1. Revelation 1:8 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is meant by God’s self-identification as “the Alpha and the Omega”?

Revelation 1:8 (ESV)

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

The first letter of the Greek alphabet is the letter alpha; the last letter is the letter omega. So the Lord says he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last; see Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 44:6. In those chapters from Isaiah, the prophet draws out that the Lord God controls history; it’s all from him and to him. This is equally true of the Lord’s position in the New Testament dispensation, as the book of Revelation will make clear. All that shall happen in world history comes from God and is to God; it all begins with him and ends with him.