Rev 1: 12-16 Holy Holy Holy
Notes
Transcript
9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
Last week when we studied v9-11 we saw John’s context and Jesus’ command to him to write. In v10 John heard the voice like a trumpet behind him, now in v12 John tells us that he turned to see who was speaking.
On turning, John states first that he “saw seven golden lampstands” (1:12). In order to understand this passage and most of the book of Revelation, it is important to understand the Old Testament background.
1. Seven golden lampstands v12
Most of the references to lampstands in the Old Testament are references to the lampstand in the tabernacle or the ten lampstands that Solomon prepared for the temple. But the most important background for what John relates here about Jesus in the midst of the seven lampstands is what Zechariah saw as stated in Zechariah 4:1–14. John’s experience of Jesus in 1:9–20 fulfills Zechariah 4 in significant ways.
Zechariah saw a lampstand with seven lamps flanked by “two olive trees” (4:2, 3). Zechariah 4 presents an angel explaining the meaning of the lampstand and the two olive trees to Zechariah. John sees Jesus standing in the midst of seven lampstands, and in 1:20 Jesus interprets the meaning of the lampstands for John, that the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
The prophecy in Zechariah and the lampstands that Zechariah saw points to the successful rebuilding of the temple and the renewal of God’s presence among his people (4:4–10). The two olive trees are explained as “the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth” (4:11–14). In Zechariah these two anointed ones are the anointed priest, Joshua (cf. 3:1–10), and the descendant of David, Zerubbabel (4:1–14). This text and others like it seem to have given rise to the expectation of two messiahs, one priestly and one royal, as seen in the documents found at the Dead sea scrolls (cf. e.g., 1QS 9:11). In Zechariah the vision means that God will accomplish his purpose in the rebuilding of the temple: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (4:6). The “two olive trees,” anointed and empowered, will be the means God uses to bring this about.
This scenario now finds its fulfillment in what John sees in Revelation. The Lord is not building a temple in which he will dwell but a church (cf. Matthew 16:18)! The Church is not a building but believers who are “living stones” (cf. 1 Peter 2:5). Zechariah’s lampstand, which symbolized the presence of God in the temple, is fulfilled by the seven lampstands of Revelation, which symbolizes God’s presence in the seven churches to whom John writes (1:20; cf. 2:5). Zechariah’s “two anointed ones,” Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the royal descendant of David, are fulfilled in Jesus, who stands among the lampstands as God’s presence in his church. Jesus himself fills the offices of High Priest and High King of Israel. The vision of the lampstand and the two olive trees in Zechariah guaranteed that God would empower the rebuilding of the temple. Similarly, John’s vision of Jesus among the lampstands guarantees that God will accomplish his purpose in the building of the Church.
2. Clothed with a long robe v13
In verse 13 John’s description of what he saw continues: “and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.” A number of Old Testament texts refer to a “son of man,” but John’s description here of “one like a son of man” seems to points to Daniel 7:13, 14, which says
13 “I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
14 And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
From the context of chapter 1 there is a clear connection between Rev 1 and Daniel 7. Rev 1:7 says “Behold, he is coming with the clouds” and Daniel 7:13 says “… and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.”
The “son of man” in Daniel 7:13, 14 receives an eternal kingdom, which means that by alluding to this passage John is describing Jesus in royal terms. John also presents Jesus in priestly terms because he stands among the lampstands, which were part of the furniture of the temple, and it was the job of the Levitical priests to tend and maintain the lampstands in the temple. Jesus will tend and maintain the lampstands by calling the churches to repentance. Jesus’ clothes in 1:13 is very likely a reference as the robe and golden sash of the heavenly high priest (cf. Daniel 10:5).
Here is what Daniel says in Daniel 10
2 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. 3 I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks. 4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river (that is, the Tigris) 5 I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. 6 His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.
Daniel’s visions have to do with the son of man who receives an eternal kingdom, and in Daniel 10:14 Daniel encountered a man from Heaven who told him that he “came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.”
