“For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries. All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.” When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.””
Isaiah 29:10-12 NLT
Reading is a fundamental, even ubiquitous, skill in Western countries. The school system soon teaches children to read, sometimes as early as their primary years. For many, like my daughter, a love of books has been with them ever since. Fellow pilgrims will be using their reading ability this morning to read this blog. But it was a tragedy to read a recent news report that primary school teachers are having to visit secondary schools here in the UK to help some children with their reading. A growing cohort of children do not seem to want to learn, and they do what they can to disrupt their own and their fellow students’ opportunities. Very few sanctions seem to work. Thankfully, our schools still seem able to turn out children with at least the ability to read.
Words communicate so much, and there are many different ways this communication can happen. We have books, journals, newspapers, letters, and so on, all printed on paper. Increasingly, the screens on our phones, tablets, or computers have become the visual medium. But in all cases, the written words form the basis for the ideas and information that need to be communicated.
In our verses today, Isaiah sees a time coming when the ideas God is communicating cannot be read. A “spirit of deep sleep” will prevent the “prophets and visionaries” from “seeing” what He wants to communicate. As a result, the rest of Isaiah’s vision is to be “like a sealed book”. Imagine we are given a book covered in fabric or film that keeps us from opening it. We might have access to the title on the front cover, or a few words about the author on the back. But what is written inside is totally invisible and cannot be read. Isaiah wrote that some of the “prophets and visionaries” could read. Give them a book of their day, for example, a scroll or tablet, and they could read what was written on it, but the vision that Isaiah had was sealed from their gaze, and they were unable to read its contents. But then there were some who couldn’t read anything, it seems, and, sealed or not, the vision written down was invisible to them. Just a few squiggles of ink written on a parchment or scroll, incomprehensible and useless.
Jeremiah was instructed by God to write for a specific purpose: “Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Begin with the first message back in the days of Josiah, and write down every message, right up to the present time. Perhaps the people of Judah will repent when they hear again all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings” (Jeremiah 36:2-3). These were not messages to be sealed up, but warnings about what would happen to the people if they failed to obey the messages he had written. We are very grateful to Luke, who “decided to write an accurate account for you, most honourable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught” (Luke 1:3-4). Because of his diligence in documenting everything that happened in those days concerning Jesus and the Way, we have the Gospel of Luke, the Book of Acts, and probably his help in some of the Epistles.
But the Books that really matter are referred to in Revelation 20. In verse 12 we read, “I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books”. Everything a person has done throughout their life will be written down, and one day the books recording it will be opened for all to see. In human terms, that would be a huge book. There used to be a television programme called “This Is Your Life”, and the presenter had a red book containing highlights, the good bits, from the person’s life, which were later played in front of an audience and the television cameras, with the help of family members or friends. But God’s book for that person will contain not only the highlights but also the lowlights. The contents will be painful to relive. Memories long forgotten will be revived. Sinful actions will be exposed. And all this will take place before a vast crowd of witnesses, “the dead, both great and small“.
Thankfully for us pilgrims, another book will be opened: the Lamb’s Book of Life, and we find that “ ... anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). In the previous verse, we find that the “lake of fire” is the second death for those who have refused to believe in Jesus. It makes me shudder to think that after someone has passed away and crossed the Great Divide, only to find themselves in the Place of the Dead, Sheol, or Hades, they will remain there until they stand before the Judge sitting on the Great White Throne, as He replays their life before countless witnesses. After this, they will be “thrown into the lake of fire“. I have sometimes reflected on the word “thrown“. Why did that have to happen? Because the “lake of fire” was a place they didn’t want to go; no amount of struggling or pleading would be allowed to prevent their incarceration in hell.
But let’s think for a moment about the Lamb’s Book of Life. This is a divine register in which the names of all who are redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ are written. It emphasises that those whose names are recorded in this book are granted eternal life and need not fear judgement. At the moment we believed in Jesus, our redemption was followed by a Heavenly pen making an entry in the Book of Life. Our names will be written there. But can they be removed? Revelation 3:5, “All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine“. The implication of this verse is that those who are not victorious are in danger of seeing God take His Heavenly eraser and remove their name. This conclusion does not sit easily with those who believe “Once Saved Always Saved”, but if someone turns their back on God and renounces their salvation and the redeeming work of Jesus, would God not have to grant them the consequences of their choice? But we blood-bought pilgrims, believers and overcomers through our faith in Jesus, have nothing to fear. Our names are indelibly written in a place that matters.
Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You that our favourite Book is not sealed away from our gaze and understanding. Within it we find Your gracious words of salvation and eternal life through Your Son, Jesus. Keep us close to You, we pray, this day and every day. Amen.
