MONDAY September 16th
‘Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.’
We have arrived at the seventh and final ‘blessed’ statement in the book of Revelation. Before I turn to it, (which will be the next devotion) I was thinking to myself about this chapter, and some of the incredible statements that are in it.
Verses 1-5 speak about the river of the water of life, it also speaks about the throne of God and of the Lamb and the very presence of God which means that there will no longer be the need for any light of lamp or the sun. Imagine that! No more being moaned at for leaving a light on and wasting electricity, and no more moaning as to where is the sun, we won’t need it, we will be in the presence of the one who is the true light. Heaven will be far better than net-zero, even the pollution of sin will be gone.
Verses 6-7, we touched on seven yesterday, but I deliberately missed these words out, ‘behold, I am coming soon’. Yes, Jesus is coming again, and what a wonderful day that is going to be for all of us who have washed our robes and had them made clean by the precious blood of Jesus, who is the Lamb that was slain and yet lives forever!
And verse 12 re-echoes the truth ‘Behold, I am coming soon’, this time with a warning to all who have failed to believe, ‘bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done’. Although this brings sadness to my heart, to realise that many of whom I have cared about and do care about, family, friends etc. who have failed to accept Jesus will get what is coming for all who like them have failed to believe, it also helps me when I think of those who have done no good, but have caused a lot of great harm through their evil deeds, that it is not my responsibility to bring them the punishment they deserve, it is God who recompenses, and the more so if they fail to repent and believe.
Then there is verse 13 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end’. The Triune God bookends everything! He has always been, that is eternally in the past and he always will be, that is eternally in the future—and the sphere of time which is fitted in between is but a span in which God created all things well and will end all things well. But the wonder is that in the sphere of time he came down to beckon us, welcome us to come into his eternal presence.
And then jumping to the final verses and verse 20 ‘” Surely I am coming soon.” Amen, Come Lord Jesus’. The words of a song come to mind:
He’s coming soon,
He’s coming soon,
With joy, I welcome his returning,
It may be morn, it may be night or noon,
I know he’s coming soon.
Amen, Come Lord Jesus.