NCCG.ORG Lev's Mishpat-Yahweh: 15 February 2022 - Book of Revelation X: The 7 Asian Assemblies

Month 12:15, Week 2:7 (Shibi'i/Sukkot), Year:Day 5945:339 AM
2Exodus 8/40 Gregorian Calendar: Monday 15 February 2022 Book of Revelation X The 7 Asian Assemblies - 4. Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29) Second (Expanded) Edition, 17 February 2022

Continued from Part 10 (Book of Revelation)

Introduction

Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome back to the tenth part of our study on the Book of Revelation and to the fourth congregation in the series of seven. Today's message will be a little shorter and perhaps more disjointed than usual as most of my family, including myself, have been down with Covid-19 and I am still a bit ropey. Nonetheless, I do have some studies and meditations to draw upon from earlier which I will try to cobble together as best I can this afternoon. One thing I am discovering as I dig deep into these seven Asian assemblies is the extent to which so many false doctrines in circulation today are exposed and repudiated by what Yah'shua (Jesus) has to say here.

What Does a New Testament Community of Believers Look Like?

I am hoping to have a grand review at the end of chapters 2 and 3 which I think you'll find interesting. There's a reason these personal letters are included in a book which is essentially about prophecy. Over the last two days I have been listening to the work of a Baptist scholar called David Alan Black whom one or two of you may possibly have heard of. I take a particular interest in the Baptist world because I have so many relatives from that denomination as well as some good friends. Anyway, Dave Black was responding to the question, 'What does a New Testament Church (Assembly) Look Like?' and used Acts 2:37-47 to flesh out seven main characteristics which, he says, ought to be fundamental to every modern congregation. I think you'll find his summary quite useful:

1. Preaching/witnessing to unbelievers & teaching (discipling) believers (they're quite distinct ministries);
2. Baptising/immersing in water those who welcome the Davar (Word) immediately upon profession of faith (the second century community found it necessary to delay that to ensure they first knew what it was they believed given the overwhelmingly gentile background of these converts, unlike the Judean converts who were firmly rooted in Torah-obedience);
3. Continuing steadfastly in the Davar (Word) by carefully listening to true doctrine;
4. Establishing a true Body Life through cultivating genuine relationships (creating a dynamic koinonia or fellowship);
5. Regularly taking the Master's (Lord's) Supper;
6. Intentional prayer; and
7. Sacrificial (Body/Community-centred rather than self-centered) living.

Pergamum's Compromise

I hope to return to this passage in the future and flesh it out more fully as not only is this synopsis important but revealing of our own strengths and weaknesses. The seven assemblies (churches) of Asia Minor have their own strengths and weaknesses too, as we've been seeing. Last week we looked at Pergamum which was valiantly holding out against the concerted attacks made against it with one of their member, Antipas, being martyred, but whose chief fault was compromising with the surrounding pagan culture in order to be more 'accepted' and in consequence of that succumbing to sexual immorality. Specifically, they had embraced false doctrine in two forms - the teaching of Balaam and, once again, that of the Nicolaitans which was a problem in Ephesus. We suffer from not dissimilar problems in our day

The Romans vs. Gospel Road

I think Dave Black's analysis of Acts 2:37-47 is excellent but at the same time I think there's a danger of trying to make a whole system out of just one passage. We have confronted with a similar problem in the past in dealing with Evangelicals who insist that the whole Plan of Salvation can be found in Paul's letter to the Romans - the 'Romans Road' as it is popularly but erroneously called. As we saw back in 2018 the Gospel Road is more than a 'faith' but a 'way', specifically:

1. A Derech, Way or Life-Path;
2. An Halakha or Collection of Torot (laws, commandments and teachings/doctrine); and
3. A Way of Being or lifestyle in the World.

