Written by Brian J. Tabb |
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
We don’t read the news to decode Revelation’s mysteries. It’s the other way around: Revelation gives us profound resources to make sense of our world and live with wisdom and hope through difficult days. So beware the beast, follow the Lamb, and long for home. Come, Lord Jesus!

This calls for a mind with wisdom… (Rev 17:9)
In these difficult days marked by deep divisions, deadly diseases, and societal decay, we need discerning wisdom and dogged hope. There is often more heat than light in our social media feeds and regular news cycles, which offer vast oceans of drama and worry but with tiny islands of wisdom and hope. As Jeffrey Bilbro writes, “We don’t just need the media to cast a more piercing light; … we need to reevaluate the light we rely on to understand our times and discern how to respond.”1 To that end, let’s reflect together on the Bible’s last word in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. My claim, as suggested in the title, is that Revelation offers God’s people wisdom and hope in difficult days. I’ll begin with some orientating comments about reading this magnificent yet mysterious book, then reflect on the need to hear and heed Revelation’s offer of true wisdom and lasting happiness, and finally conclude with several pastoral appeals for wise, hopeful living.
1. How to Read Revelation
For many Christians, Revelation is a fascinating yet frustrating puzzle.2 Interpreters have proposed different keys to unlock this enigmatic book. Many popular authors and speakers commend reading Revelation in the light of current world events. One recent book discusses “the countdown to the End of the Age.”3 Another elucidates “ten prophetic issues as current as the morning news,” explaining to readers “where we are, what it means, and where we go from here.”4 Yet the confident analysis from so-called “prophecy experts” often misses the mark and seems far removed from Christ’s revelation to John and the seven churches. Alternatively, biblical scholars typically stress that it is important to understand the situation of Revelation’s first readers in the late first century AD. So, “the beast” is not a future antichrist arising from the European Union or the UN but the Roman Empire with its idolatrous emperor worship and economic oppression. While rightly seeking to understand the historical-cultural context of the book, many scholarly treatments fail to read Revelation as the capstone of Christian Scripture for the enduring benefit of the church in each generation.
Revelation is unique among the NT Scriptures, and the book’s opening verses signal that it is an apocalyptic prophecy packaged as a letter to be read in corporate worship.5 “The revelation of Jesus Christ” (Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ) serves as a title or summary of the book while clueing readers in to its genre. In the NT, the term ἀποκάλυψις (the basis for “apocalypse” in English) consistently refers to divine revelation or disclosure of hidden or unseen realities.6 Revelation resembles biblical and extrabiblical apocalyptic writings in at least three ways: (1) it discloses God’s ultimate purposes in salvation and judgment, (2) it presents a transcendent, God-centered perspective on reality, and (3) it challenges the people of God to evaluate their troubles in light of God’s present rule and future triumph. Revelation is also “a book of prophecy” to be heeded by God’s people (1:3; 22:7). John receives this genuine prophecy “in the Spirit” and writes what he sees and hears about “what must soon take place” (22:6) in order to comfort struggling saints and warn those who are in spiritual danger. This apocalyptic prophecy comes in the form of an ancient letter addressed to seven churches with a greeting and benediction resembling many NT epistles. Douglas Webster aptly calls Revelation a “prison epistle,” penned by a prophet, poet, pastor, and political prisoner who was immersed in the prophetic Scriptures.7
I argue that Revelation’s canonical context—not current events or ancient history—is the most decisive for understanding its mysterious and magisterial visions. As Dennis Johnson states, “Revelation makes sense only in light of the Old Testament.”8 John stands in the line of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and other faithful prophets as he writes down the divine visions and messages he has received. But John also uniquely receives a “revelation from Jesus Christ” (1:1) and is commanded not to “seal up the words of the prophecy of this book” (22:10), reversing the command to Daniel to “seal up” his prophecy until the end of days (Dan 8:26; 12:4, 9). Thus, John is a true prophet writing at the culmination of redemptive history. This book reveals how Christ has begun to fulfill the prophetic hopes through his death, resurrection, and heavenly reign, and how he will soon return to consummate God’s purposes to judge evil, save his people, and restore all things.
