A significant passage that often raises theological questions is Rev 3:5, which assures that God will not erase the name of the overcomer from the Book of Life. In March, I explored that verse in detail in another blog (see here).
Today, I was reading Psalm 69 and was reminded that David wrote concerning his enemies and the enemies of Israel: “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous” (Ps 69:28).i
My exploration led me to conduct several concordance studies regarding books, blotting, and blotting out of a book.
The word blot occurs eighteen times in the OT. The following things are blotted out by God: the remembrance of Amalek (e.g., Exod 17:14; Deut 25:19), the sins of David and Israel (e.g., Ps 51:1, 9; Isa 43:25; 44:22), the names of idolators in Israel (Deut 29:20), the names of the wicked (Ps 9:5), and the lives of David’s enemies (Ps 69:28). Moses even told God to take his name from God’s book rather than the names of the entire nation (Exod 32:32-33). God’s book there refers to the book of the living, as in Ps 69:28.
The word blot occurs only twice in the NT: Rev 3:5 and Acts 3:19 (regarding the blotting out of Israel’s sins so that Messiah might come and establish His kingdom).
It is a good thing when God blots out our sins.
It is a good thing for the world when God blots out the wicked from the book of the living, but it is not a good thing for those whose lives end prematurely.
Sadly, God blots out the memory of the wicked. It is a good thing that God will remember and extol the memory of the righteous.
Believers are eternally secure. God will not eliminate the everlasting life of any believer.
What God blots out is a worthy word study. I encourage you to look up all references to blotting in the Bible. This would make a good three- or four-week sermon or Sunday School series.
Keep grace in focus.
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i This verse suggests that God will often remove the lives of the wicked (believers or unbelievers) prematurely. It also suggests that God has a listing of all who were righteous in their experience and that the wicked will not be on that list. Believers who were not righteous experientially would not be honored in that list.
