) forever and ever.
v. 3 No curses. Where did we first see curses? In the Garden (Genesis 3), and it was God pronouncing them. To Adam, God pronounced the curse of the earth (the Adamah), that it would no longer be easy to grow crops, with thorns (later to be Jesus’ crown) & thistles being produced and that he would return to the same dirt from which he was taken. To the woman He pronounced pain in bearing children and that she would want to dominate her husband, but he would instead dominate her, and to the serpent He said there would be enmity between him & the woman and her “seed” (in Greek, sperma) would crush the serpent’s head & the seed of the serpent would strike His heel. This curse is interesting because it curses the serpent but also announces God’s plan to bless and heal and rescue all of humanity. Jesus crushed the power of the serpent on the cross, taking the curse on Himself (Galatians 3:13). So, from the beginning of humanity we have the curse of the earth as a result of human disobedience, we see that to the extreme today. The curse of toil, that humans would invest much of their time in activities that may not be very fruitful, just to survive. The curse relationships between husbands and wives, that power struggles would ensue, rather than peaceful pleasurable, fruitful fellowship. And we see the curse of the creatures of this world, with humans crushing heads and creatures biting heels. In heaven there will be none of this. All work will be fruitful. All relationships will be peaceful and right and productive. All creatures will and live together peacefully (Isaiah 11).
v. 4 No one can see the face of God and live (Exodus 33). Yet Jesus taught the “pure in heart” will see God (Matthew 5). His servants, the ones round the throne, have already died. They can’t die again. And there is nothing better for the lover than to see the Beloved’s face. This is the greatest reward, as the ancient blessing proclaims “The Lord bless you & keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6). To have the joy of seeing the one you love face-to-face is the greatest reward. To be separated from the Beloved is the greatest curse. There are no curses here.
and His Name-When He looks at us there, He will see His own name. Just like i still wear some of the clothes my son left from his days at boarding school-and those clothes have his name written in them, meaning they belong to him. He will look at us and see we belong to Him.
v. 5 Night does not exist there. The sun and moon also don’t exist there, because they’re not needed. Jesus said “I am the light of the world” in John 9. Jesus and His disciples met a man born blind and the Disciples asked who sinned so he was blind. But they missed the point. No one had sinned. There was no generational curse this man was living out. His blindness resulted in the glory of God being revealed in an extraordinary healing. And the once-blind-man came to faith in Jesus. Jesus said the night was coming when no one could work. But while it’s day we should work, doing good. Imagine. No need for sleep, we’ll have bodies that need no recovery time. No need for dreams, reality is better than any dream. Imagine being able to be productive and make a positive difference every moment of your existence. Imagine that kind of restfulness.
Thought for Today
Maybe there are enough thoughts in the verse-by-verse commentary. God has in store for us a life of productivity, fellowship and peace. I believe He invites us to embrace these ideals of heaven even while we are here on earth. This is what Jesus taught us to pray.
Our Father, in heaven
May Your name be hallowed
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
In the name of Jesus, whose is the Kingdom and power and glory for ever and ever
Amen
6. And he said to me, “these are the faithful and true words, and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel, to show His servants that which shall happen quickly.
7. And Look, I am coming quickly. Blessed (SO happy) are those who keep the words of the prophecy of this book.
v. 6 These faithful and true words are from the Faithful and True person (Revelation 3:14 Jesus, the one giving the messages to the Churches and 19:11-Jesus on the white horse).
v. 7 I come quickly we’ll discuss more in verse 12 below. This is the sixth of the seven Blesseds (O How Happys-or Beatitudes) of Revelation. Those who keep the words of the prophecy may be difficult to understand. The book doesn’t have much by way of instructions. But it begins with exhortations to the Churches and those exhortations set the stage for all that follows. The prophecy also repeats often the exhortation that we should be ready. Here the Beatitudes of Revelation and the teachings come together. It is God’s people, the Church that must be ready and that readiness is seen by how well we keep the words of Jesus. Keeping His words means obeying (John 14 & 15).