Revelation’s remarkable and perplexing prophetic pictures of a diabolical dragon, a seven-headed sea monster, a seven-horned lamb, a sealed scroll, a lake of fire, and a happily-ever-after paradise stretch our minds and stir our hearts. These visions should make us hate what is evil and love what is true, good, and beautiful according to God’s perfect standards, beckoning us to live counterculturally as faithful witnesses who “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev 14:4).9 While many seek to decode Revelation’s riddles with the key of current events or ancient history, we must remember that God has given us this book with its apocalyptic imagery in order to decode our reality, to capture our imaginations, and to guide our way in this world.
Revelation is written for embattled Christians who need endurance, wisdom, and hope.10 The messages to the seven churches present various threats facing God’s people. Christ calls believers in Smyrna to “be faithful unto death” (2:10), and he refers to the martyrdom of Antipas “where Satan dwells” (2:13).11 There are also more subtle and insidious dangers: the Ephesian church loses her first love (2:4), false teaching exerts its seductive appeal in Pergamum and Thyatira (2:20), Sardis is spiritually sleep-walking (3:1–3), and Laodicea is proudly self-reliant (3:17). The risen Christ urges his church to remember, to repent, and to remain steadfast that we may receive all that he has promised. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (2:7).
2. Hear and Heed Wisdom
Those who hear and heed the revelation of Jesus Christ are counted truly happy. The book contains seven beatitudes or macarisms, statements featuring the Greek term μακάριος usually translated “blessed,” “happy,” or “favored.”12 These sayings summon us to wise living and lasting joy. The beatitude in Revelation 1:3 sets the tone for the whole book:
Blessed [μακάριος] is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
A similar saying in Revelation 22:7 calls believers to obey God’s revealed message:
Blessed [μακάριος] is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
These foundational beatitudes offer timely wisdom and call for obedient action motivated by confident hope. Revelation calls us to seek true wisdom and happiness, to keep Christ’s words, and to read the time correctly.
2.1. Seeking True Wisdom and Lasting Happiness
In my title, “Wisdom and Hope in Difficult Days,” the stress on hope may seem obvious since Revelation has much to say about the return of Christ and the restoration of all things. But you may wonder what the apocalyptic visions of this book have to do with wisdom. What is wisdom? According to Scripture, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov 1:7). More than book smarts, wisdom is true understanding that enables us to navigate life in this world.13
Before examining explicit references to “wisdom” (σοφία) in Revelation, let’s first consider how the book’s beatitudes hold out true wisdom and happiness. The book opens by ascribing divine favor or blessing to “the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy” and “those who hear, and who keep what is written in it,” much like the first two psalms introduce the whole Psalter:14
Blessed [אַשְׁרֵי] is the manwho walks not in the counsel of the wicked …but his delight is in the law of the Lord. (Ps 1:1–2)
Blessed [אַשְׁרֵי] are all who take refuge in him [the Son]. (2:12)
Commentators rightly classify Psalm 1 as a Torah psalm and Psalm 2 as a royal psalm. But the beatitudes “blessed is the man…” and “blessed are all…” are proverbial expressions of true wisdom and happiness, contrasted with the folly and ruin of wickedness.15 In other words, those who experience God’s favor rightly respond to God’s word and his Son, while the wicked fail to heed God’s law or serve his King. The beatitudes in Psalms 1–2 “serve as a paradigm” for the Psalter’s two dozen other uses of the Hebrew term אַשְׁרֵי (“blessed” or “happy”).16 The stakes could not be higher in this contrast between wisdom and folly:
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,but the way of the wicked will perish. (1:6)
Kiss the Son,lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (2:12)
The OT Poetic Books include many beatitudes using the same terminology, אַשְׁרֵי in Hebrew and μακάριος in Greek translation. Consider, for example, Proverbs 3:13, 18:
Blessed [אַשְׁרֵי] is the one who finds wisdom,and the one who gets understanding…She [wisdom] is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;those who hold her fast are called blessed [מְאֻשָּׁר].