What Walking on the Way Entails

The one thing chapters 2 & 3 of the Book of Revelation underline most clearly and emphatically is that judgment (in this case, of professing believers) most definitely includes how we walk on this Way or spiritual road. To the Ephesians, Yah'shua (Jesus) said: "I know your works (deeds, 'what you have done' - KNT)..." (Rev.2:2, NRSV) and to every congregation He urges overcoming or conquering the fallen, Adamic nature as the corrective to stumbling on that Way. There are things to be done and things that should not have been done leading to course corrections which we call 'repentance' (regret followed by action). This is an observation and critique of their lifestyle and their response to His demand for life alterations will determine whether they, in the end, have secured to right of access to the 'Crown of Life' (2:10), to 'Secret Manna' (2:17), to the 'Tree of Life' (2:7) and so on, because without these conscious and deliberate corrections these blessings are unavailable. In other words, believing isn't enough - genuine repentance must be accompanied by a way of life that is seen to be walking the heavenly way - godly, Heaven-pleasing conduct. True emunah-faith, once more, is then seen to be proactive and not simply wishful thinking. The Book of Revelation makes that clear in no uncertain terms. That's something for faith-alone Evangelicals in particular to chew over.

The Gospel Road is a little more demanding than the 'Romans Road'

Greeks All

But here's another thought for Messianics. The Bible spotlights, not Messianic Jewish congregations but Messianic Greek ones. These are all Greek cities with mostly Greek congregation members and its members retain their Greek names, even in Paul's letters, and even when many of them are named after pagan deities. They're not rushing to change their names to Hebrew ones as so many contemporary messianics do. Not that there's anything wrong in adding a Hebrew name to your birth-name. The heroes, like Antipas, are Greeks and Romans. And virtually all the leadership of the second generation are the same - Greeks and Romans. I find it more than a little curious that both Protestants and Messianics seem to take little interest in the witness of the second generation of believers or beyond - it's the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox who are more interested. And yet we have so much to learn from these students of the apostles like Polycarp (70-144 AD) of Smyrna, Clement of Rome (Phil.4:3), Linus (2 Tim.4:21), and Ignatius of Antioch (who wrote letters to the Smyrneans, Ephesians, Romans and many others) from the first and second centuries because they give us a window confirming what their teachers taught them. Why to Messianics and Evangelicals largely ignore them? There the 'next best thing' after the apostles themselves, not later writers like Ausgustine who were heavily imbued with pagan beliefs.

Geographical Layout of the Seven Congregations

So let's get our feet back onto the literal road and recount our geography and history. We have wended our way northwards up the western Anatolian coastline beginning at Ephesus and passing through Smyrna and Pergamum where our story ended last week. To the northwest near the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus lies Troas, known better as Troy, that is mentioned several times in Acts. It was there that Paul had a vision of a Macdeonian man across the sea begging him to come over and minister in that province (16:8,11) which took him to Philippi where Lydia and her family were converted, a native of Thyatira, which is the subject of our study today. Troas is again mentioned later as a rendez-vous for missionaries where they stayed a week (20:5-6) before splitting up and moving on to their evangelistic targets. We're told in his letter to the Corinthians that Paul preached in Troas (2 Cor.2:12) and it was at Troas that Paul forgot his coat and asked Timothy to collect it from Carpus (2 Tim.4:13). But Troas is not a part of the Asian 'Seven' of John's circuit, apparently, and our journey now takes us south-east to Thyatira and onwards to Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicia viâ Hieropolis. Sardis lay due east of Smyrna, and Laodicea due east of Ephesus, so its a sort of circle or, as I said, a pastoral and evangelical 'circuit' and presumably John and his coworkers moved around these congregations ministering to, and taking care of, them as parishioners. And men like Polycarp would have observed and imitated them. Right next door to the east of Laodicea lay Colossae, not part of the 'Seven' but important in Paul's ministry which we know about through his letter to the Colossians. Further east lay Pisidian Antioch, not to be confused with the other Antioch which was Paul's home ground.

Is There a Prophetic Significance to the Order of the Seven Congregations?

