Useful Bible Studies > Revelation Commentary > chapter 1

The work of a prophet

Revelation 1:19

Christ repeated the command in verse 11, for John to write down what he would see in a book. That book, of course, is the Book of Revelation.

Christ’s words here show what the work of a prophet was. (A prophet means someone who gives a message from God, usually to his people.)

The principal duty was to record or to declare the message from God. Actually, most prophets simply spoke the message that they had received. However, today we are more familiar with the prophets whom God told to write down their messages. That is because, of course, those messages are now part of the Bible.

The prophet had to record or to declare the things that God showed to him. In that task, the prophet had to be accurate. That was very important. Whether the prophet understood the message or not, he had to be accurate. Sometimes a prophet had to record measurements or other details; these things had to be correct. The prophets did not use their imagination; it was very wrong for a prophet to add something to God’s message, or to take something from it.

Many prophets simply received the words of their message from God. However, some prophets actually saw things that God showed them. That was John’s experience.

John would see both present and future things. He saw the reality of what was then happening in the world. He saw how events in heaven had an effect on this world. He saw that battles were happening between the angels (God’s special servants) and the demons (the devil’s special servants).

However, The Book of Revelation is not just about the time when John lived. God would also show John the things that would happen after those things. John would see the events between his time and the return of Christ. Then, at the end of the book, God showed John the future age, after Christ’s return.

Next part: The ‘angels’ of the churches (Revelation 1:20)

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