Revelation 17-22 (NIV) – Commentary by John Mark Rutter

As a pastor I am sometimes asked, “What’s going to happen (in this situation I’m in)?” Not being God, I can’t give very satisfying answers. I don’t know how the sickness will turn out. I don’t know if the business will succeed. I don’t know if the friend or family member will realize his or her mistake and seek reconciliation. I can use human wisdom and make an educated guess, but I don’t know when it comes to these everyday issues.

So while it is sometimes disconcerting not to know the outcome of day-to-day events, it is overwhelmingly encouraging to know the ultimate outcome of our lives. The wonderful thing is that God has chosen to pull back the curtains that obscure the future and show us exactly what to expect.

These closing chapters of the Bible show us just that. We saw in Genesis the disruption of creation. We saw millennia of human failure and turmoil apart from God. We saw God’s rescue plan begun through Jesus. Finally, we now see creation restored. The Paradise lost is now fully redeemed. The work of Jesus on the cross is completed.

The imagery is vivid and straightforward even if the details they represent aren’t always crystal clear. We see Babylon, a city that represents the epitome of human pride and sin, abolished and destroyed, “for mighty is the Lord God who judges her” (Revelation 18:8). Satan, the deceiver, is imprisoned (20:10). Creation is renewed (21:1). Heartache and pain become a thing of the past (21:4).

Finally, God speaks: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son” (21:6-7, NIV 1984).

We usually don’t know basic details about the future. Yet it is far more valuable to know what God has revealed to us in these closing chapters. God wins, evil is banished and those of us who follow Him get to enjoy the presence of God forever. The most exciting part may be the closing words of Jesus: “Yes, I am coming soon” (22:20).

“Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”