VI. The Joy of Revelation: The Beatitudes of Revelation - 2 of 7

1.     14:13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: ‘Blessed are the dead, those who die in the Lord from this moment on!’”

Generally, especially when we look at one verse of a biblical passage, we do well to consider its context so as to see better what it is attempting to tell us. Now, as I might have already stated, Revelation is not always written in such a way that this is as important here as in other scriptures that present, for example, a story. Revelation is not a book written in a linear fashion. As we have begun to see, Revelation is somewhat of a compilation of pictures, visions, as much as stories. Indeed, some present the same picture/vision or ‘story’ again in a different way, from a different perspective or vantage point, sometimes even seemingly from a different time.  

Here is one saying, described as coming from heaven. It is actually preceded by the appearance of three angels, each with a different message (14:6-11). These and a following comment directed to ‘the saints’ along the lines of other messages to God’s people, are dealt with in part III of this blog on Revelation, Messages to the Churches.

At first reading some might wonder, how can one be blessed when dead. Most of us want to live as long as possible, or at least as long as we are well enough and finding some joy in life. Indeed, many fear death. By this time though, if we have read the whole of Revelation especially, we can understand that death might have been seen as a welcome reprieve from the suffering and persecution Christians were experiencing at the time Revelation was written. We have also begun to see positive images of what is in heaven. So, to be taken from this earth with all of the problems they were going through, to die, for the believers could indeed be seen as a blessing. The blessing aspect of dying for and in your faith is emphasized by the positive attention, the recognition, given to martyrs in some of the visions in Revelation. To be a martyr was indeed coming to be considered a blessing.

This might be true for some of us in today’s world too. We might be suffering from cancer or some other debilitating illness and long to be freed of our affliction, knowing too that only in death would that occur. Christians, more in other parts of the world than here in North America where I write from, who are being beaten, burned, put in prison and even killed, would surely long even more strongly for escape. 

Then there is the second part of the beatitude. The preceding passages suggest Christ has already come to redeem his saints but that God’s actions are still bringing some to repentance. Needless to say, in a world deprived of the salt and light of Christianity, their lives could be unimaginably difficult. There is in this blessing also a call to them to endure, as the preceding verse had said, to be faithful. Only then, if they maintained their faith in the face of the tremendous odds of the time, the tribulation, would they die in the lord and receive this blessing. May that be true of all of us, that we keep the faith till we have passed from this life.