Other psalms and proverbs ascribe blessedness to those who fear, trust, seek, and hope in the Lord, who delight in God’s instruction, who experience forgiveness of sins, and who walk according to God’s ways.17 These macarisms are invitations to learn true wisdom and thus experience true life with God.
There are also a few beatitudes in the OT Prophetic Books. Consider three examples:18
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.For the Lord is a God of justice;blessed [אַשְׁרֵי] are all those who wait for him. (Isa 30:18)
Thus says the Lord:“Keep justice, and do righteousness,for soon my salvation will come,and my righteousness be revealed.Blessed [אַשְׁרֵי] is the man who does this,and the son of man who holds it fast.” (Isa 56:1–2)
Blessed [אַשְׁרֵי] is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days. (Dan 12:12)
These prophetic sayings are noteworthy parallels with the beatitudes in Revelation because they commend wisdom and waiting for the Lord’s promises to be realized. Said another way, these expressions of present happiness have an eschatological emphasis.
The most well-known biblical beatitudes are found in the Sermon on the Mount, where Christ presents the poor in spirit, mourners, the meek, those who long for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted and reviled as truly “happy” (μακάριος). As in the first two psalms and the prophetic blessing statements, Jesus’s Beatitudes have an eschatological thrust, ascribing present blessedness to disciples based on their coming reward and reversal of circumstances. Consider one example:
Blessed are those who mourn,for they shall be comforted. (Matt 5:4)
It seems paradoxical to present mourners as “blessed” or “happy.” Yet this counter-intuitive claim is based on the sure hope that God will one day comfort his sad, suffering servants (cf. Isa 60:20; 61:2–3). This is the very hope vividly expressed in Revelation:
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (21:4; cf. 7:17; Isa 25:8).
The beatitudes in Revelation point to comprehensive eschatological blessing, “to a joy that overflows and satisfies,”19 which contrasts sharply with the ruin of Christ’s adversaries who align with the beast and share its fate. This eschatological expectation fosters wise living and patient endurance in the present.
Consider Revelation 14:8–13, which begins with the angelic announcement, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great” (v. 8). Another angel warns of the eternal consequences of worshipping the beast and receiving its mark (vv. 9–11). Then the prophet writes, “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus” (v. 12). This sober appeal is followed by a word from heaven in v. 13: “Write this: Blessed [μακάριοι] are the dead who die in the Lord from now on, for their deeds follow them.” I’ll say more about Babylon and the beast a bit later. For now, note that as Psalm 1 contrasts the ways of the righteous and the wicked, so Revelation 14 presents the sure demise of Babylon, the beast and its devotees alongside the joyful bliss of those “who die in the Lord.” The deceased saints are happy “because [γάρ] their works [ἔργα] follow them.” Jesus asserts earlier, “I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works” (κατὰ τὰ ἔργα ὑμῶν, Rev 2:23; cf. 20:12–13; 22:12). Christ will judge or reward people in accordance with their deeds, which demonstrate the true nature of their faith.20 This is why the saints must persevere with wisdom and hope, no matter the cost.
Let’s turn now to the four explicit references to “wisdom” (σοφία) in the book of Revelation. In 5:12, the heavenly multitude exclaims that the Lamb is worthy to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing. Then in 7:12, the angels, elders, and living creatures worship God saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” Wisdom fittingly appears among seven divine attributes ascribed to the Lamb and the Almighty, since according to Daniel 2:20–21 God is praiseworthy because “wisdom and might” belong to him and because he “gives wisdom to the wise.” The wisdom of God and his servant Daniel contrast with the king and sages of Babylon, who cannot comprehend the king’s revelatory dream. In Revelation, the power, honor, and wisdom of Jesus the slain Lamb and God on his throne are at odds with worldly expressions of power, glory-seeking, and pseudo-wisdom.21
Later John makes explicit readers’ need for “wisdom” (σοφία) and “understanding” (νοῦν) to grasp important spiritual truths about “the beast” who wars against God’s people (13:18; 17:9). The point of the first call for wisdom is not only to decode the beast’s symbolic number (666) or the meaning of its seven heads but also to show the way for the saints to conquer the dragon and the beast in the end: “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (12:11; 15:2).
