From Island to Mountain

Revelation is divided into four large sections, marked by the phrase “in the Spirit.” (I picked this up from an ETS presentation by E. Michael Rusten.) 

Jesus is in the Spirit on the island of Patmos (1:9-10); a trumpet voice calls him to heaven and he ascends in the Spirit (4:1-2); he is taken by the Spirit into the wilderness to see the harlot (17:3); he is set on a mountain by the Spirit to watch the bride descend from the sky (21:9).

The movement is: Island, heaven, wilderness, mountain.

Which is the movement, more or less, of the life of Moses. He begins in exile in Egypt, as John is on the island for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Moses is brought to Sinai, where he climbs into heaven to see the heavenly pattern of worship. In the wilderness, he has to deal with Israel’s harlotries, until from the mountain he is able to see the land that Yahweh has given to His bride.

The Spirit reveals Jesus to John because the Spirit leads John in the path of Moses, who spoke of Christ.