Revelation 1:3 comments: Read, hear, and keep

1:3 ¶  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Verse 3 - The reader is blessed. But without understanding from a willing heart reading is wasted.

Nehemiah 8:3  And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law…8  So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

Ephesians 3:4  Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

The hearer is blessed. Hearing something implies obedience or it is useless.

Psalm 18:44  As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.

Those who keep this information are blessed. One definition of to keep is defined as to protect or guard as in the keep of a castle, the strong tower which is a defense of last resort.

Genesis 3:24  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Another definition of keep is to maintain or follow something as in keep a rule or keep a covenant.

Genesis 2:15  And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Genesis 18:19  For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

Keeping God’s word to pass on to the next generation is very important, something the Jews failed to do, and one reason why Christians in America are losing in the battle of passing their faith on to the next generation.

Judges 2:10  And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

Still another definition of keep can be to stay as in staying in bed.

Exodus 21:18  And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:

It can also be for a man to stay at home and not be out partying as the following verse hints at the antichrist, the beast of Revelation to come.

Habakkuk 2:5  Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:

Or a wife, who should not be what we called down South a gadabout going around gossiping and visiting others for that purpose, always busy outside of the home.

Titus 2:5  To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Contrast the verse in Titus with these verses in Timothy.

1Timothy 5:13  And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. 14  I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.

(Note that those verses do not mean that Paul thought women who have to work outside of the home were wicked. This is about bringing reproach on Christ’s name. See the reference to Lydia, a businesswoman, in Act 16:14, 15 and that there is no condemnation of her.)

The time is at hand – What does it mean when something is at hand? It means soon to arrive as in imminent or pending. It means that the time is near.

Genesis 27:41  And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.

Jeremiah 23:23  Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?

Satan does not know when the end will be and neither do you so he always has a great political and military leader, apostate and godless, waiting to be his man whether he be a Genghis Khan, Frederick the Great, a Stalin, or a Hitler. But, Jesus said to His disciples;

John 7:6  Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.

As we are one heartbeat from eternity so is the world merely a moment away from the beginning of the end. In fact, every generation carries a dress rehearsal, whether it be the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century that killed 20% of the world’s population, the Black Plague of the same era that killed half of Europe, the Thirty Years War in Germany in the seventeenth century that killed one of six Germans, or World War Two which killed sixty million people. We must always be prepared to die or to be translated to Heaven.

Titus 2:11 ¶  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

1Thessalonians 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

The end of human-centered history, as well, is one fearful whisper, one cry of anguish, one spade of dirt thrown on a mass grave away.

From this verse we see three things are asked; to read, to hear, and to keep. These are important points when picking up your Bible and opening it daily. Read, hear, and keep. Guard the word in your heart, follow the word, and stay in the word of God.

Psalm 119:11  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Parents do this when they pray with their children, read the Bible to their children, and live themselves as they want their children to live talking about their faith on a daily basis. Do not let this prophecy, the words of Revelation, go unknown to the next generation. I’m not talking about someone’s opinion of who the Antichrist is or when the translation of the church will take place but what the text actually says.