The book of Revelation is a collection of very dramatic and cryptic visions given by God to the apostle John while he was in exile on the island of Patmos around 95AD. God wanted to show John “what must soon take place” (1:1). This was a dark time for the church. They had been persecuted before, now they were being persecuted again and they had every reason to believe that this would continue in the future. It wasn’t a good prognosis for the embattled Christians. It was into this dark situation that the light of these revelations shine. It is often in the darkest places in life that we see the light most clearly. I think of all the people in the Biblical stories who encountered God in the hardest of places: Moses, David, Daniel and others. If you are in a dark place right now, then according to the Bible, you are in the best place to find God. John was imprisoned on the island of Patmos and, as a leader and shepherd of the church, he no doubt would have been very concerned about the fate of his flock. Would they survive these persecutions? Would the light of God’s church be snuffed out? The Roman authorities were doing their best to squash the Christian movement, and they were fearfully good at this sort of thing. So, God reveals to John that these events are part of a bigger spiritual battle. The message of the book is simple: we win in the end. There is light at the end of our tunnel.
Ask God to reveal himself more to you.
Read Revelation 1:1-3