Is there is any prophetic significance to the order in which these seven letters were written? To get to Thyatira we have to change direction and then remain on a north-easterly setting until we finally arrive at Laodicia. There can be no accident that these seven congregations are in the order thay are given and at the end of our study of them individually we may attempt a correlation but for now let me plant in your mind the thought that there may be a connection between these seven and the seven days of the week and the seven annual festivals of Israel especially as later in the Book of Revelation the number '7' will crop up many times [1].This, I hope, will prompt you to do some digging of your own. I may also share some of the visions Yahweh has been giving me about chapters 2 and 3.

The 7 Cities of Asia Minor	Day	Annual Festivals (Menorah)	7 Ruachot (Spirits)	David's Wives
Ephesus	1	Pesach	Rishon	Mikal
Smyrna	2	Chag haMatzah	Shanee	Achinoam
Pergamum	3	Yom haBikkurim	Shleshi	Abigail
Thyatira	4	Shavu'ot	Revee	Ma'akah
Sardis	5	Yom Teruah	Chamashee	Haggith
Philadelphia	6	Yom haKippurim	Sheshi	Abital
Laodicea	7	Sukkot	Shib'i'	Eglah

4. THE CONGREGATION AT THYATIRA

Thyatira, Ancient and Modern

Like Smyrna (modern Turkish İzmir;), Thyatira also continues to exist today as the Turkish city of Akhisar with a population of about 110,000. Thyatira was probably founded by the Lydians, becoming a Macedeonian colony around 290 BC although there had been a settlement there from as early as the days of the Hittite Empire. It was a Greek garrison town between the western regional empires of Pergamum and Syria. It fell to Rome in 133 BC. The Thyatira we will be looking at in today's passage was a city of commerce and manufacturing that included bronze which we will see is significant in a moment. Thyatira also importantly discovered how to make purple die, which was both rare and expensive in those days, from the madder root without using the expensive shellfish murex. As we saw, Lydia, who was a prominent believer in Philippi, was from Thyatira and sold purple textiles, a vocation which fits perfectly with the archeological evidence.

Revelation 2:18-29

Paul evangelised Thyatira during his two year ministry in Ephesus (Ac.19:10) and like so many other Asian cities it likely had a Judahite (Jewish) population. The greatest hurdle faced by Christians/Messianics there was posed by the trade guilds because these were not merely business associations, but also religious and civic groups which devoted themselves to pagan gods and indulged in sexual revelry. So with all that in mind, let's turn to today's text:

18 "And to the malak (messenger, angel) of the assembly (church) in Thyatira write, 'These things says the Son of Elohim (God), who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine ('exquisite' - KNT; 'polished' - KJV) brass: 19 'I know your works, love (ahavah), service, faith (emunah), and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. 20 Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a neviah (prophetess), to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality (porneia, 'fornication' - KNT) and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21 And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality (porneia), and she did not repent. 22 Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23 I will kill her children with death, and all the assemblies (churches) shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works. 24 Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have (follow, practice, subscribe to, live) this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. 25 But hold fast (cling, adhere to) what you have till I come. 26 And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations -- 27 'He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels'-- as I also have received from My Father; 28 and I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach (Spirit) says to the assemblies (churches)''" (Rev.2:18-29, NKJV).

His eyes flash like a flame of fire, His feet are as of burnished bronze

Pure and Fiery like Messiah

Of the seven cities where the seven assemblies lived, Thyatira was probably the least well-known. But it was, as we have already seen, famous for its trade guilds as well as its smelting work in copper and bronze. So it should come as no surprise to us to find Yah'shua (Jesus) describing His eyes as as though they "flash like a flame of fire" (recalling the fiery furnaces of Thyatira that smelted metals) and His feet which "glow like bright and burnished and white-hot bronze" (v.18, AmpV). The language would have been immediately understood by the metal-working believers who lived there who would have at once turned their thoughts to the meaning of the symbolism represented by the choice of these words, namely, purity. The Revelator is Himself spiritually pure, without blemish, fiery and glowing bright, like the physical metals they produced in their workshops.

