Biblion Bible Commentary
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Do Not Seal the Words
Revelation 22:10-13
10 He said to me, “Don’t seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. · WEB
The book is left open against Daniel's pattern, the destinies fix at the coming, and the reward arrives with the Alpha and Omega in person.
He said to me, "Don't seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand."
The command is the deliberate reversal of Daniel's: seal up the book, even to the time of the end Daniel 12:4 — Daniel's visions were filed for a distant era; this book is published for a present one. The time is at hand — the nearness of the first page Revelation 1:3 restated on the last: Revelation stands permanently open, addressed to readers already inside its story, its seal forbidden because its era is always now. The mighty angel's open little book Revelation 10:2 was the emblem; this is the policy.
He who acts unjustly, let him act unjustly still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him do righteousness still. He who is holy, let him be holy still Revelation 22:11.
The strangest imperative in Scripture: four characters told to continue as they are. It is the decree of the closed cases — spoken from the epilogue's vantage at the end of the day of grace, when the temple filled with smoke and no one could enter Revelation 15:8: there comes a point past which what each person is, is what each person stays. Character, long chosen, finally sets — the harvest ripe in both fields Revelation 14:15 Revelation 14:18. Spoken over an open book because the time is near, the sentence is the book's sharpest evangelistic instrument: it tells every reader that the wet clay of the present is the whole opportunity.
"Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, to repay to each man according to his work" Revelation 22:12.
The second coming soon of the epilogue arrives carrying Isaiah's herald-sentence — behold, his reward is with him Isaiah 40:10 Isaiah 62:11: the repayment according to work that the judgment scenes established Revelation 20:12, now on the lips of the one bringing it — not delegated, hand-carried: the rewarder himself is the reward's escort Revelation 11:18.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" Revelation 22:13.
And the speaker identifies himself with the triple signature — Alpha and Omega, God's own title from the book's opening Revelation 1:8 and the throne's from the renewal Revelation 21:6; the First and the Last, Isaiah's exclusive divine claim Isaiah 44:6 spoken by the one who was dead and lives Revelation 1:17–18. The coming one claims every letter of every alphabet from both ends: nothing precedes him, nothing outlasts him, and the book's christology closes where its worship-command pointed Revelation 22:9 — the Lamb inside the name of God.
settled What this mark means