The book of Revelation can be intimidating. The imagery is foreign, the language is confusing at times, and it all seems distant from the way we speak today. There are a number of reasons for this.
First, revelation is posed in a genre of writing that most of us have never read anywhere but in the Bible. We are not well-versed in how to approach this mode of thinking. It isn’t a perspective designed to eliminate ambiguity. Instead, it is meant to expose glory amidst ambiguity. The human mind doesn’t particularly like the unresolved nature of that, but that is the nature of this genre.
Second, Revelation is tricky because it assumes we are deeply saturated in the rest of the scriptures. The book of Revelation draws on the entire thesaurus of the Bible for its imagery. Word pictures in Genesis find their voice again here in Revelation. Every phrase is loaded with double and triple meanings. Does that mean you can’t understand it unless you know the Bible inside and out? Well, yes and no. Perhaps the invitation of Revelation is to a lifelong journey of discovery. You may reap a harvest every year that you read it, and every confusion is an invitation back into God’s word for answers. Read it over and over through the years. Let it serve you as the rest of scripture awakens to you.
Ultimately, the Book of Revelation is an invitation to a transformed perspective. If we are obsessed with correcting the interpretation the first time, we may have missed the point altogether. Instead, we are invited to be transformed by our reading over and over as we read over decades rather than days. This may be the Spirit’s invitation to you in all your scripture reading. As we enter into this book, take a moment to surrender to the Spirit’s timing in your life. The text is powerful even if you don’t cognitively understand it the first time. Let the journey begin!
by Aaron Bjorklund
