Trustworthy and True: Daily Thoughts from Revelation (Revelation 22:6-13)

Trustworthy and true. Do you want things like that in your life? Isn’t it amazing to have people you can trust and who know the truth and will always tell it to you? These are the kind of people you must gather around you and listen to.

And this is the kind of revealing that Jesus claims our book of Revelation is. It is a companion worthy of keeping with us.

And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”

“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”

And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”  (Revelation 22:6-13 ESV)

God is behind the “spirits of the prophets.”  He has chosen to show us His purposes and plans through them.  He has communicated through John and John hears the words of the Savior, “I am coming soon.”  Though John worships, or tries to, the angel who carried this message to him, only God is worthy of worship so the angel forbids him. When Thomas worshiped Jesus in the upper room after his resurrection, Jesus did not stop him (John 20:28,29).

There is a blessing pronounced for the one who keeps the words of this prophecy. In what sense are we to “keep” them? The warnings and encouragements to the churches seem to be the kinds of things we can “keep.” We can remember our first love, be faithful unto death, beware of the insidious temptation to sexual immorality, be alert to false doctrine, wake up from our deadly sleep of apathy, and avoid being lukewarm.

Another reassurance is given that only the righteous will be a part of this kingdom.  When Jesus comes he will come to judge, repaying punishment to those who rejected him, but repaying glory to those who trusted him. 

John hears Jesus speak once again. He identifies himself as the Alpha and Omega, a title the Father uses of Himself in chapter 1.  Jesus is God, too. This is a passage I have seen Jehovah’s Witnesses struggle with.

Everything comes back to Jesus. We are awaiting his return. We are awaiting his judgment. The triune God is the beginning and the end. All of history is His story, and we, the redeemed, have been wonderfully written into that story.