And he said to me, These words [are] faithful and true; and [the] Lord God of the spirits of the prophets has sent his angel to shew to his bondmen the things which must soon come to pass.
The last vision has closed. Now the angel stamps the whole book with a guarantee: these words hold, they come from the God who stood behind every earlier prophet, and they are meant for servants. Two questions run through the verse. How do we know these things are true? And why does it call events still future "soon"?
The affirmation here is not the first of its kind. One writer traces a chain of witnesses running through the book, each one certifying that God's words and ways hold good.
We have several solemn statements about the faithfulness and truth of God in His words and ways: by saints (Rev. 15:3; Rev. 19:2); by the altar (Rev. 16:7); by God Himself (Rev. 21:5); and here by an angel. These prophetic visions, one by one and as a whole, call for our closest and deepest attention. Not because of how they bear on us, but because the glory of our Master and the blessing of the world are bound up with the faithfulness and truth of what God here unfolds about the future.
The guarantee comes just where a reader needs it — right after a picture of glory so vast it sounds too good to be true.
Here we are looking at glories that stretch out into eternity. They would be beyond belief if they were not guaranteed to us as "faithful and true."
Manuscripts differ here: some read "the holy prophets," others "the spirits of the prophets." Taking that second reading, the title says something about how God worked in the men who spoke for Him.
The Lord God directed and controlled the feelings, the hopes and the varied experiences of the prophets of old. He was with them, as He is with us. This unity of moral action links us with the prophets of old, in how we walk and in how we grasp the hopes revealed then and now.
The same title also says something about history itself — that the God who spoke through the prophets is the God who is present now.
"The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets" — the reading now generally admitted to be right — emphasizes for us the presence of the living God as what was for these the constant realization in all the shifting scenes of human history... God in past history, God in the events happening under our eyes, His judgment therefore of everything while controlling everything for His own glory and for the blessing of His people.
The wording of the verse reaches backwards. One writer finds three signals here, and ties them to the faithful group in Israel who will read this book after the church is gone.
The names "Lord God," Jehovah Elohim, must take us back to the Old Testament ground of prophecy. The reason is that the faithful remnant in this book, after the church is gone, will be Jewish, under law, and held up by Jewish hopes... The term "the holy prophets" points to the same conclusion, and "the spirits of the prophets" — if we take the reading mentioned — points to it more sharply still.
The verse names its audience: servants, just as the book's opening chapter did. Older translations say "bondmen" — slaves who belong to a master. That word decides who gets the good of the book.
Here we return to the announcement of the first chapter. The book is, above all, a practical book. It is not for theorists or dreamers, but for servants. These are words to keep, and to apply in their service in the Church and in the world.
Some find the book confusing. One writer puts the trouble with the reader, not the text.
For many people this is a mysterious and confusing book, and they call it all kinds of unflattering things. But it is a revelation of Jesus Christ... Anyone who is not a true bondman of the Lord Jesus, who has not been bought by Him, and who has not realized that we are His to serve Him, will not gain much from Revelation.
Centuries have passed, so why "soon"? One answer sets the church period outside God's prophetic clock altogether.
In the Old Testament the events foretold are described as far off. Here they are things that "must soon take place." The reason is that the Church period always stands outside the course of time. It is an interval, a break in the count, which grace may lengthen, but which may end at any moment. So believers are to be constantly expecting the coming of the Lord.
Another reads the word as describing the pace of the events themselves once they begin.
Our centuries are only so many minutes on God's great clock! We are inclined to think, though, that this word also means that when God acts, He acts swiftly... When Jesus comes it will not be a slow, drawn-out event, but like a flash of lightning.
- Sealed — The book ends as it began, with a guarantee. Saints, the altar, God Himself and now an angel all certify that these words are faithful and true.
- Sourced — The Sender is the God who directed the hopes, feelings and experiences of the prophets of old. He was with them, and He is with us.
- Sent — The name "Lord God" takes us back to Old Testament ground, and points to the faithful people in Israel who read this book after the church is gone.
- Servants — God shows it to His servants. It is a practical book for those who serve, not for theorists or dreamers, and it gives little to anyone who has not owned Christ's claim.
