Gems in the book of Revelation
Part 126 - Revelation 1:16
Words
The main theme behind much of this passage and right on into the next two chapters about the seven churches is words, summarized in the image of the sharp double-edged sword coming out of his mouth. John was on the island of Patmos ‘because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus’, which probably means he had been banished there because the authorities did not like the effects of his preaching, his words, in his home area. Then the ‘voice like a trumpet’ tells him to write things down. That instruction is repeated in 1:19. All these are about words, conveying to people the message about Jesus and his kingdom.
All of which gives us some major problems in this 21st century. As never before including the time John was living, the emphasis of communication is switching from spoken and written words to pictures. Never before have people been able to produce pictures as easily as they can now in this age of computers, laptops, ipads and smart-phones. There used to be a saying that a picture was worth a thousand words but that is no longer true. Too many pictures are how too many people want to be entertained and informed. Pictures, moving pictures on these devices, suffer one great disadvantage - they are swiftly gone and cannot be easily recalled while a book can be read, referred to, looked back at and generally thought about before one moves on.
What would a truly modern day image of Jesus look like? He would not have a sword representing words coming out of his mouth; he might well be carrying a laptop shining with golden radiance all around it!
We must not avoid the implications of this remarkable change. In this country the original job of Sunday Schools was to teach the children of the poor to read so that they could read the Bible. What must we do to encourage people not used to reading to turn to the scriptures and read them, regularly consistently, in big chunks so that they get the sense of them properly, with true understanding so that their ideas are personally developed and not those implanted from some other authority?
Then there are the many millions round the world who cannot read anything in their own mother tongue because it does not yet exist or they are illiterate anyway. Do we support the agencies that are constantly working to try and remedy that situation?
The crucial part of the discipling that Jesus instructed us to do (Matthew 28: 19) is to lead people to understand something of the wonders of the Word that he has given us. That is easy for those of us who are written word oriented in much that we do. It is not so easy for the many more people who do not naturally turn to reading for their pleasure but prefer the many images of today. Our, your - the readers - task is to lead many more people to a proper understanding of the Word of God.
The seven stars and seven lampstands amongst which John stood, and was to work, were representative of all churches of all ages. Let us stand amongst them with something of the same sense of urgency and devotion that John did in his day and generation that we should teach those struggling with words.
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