The Patron Deity, Apollo Tyrimnaeus

But the Thyatiran listeners would have picked up on something else too for we know that the local pagan god there was Apollo Tyrimnaeus, the patron deity of the bronze trade, and appeared on local coins together with the so-called 'son of god', the Roman Emperor. Given the way this letter opens, saying, "these are the words of the Son of Elohim (God)" (AmpV), this is a direct challenge to these satanic entities and their human representative, Caesar, who are all claiming - and idolatrously proclaiming - themselves to be what they are not.

Thyatiran coin - Caesar on one side & Apollo Tyrimnaeus on the other

Challenging and Defeating the Gods of Rome

This is Yahweh challenging the false gods of Rome in the same way He challenged (and defeated) the Ten Plagues ten chief gods in Egypt in the days of Moses, of whom one - Pharaoh - made the same claim to divinity as Caesar did. So this is a description of the ongoing cosmic war in the heavens which is brought up specifically in chapter 12:

"And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his malakim (angels) fought with the dragon (Satan); and the dragon and his malakim (angels) fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer" (Rev.12:7-8, NKJV).

Fighting Principalities and Powers

This is an angelic war on one level that is fought out on the human level too. And the incarnate 'God-Man', Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), challenges both the angelic (demons posing as the gods of Rome) and the human (Caesar claiming to be a god himself), and His has already secured victory on the Cross which is why also - and this is mentioned at the end of each of the seven letters - His followers can overcome them too. Apollo Tyrimnaeus is the name of one of those fallen malakim (angels), demons, principalities or powers. It is these we fight first and foremost, before any earthly caesar's or pharaoh's, something we are apt to forget in our own times of political turmoil, even as Paul wrote:

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this [age/world], against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph.6:12, NKJV).

Ancient Trade Guilds and Modern Freemasonry

Nevertheless, the human opposition is real enough, for Caesar has his human political and military agents, and the employment prospects in trade and business of the Christian/Messianic Thyatirans depended on those guilds because their members were certified, and therefore 'guaranteed' to potential customs, as reliable and honest. This was a major problem for the Messianic Community (Church). As today with some kinds of business and trade societies, various types of religious or quasi-religious ceremonies were used as a way of celebrating the industry in question and invoking divine blessing on it. In our own day, to advance in the business world, you're expected to become a freemason, and freemasons, originally a builders' guild, as you know, and though they worship 'God', it isn't Yahweh, the Elohim (God) of Israel, but a syncretic pagan trinity called 'Jabulon', a blasphemous combination of 'Jah' (Yahweh), the Canannite fertility god called 'Bul' or 'Baal', and the Egyptian god of the underworld, 'On'.

It isn't Just Ignorable Mumbo-Jumbo

Again, as in our own day, many believers (and unbelievers) will have taken these ceremonies with a pinch of salt. My own father was, regrettably, a freemason, but he regarded all the religious and ceremonial details as mumbo-jumbo and in any case rarely attended his lodge. But in this matter the Son of Elohim (God) makes it very clear that this is not an option: you cannot declare in your assembly that Yah'shua (Jesus) is Lord or Master and then in the city ceremonies that Caesar is your Lord, master and god-on-earth-in-human-form. You cannot declare in your assembly worhip that Yahweh is Elohim (God) and then in the city ceremonies that Apollo Tyrimnaeus is your trade elohim (god) too!

One is Your Master, Not Two (or Three)

You cannot serve two (or three) masters:

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other" (Matt 6:24, NIV).

And even though the 'other master' was Mammon (from the Latin, mammona, meaning ' wealth') in this particular example, the principle remains true for any competing deity in your life, whether it be something physical like money or a spiritual entity like a demon, fallen malak (angel) or pagan god. Because that is idolatry. To One only is your worship due.

Spiritually Growing Yet Compromised Too

So here's the nub of the problem: the congregation in Thyatira has not drawn their 'line-in-the-sand' clearly enough. And though it has done better than it did before (v.19), that can never justify idolatry. And what exactly was it doing better than before? In it's love, faith and patience, which had markedly grown. It reads like a Pauline list of the virtues one should expect from a maturing Christian/Messianic community. But there is still a major problem.

