Since you got a little dose of Revelation last Sunday, and more today, I’m sure you’ll all revved up to read the book again and again until you’re comfortable in it! To get there, let’s review seven key interpretive “must do’s” as you read the book.

The first key is: Believe the text when it says, in chapters 1 and 22, that these “things must soon take place” and that the “time is near” and that it is a “blessing to the one who receives the book and reads and heeds it” back then. Believe Jesus when he says, “I am coming soon.”

The second key is: John sees himself in “the Tribulation” when he receives the revelation. (see 1:9) It is the same “the Tribulation” that Jesus spoke of when talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in the land of Israel in Matthew 24. John was there and listening at Jesus’ feet!

The third key is: When you see the word “earth” in the book change it to “land” in your mind or when you read it aloud. (try it on 7:1-3)

The fourth key is: Understand that the terms “Sodom” and “Egypt” and particularly “Babylon the Great” or “the great city” refer to and apply to Jerusalem and the people of Israel symbolically, and not those places geographically. Why? Because the Israel and Jerusalem of John’s day resemble those places because of their false worship and their spiritual adultery. An enlightening example is in 11:7-8, where John measures the Temple where the two witnesses prophesy. But they are killed, and their bodies lie in the street of the “great city” called Sodom and Egypt. What city? Jerusalem, “where their Lord was crucified.” (to be continued)

With Iran and Israel in the news lately, there’s been a lot of hoorah on how the U.S. must support Israel, especially amongst us evangelicals. The claim is that Israel, and the Jews specifically, are God’s people, Abraham’s sons, and whoever blesses them will be blessed, etc. So you hear phrases such as “Support Israel” or “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (not that anybody is against praying for peace).

So the questions are: Who are God’s people today? And is it the Jews of today?

Let’s start with the last question. Jesus Christ was the last true Jew; all genealogies in the New Testament stop with him. Additionally, “for all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Cor 1); Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises in the Scriptures (see Luke 24 and Hebrews 1:1-4). Also, the Apostle Paul says that beginning in his day, “there is neither Jew nor Greek…for you all are one in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 3:28). How is that? Because the mystery of God was fulfilled in Christ, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body (Eph. 3). Of what body? Of the Christian body, Jew and Gentile united as “one new man in the place of the two…”(Eph 2). So there is no future for the Jews in God’s word, with regards to them being his people, after the coming of Jesus.

So who are God’s people today? Well, Peter says the church is, using language that used to describe Israel in the Old Testament as now applying only to the church: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession…once you were not God’s people, but now you are God’s people” (1 Peter 2:9-12). Paul does the same in 2 Cor. 6:14-7.1, applying old covenant promises of God to the church (7:1)!

When David exclaims in Psalm 139, “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord,” some might claim that it could be a “one off” and David is just showing his surly side. Maybe he had just fled from King Saul or something. But the Psalm itself brings out the continuity of loving God AND hating his enemies.

The very first verse demonstrates that David knows God is with him and all around him at all times: “Oh, Lord, you have known me and searched me.” David cannot be seen as someone trying to hide his “bad side” to the Lord. That’s impossible, he says.

Then he exclaims, “Where shall I go from your Spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence?” David can’t hide anything from the Lord.

David then proclaims in verse 14, “Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it well.” And that’s all in the context of God’s intimate creational knowledge of David, even from the womb!

So when David says “how precious to me are your thoughts (17), and then cries out, “Oh that you would slay the wicked” and “Do I not hate those who hate you…I hate them with complete hatred,” David is not exhibiting any guilt or dissonance or bipolar disorder or schizophrenia! No! Loving the Lord and his nearness is quite at home with hating those who hate the wonderful Lord who is always present and makes wonderful creatures! In fact, being so close to such a great and holy Lord SHOULD lead you to hate his enemies! How can you not side with him who is Love against those who hate him?