It’s Only Words
The Bible is full of teachings about words. Jesus, more than any other teacher in the Bible associated words with faithfulness. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” He said (Matthew 12). In fact, if you are a good person your words are like treasures (Luke 6:45). It is with our words we bless God, yet with the same mouth we curse others (James 3). The Revelation teaches that liars will not be welcome in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21 & 22). If we claim to be God’s people we must tell the truth. The problem is, truth is often difficult for most of us to see.
“Most people do not se things as they are; rather, they see things as they are”. Richard Rohr
In order to understand what the angel is saying concerning “keeping the words of this prophecy” it might be helpful to quickly review the instructions given to the Churches at the beginning of the book.
To Ephesus:
“You have lost your first love. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first . . . & repent”.
To Smyrna:
“Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer . . . Be faithful, even to the point of death”.
To Pergamum:
“Repent!”
To Thyatira:
“ . . . hold on to what you have till I come”.
To Sardis:
“Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die . . . Remember what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent”.
To Philadelphia:
“Hold on to what you have so that no one will take your crown”.
To Laodicea
“I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see . . . Be earnest and repent. Look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me”.
To all of the Churches, Jesus says
“Whoever has ears let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”.
From these we can draw, I think, five repeated messages: Remember, Repent, Repeat (your first works), Hold On!, and Listen!
Remember
Any couple that has gone through hardships has a history. Remembering those early days, when love was sweet and pure, when words weren’t enough to express the depths of love and heights of happiness and longing, when there was not enough time in a day to be together, shines light on the darker days. Jesus knows the progress of love, how we, as humans, like the moon’s cycles, wax and wane in our love, but His love endures forever. He wants us to remember what it was like to be in love with Him, because He never stops being in love with us. He calls us back to that first love. It is also our nature to forget, especially we forget the good (for this reason the Psalmist told himself not to forget-Psalm 103), or think things were good when they really weren’t (Exodus 14; Numbers 20), while God will never forget us (Isaiah 49:15-16); He only forgets our sins.
Repent
Jesus earliest message to the world was “Repent!” (Mark 1). Now, to those in the Kingdom of God He says the same. Repentance in the bible means a change of mind, a change of direction. Interesting, isn’t it, that this is one of Jesus’ repeated messages to the Church? We have to reflect on where we were, compared with where we are, then, based on where we should be change direction to get there. The road back to love is clear.
Repeat
Whether you’re Ephesus, working really hard, but without the love and passion of the past, or Laodicea, thinking you have plenty when you pander in spiritual poverty, the pattern is the same-go back to basics. Do those things people in love do. Return to the Lord every moment of the day. Sacrifice to regain purity. Do whatever’s necessary to regain spiritual health and wellbeing. Make that Relationship your first priority. And then, Hold on!
Hold On!
We live in an age of earthly passion and spiritual lethargy. We are surrounded by distractions from the Eternal values that make us extraordinary beings, made in the image of God-entertainment, career, wealth, gadgets, status, constant connection to the collective mind. Jesus said “because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will wax cold” (Matthew 24). Those who want to live lives of obedience to and fellowship with God have to let go of those things with both hands so they have hands free to hold on to God. You can’t hold on to your cell phone and embrace your lover. Actually you can, but the embrace is much better if you set your hands free first.
Listen!
Anyone who has ears to hear. As stated above, we tend to see things as WE are. We also hear our LORD through filters. We have to quiet the cacophony of consistent worldly clamor in order to hear the still small voice of the Spirit. He doesn’t speak like wind blowing rocks around, or earthquakes or storms. He is gentle. When Jesus knocks at the door of our hearts his touch is light. You have to be attentive and free of distraction to even hear. But if you hear, if we open, if we invite Him in, O! the fellowship is sweet, the conversations long, the delight undeniable. Many educators argue these days we all need classes on listening skills. If we’d learn to hear our LORD, we’d all hear each other much better.
So there, you have it. The Revelation has words to keep. And those who keep the words of this prophecy, O how happy they’ll be.
Prayer for Today
Father,
Speak, my Lord, Your servant is listening.
Speak, my Lord, we will obey.
Speak, my Lord, and we will follow You today.
We will wait on You, and mount up with wings like eagles.
Give us strength to run and not be weary, to walk Your straight and narrow path and not faint.
Lead us to you, and let us abide with you now and forever.
As we look to Jesus, our forerunner, in whose name we pray.
