The Book of
Revelation is the only book of the Bible that
promises a special blessing to the reader.1
(Many verses in the Bible encourage reading God's
Word--in general--but only one book has the
"audacity" to claim, in effect, "Read me, I'm
special.")
What is surprising
is that, even for many avid Bible readers, this book
is overlooked or neglected. One would expect just
the opposite.
There are many
reasons why this book invariably results in a
special blessing to the diligent inquirer. Perhaps
the most basic blessing accrues from the fact that
in order to understand the back ground of the many
idioms and allusions, one will have to trace back
into virtually every book of the Bible.
The Book of
Revelation consists of 404 verses which contain over
800 allusions to the Old Testament alone!2
One reason the book appears so strange to the
uninitiated is that most of us haven't developed
enough familiarity with the Old Testament.
One of the keys to
understanding the book is also to take it
seriously,not to get distracted with fanciful
allegories or speculations but to read it with care
and diligence as part of the whole Word of God. The
Bible consists of 66 books, penned by 40 authors
over thousands of years, and yet we now discover
that it is an integrated message: every detail,
every word, every number, every place name is there
by supernatural engineering. And no study makes this
clearer than the study of the Book of Revelation.
(The Bible is like
any textbook in school, the answers are all in the
back!)
Organization of the Book
The Book of
Revelation is the only book I know which also has a
divinely inspired outline included! Jesus Himself
has provided the key to the structure of the book:3
He told John to write:
- the things
which thou hast seen, and
- the things
which are, and
- the things
which shall be hereafter.
The "things which
thou hast seen" refers to the vision of our risen
Lord just experienced previously in Chapter 1.
The "things which
are" refers to the seven churches which were
existing at that time in Chapters 2 and 3.
Interestingly, the Lord's letters to the churches in
these two chapters are the most relevant part of the
book for you and me today.
The "things which
shall be hereafter (meta tauta)" refers to the
remainder of the book.
Joshua as a Model?
It is interesting
to notice the parallels in design between the Book
of Joshua in the Old Testament and the Book of
Revelation. Joshua's name is in Hebrew; in Greek it
could be rendered "Jesus." Joshua's mission is to
dispossess the usurpers from the Land on behalf of
God's people; in Revelation, Jesus' mission is to
dispossess the Planet Earth of the usurpers.
Joshua initially
sends ahead two witnesses.4
(We call them spies, but all they accomplished was
getting a Gentile woman saved.) The two witnesses of
Revelation Chapter 11 are a prominent element.
In the initial
attack on the Amorite capital of Jericho, every rule
of the Torah was violated: the Levites were exempt
from military duties, yet they lead the procession.
They were to do no work on Sabbath Day, yet here
they march around Jericho once a day for six days,
and then seven times on the seventh day! They are to
keep silent until the final trumpet blast, etc. It
is interesting that the Seven Trumpets in Revelation
are introduced after a strange silence.5
The opposing kings
align themselves under a leader who calls himself
Adoni-Zedek ("The Lord of Righteousness"), who is
ultimately defeated with signs in the sun and the
moon at the battle of Beth Horon.6
The defeated kings hide in caves, etc.
It seems that in
Revelation we have the final "Joshua," dispossessing
the Planet Earth of its usurpers on behalf of God's
people in a manner that is remarkably parallel.
