As long as I can remember, I have always loved hiking and strolling along the banks of water courses. The gurgling brooks, washing creeks, and roaring rivers; no less beautiful might be the shaded streams flowing across flat meadows. Around the world, people apparently share a similar attraction, for they make paths follow the water routes. The comfort of water flowing nearby is highly valued. John opens this final chapter with a vision of the Water of Life flowing in abundance from the Throne of God. Who could resist?
Indeed, the main street of the City runs on either side of this River of Life. This is shaded by a galleria of Trees of Life. What was closed to humanity by the Fall, in the Garden of Eden, is now openly accessible to all who enter the City. The Garden now grows as a park in the Eternal City. Whatever need we might have, imagined or unimagined, is provided there. John reminds us there the curse of the Fall is broken completely. All we lost there is restored, and more beside. The language of Genesis is loudly echoed here, but the story goes in reverse.
The final section opens with God's declaration His Word is true. While that may seem obvious, John includes it here because there is no higher authority to affirm the Word than the Creator of all things. We find the Word of God is self-affirming. That is, upon hearing it in any form, the soul whom God touches will be quick to obey. That is our primary evidence for deciding to treat someone as a fellow servant of God -- they are anxious to know what He requires. Any other response justifies dealing with that person as lost. John makes the audacious claim his Apocalypse is the Word of God, on a par with the prophecies of old. He writes it knowing this will close the canon. Very shortly afterward, the need for this book will become immense, as various parts of it become present reality.
Then he quotes a warning from Jesus about His Return -- the word is best understood as "suddenly." There will be no prior notice, no advance warning. The implication is a command to get started right away doing what the teaching of this book calls for, to take these eternal truths and apply them to our lives as actions. This means immediately pull away from the Harlot, loose our grip on this world, and turn to face New Jerusalem, the other-worldly understanding of life in this world. All this is just an opportunity to live out the truth of His Word until He calls us home.
Just to be sure we understand the lesson, John repeats the scene of falling down at the feet of the angel who has been escorting him through all these visions. Again, we are reminded the angels, powerful and knowing they may be, are merely servants of God, applying their powers on our behalf. We are the purpose, the focus, of all this effort to reveal God. Thus, unlike Daniel, John is commanded not to seal up these visions, but to publish them. Not in the sense of trying to make men change their behavior by any human means, but to reveal the Word by living it ourselves. It is not for us to compel men to obey, but to obey ourselves, lest we interfere with someone else who is obeying. Let the Covenant of Noah do its work until all things are fulfilled.
That fulfillment will be when all things are ended. Jesus states it bluntly again: His appearance will be sudden, and it will be too late to curry His favor then. He already knows the story, from beginning to end -- indeed, He is the story Himself, beginning to end. We who embrace that story will enjoy the City of Life. Indeed, our citizenship is already secure; everyone else is doomed. We dare not adopt any of their habits. Jesus speaks to identify Himself one last time as the promised Messiah, the fulfillment of every promise in the Old Testament, the fulfillment of all Israel was meant to be. Now He rules the New Israel, the Church.
Unlike the Covenant of Noah, which is enforced against the will of fallen men, the Covenant of Christ is an offer which can scarcely be described for richness and joy. "Come" says He, and so say we. Whomever is moved by a desire to participate will not be disappointed. John then closes with a warning not to take this book lightly. It's not like some work of man, subject to editing and modifications. It stands on that eternal truth, the revelation of God. Change it, and the message of invitation is harmed, and so will your life be harmed.
The final seal on the book is the Word of Christ: "Surely I come suddenly." Don't rest in this world. Grace calls us to a higher plane.
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Ed Hurst
24 October 2007
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