Revelation 22

     “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked….  But his delight is in the Law of the LORD….  And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season, And its leaf does not wither” (Ps. 1:1-3).

     22:1-5.  In brief, Ezek. 47:1-12 paints the following picture of the New Jerusalem for those who were captives in Babylon.  The Spirit of the LORD showed Ezekiel water that was trickling from under the threshold of the Temple.  From a small trickle, it became a great river that could not be forded.  “…On the bank of the river there were very many trees on the one side and on the other.”  The river (of life) flowed through a desert region until it flowed into the sea (of nations), and it made its waters fresh.  “…everything will live where the river goes.”  Fishermen will stand by its banks spreading their fish nets, and they shall catch all kinds, “like the fish of the Great Sea, very many.”  ” ‘And by the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow…trees for food.  Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail.  They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing’ ” (Ezek. 47:1-12; cf. also Zech. 14:6-11).

     The water of life is the Holy Spirit, flowing forth from the Father and the Son.  As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well, ” ‘Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life’ ” (John 3:14; cf. John 7:37-39).

     The margin reading is much better at v.2.  The meaning of the verse is that there is only one kind of tree by the stream, the tree of life, but very many of them.  Also, they yield but one kind of fruit, but yielding its fruit every month.  It is the garden of paradise restored, with continual access to the tree of life, no more curse, and continual service before the throne of God and the Lamb (3).  They shall see him as he is, and shall bear his seal upon their foreheads (4).  The light of God shall shine on them (cf. 21:23), and they reign with him forever and ever (5).  Vv. 4-5 remind us of Paul’s words, “For God who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

     22:6-7.  The witnesses notarize that these words are faithful and true.  The three witnesses are the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus himself, and John, who heard and saw these things (8), things which must shortly (or quickly) take place.  Jesus himself blesses the one who heeds these words of prophecy.

     The world scoffs at both the message and the promise that the Lord comes quickly (cf. 2 Pet. 3:3 ff.).  But he comes, he surely comes.  Life is short, and judgment is without delay, sudden and sure, both for the individual and the entire old creation.  It will be unrelenting terror for the wicked, but joy everlasting for those who are “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Pet. 3:12).

     22:8-9.  The message is that we are to offer worship to God, and to no other. (See note at 21:9-11.)

     22:10.  So much was hidden from the prophets before Christ came.  They strained to see our day (cf. 1 Pet. 1:10-12).  Daniel was told twice to conceal and seal up the book until the end time (Dan. 12:4, 9).  But since Christ has come, “The end of all things is at hand” (1 Pet. 4:7).  So John is told not to seal up the prophecy, for we are the ones “upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11).

     22:11.  Jehovah reigns.  Jesus is Lord.  Many there are who rebel at this absolute sovereignty, and revolt at the clear meaning of this verse.  But the Lord knows those who are his.  And it must be remembered that judgment is in view here.  The patience of the Lord has an end.  The last lost sinner (whose name was written in the Lamb’s book of life from the foundation of the world), for whose sake the Lord tarried, has been found.  The witnesses whose bodies lay dead in the streets have been raised up and called up into heaven (11:3-12).  There is no more delay.  So let the willful be willful.  Let God’s little children come, and hinder them not.  The time of separation has come.   Let the wheat still be wheat, and the tares still be tares.  Let the sheep still be sheep, and the goats still be goats.  Let the books be opened.

     22:12-15.  The Lord comes, bringing the proper reward each man deserves.  The Lord of all creation knows the end from the beginning.  As the Alpha and the Omega of all things, everything is summed up in him for the praise of his glory (Eph. 1:10-14).  Those who have washed their robes (in the blood of the Lamb, 7:14) shall enter through the gates into the eternal city of God.  But all the unclean are forever excluded, for they have not believed the truth.  They have believed the lie, and practice lying (note that lying is in the last, the most prominent place, in the list of unclean practices of the damned (15; cf. 21:8).  In contrast to lying, “These words are faithful and true” (6).

     22:15.  Dogs.  In Deut. 23:18, margin, a dog is identified as a “male prostitute, sodomite”.  However, don’t fail to note that “immoral persons” (i.e., heterosexual fornicators) are in this same list.  Then note 22:14.  Now see 1 Cor. 6:11, “And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”  This is the only hope of the sinner.

     “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:7).

     22:16.  Jesus here gives the answer to his riddle to the Pharisees from Ps. 110.  If the Christ is David’s son, ” ‘Then how does David in the Spirit call Him Lord. . .? ‘ ”  (Mt. 22:41-46).  Christ is both David’s root and David’s shoot.  He is also both the bright star herald of the morning, and the morning itself, the Sunrise from on high (Luke 1:78).

     22:17-19.  A gracious invitation from the Spirit and the bride to come and take freely the saving water of life (17).  This is followed by a solemn warning to neither add to nor take away anything contained in this prophecy, or suffer eternal dreadful consequences befitting the seriousness and nature of the offense (cf. Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:5-6).  The great sin of the Pharisees (and Rome) was to add layers of manmade law and tradition to God’s word.  In like manner, the apostasy of unbelief takes away from his revealed will until the foundations are destroyed (cf. 21:14; Heb. 11:10).

     ” ‘If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?’  The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men” (Ps. 11:3-4).

     22:20-21.  “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus….  Amen.”