Verse 3 “Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”
This is the only book in the Bible that has a blessing attached to it. That indicates its importance in God’s eyes. Many people, in fact many pastors, do not even read or study this book as they feel it is irrelevant to Christians. From personally being told this by more than one pastor, and having been brought up with this belief, I can say without prejudice or rancor that this attitude comes from believing that they won’t be here when all these things take place. It is an unfortunate side effect of that belief. Growing up I saw this attitude in many, many people as a result. The blessing is given to those who read, hear, and keep the words of prophecy in this book. I guess if you don’t think you will have to endure anything in it, the blessing is irrelevant, as there is nothing you have to “keep”. The blessing is for those who not only read and understand, but keep the words in this book. If you can’t understand, you can’t keep the words. Therefore, to understand, it must be that it has to be taken as literally as possible. This is the only way that everyone could have the same understanding. The words of most importance, as we will see, are the words that keep coming up, and that is for Christians to overcome and patiently endure to the end. The blessing is that they will know what is coming, live accordingly, and possibly escape those things which lie ahead (as Christ had told them to pray in the Olivet discourse). We are told that the time is at hand. Once Christ died on the cross, it enabled the next phase, which will lead to the end, to start. We shall shortly see what that is.
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