Exiled Revelation

Friday, February 2, 2018

 

I don’t know about you but growing up I had an image of the twelve apostles as being older men with white hair and long beards. However, when the disciples started following Jesus they were actually young men in their teens and twenties. Of the twelve, John was believed to be the youngest; he was about thirteen years of age. In the Hebrew tradition, a man began following a Rabbi between the ages of twelve and thirty, in most occasions before their twentieth birthday.

 

John had a very special relationship with Jesus. He was referred to as the “beloved” or the “disciple who Jesus loved”. I imagine that John saw the thirty-year-old Jesus not only as divine but also as a father figure. John in his own Gospel tells us that he would lay his head on Jesus’ chest. When Jesus was crucified and while still hanging on the cross, Jesus’ mother was standing nearby. When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside John, he said to her, “dear woman, here is your son” and to John he said, “here is your mother”. From that day on John took Jesus’ mother into his home.

 

John was the only one of the twelve disciples to not be killed by martyrdom; he was sentenced and exiled to the Greek Island of Patmos where it is believed he lived out the final days of his life. While in exile, John wrote his Gospel, Epistles, and the Book of Revelation. How befitting that the disciple who had the closest relationship to Jesus also received the sharpest revelation of the things that would take place. It was when John was exiled and his schedule was completely open and had no place to go but to seek God.

 

The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. – Revelations 1:1 NIV

 

Throughout the Bible, we see that some of the greatest encounters with God took place when people chose or were placed in circumstances where they found themselves alone with God. After roughly forty years, Moses while fleeing from Egypt and hiding in the wilderness alone had an encounter with God on Mount Horeb. Elijah, alone and terrified, and running for his life encountered God at the opening of a cave. Jacob alone and afraid that his brother would fulfill his promise to kill him the next morning had an encounter with God in the middle of the night. King David, while being pursued by his son who purposed to kill him encountered God early in the morning before the rising of the sun. Jonah was running from God and he had an encounter with Him while he was alone in the belly of a great fish. And John the Apostle after being sentenced and exiled for preaching the Gospel encountered the resurrected Jesus on the island of Patmos. If you would only schedule a time and place to be alone with God, He too would reveal himself to you.

 

Questions

1. Do you consistently schedule time to seek God, why or why not?
2. Why do you think God revealed to John the coming events while in exile?
3. What kind of circumstances, good or bad, might God use to draw you close to him?
4. Why do you think God wants to spend time alone with you?

 

Prayer

 

Heavenly Father, in the stillness and quiet of this empty space I come to you alone, to seek you and to hear you speak. I pray you would fill this space with your presence and reveal yourself to me. I long to know you more and today I am taking that step to spend more time alone with you and in your presence. Amen