Revelation - Letter to a Friend (6)

 

 

Johnson makes two other points in the preface of Discipleship on the Edge that I want to highlight, the first is that Revelation is not written in chronological order!

 

“It is important to emphasize at the beginning of our journey through Revelation that this series of windows, this series of visions, does not progress in chronological order. That is, the events depicted in the images are not presented in the order in which they happened historically. They are presented in the order in which John saw them. “Then I saw.” “Then I saw.” “Then I head.” We are not to ask, “What happens next?” but rather “What did John see next?” That’s because what John sees next may not be what happens next” (page 29, bold mine).

 

“Thus, as we make our way through Revelation we find ourselves thinking we are coming to the end, only to start a new series of images that then seem to lead towards the end, only to start yet another series of images” (page 29).

 

Johnson’s observation is not novel; it has long been recognized as a simple matter of fact. However, if we have been conditioned by the historically novel notion of a rapture, of charts purporting to detail world events, of “End Times” hype, of preoccupation with headlines, then not only may Johnson’s point be a shock, it may be irritating and we may want to ignore it rather than explore it. There is a huge difference between looking for Jesus in Revelation and looking to satisfy our curiosity. Satisfying our curiosity is not the same as entering into a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

Revelation is not history 101, it is not the future 101, it is Jesus 101. If we are not looking for Jesus, if we are not seeking to be faithful to Him and to one another, if we are not learning to come out of Babylon and stand with Christ Jesus in opposition to the Beast (in all of its forms), then we are in the wrong classroom. If we are not giving up our lives for Jesus and others, not loving our lives “even unto death,” then we are kidding ourselves about our approach to Revelation. Revelation is “the Revelation of Jesus Christ,” if we aren’t seeing Him then we are blinded by a sandstorm of curiosity and self-interest and fast food religion.

 

If we are living in the entire Bible then the idea of Revelation not being chronological is not a big deal, for we see this throughout the Bible. To begin with, the Bible’s arrangement is not chronological, a fact which often confuses people, but which also points up the need for immersion in Scripture. I can read about Adam, Abraham, and Jacob in Genesis, I can also read about them in 1 Chronicles. I can read about King Hezikiah in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and in Isaiah.

 

If I attempt to read Jeremiah thinking it is in chronological order I will be frustrated. In fact, if I try to impose any order in my reading of Jeremiah, I may go mad (as it appears some scholars have done). As J. A. Thompson wrote in his NICOT commentary, “When we come to inquire whether any principles of arrangement can be observed in the book of Jeremiah, we have to admit that any consistent principles escape us” (page 30).

 

“Our uncertainty is increased by the fact that the book of Jeremiah is partly in prose and partly in poetry, these being present in approximately equal proportions. But there is no attempt to keep the prose and the verse separate since both appear side by side in many parts of the book. Nor does any help come from the fact that Jeremiah sometimes speaks for himself in the first person, sometimes in the name of Yahweh in the first person, and is sometimes spoken of in the third person. He refers to the people as “you” or “they” or “she.” The three major blocks of material, poetic sayings, biographical prose, and prose discourses, do not furnish any clue to the arrangement of the book either” (page 31).

 

Someone familiar with Zechariah will likely be at home in Revelation, for in Zechariah as in Revelation the question is, “What does the prophet “see” next?” not “What is the next event in chronological order?”

 

Isaiah has 66 chapters. As with Revelation we see the consummation of the ages again and again and again throughout Isaiah, beginning with Isaiah Chapter 2! Why then do people impose chronological reading on Revelation and not on Isaiah or Zechariah?

 

And note that in Isaiah and Zechariah, we not only move forward and backward in time, but we are also in the heavens before the Throne of God (Isaiah 6, Zechariah 3) – just as in Revelation.

 

We cannot overemphasize that our question in reading Revelation ought to be, “What does John see next?” rather than the popular but misinformed, “What happens next?”

 

Johnson’s second point that I want to highlight is that Revelation is about Jesus coming; coming today and yesterday and tomorrow. Jesus is always coming. How is He coming to me, to you, to us?

 

Johnson writes that the first of the “great unseen realities [of Revelation] is that Jesus is “coming”.” (page 30).

 

1:7 – “Behold, he is coming.”

22:7 – “I am coming quickly.”

22:12 – “I am coming quickly.”

22:20 – “I am coming quickly.”

 

Johnson points out that the message of Revelation is not that Jesus will come, but that He is coming.

 

“The process is happening at this very moment. Jesus Christ is not sitting on the throne passively anticipating some future date when he gets up and moves toward us. He is moving even now. He is coming... Jesus is pressing in on the world, and that pressing generates great upheaval…The invasion of the cities of the world by the City of God cannot but result in great upheaval. Jesus is coming – even now” (pages 30 – 31).

Why do we get crazy about world events and reading the entrails of news when our God has said that He will shake all things in the heavens and on earth so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain (Hebrews 13:25 – 29)? It is as if we’ve never read Daniel Chapter 2 or Psalm 2.

 

Why do we seek to preserve the kingdoms of this world when the Stone cut without hands is bringing them all to an end (Daniel 2)? Why do we align ourselves with systems that are passing away? Why do we practice syncretism in which we meld the Gospel with the philosophies and beastly governments of the present age? (The beastly imagery of governments we see in Revelation and Daniel portray the true nature of the kingdoms of this world).

 

Jesus is coming now. How is He coming into my life? Into your life? Into our life as His Body?

 

We are either living in the City of God or the city of man – a city with many expressions. Ours is not to choose between the cities of man, for they all have one source and they are all in rebellion – they are ALL in rebellion. Ours is to choose to live in the City of God, following the Lamb wherever He goes.

 

Jesus is coming today, right now…are we seeing Him?