Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Dec 31 2020 - Revelation 22:1-21– The beginning and the end

Today we come to the end of the Book of Revelation, to the end of the New Testament as it is conventionally arranged, and so to the end of the Bible. And what a wonderful ending it is. Here, all that was written before and promised before reaches its conclusion.

The Bible begins with a picture of the perfect world God created for our blessing and enjoyment. It is pictured as a garden full of delights – a garden in which God walked and talked with a man and a woman whom he had created in his own image and to whom he had entrusted all that he had made. And in the middle of the garden was the tree of life, symbolising the life God had given to them and to all creation. But humankind was banished from the garden and from these blessings because of rebellion against God; banished to live in a world marked by God's absence; banished to live out a limited lifespan under the increasing shadow of death.

And now the Bible ends with a vision of a garden city, filled and ever refreshed with life that flows from the presence of God. There is no longer one tree of life, there are many such trees, providing nourishment and healing – healing for all that is past; healing for all the hurts of our present world. There is no longer any curse. There is healing for the nations (what sermons there are in this wonderful phrase). The inhabitants of the garden city will see God's face and live in the brightness of his presence (Revelation 22:1-5).

If this wonderful picture fills us with joy and with longing, what shall the reality be like?

One of the hymns we sang when I was a child began like this:

God has given us
a book full of stories,
which was made for
his people of old,
it begins with the tale of a garden,
and ends with the city of gold.

But the Bible is more than a book full of stories; it tells the one great story which is both God's story and our story. It is the story of human folly and of divine faithfulness. It is a love story. It is a story that centres in Jesus who, along with the Father is "the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" (22:13).

In him the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their father lost.

The Lord Jesus has centre place in this story because it is in his death that God has passed judgment on a world in rebellion against him; in his death its death is announced. And it is through his resurrection that the new creation has begun in the realm of the Spirit and will be fully manifest when he appears. He is the hope for the healing of a broken world – “by his stripes, we are healed.”

We need to be careful how we tell this story; not adding anything extraneous to it nor leaving out any part of it (22:18-19). We need to tell the world the story. We need to live the story in the power of him who is our beginning and shall be our end.

Father God, help me by your Spirit to show and tell your story more faithfully and fully day by day. Help us to live the story and show the world something of the promise of the age to come. May this story bring healing to the nations, life to the world and eternal glory and praise to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Dec 31 2019 - Malachi 3:6-4:6 – God's treasured possession

Let me begin by picking up a theme we looked at yesterday; the Lord comes to his temple not to destroy but to purify a people for his own possession. Today's passage begins with the following explanation, "I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed" (3:6). Israel may have been faithless but the Lord is unchangeably faithful. He is the God of the covenant who made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He will not allow his word to fail.

The hope for the future is to be found in a small group of people who, in a period of general disobedience and unfaithfulness, remain faithful to the Lord:

Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honoured his name. “On the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession.” (3:16-17a)

In 2:10 the Lord accused his disobedient people of having little concern for one another – they broke faith with each other. Here, in contrast, there is a community of the faithful who fear the Lord and encourage one another. God knows those who are truly his people; their names are written in his book. They will be his treasured possession – his jewels – on the day when he comes to judge those who have disobeyed him.

When will this day be? "Surely the day is coming" says the Lord in 4:1. The book of Malachi concludes by telling us that the coming of that day will be signalled by the arrival of Elijah:

"See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction." (4:5-6)

The New Testament tells us that this Scripture is fulfilled in the arrival of John the Baptiser (see, for instance, Matthew 11:14; 17:10-12). John is the one who came to call Israel to repentance in preparation for the coming of the Lord. Jesus is the Lord who has come to seek a faithful people who will be his treasured possession – a people who will fear the Lord and encourage one another as they talk together. Malachi wraps up the Old Testament by pointing us forward to Jesus the Christ and to the new covenant and new covenant people which he will establish. Upon a dark and broken world, "the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays" (4:2).

What a wonderful and memorable promise this is. The Saviour will come blazing in righteousness and providing healing for his broken people. Welcoming him they will "go out and frolic like well-fed calves" (4:2). Freed from their captivity they will be filled with joy and well satisfied with the abundant goodness of the one who has come to be their Saviour.

This promise, fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ some 2,000 years ago, will be consummated at his return. Our hearts still cry out, "Come, Sun of righteousness; come heal our broken world."

Father, thank you for the great drama of Scripture that unfolds through the stories of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Moses and the Exodus, Joshua and the Promised Land, David and Solomon, disobedience and Exile, restoration and half-hearted obedience – all pointing forward to Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. May I be fully satisfied with him. May my life be centred upon him and flow from him. Help me, in glad company with the fellowship of your people, to shine as one of your jewels, bringing glory to the Saviour.

Peter Misselbrook