THOSE WHO ARE BLESSED

Revelation 1:1—3 (contd)

THIS passage ends with a threefold blessing.
(1) The one who reads these words is blessed. The reader here mentioned is not the private reader but the person who publicly reads the word in the presence of the congregation. The reading of Scripture was the centre of any Jewish service (Luke 4:16; Acts 13:15). In the Jewish synagogue, Scripture was read to the congregation by seven ordinary members of the congregation, although if a priest or Levite was present he took precedence. The Christian Church took much of its service from the synagogue order, and the reading of Scripture remained a central part of the service. The second-century writer Justin Martyr gives an account of what a Christian service was like; and it includes the reading of ‘the memoirs of the apostles [i.e. the gospels], and the writings of the prophets’ (Apology, 1:67). Reader became in time an official office in the Church. One of the early Christian theologian Tertullian’s complaints about the heretical sects was the way in which a person could too speedily arrive at office without any training for it. He writes: ‘And so it comes to pass that today one man is their bishop, and tomorrow another; today he is a deacon who tomorrow is a reader’ (On Prescription against Heretics, 41).
(2) The one who hears these words is blessed. We do well to remember how great a privilege it is to hear the word of God in our own language, a privilege which was bought at great cost. People died to give it to us; and, for a long time, the professional clergy sought to keep it to themselves. To this day, the task of giving people the Scriptures in their own language goes on.
(3) The one who keeps these words is blessed. To hear God’s word is a privilege; to obey it is a duty. There is no real Christianity in anyone who hears and forgets or deliberately disregards.
That is all the more true because time is short. The time is near (verse 3). The early Church lived in vivid expectation of the coming of Jesus Christ, and that expectation was ‘the ground of hope in distress and constant heed to warning’. Quite apart from that, none of us knows when the call will come to take us from this earth, and in order to meet God with confidence we must add the obedience of our lives to the capacity to listen.
We may note that there are seven blesseds in Revelation.
(1) There is the blessed we have just studied. We may call it the blessedness of reading, hearing and obeying the word of God.
(2) Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord (14:13). We may call it the blessedness in heaven of Christ’s friends on earth.
(3) Blessed is the one who stays awake and is clothed (16:15). We may call it the blessedness of the watchful pilgrim.
(4) Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:9). We may call it the blessedness of the invited guests of God.
(5) Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection (20:6). We may call it the blessedness of those whom death cannot touch.
(6) Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book (22:7). We may call it the blessedness of the wise reader of God’s word.
(7) Blessed are those who have washed their robes (22:14). We may call it the blessedness of those who accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Such blessedness is open to every Christian.

Barclay, W. (2004). The Revelation of John, Volume 1 (3rd ed. fully rev. and updated). The New Daily Study Bible (30—32). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.

On this day...

• Isaiah 15 - 2024
• Isaiah 14 - 2024
• THE DELIGHT OF SACRIFICE - 2009
• SUBLIME INTIMACY - 2008
• Romans 12:4-5 - 2007
• Proverb 16:21 - 2007