Daily Devotional For October 28, 2025
The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her also, because no one buys their cargos anymore, cargos of gold and silver and precious stone, of pearls, linen, purple, silk, and scarlet. Every kind of scented wood and objects made of ivory, costly wood, brass, iron and marble. [Cargos] of cinnamon, spice and incense, perfume and frankincense, wine and olive oil, wheat flour and wheat grains, pack animals and sheep, horses and carriages, and the bodies and souls of men. “The fruit of your soul’s desires have gone away from you, and everything that was luxurious or radiant has perished from you. They will not find these things any more.” Rev 18:11-14.
Though luxury means as much to people today as it did then, this list of luxuries is largely strange to us. When God revealed Himself to John, He spoke in the language of John’s time and place.
About a decade ago I received a package from an Adventist pastor (let’s call him George) whom I respected a great deal. It contained a letter asking me to read the accompanying notebook on a very difficult passage in Revelation. George wanted my feedback on his research. A couple of nights later I was tossing and turning, completely unable to sleep. So I decided I might as well get up, go to the other end of the house, and look at George’s notebook.
I was fascinated by the clarity and passion of his presentation. Yet for some reason, he saw something in each symbol and in each verse that my research indicated was not possible. It seemed to me that he was stringing a series of zeros together, believing that it added up to something. I thought it would not be difficult to set him straight.
Correspondence revealed that we didn’t agree on a thing in this text! Finally, it dawned on me what was happening. I was reading the book of Revelation as if it were written around 90 AD. He was reading it as if it were written around 1990 AD! George wrote as if John were familiar with the writings of Ellen White and other Adventist books. He wrote as if John were alive today and he was speaking directly to the issues that drive Adventists in today’s world.
No matter how one pretties things up, the reality is that the book of Revelation was not written in the last decade or even the last century. It was written in the first century and spoke powerfully to that time and place. To read the Apocalypse from one’s own point of view is to end up where you begin, with ideas of your own making. God’s message for us is best discerned when we first pay attention to His message to John.
Lord, help me to be patient as I wrestle with the messages You gave to John. Help me not to assume that the first thing I see in the text is the very thing You intended me to see.