- Soon — The events are near because the church interval stands outside the count of time, and because God, when He acts, acts fast.
And behold, I come quickly. Blessed [is] he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
Near the end of the book, the Lord Himself takes over from His messenger and speaks. He joins a promise about His return to a blessing on those who keep His words. Two questions follow. How can a coming we still wait for be called soon? And what does it mean to keep the words of a book full of visions?
Up to this point an angel has been the messenger. Now the speaker changes. One writer sees the same shift in the Old Testament.
The angel speaks in verse 6. Now the Lord Himself speaks through the lips of the angel, because the testimony is His own. This move from the prophet to the One whose messenger the prophet was is often found in the Old Testament.
That change of speaker changes the weight of the words. The ESV reads "I am coming soon"; older translations say "quickly," and the writers quoted here work from that older word.
"Behold, I come quickly." It is the voice of Christ we hear. It is not the announcement of a prophetic event, but the authoritative word of the Lord Himself. Three times, in different settings, He announces His coming (vv. 7, 12, 20).
One writer compares it with the word "shortly" in verse 6 and finds two ideas in it.
The word translated "shortly" is almost the same as the word translated "quickly" in the next verse... Our centuries are only so many minutes on God's great clock! We also think this word is meant to show that when God acts, His action is marked by swiftness... When Jesus comes, it will not be slow and drawn out. It will be like a flash of lightning.
The long delay since then raises an obvious question.
How can "quickly" fit with a long delay of nearly two thousand years? We have to adjust the way we count, and measure time as the Lord does. "Beloved, do not overlook this one fact, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8).
The blessing here echoes one given at the book's opening, but the wording shifts.
"He" (not "they," as in Rev. 1:3) "who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book" is called "blessed." So the blessing at the beginning of the book is repeated at the close, only here it seems more personal... To keep these words is to treasure them, to prize them, and to act on them.
Because keeping reaches into behaviour, failing to keep leaves visible marks.
Keeping these blessed words means more than believing them. Their power is to shape our conduct and walk. What godly lives God's people would live, what unselfish and sacrificing lives, if they always remembered the One who says three times in the last chapter of the Bible, "Behold, I come quickly." Look at the terrible results in the Christian world today, because people have not kept the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
The two halves of the verse are not separate thoughts. One depends on the other.
We will only value the sayings of this prophecy as our souls live in the faith and enjoyment of the great truth of the Lord's coming. No one will interpret Revelation rightly unless they believe and cherish the truth of the second coming of Christ.
Kept this way, the book steadies the reader.
So we are warned not to neglect Revelation, as if what it contains were a matter of idle curiosity with no bearing on our daily Christian lives. We are urged to heed and treasure the truths it speaks of. Only as we do so will our spirits be kept calm while the turning away from the faith grows in the Christian world.
Commentators differ over who is in view. Some read it as spoken to those who will live through the scenes the book describes:
Those who keep it are the people the book is about, who are warned that Christ will soon be there. No doubt we can all profit from it, but we are not in the scenes it describes... Verse 7 was a warning, in the form of a blessing, to those in the circumstances spoken of, to keep the sayings of the book.
Another writer applies it to our expectation now, and rules out waiting for signs first:
To have any thought other than that Jesus is coming quickly is to lose the blessing of keeping the prophetic sayings of this book. It is good to read the signs of the times in the light of these words... But it is a mistake and a misuse to treat such signs as obstacles to the coming of the Lord — to say, until I see this or that forerunner arrive, I cannot expect Jesus in my heart.
- Speaker — the angel steps back and Christ speaks. This is His own word, not a prophetic bulletin. He says it three times in the closing verses.
- Soon — the word fits God's way of counting time, and it also points to swift action. His coming will be like a flash of lightning.
- Keep — to keep the words is to treasure them, prize them, and act on them. Believing them is not enough. They are meant to shape how we live.
- Link — the promise and the blessing hold together. Only those who cherish His coming will value or rightly read this book.
- Result — words kept this way keep the soul calm as the Christian world drifts. No event on the horizon can be treated as a delay to Him.