Today’s reading is Revelation 15:1-16:21.

I’m sure you get tired of me saying, “I don’t know how many times I’ve read ___________, but today I saw something I hadn’t noticed before.” Yet, that is why we keep reading the New Testament. It doesn’t matter how many times we’ve read it, there is still more. In fact, if I hadn’t read it the first time, I probably wouldn’t have seen what I did the second. If I hadn’t read it the second time, I probably wouldn’t have seen what I did the third. And so on.

Today, Revelation 15:2 caught my attention. It says, “And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire–and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.”

Did you catch that? John sees those who “had conquered.” Not “will conquer,” “are conquering,” or even “may conquer.” Those who had conquered the beast, its image, and the number of its name. These folks had already won the battle.

Yet, the next few chapters deal with God’s plagues on the beast, its image, and those who wear the number of its name. The beast isn’t defeated until Revelation 19:20-21. How can we see those who “had conquered” the beast?

The problem is so many are trained to read Revelation as if it a timeline. We start with the events closest to the New Testament in the first few chapters and then we progress on to the end of the world. But that is just not the case. This book is not meant to be a prophetic timeline. This book is a series of apocalyptic visions that make the same point over and over and over again. The visions themselves are not timelines. They are pictures making a point. The point over and over again is simply this. 

God wins. God’s people win.

Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised to see a picture of the saints victorious over the beast in Revelation 15:2 but see another picture of the beasts demise in Revelation 19:20-21.

I know for many this concept is a complete paradigm shift for reading Revelation. However, please remember that John was writing this book to help Christians with the distress they were facing. He wasn’t writing something that showed what would happen in some far-off, future distress. They didn’t need to know what might happen thousands of years later, they needed to know that they were going to win back when this book was written. Therefore, over and again, John shows visions of judgments on the beast.

Remember always–God wins!

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?