A First Century Jezebel

Last week we saw that the problem with the assembly in Pergamum was identified by making an allusion to a famous biblical figure, the navi (prophet) Balaam. This time Yah'shua (Jesus) makes another allusion by calling to mind a different villain playing the same rôle: Jezebel, the wife of king Ahab, who seems to have been the cause of at least some of her husband's wickedness. You can read her story in chapters 16-27 in the Book of 1 Kings. The story ends with Ahab's death. Jezebel's own story comes to its unpleasant end too in 2 Kings 9. Here Jezebel is being compared to the pagan women of Moab whom Balaam and Balak used to seduce the Israelite men away from the pure worship of Yahweh. And she, you will remember, a foreign woman, was the one who introduced the worship of Baal to the northern Kingdom of (10-tribed) Israel, a rival god to the Elohim (God) of Israel, Yahweh. That idolatry lay at the heart of many other evils which are summarised as 'whoredoms, idolatries or harlotries' and 'sorceries or witchcraft'.

Ahab & Jezebel were two of Israel's most despicable characters

The Porneia or Sexual Immorality of Rome

'Whoredoms' in that passage, like 'fornication' or 'sexual immorality' (which translates the Greek word porneia, from which we get the English word 'pornography' or 'porn', meaning pictorial/graphic fornication or sexual immorality), was a metaphor for the 'spiritual playing around' that is communing with other gods - in reality, demons, and therefore Satan himself. Nevertheless, and additionally, the kind of sexual immorality noted in the Pergamon letter was almost certainly a reality in Thyatira too. It's also part and parcel of the doctrine and practice of the Nicolaitans, only it's more organised and integral with the pagan state religion. Balaam was on the 'outside', Jezebel was 'within' - sexually overt immorality and spiritual idoltary. Three of the seven assemblies are warned of this evil, because it was so prevalent: Ephesus (2:6), Pergamum (2:14-15), and now Thyatira (2:20). And there is everything in the Book of Revelation to show that that will be the special form of evil in both the present and the coming days of the Anti-Messiah/Antichrist on earth [3].

It's Not Alright to Dabble in Pagan Practices

Once you admit (as Paul did not) that it is alright to attend events in pagan temples or its near equivalents, then all the ancillary practices, which regularly included licentious sexual behaviour, would come with the territory. Indeed, almost literally, if you wanted to find a prostitute, the precincts of a pagan temple would be the natural place to look. That is why Messianic Evangelicals are utterly uncompromising when it comes to pagan practices, especially those that have already infiltrated Christianity and have been part of the Church now for as long as 15 centuries!

Thyatira was a microcosm of the porneia and decadence of Rome ('Babylon')

Be Careful of Those Who Claim to Be Prophets or Prophetesses

This makes it all the more shocking that the Thyatiran congregation, which otherwise had so many good things going for it as we've seen, was tolerating the woman nicknamed 'Jezebel'. Now it isn't clear whether she was an official and accredited congregational teacher, but certainly she had a powerful influence through what she claimed was her 'prophetic gift'...which is why you have got to be so careful when it comes to people claiming to be modern-day 'prophets' or 'prophetesses' whether in Mormonism, the charismatic movement or anywhere else, because what an authentic prophet says must conform to biblical teaching. And fornication (porneia) is never acceptable in the Scriptures.

See the series, Jezebel: The End Time Queen of Heaven Demoness

The 'Freedom' to Indulge in Sexual Licenctiousness?

It may be that then, as today, there were those claiming that their 'freedom in Christ' no longer meant they were bound to obey the mitzvot (commandments) of Yahweh's Torah (Law), but rather were saying all you had to do was 'follow the spirit' without bothering to test whether that 'spirit' or 'anointing' led you to break Elohim's (God's) moral rules or not. Throughout the history of the Messianic Community (Church) we know that false teachers and prophets have arisen who have claimed that spiritual freedom is compatible with sexual licence. For we know that attendance at pagan shrines and participation in the pagan cult meals of the trade guilds included sexual licence. And as verse 24 seems to suggest, there may have been those believers who claimed that a Christian's or Messianic's 'freedom from sin' meant they were at liberty to explore the 'satanic depths' by going boldly right into the enemy's camp just to show how invulnerable they were. They may therefore have been deliberately and foolishly leading themselves into temptation contrary Yah'shua's (Jesus') own teaching to "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil" (Mt.6:13; Lk.11:4; cp. Mt.26:41; Mk.14:38; Lk.22:40,46). We are to stay away from, and utterly repudiate, all that is unclean for our own safety.

