APOCALYPSIS - Those Things Which Are Revealed Belong to Us
We were born and raised in the captivity of human traditions and culture but endowed with a capacity to break loose from inherited chains. Ultimately, we are responsible for our choices. When Eve, in Eden, faced “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, she saw that its fruit was “desirable for gaining wisdom,” so she took it (Genesis 2: 9,17: 3:6).
But it is wisdom gained in rebellion!
This wisdom sets humanity in opposition to its Creator - worldly wisdom vs the “wisdom that comes from above” (James 3: 14-17). Humankind began to decide what is good and bad for them. Result? What is good for one is not necessarily good for another - marking the beginning of conflicts on the Earth. We became preoccupied with seeking the knowledge we need to succeed - success defined by the world, and relative to self-interests. We all pursue what appears good for us as individuals and nations. We struggle and go to war - kill and destroy others to be alive. We gain knowledge and “wisdom” in colleges and universities - including knowledge about God but not the knowledge of God. The more we know the farther we are away from the wisdom of God.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8).
The book of Proverbs, chapter 3 reorients humankind, telling us that human wisdom is never enough. The author emphasizes that we’ll find the correct path when we trust God and set aside our understanding (vv.5,6). Only by trusting Him alone can we align our ways with the way of the LORD. In Eden, we gained worldly wisdom, but only in trusting submission to God can we learn to use it well.
Put simply, humanity, left to its own devices, cannot govern itself or fulfill the Creator’s purposes for them on earth.
The Prophetic:
The word “revealed” comes up repeatedly in Apostle Paul’s letter to the faith communities of his day, suggesting that some things that hitherto were hidden from humanity are revealed. What are they? Are you listening to His still, small voice? Is God giving you a new vista, taking you through uncharted territory? It pays to listen in, and follow His directions.
Deuteronomy 29: 29, says, “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us.” In other words, God has secrets He longs to reveal to you - secrets hidden from man from the beginning. As it were, Adam and Eve couldn’t wait for God to let them into the mainstream of His agenda. Propped on by the enemy, they went ahead of God to gratify the lust of the eye, and ended up being separated from God: They died.
The word revelation (Revelation 1: 1) is translated from the Greek word, apokalypsis, from which comes apocalypse, interpreted as the total destruction and end of the world. A former Israeli minister used the phrase, “Gaza and the Apocalypse” to describe the destructive impact of ongoing war between Israel and Hamaz. However, the Outline of Biblical Usage defines apocalypsis as, “laying bare, making naked, a disclosure of truth” - instruction concerning things unknown before.
Yes, things unknown to humans are revealed to God’s chosen people in this end-time. The revelation of Jesus, the Son of God and Seed of the woman, was a mystery in God’s plan following the fall.
Faithful to His covenant with the nation of Israel and their ancestors, God had revealed His plans and purposes to them through the prophets. He warned them about the consequences of going against His commands, promising to send a Messiah who would “rescue them from this evil age” and establish an everlasting kingdom on Mount Zion (Isaiah 62: 1-12).
God used Old Testament prophecies to reveal critical truths about humankind and the future. We can get caught up in the here and now - so immersed in the immediate gratification of personal desires that we overlook issues of eternal value.
The book of Isaiah declaring the future punishment of nations, graphically describes the culmination of God’s righteous anger and judgment:
“Behold the LORD makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants thereof” (Isaiah 1:24).
Does that say something about the plausible outcome of nuclear warfare? Are we at the precipice - descending into the abyss, the end of human civilization?
Prophet Jeremiah cries out for God’s intervention:
“O LORD I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).
When God reveals the future events to us, He wants us to self-examine ourselves, make amends, and prepare for the ultimate.
For believers, here’s what apocalypsis means: In his letter to the Corinthian believers, Paul writes,
“As it is written, the eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him” (1 Corinthians 2: 9).
That is mind-blowing, isn’t it? The natural mind cannot comprehend God’s plan for His own.
Yet Paul continues,
“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given (revealed) to us by God (1 Corinthians 2: 10-12).
Without the Spirit of God, we can only know “the things of man.” But with His Spirit, we can know the (revealed) things of God. We must be humble enough to know that we cannot figure things out by ourselves.
“The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (v.14).
Jesus explains the process. In Matthew 11, Jesus says,
“I thank You Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have REVEALED (apokalypsis) them to babes - those who are humble, and have teachable spirit - “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father; Nor does any man know the Father, except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to REVEAL Him (vv.25-27) (Emphasis added).
God reveals spiritual truth in His Word to those who respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in them.
Are you listening?
Paul’s encounter with Jesus led him to re-evaluate his beliefs and abandon his pursuit of Jewish traditions. He began to preach the gospel, saying he received his conversion through Revelation from Jesus (Acts 26: 12-18).
What about you? Are you open to the Spirit of Jesus?
We read in Ephesians about being “His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10).
Because we are created for good works, and have what is revealed, there’s so much more to what we do, what we say, and how we live.
