ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY

We come to the fourth and (start of the) fifth visions (‘And I saw …’, vs 1,4), over which much theological ink has been spilled! The meaning of ‘a thousand years’ (v 2) has been debated since the second century, but several things are evident. First, John never uses numbers literally; they are always symbolic. The seven churches2 were not the only seven; the number stands for ‘the whole church’, which is why they hear each other’s messages, and we overhear them all. A thousand years symbolizes a long period, which is why many human empires claim they will last ‘a thousand years’ (they rarely do). This period of Satan’s defeat and the reign of the saints is vast in comparison with the short time of three and a half years of tribulation and testing. ‘For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.’3

Within Revelation, a thousand has an additional meaning. As 10 cubed (103) it symbolizes God’s holy presence, since the Holy of Holies was cube-shaped. Thus the saints are numbered as a square times a cube4 and the holy city is a cube cubed!5 This makes it very difficult to think that the thousand years stand for the ‘church age’, as if all is right with the world now, before Jesus returns. In our world, where everything is locked, keys mean access, but in the ancient world locks were rare and keys meant security. In the age to come, the world will be completely secure from Satan’s influence – and those who ‘did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death’6 will be vindicated on earth as they reign with Jesus. Whatever trouble we face now, as we follow him, we will be more than rewarded.

What most frustrates you in your spiritual life and the world around you? How might you grow in the ‘patient endurance’7 that we all need to learn?