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The Bible’s grand story is not complete without the bodily resurrection of God’s people. It is blessedly true that the spirits of our loved believers who die before the return of Jesus will immediately be welcomed into his blessed presence upon death. But Jesus did not come merely to provide a detour around death for his people. He came to destroy death. 

31:2. At the last day, such of the saints as are found alive, shall not sleep, but be changed; and all the dead shall be raised up with the selfsame bodies, and none other; although with different qualities, which shall be united again to their souls forever.(1 Corinthians 15:51, 52; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Job 19:26, 27; 1 Corinthians 15:42, 43)
31:3. The bodies of the unjust shall, by the power of Christ, be raised to dishonour; the bodies of the just, by his Spirit, unto honour, and be made conformable to his own glorious body.(Acts 24:15; John 5:28, 29; Philippians 3:21)
Second London Confession, 31:2–3
It was a cold, gray February afternoon when we buried my grandfather. The ground was still muddy from the snow that had melted earlier in the week. Every tree was bare. The small crowd under the tent shivered against the cold as the national guard officers folded the American flag they would present to my grandmother. But into the sorrow, the gathering of family members and friends read the Apostle’s Creed from the tiny bulletins issued to them by the Methodist minister: “…I believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting, Amen.” I was struck by the power of that ancient Christian confession against that bleak backdrop. It was also struck by how few funerals I attend ever even mention the hope of bodily resurrection.
In most funerals I attend, and in most popular discussions about death I observe, the focus of the Christian hope falls almost exclusively on what theologians call “the intermediate state:” the promise that upon death, the believer’s spirit leaves the body behind to dwell in the presence of Jesus in heaven. On the one hand, this emphasis is perfectly reasonable, since it is the immediate hope of all the saints who die before the Lord’s return. We are right to celebrate Jesus’ assurance that, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43) We rejoice that “the spirits of the righteous” are now “made perfect” in the heavenly assembly (Heb 12:23) . We find unspeakable comfort in the truth that to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord, that for the believers, to die is gain, and that it really is better by far to depart and to be with Christ (2 Cor 5:6; Phil 1:21, 23).
But while our immortal spirit’s reception into heaven is the believer’s immediate hope, the Bible teaches that it is not our ultimate hope. As wonderful as the intermediate state will be, it is, well, intermediate. An even great future awaits the people of Jesus! A hope even richer, more thrilling, more satisfying. It takes the whole story of the Bible to understand this audacious Christian confession: I believe in the resurrection of the body.
“To the Dust You Shall Return”
The Bible’s first two chapters map out God’s design for human life: embodied human beings made in his image, living forever in fellowship with him in a perfect, physical creation. This, God says, is “very good.” (Gen 1:31). But by Genesis 3, the rebellion of those image-bearers has destroyed God’s beautiful design. Sin’s consequences are not only spiritual and moral, but physical: the once-submissive creation now rebels against its former caretakers, and bodily life is now marked by pain, sickness, weariness, and, ultimately, death. The man formed from the dust, made to live forever in face-to-face fellowship with God, must now return to the dust (Gen 3:19). The relentless recitation of the deaths proceeding from Adam in Genesis 5 bears grim witness to the awful wages of sin, and to the unyielding truthfulness of God’s Word: “in the the day that you eat of it, you will surely die (Gen 2:17; Rom 6:23).”
