Fifty Shades of Grace: Fifty Shades of Grace Chapter 18

Revelation Made Easy—Part One

Have you ever read the book of Revelation? It is full of very scary things and lots of strange creatures and bizarre events. Most people do not understand the book very well and they have devised all kinds of ways to try to interpret its meaning. As a result, everybody comes up with his own idea of what it means and then they fight with everybody else who has another idea.

I think it is always best to let Scripture interpret Scripture. That way we know the Holy Spirit is the one who is interpreting for us. Some people try to use the daily news or the internet to interpret Revelation, but we are going to use the Bible itself.

We will start at the very beginning with Genesis. In Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve sinned, God promised them that one day a Redeemer would come and save his people and restore Eden. God’s people waited a very very very long time, but finally the Redeemer came and his name was Jesus. He lived a full life and then his own people had him crucified and he died and was buried. But he rose up from the grave, proving that he was one who had God’s approval to reign over the whole earth. He was the promised Redeemer, the son of David, the one who would be king forever and ever.

When he ascended into heaven and sat down at God’s right hand, he began to rule. But he had not been formally presented to the people of the world yet. In the Old Testament, you may recall that King Solomon had a coronation ceremony. The book of Revelation is about how God “revealed” Jesus as the human king over all creation. That is how the book got its name. It is all about the big reveal! It is Jesus’s coronation ceremony!

The very first thing a king does when he becomes king, is to destroy his enemies. If you read the New Testament very carefully, you will see that the number one enemy of Jesus and of the Christian church at that time was the Jews. The book of Revelation is a book about how Jesus destroyed the unbelieving Jews and their old covenant and began a brand new covenant with his people who believed on him. His new bride included both Jews and Gentiles and his bride is the church.

Before we look at how he does this, we need to go all the way back to the Old Testament again to see what God says will happen if his people are rebellious and worship other gods. If you look at Leviticus chapter 26 under the “punishment for disobedience” section, you see that God says four times “I will strike you seven-fold for your sins!” That is very significant, because the book of Revelation is laid out in just that way. There are four sets of seven punishments. They are called letters, seals, trumpets and bowls.

As always, God begins with his own people when he begins to purify the nations, so the seven letters are addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor. The seven seals represent a declaration of war. Do you remember in the book of Esther when that wicked Haman put the King’s seal on his declaration of war with the Jews? The seven trumpets are the final warning sounding the alarm that destruction is imminent—just like when the Israelites blew the trumpets when they marched around Jericho. And the seven bowls are the final destruction.

So you see, by understanding the Old Testament and the way God works, we already have a good idea about what lies ahead in the book of Revelation and why it is laid out the way it is. The person Revelation is revealing is the long promised Redeemer who will one day restore Eden—Jesus!

Random pics of God's grace in my life: