Words Left Unsealed

Eden's gate is shut and guarded after the fall (Gen 3:24). Isaiah binds up the testimony and seals the law among his disciples (Isa 8:16), and Daniel is told, "shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end" (Dan 12:4), with the word that "the wicked shall do wickedly" and only the wise shall understand (Dan 12:10). Revelation reverses the command: "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand." While the book is in the reader's hands, the gate is open. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still" marks the moment the time for change has permanently ended.