One of the issues in reading Revelation is the situation in life of the reader. John wrote while in prison, on an island used as a penal colony. He had been stripped of his honor; he had been removed from his family – and more importantly from his community of faith. His world had been destroyed and was easy for him to feel distraught.
Contrast that to our situation. Even taking into consideration the recent economic downturn, we are far from destitute. The simple fact that you have an email account and a computer with which to log in means that you are in a privileged economic class. I may have a few international readers, but most of us live very secure in knowing that we have tremendous individual liberties and countless laws protecting our right to assemble and worship as we please.
Perspective changes how we read.
This morning I was reading Revelation 5:11-6:11. The four horsemen are unleashed as the seals are broken. Conquest, war, injustice, and death rain down upon the earth. Surely it is time for God to act. But at the breaking of the fifth seal, the martyrs are revealed, under the altar. They cry out, but are told to “rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete.”
We might read this and think it is over. John wrote with an attitude that no amount of suffering could interrupt the hope and purposes of God.
Those who are privileged are rightly upset in reading Revelation. It contains promises that God will (as stated in Mary’s song, sung at the conception of her son) lift the lowly and bring down the haughty. Those experiencing persecution read Revelation and hear its message of things being made right. Those who have allowed earthly possessions to take on great importance in their lives experience differing emotions as they read of John’s revelation.
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