Daily Bible Study Tips: Comments on Revelation
Overview of Revelation from the Rev. Clyde Stanfield
Revelation 21:1-6
Revelation 21:10 - 22:5
Comparison of Apocalyptic Writing and Prophecy
Reader Question Answered: Rev. 2:14 (when the Lord is talking to one of the churches) says that He is angry because they've eaten meat offered as sacrifices to idols. Is there more to this than just eating the meat?
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Revelation 21:1-6
Revelation is easy to read but hard to understand. I recommend that before you read it, you find a good, conservative commentary and read that first. (There are lots of bad commentaries – don't read those. As a quick rule of thumb, if a commentary equates 666 with anybody born after 400 A.D. or Babylon with any nation founded after the Roman Empire, it's probably bad.) Revelation records a series of visions. John Wesley says, "All these several representations follow one another in order: so the vision reaches into eternity."
Revelation 21:10 - 22:5
Our passage from Revelation is the source of virtually all popular descriptions of Heaven. The pearly gates; the streets of gold; the river, tree, and book of life; the eternal light; the throne of God; and the Lamb are all here. Revelation was written in a time of terrible persecution, when being a Christian could mean a death sentence. Much of the book, therefore, is coded. You are perfectly aware that the Lamb is Jesus, but when the letter was written, this code name was not widely known outside the Church. Christians could write to each other and use the name "Lamb" without being in quite so much danger if the letter fell into the wrong hands.
This measurement implies that angels and human beings are the same size. I don't know of any other scripture that talks about sizes, but there are several that talk about human beings who didn't realize until later that they were talking with an angel, and that also implies that they are the same size. On the other hand, the first thing that most angels say is, "Don't be afraid," which implies that they are normally kind of scary-looking.
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