Warning! Don’t Read That Revelation Book!

When we were getting ready to translate the book of Revelation, we were studying the book and getting very excited about working through it. However, our Lusi mother tongue helpers didn’t have the same reaction. They told us like this. “The religion we used to be in forbade us from reading that book. They said, ‘If you read it, you will die.’ So we didn’t read it in the trade language Bible.”

So we turned to the book of Revelation, and said, “Look, this is what God’s Word says about itself. It says something very different. Revelation 1:3 (ESV) says ‘Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.’ Wow. God’s Word actually says the opposite! That those who read it and those who hear it and obey its words, will be blessed! That’s good news isn’t it?”

Isn’t it amazing how fears and lies keep us from reading and spending time in the Word of God? But when we do spend time reading what God is actually like, what his plan is, and what he is doing, we learn the truth that we don’t have to live in fear.

In our own growing up years, the book of Revelation was associated with all the bad things which were going to happen in the future, things to be afraid of. Not a book that many people want to read. But, that is NOT what is revealed in the book of Revelation. All that stuff was already revealed in many Old Testament prophecies. No, what is revealed in the book of Revelation is the Messiah (Rev 1:1). He is revealed as faithful, as worthy, as powerful, as coming king, as the fulfillment and fulfiller of all of God’s promises. He is the one who is bringing God’s plan for the ages to completion.

So, the next time you read the Book of Revelation, look for the Messiah. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal him to you. And you too can get excited, just like our Lusi mother tongue helpers did, about all the wonderful things that God has in store for those who know and obey the Messiah. He is the truth, the way, and the life. To Him be the honor and the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen!