And no man in Heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. Revelation 5:3
Every few days, I get an email from somebody offering to sell me a system that will enable me to win large jackpots in lotteries. I delete those emails; I reject them for three very important reasons. Firstly, I have no interest in wasting my money on lottery tickets. The lottery is no place for any Christian to dabble in. Secondly, such lottery winning strategies are obviously a scam, because if anybody could actually figure out a way to win a lottery, they would keep that information, and the money, for themselves. Thirdly. lotteries are based entirely on chance, and there is no possible way for any system to figure out which numbers will be selected. The only way to beat the lottery would be to look into the future. And fortune tellers who claim to be able to look into the future somehow never win lotteries. As our text declares, knowledge of the future is not available from any man.
The book that John is referring to in our text is one that unfolds the judgments of the great tribulation. Such terrible details are described in subsequent chapters of Revelation. This information does not come from apostles or from angels. It comes from the One into Whose hands all judgment is committed. The book of Revelation is taken up primarily with the details that the Lord Jesus provides concerning those judgments. That is why it is called the Revelation of Jesus Christ; it is not something that anybody else could ever know. The events of the great tribulation are not events that you and I as Christians will have any part in, nor will we behold them. But they are of great interest to us, especially as we see the world around us moving in directions that will proceed as described in the book of Revelation after the Christians are raptured to Glory. As we see conflicts among nations, trouble in the Middle East, economic conditions around the globe evolve, we are encouraged to know that our Lord’s coming must be very near.
John was anxious to see what was written in the book. He knew it was of great importance. Christians who have looked into the Revelation ever since have also been interested in knowing what will happen in the future. Bible students with wisdom and perception have studied Revelation, along with many other portions of Scripture, to come up with a fairly good description of the events to come. We have a pretty good picture of what will occur. But this picture is not nearly as clear to the unsaved folks around us, especially the leaders of governments and organizations that will be impacted by the great tribulation. The devil has fooled most of those people into regarding the Bible as irrelevant and inaccurate. So they are all unprepared for what is to come. But the Book has the details for those who will read it.
The Lord Jesus has opened the book to allow us to be ready and watching for His return, and to be seeking to bring others into His kingdom. -Jim MacIntosh