Read with Me
Revelation 2:18-29 (HCSB)
“Write to the angel of the church in Thyatira:
“The Son of God, the One whose eyes are like a fiery flame and whose feet are like fine bronze, says: I know your works—your love, faithfulness, service, and endurance. Your last works are greater than the first. But I have this against you: You tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and deceives My slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat meat sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality. Look! I will throw her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her practices. I will kill her children with the plague. Then all the churches will know that I am the One who examines minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you according to your works. I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who haven’t known the deep things a of Satan—as they say—I do not put any other burden on you. But hold on to what you have until I come. The one who is victorious and keeps My works to the end: I will give him authority over the nations—
and he will shepherd them with an iron scepter;
he will shatter them like pottery—
just as I have received this from My Father. I will also give him the morning star.
“Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Listen with Me
Thyatira was a city located about fifty miles inland in the province of Asia. It’s big claim to fame were all the craft guilds, the largest of which was the guild for workers in the rare purple dye that was used to color royal robes. Lydia, who was converted in Philippi under the ministry of the apostle Paul, was a worker in purple dye from Thyatira (Acts 16:14).
The risen, exalted Jesus begins with a description of Himself as having eyes like blazing fire and feet like highly polished bronze, both lifted from John’s initial vision of Jesus in 1:14-15. The focus is on Jesus’ divine radiance, completely unlike any of the pagan gods, which were actually just human beings drawn a bit larger than life. Jesus could not be simply added to the Greek Pantheon. He was in a class completely by Himself.
Jesus begins with praise for the industry and perseverance of the Christians of Thyatira. They had not only stuck with Jesus, but they had grown even more committed as time went on.
But there was a big problem in the Church as well – one that was limiting their power and effectiveness. There was a woman in the Church, reputed to be prophetess. But the declarations she made, supposedly coming from God’s lips, were leading people into sin and causing separation between them and God instead.
the risen Jesus calls this woman “Jezebel” after Ahab’s wife who led both him and the whole nation of Israel into the sexual sin and idolatry associated with the fertility gods Baal and Ashera. She was teaching a form of Gnosticism as the “deep secrets of God” that she claimed were only for spiritually mature initiates who had been inducted into her “mystery religion”. She taught that open sexual promiscuity and even intentionally eating food offered to idols only affected the body and didn’t affect the soul at all. Thus, they could be indulged in freely by those who possessed her special knowledge. (By the way, these were two of the four specific sins that the Jerusalem Council had declared off limits for all Gentile believers, like those in Thyatira, in Acts 15:23-29, specifically verse 29.)
The exalted Jesus declared that since “Jezebel” would not repent, but instead had grown more hardened and confident in her corruption over time, and since the Christians in Thyatira seemed to have no idea what to do about her and the damage she was causing, He Himsel was going to step in. He would now strike her and all her followers with pain and sickness so intense that it would make them realize that what they had been believing and acting on was a lie and move them to repent. Of course, if they refused to repent, He would allow the disease to prove fatal, thus putting a clear end to the deception.
Jesus calls those who have not bought into Jezebel’s heretical teachings to stand firm in the truth. And He promises them that if they stand firm, He would elevate them and given them great power and authority. No longer would they merely dye cloth purple as a symbol for those who had power and authority in the world. They themselves would be granted His own power and authority in the spiritual realm, a power and authority that would be felt in the present age.
Jesus’ reference to the “morning star” refers to this power and authority. Just as Venus as the morning star acts as a clear, bright sign that the night is ending and that the sun will soon rise above the horizon, so those true believers who overcome would be a clear sign to the sin-darkened world that the spiritual night would soon be swept away before the glorious power of the risen and exalted Jesus.
Pray with Me
Father, this is a clear warning to us today. You will not tolerate sexual sin and idolatry among Your people, and even less will You tolerate those who teach sexual sin and idolatry as normal and acceptable for those “mature” enough to realize that the old rules no longer apply. If Your people won’t act to confront and correct those teachings, You Yourself will act to sweep away all who teach or follow them. Help us, Lord, to see the strong danger that those false teachings pose and the damage that they cause. Help us to not blink at the danger, but instead to act strongly in Your authority and with Your guidance to expose and correct them, so that You aren’t required to act powerfully instead. Amen.