Let us not assume that what is described in the first portion of this chapter is future. This begins from here and continues through eternity.

The angel showed John a pure river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God. It was clear as crystal. It had streets on either side. Amid the street was the tree of life. She bears twelve manner of fruits. Twelve here would again mean God’s government. It yielded her fruit every month. This indicates that this happens very much here on this earth. And, it is purely for the benefit of the believers who are the Church of God at large. Even its leaves have the power to heal the nations. God spoke about such a river in the forty-sixth Psalm. This river makes the city of God glad. God is in her midst. She shall not be moved. The people of God will not be shaken or troubled by anything.

The Holy Spirit is the fountain of this water of life. The water is unpolluted. He makes the citizens glad of His refreshing and life-giving flow. He produces fruit of life in the tree of life.

Jesus is the ‘Tree of Life’ who remains the center of focus of the saints. The very river of life that was out of bounds for sinful man is now accessible to all saints who have come to God. All who keep His commandments have right to the Tree of life. The Tree of life is perennial yielding twelve manner of fruits. Saints should partake of Him throughout the year to keep receiving life. Those who eat of her fruit will live forever. The Lord said, “I am the Life”, and added, “I have come that they might have life and that, abundantly“. Those who partake of Him will live forever. This is the sole meaning of the table of the Lord. Jesus not only produces life in the believer at one’s born-again experience but also sustains life thereafter.

The saints also yield fruit of the same nature as their Lord here on earth, purely for others. They produce life-giving fruit to others who seek for eternal life. The words they speak and preach brings life to the spiritually dead mankind even now. They will continuously produce spiritual fruit that will sustain life in their brethren. They spread love.

There is no more curse. The Lord was made curse on the cross for mankind. “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”. Those who trust in Him will be freed from curse brought about by transgression. This one Man’s obedience ushered in blessings. It will be blessing all along.

Blessings abound where’er He reigns;
The prisoner leaps to lose his chains;
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blest.

Where He displays His healing power,
Death and the curse are known no more:
In Him the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their father lost. -Isaac Watts

The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in the City; God reigns. His servants will serve Him. They will reign with Him for ever and ever, starting from here and now. His government will be an egalitarian theocracy. The throne will continue to dispense rewards. There will not be disputes. No litigations. No jury. No verdicts. No punishments.

The angel that showed these visions to John reiterated that what have been revealed are faithful and true. The Lord God sent this angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly be done. What will continue in heaven incessantly will be set rolling even from here. The Lord asked John not to seal the sayings of the prophecy of this book because ‘the time is at hand’. Let people know. The time of fulfilment of the prophecy was ‘at hand’ even when John was alive.

The Lord says, “Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book. My reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last”. This resonates with the statement in the epistle to the Hebrews – “Anyone that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”. Faith in God must result in good works. Faith without works is dead. Empty faith is lip-service. It does not qualify for rewards. Only works count. Good works are outcome of the inherent faith.

The Lord would not only reward bountifully the believing righteous and holy lot but also hold out punishment to the unbelieving, unjust and filthy. Everyone would stand before Him. None is exempt. This also coterminates with chapter twenty. The rewards would be according to each man’s works. The Lord says, let each one continue in his works but also let each one remember that the Lord is watching. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. The Preacher of the Old Testament said, “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth; and let you heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes: but also know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment”. Well did Enoch, the seventh from Adam prophesy: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him”.

The Lord calls out His name Jesus in this chapter. This is the last of the three times He does this. He did this first when He prayed for His disciples in John chapter seventeen and again when He confronted the twelfth and the last Apostle Paul, then Saul, on the road to Damascus. Jesus is His human name. There is a Man up in the glory!

The Lord is the root and the offspring of David. He is the eternal Christ who has been in existence even before David. In fact, He is the cause for the arrival of David in history. The Lord also was born as Man in the line of David.

The Lord is the bright and morning star. He declares the daybreak. The night is over for His people. They have waited enough for the day. There will be no more night. What title the enemy of God tried to usurp from the Sun of righteousness is rightly restored to the One Who is entitled to it. In fact, He Himself is the very ‘Light’ that shines in the darkness. He is not only the morning star but also the Dayspring, the Sun. He will brighten up the lives of His people and shed His glory on them so that they, in return, will let through this light to shine.

The Spirit of God is the Helper, Teacher and Comforter of the Bride of the Lamb. He bestows the Church with His power and sustains the believers. The Bride is yearning for the return of her Bridegroom. She can’t wait anymore. The Spirit and the bride say, “Come“. But, is it not a reassuring thought that the Lord, her Bridegroom, also cannot wait any longer? He is looking forward eagerly to meet His Bride. That is why He says, “Behold, I come quickly”, not once, not twice but three times in quick succession in this same chapter. The Bridegroom has been preparing a place for His bride. Just as He has promised in John twelve, He will come again to receive her unto Himself; that where He is, she may be also. Did not the Son of God pray, ”Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am”, in John seventeen?

One who thirsts cannot wait till he finds water. So is everyone that is longing for the return of His Lord. Paul writes, “live soberly…looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”. The coals of love are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench this love, neither can the floods drown it. Solomon said so.

Lo! He comes with clouds descending,
Once for favored sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending,
Swell the triumph of His train:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
God appears on earth to reign.

Every eye shall now behold Him
Robed in dreadful majesty;
Those who set at naught and sold Him,
Pierced and nailed Him to the tree,
Deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
Shall the true Messiah see.

Every island, sea, and mountain,
Heav’n and earth, shall flee away;
All who hate Him must, confounded,
Hear the trump proclaim the day:
Come to judgment! Come to judgment! Come to judgment!
Come to judgment! Come away!

Now redemption, long expected,
See in solemn pomp appear;
All His saints, by man rejected,
Now shall meet Him in the air:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
See the day of God appear!

Answer Thine own bride and Spirit,
Hasten, Lord, the general doom!
The new Heav’n and earth t’inherit,
Take Thy pining exiles home:
All creation, all creation, all creation,
Travails! groans! and bids Thee come!

The dear tokens of His passion
Still His dazzling body bears;
Cause of endless exultation
To His ransomed worshippers;
With what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture
Gaze we on those glorious scars!

Yea, Amen! let all adore Thee,
High on Thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and glory,
Claim the kingdom for Thine own;
O come quickly! O come quickly! O come quickly!
Everlasting God, come down! -Charles Wesley.

There is a solemn warning at the end of this book. If any man shall add unto these things in the book, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written as blessings in this book.

The book of Revelation is complete. None needs to add anything, and none should. Also, if anybody removes anything, it would be incomplete. Beware! Every event and every aspect of the prophecy is essential, true, has happened, is happening and will happen soon enough.

This is not the last chapter!

Take heart, fellow-believer! Though the present is tense, the future is perfect! He Who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

You can join humble Paul and proclaim confidently, ”I know Whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day”.

You can join upright Job and anticipate with the ever-brightening hope, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me”.

You can join the glad Psalmist and declare assertively, “For He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth”.

You can join godly Enoch and preach boldly with surety, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him”.

None of these gave up stating it was all over here on earth. It was not the last chapter; there was more, a lot more to come; not only for the believing and the hopeful but also for the infidels and the apostate.

The One Who claimed triumphantly, “It is finished”, on the cross is the One who will also be the reason for the ultimate proclamation, “It is done”. It will be done. It has already been done in heaven. It is just a matter of time.

Not only is the future perfect but future will be continuous too for the Chosen, the Elect and the Faithful. It will be going on! Ad infinitum!