Tim’s Daily Bread Devotional 5.30.22

By May 30, 2022Daily Bread

Good morning!

I hope this day finds you and your family well. I invite you to take a few moments with me to read and reflect upon today’s scripture selection — and to carry these thoughts with you into your day.

Today’s Scripture: Revelation 1:4b-8 (Part 1)

1: 4b Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

 

Tim’s Devotional Reflection for Today

Revelation is a book of the Bible that is so foreign to our experience and so strange in its imagery that we often avoid it. Revelation has also been interpreted in such a bewildering variety of ways—and misinterpreted in so many different ways—that it is easier to leave it alone.
These feelings about the book of Revelation are nothing new. The variety of emotions and opinions that have been felt and expressed down through the ages have been astonishing–ranging from complete praise to utter disdain.

Jerome wrote to Paulinus, bishop of Nola, these words: “The [Revelation] of John has as many secrets as words. I am saying less than the book deserves. It is beyond all praise; for multiple meanings lie hidden in each single word.”

Martin Luther had quite a different opinion of Revelation, considering it to be beyond the very possibility of praise: “My spirit,” he wrote in his preface to the book in 1522, “cannot accommodate itself to this book. There is one sufficient reason for the small esteem in which I hold it—that Christ is neither taught nor recognized.”

Add to that the doomsdayers down through the ages who have tried to correlate current events and the highly symbolic images in the book to predict the end of the world. There have been thousands upon thousands of such people—and they have all been wrong!
Wikipedia has a fascinating list of dates predicted for the end of the world and who made the prediction. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events) So far, they have all come and gone. Some have been sincere; others have been charlatans. They have all been wrong.

You may remember the man who made such a prediction years ago in a book he published. As the date came and went, there was a sensational revelation (pardon the pun): as the date approached for the end of the world, he was buying a piece of land on a river somewhere to build a home!
As Vernard Eller, in his commentary on Revelation, put it, “The cumulative batting average for no one knows how many thousand self-proclaimed pros is .000. Of course, those presently at the plate say, `But now the evidence is so much clearer; now the signs are unmistakeable; this time we’ve got it, I guarantee you.’ Yes,” he says, “but know for a fact that all of the former calendarizers were just as certain and said the very same thing in their own day. They were reading the same book of Revelation, were just as capable observers of history, were just as open to the Holy Spirit, had just as convincing arguments.” (from Vernard Eller’s Deere Lectures, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, 1992)

At the end of the first century, the church was experiencing terrible persecution in many places at the hands of the Romans. A Christian named John was in exile on the Isle of Patmos because of his faith. He wrote to the Christians in the seven churches addressed in Revelation to give them a message of hope. Read Revelation with this in mind. It is critical to understanding the book.

Titles tell us something about a person: Doctor, Senator, Representative, Reverend, Attorney at Law, Professor, etc. None of those titles fully capture the nature of a person, but they say something. It is the same with the titles for Christ that we encounter in scripture. In the reading for today and tomorrow from Revelation, the writer uses several titles to get at the nature of Jesus Christ. We’ll consider those tomorrow.

For today, remember that Revelation is a book of hope for very trying times. It says that ultimately, goodness, mercy, love, and peace will win over the forces of evil, cruelty, hate, and violence.

 

Hymn: “Jesus Shall Reign” by Isaac Watts (1719)

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
does its successive journeys run,
his kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
till moons shall wax and wane no more.

To him shall endless prayer be made,
and praises throng to crown his head.
His name like sweet perfume shall rise
with every morning sacrifice.

People and realms of every tongue
dwell on his love with sweetest song,
and infant voices shall proclaim
their early blessings on his name.

Blessings abound where’er he reigns:
the prisoners leap to lose their chains,
the weary find eternal rest,
and all who suffer want are blest.

Let every creature rise and bring
the highest honors to our King,
angels descend with songs again,
and earth repeat the loud amen.

Thank you for sharing this moment of your day with me, with God, and with these reflections on a portion of scripture.  I hope you will carry these with you throughout your day and night.

Grace and Peace,


Dr. Tim Bruster
Senior Pastor