Great Distress and Slaughter Await the Compromisers

As far as Yah'shua (Jesus) is concerned, this whole compromising approach is an absolute lawless disaster. The Messianic Community (Church) has no business compromising at any point with pagan worship and the practices that reflect and embody it. Here, as in the devasting scene in chapters 17-19, where the 'great whore' is Babylon, the imperial city of Rome, judgment is pronounced on Jezebel and on all who have gone with her into wickedness. Now whether you take the throwing on a bed, the great distress (v.22) and the utter slaughter (v.23) that will follow, to be symbolic, literal, or both, they nevertheless speak of the real and powerful action that Yah'shua (Jesus) will take, as the one whose flaming eyes search minds and hearts (vv.18,23), to purge His people of this multiple sin. Clearly, being cast in a bed is supposed to be contrasted with Jezebel's being cast out of a window to her death - a bed of anguish and judgment:

"When Jezebel heard about it, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out of a window. As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, 'Have you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?' He looked up at the window and called out, 'Who is on my side? Who?' Two or three eunuchs looked down at him. 'Throw her down!' Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot. Jehu went in and ate and drank. 'Take care of that cursed woman,' he said, 'and bury her, for she was a king's daughter.' But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands. They went back and told Jehu, who said, 'This is the word of Yahweh that he spoke through His servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel's flesh. Jezebel's body will be like refuse on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, 'This is Jezebel'" (2 Kings 9:30-37, NIV).

The fate of Jezebel & her followers is often violent

The Authority Given to Messiah & the Remnant Overcomers

The authority which the Master possesses, with which He can, and will, do all this, is summed up with a reference to Psalm 2, one of the great royal psalms in which the Messiah is given authority to rule the nations with a rod of iron, and smash them in pieces like a clay pot. But here, in verses 26-27, this royal authority is to be shared with the overcomers - the conquerors, the Remnant, the Messianic Bride, the Firstborn Qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones), the millennial rulers-to-be, the Royal Melchizedek Priesthood, the children of the first resurrection, not all professing believers, and certainly not the lawless ones...unless they make a genuine teshuvah or repentance.

Get Out of Lawless Churches!

What is now required, for those who have not been drawn away by the teaching and practices of 'Jezebel', is that they "hold fast" (v.25, NKJV) or "hold tightly" (KNT) and continue obeying Torah by "keeping [His] works to the end", for by this means we are justified or declared righteous at the end. So this is most definitely a word and instruction for Christians and Messianics today too. If you find yourself in lawless churches or messianic synagogues which are teaching and practicing doctrines out of line with the Way of Yahweh and claiming these to be 'God-given' through 'prophets' or whoever, then you need to get out of them fast for they are marked for destruction, and instead pray together with the righteous:

"O Yahweh of hosts,
You who judge righteously,
Testing the mind and the heart,
Let me see Your vengeance..." (Jer.11:20, NKJV; cp. Rev.6:10).

Global and Local Porneia Represented by Jezebel

So to summarise: the assembly at Thyatira is praised for many virtues but scolded for tolerating immorality as represented by the figure of "Jezebel" (1 Ki.16:21; 2 Ki.9:22) As Loren Stuckenbruch observes:

"For John the influence of Jezebel within the Christian community is the microcosm of porneia that is taking place on a grander scale in the Roman Empire" [2]

Those who resist such idolatry, a spiritual and physical form of porneia, are promised a share in the Messiah's worldwide rule (Ps.2:7-12).

