Synopsis: Unlike the book of Daniel, the scroll is
unsealed in Revelation. The messianic age and the time of fulfillment arrived in
the death and resurrection of Jesus.
At the close of his visions an angel
commanded Daniel “to shut up the words, and seal the book until the season
of the end.” One school of prophecy sees this as a promise that the meaning
of his prophecies will be disclosed in History’s final years, to the “last
generation” to live before the end of the age (Daniel 12:4).
This interpretation misses what the book of
Revelation does with this verse. Revelation does not directly cite Old
Testament passages; it uses verbal allusions to clauses from the Septuagint
Greek version of the Hebrew Bible and incorporates them into its narrative,
often with changes to the original words. Students of prophecy must pay close
attention to spot these allusions (Revelation 1:1-3, 22:10).
The very first word of Revelation is apokalupsis
or “revelation,” which means an “unveiling, disclosure, revelation.” God gave
it to Jesus to show His servants what things are about to come to pass. The
visions of Revelation are not meant to hide or mystify us, but to disclose
imminent events and insights into them.
The first paragraph of Revelation declares
its purpose is to “show God’s servants by signs what things must come to pass soon,” His servants in
the first place being the seven churches of Asia. The paragraph concludes
with promised blessings for Christians who hear and heed the words of the
prophecy, because “the season
is near.” What John refers to is the record of his visions now
preserved in the book of Revelation, “the words of the prophecy” (Revelation
1:1-3).
The clause, “what things must come to pass soon,” alludes
to Daniel’s words to king Nebuchadnezzar about his dream of a great image: “There
is a God in heaven that reveals mysteries, and has shown the king what things must come to pass in
latter days.” The Greek clause in the Septuagint is an exact match
to the one in Revelation 1:1, only, “latter days” is now changed
to “soon.” What was once in the distant future is for the churches of
Asia imminent (Daniel 2:28).
“The
season is near” in Revelation 1:3 is based on the
clause from Daniel 12:4, “the season of the end.” In both
passages, “season” represents the Greek noun kairos, meaning “season,
opportune time, set time.” As with Daniel 2:28, Revelation changes “the
end” to “near” or engus to denote something “near, imminent, at hand.”
At the conclusion of Revelation, an angel
commands John NOT “to seal the sayings of the prophecy of this
book, for the season is at hand,”
again alluding to Daniel 12:4. The comparison with Daniel is clear and
deliberate. What Daniel was told to seal until a distant future John is told
not to seal, for the time of disclosure has arrived.
The book of Revelation opens with greetings
from God, the “seven spirits before the throne,” and from “Jesus
Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the
kings of the earth, and loosed us from our sins by his blood; who made us to be
a kingdom, priests unto his God and Father.”
Christ’s status is presented as an accomplished
fact. He is the one who bore faithful witness in his death. He is the firstborn
of the dead through his resurrection. His death and resurrection form the basis
of his reign at God’s right hand, the (present) “ruler of the kings of the
earth.” His reign and realm are not waiting in heaven for some future
interim period after his return; his rule is a present reality.
By obedience unto death Jesus “overcame
and sat down with my Father in his throne.” His right to take and open “scroll
sealed with seven seals” was achieved in his sacrificial Lamb; already he
has all authority (“I am the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am
alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades” - 1:18),
and already he has begun to open the sealed scroll (Revelation 3:21, 6:1, 5:5-6).
This means that in accordance with Yahweh’s
promise at Sinai, men and women freed by his sacrifice are constituted “kings
and priests” to reign with him. From the start, Revelation’s visions are
anchored in the past death and resurrection of Jesus.
Christians still waiting for some prophetic
point in the future for revelation into Daniel’s prophecies are a day late and
a dollar short. The messianic age and the time of fulfillment have arrived
already in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
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