The way the Jesus reveals himself to John points to two things. First, the phrases John employs in his descriptions of Jesus are later repeated in chapters 2,3, when Jesus reveals something about himself to each church. In the back of your handout there is a table of all of these descriptions and its references.
The second major influence on the way John described his initial encounter with the risen Jesus appears to have been Daniel 10. John seems to have understood that just as Daniel’s vision concerned “the latter days” (10:14) but Daniel was instructed to “shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end” (12:4), so now he, John, was receiving a vision that concerned “the things that must soon take place” (1:1). Unlike Daniel, John was told, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near” (22:10). Thus, what was prophesied by Daniel is fulfilled in Revelation.
In 1:14 John unfolds the marvelous divinity of Jesus. He does this by describing Jesus in terms that match the description of the Ancient of Days in Daniel 10 and 7:9, where we read that “the hair of his head [was] like pure wool.” When John writes of Jesus that “The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow,” he is describing Jesus in the same terms used to describe the Ancient of days in Daniel 7:9.
That Jesus is God is a fact! To insist on this is not to impose our opinions on others but to tell them the truth about reality. The Church has the responsibility of serving the world at large as “a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). Local churches must endeavor to uphold the truth as a pillar supports a building, and we must be a strong foundation, a ground, on which a true understanding of the world can be built. That’s our role. We serve the Risen King. The King of the Universe, the Ancient of Days.
3. Eyes were like a flame of fire v14
When John describes Jesus in 1:14 as one whose “eyes were like a flame of fire” (cf. 19:12; Daniel 10:6), he is declaring the reality that nothing escapes the all-searching, pure gaze of Jesus. This has at least three implications: 1) no sin that we commit will escape his notice, 2) he will see every faithful thing his people do, and 3) he will note every injustice done to his people by their enemies.
4. Voice like the roar of many water v15
The statement in 1:15 that “his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace” points to the absolute purity of Jesus (cf. Daniel 10:6). And not only is the voice loud like a trumpet (1:10), which recalls the voice at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16, 19, 20), the voice was also “like the roar of many waters” (1:15; cf. 14:2; 19:6; Ezekiel 1:24; 43:2). These descriptions of the powerful voice of the risen Christ are stunning, communicating his authority, which is to be obeyed. The trumpet and the roar of the waters of Jesus’ voice are to drown out the other voices that would call Christians away from the true faith and holiness that marks those who know God. Are you inclining your ear to the blasting roar of Jesus’ voice in the Scriptures? Or are you listening for the siren songs of the enemies of God and his people?
5. Mouth came a sharp two-edged sword v16
John tells us three more things about Jesus in 1:16. First, “In his right hand he held seven stars.” The stars will be explained in verse 20 as the seven angels of the churches. Second, “from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword.” This is description points to the fact that every word of Jesus are decisive words of judgment.
Isaiah 11:4 “but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.”
Heb 4:12-13 “12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
Rev 19:15-16 “15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”… 21 21 And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
And lastly in v16, John tells us that “his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” This description points to the painful brightness of the sun, on which we cannot fix our eyes. Just like when Jesus appeared to Saul on the road and Saul was blind because of the brightness of the glory of Jesus. Peter, James and John at the Mount of Transfiguration saw Jesus in His glory and they describe Jesus in Matt 17:2 “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light”
As we see in verses 17–20, this appearance of the risen Christ, in blazing splendor like the sun shining in full strength, left John “as though dead” (v. 17). Just like Isaiah in Isaiah 6 when he saw God in His throne and the seraphim worshipping God saying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And Isaiah said “Woe is me, for I am undone”
The incomparable glory of the risen Christ motivates John’s audience to heed what John has been commissioned to write. The matchless splendor of Heaven’s King attracts the attention and compels the obedience of the churches John addresses. The risen Christ in glory calls for obedience from his churches from us.