The Gift of the Morning Star

One more thing. Yah'shua (Jesus) mysteriously promises to give the faithful "the morning star" to the faithful overcomers. But what does that mean exactly? Since later in the Book of Revelation (22:16) Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself is identified with the Morning Star, we probably have here another hint of the level of intimacy which He offers to His people. He will share His very identity with them, as we have seen Him do with His Royah Toqef or Authority. Why the imagery of the 'morning star'? Because at its pre-dawn brightest, the planet Venus is a picture and sign of the special vocation of the Remnant, those 'holding on' when others around them seem to be 'letting go' by compromising, under pressure, with local pagan practices. Our Messianic Evangelical witness is supposed to be a sign of the dawning of the day, the day in which love, faith, service and patience will have their fulfilment, in which idolatry and immorality will be seen as the snares and delusions theyr eally are, and in which Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) will establish His glorious reign over the whole world.

Crescent moon and Venus, the 'Morning Star', at dawn

The Warning Message

I think the great warning message of this letter to Thyatira is this: virtue and wickedness can and tyoically do co-exist for a while, during a period of temporarily extended grace during which Yah'shua (Jesus) calls compromisers to repentance before judgment comes and it is too late. Just because you see believers who are waxing strong in love, faith and patience, doesn't mean that they can't be simultaneously indulging in porneia and jeapordising their salvation. Nor does it mean that the possession of one set of virtues automatically means Yahweh's blanket favour to the extent you may deceive yourself into believing you can take liberties by twisting scriptures to justify sexual immorality or compromise with the world system. Never judge yourself righteous and acceptable to Elohim (God) by only one set of scriptural criteria but by all of them....the whole counsel of Scripture. This was the Thyatiran weakness. They were doing well - indeed, they had improved - but they were compromising with the world and endangering their very souls. They risked a fate not unlike that of the historical Jezebel and needed to make a U-turn in their compromising.

Harsh Justice vs. Sweet Grace?

I don't imagine the Book of Revelation is much read by liberal Christians who compromise with Yahweh's strict rules about marriage and sexuality because the Christ of these letters is far too 'judgmental', 'legalistic' and 'conservative' for their personal liking. That is why I said at the beginning the Book of Revelation is a great exposer of false doctrines. We see our Elohim (God), Yahweh, and His Son, Yah'shua (Jesus), as the very personification of Grace (Undeserved Loving Kindness) and Justice, not one or the other, or worse, the Father representing 'harsh justice' and the Son 'sweet grace' in conflict with one another as they are so portrayed in the Gnostic mind that defines so much modern Christianity. We must constantly strive for balance in all emet (truth) (Jn.16:13) and not go around inventing gospels to suit our own unredeemed, carnal dispositions by seeking out, with itching ears, Jezebelic teachers and false prophets and prophesses who say the things our flesh wants to hear and do. Instead we must proclaim the unity and functional positioning the Grace (Love/Mercy) and Justice (Law) in the divine scheme of things, as the Book of Revelation so manifestly does.

Justice is the root and trunk, Grace the flowering

Conclusion

Until next week, then, grace and peace to you all as we move into chapter 3 and to the assembly at Sardis. Yahweh bless! Amen.

Continued in Part 12

Endnotes

[1] Revelation 1:20; 2:1; 3:1; 4:5; 5:1,5-6; 6:1; 8:2,6; 10:3-4; 11:13; 12:3 13:1; 15:1,6-8; 16:1; 17:1,3,7,9-11; 21:9
[2] Loren T. Stuckenbruch, Revelation in Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, ed. J.D.G.Dunn &J.W.Rogerson (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigam: 2003), p.1542 (1535-72)
[3] Also see 2 Kings 9:22,30; Jeremiah 4:30; Nahum 3:4

Acknowledgements

[1] David Abulafia, The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean (Allen Lane, London: 2011), part 5, chapter IV, section I, A tale of Four and a Half Cities, 1918-1945
[2] Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone (SPCK, London: 2011)
[3] N.T.Wright & Michael F.Bird, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians (Zondervan Academic, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 2019)
[4] Eerdmans, ed. David Noel Freedman, Dictionary of the Bible (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 2000)