Job and Revelation

Today's reading presented quite a lot to write about. There's Job who loves the word of God and wants to appear before Him to argue his case, that he is righteous, yet admits near the end of the chapter that God does whatever He wants and this fact terrifies him. Then we have Hosea, whom God commands to marry a prostitute. So far Hosea has had three children by this woman and God gets to choose all their names, including a daughter named No Mercy and a son named Not My People. Flipping to John 14 we have the first part of a discourse by Jesus on the Father. And finally, there's the first eight verses of Revelation, which are quite rich in discussion about Jesus, the Father, a few words about the Holy Spirit, and what the reason for writing down apocalyptic literature is. So for this entry I suppose I have a question and some thoughts.

The question: In reading Job, the language indicates that Job was actually afraid of God. And by actually afraid I mean as opposed to this "reverent awe" I often hear about. Job uses the word terrified twice and dread once to explain his response to God's presence in Job 23:15-16. So, should we be afraid of God? Job seems to be, can we assume that this kind of fear is what is prescribed for our lives? People in the scriptures do crazy things when God shows up, and even when it's just an appearance of angels, they seem to have to remind them to not be afraid, because that is the natural response. Does this kind of fear have any place in a Christian's relationship to God?

The thoughts: I like Revelation. There are some things that are difficult to understand about it, but the things that I do understand are quite glorious. For one, this book promises a blessing to "the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy" and also to "those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near" (1:3). That's a cool thing, but first I want to clear something up. Some people have said "Hey, look! You're blessed if you just read it! This is the only book like that!" I have to confess that when I finally read the verse that they based such a thought on more closely (i.e. just now!), I concluded that that interpretation was a bit of a stretch. Although for many years I totally bought the former interpretation, it did seem a little bit too superstitious.

The word they often don't mention or don't emphasize enough is "aloud." The person who proclaims this message will be blessed, basically. That makes a bit more sense, because in that way they are being an active servant of God. That's something you can be blessed for! Secondly, "those who hear it, and who keep what is written" are blessed. That also makes more sense, because it's a blessing resulting from hearing and then obeying God's commands, not just passively taking in information. I think John when he was giving this blessing was probably referring to the setting in which Scripture was read aloud publicly. I'm going to guess this was a more common practice in the first century church than it is today, because Paul tells Timothy to "devote [himself] to the public reading of scripture" (1 Tim 4:13). Given that at least the first part of revelation is a compilation of seven letters to seven different churches, John was probably imparting a blessing upon the person who had the privilege of reading the letter publicly before the church.

So, since most of us have probably not been entrusted with the job of reading Revelation publicly, we get to be the hearers and doers instead! That's how we get our blessing. Don't fool yourself into thinking that if you just read through Revelation and your life doesn't change that you've nevertheless been magically blessed. I'm not convinced it works that way. In fact, it might be just the opposite.