These opening acts in the biblical drama remind us that there is nothing “natural” about death. Death instead is an “enemy” (1 Cor 15:26), a sinister intruder on God’s good design for human life. The Genesis patriarchs wept over the bodies of their dead loved ones for good reason (Gen 23:2), and so do we. All human beings—whether they affirm the Bible’s account of reality or not—instinctively know that death is not the way it was meant to be. I can see it in the “gone but not forgotten” memorial decals on the pickup trucks in my hometown. You can sense it in the feverish attempts to stave off the aging process in fitness centers and cosmetic products. I can hear it in the quavering voice of the old bluegrass singer Ralph Stanley, pleading: “O death, won’t you spare me over til another year, won’t you spare me over til another year…”
The apostle Paul tells us that these are all so many manifestations of creation’s “groaning” under the unnatural curse of death; we long to be “set free from [our] bondage to corruption (Rom 8:21).” But will anyone hear these groans? Can anyone deliver us from death?
“…Those Who Sleep in the Dust of the Earth Shall Awake”
Yes! Standing in the ruins of Eden, God not only pronounces judgment, but promises salvation: “I will put enmity between you and the woman,” God tells the Serpent, “and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Gen 3:15). God did not disclose the details of his plan, but he made it clear that he would one day restore the beautiful kingdom our sin had destroyed, and deal with the awful curse of death itself.
For the rest of the Old Testament, God’s people cling to the persistent, if shadowy, hope that Yahweh would overcome death for them. One catches the patriarchs’ hope beyond the grave in their insistence on securing burial plots in the land of promise (Heb 11:22). We hear it also in Job’s confession that, “after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another…” (Job 19:26–27)
The prophet Isaiah foresaw a day when the Lord would spread a feast for his people on Mount Zion, and “will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken (Isa 25:6–8).” Near the end of the Old Testament, Daniel articulates God’s coming victory over death explicitly in terms of a bodily resurrection: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever (Dan 12:2–3).” By the time Jesus comforts Martha at the grave of Lazarus, it seems Daniel’s expectation has taken hold among God’s people: when Jesus tells Mary that “your brother will rise again,” Martha immediately responds “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (John 11:23–24)
One thing this brief survey indicates is that, the saints of old longed for more than a strictly spiritual “life after death.” Rather, they looked forward to the complete undoing of death, in a glorious, bodily resurrection at the end of history. They did not know that before that could happen, Someone would first blaze a trail through death, right smack in the middle of history.
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Each day, as you live with your children, you are presenting a view of reality. You are showing them that you believe that God is good and the rewarder of those who seek Him. By loving God and others, you model the truth that the law of God is good. As you make a priority of worship, you tell them that life is found in God. When you are kind to people who are unkind, you show the magnanimity and kindness of God. Everything you do provides a narrative of truth for your children.

I have recently become a great-grandfather, welcoming two great-granddaughters and one great-grandson into our family. Here are some biblical thoughts about childrearing that I am passing on to my grandchildren and their spouses.
1. Parenting is an important calling that God has given you.
Psalm 78 comes to mind:
He [God] established a testimony in Jacoband appointed a law in Israel,which he commanded our fathersto teach to their children,that the next generation might know them,the children yet unborn,and arise and tell them to their children,so that they should set their hope in Godand not forget the works of God. (Ps. 78:5–7)
What could be more important than passing on truth about God to the next generation? What could be a more significant legacy than generation after generation setting their hope in God? You will have many challenging opportunities in your life, but few will ever be as impactful as raising children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:3).
2. Learning to live under authority is foundational.
In Ephesians 6:1–3, God addresses children: “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother (this is the first commandment with a promise), that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” God has drawn a circle in which children are to live. The boundary of the circle is to honor and obey parents. God promises wonderful blessings as a child lives in the circle; it will go well, and they will enjoy long life.
These are blessings every child and parent wants. Honoring and obeying is more profound than just doing what one is told. It is a faith commitment to trust and obey God. In teaching your kids to be under authority, you demonstrate the foundational truth that submission to God’s authority is the pathway to blessing.
3. The heart is the wellspring of life.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,for from it flows the springs of life. (Prov. 4:23)
Life flows from the heart.
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