The Revelation. Chapter 1. 17 To 2.7

by F. J. SMALE, Winnipeg | Category: The Revelation. Chapter 1. 17 To 2.7 | Jun 1943

It is important to observe that in God's Word each book has a distinctive line of truth, as for instance, the first epistle to the

Corinthians which is particularly the book of church order and discipline. In the main the Revelation is the book of Divine judgement. The simplest view of the vision before us agrees with this, and it will become more manifest the deeper we look.

The vision of glory overpowers the apostle, and having fallen down he says,-"And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the First and the Last, and the Living One." Here again Divine and human characters are mingled. The First is the cause of all; the Last the end of all. "All things have been created through Him, and unto Him" (Colossians 1.16). What expression of His Deity could be clearer and fuller than these words? Then the Living One is necessarily the Source of life,-living and life-giving. But this Living One had died. He had gone into death to become death's Conqueror, and He is -now alive for evermore, and has the keys of death and of Hades; that is, of that which holds the body and of that which holds the soul of the dead not in Christ.

He then, who has been in death for us, has turned its awful shadow into morning, not indeed to bring back out of its grasp the old creation, but to open for us the door into the infinitely greater blessing of the new creation. The gates of strength have yielded to our Samson, and out of the eater comes forth meat, out of the strong, sweetness. How beyond measure is the love of this One who being the Living One yet has gone into death for us! How rich we become through His voluntary poverty! He it is of whom it is written, "He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things" (Ephesians 4.10).

Having spoken thus of Himself He says to John,-" Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter; the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven lampstands are seven churches."

These words give us the divisions of the book. "The things which thou sawest "refer to that which he had just seen; "the things which are" must needs apply to the seven assemblies and their state, whilst "the things which shall come to pass hereafter" refer to what is unfolded from chapter 4., where John

sees a door opened in heaven, and hears a voice saying, "Come up hither, and I will skew thee the things which must come to pass hereafter" (verse 1).

There is a constant, emphatic appeal to our attention in each of the addresses to the churches. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches "was not written just for those of that particular place and time., The number seven is a characteristic of this book, as it is significant of completeness. The phrase" the seven Spirits "speaks of the perfect, complete energy of the One Spirit. What then follows those appeals to hear what the Spirit saith to the churches? Briefly a scene in heaven, and a redemption song before the throne; a Lamb slain, who unseals the seven-sealed book: churches no more on earth, but once more Jews and Gentiles; and out of these a multitude who come out of the great tribulation. After the marriage of the Lamb has taken place in heaven its gates unclose and the white-horsed Rider and His armies come out for the judgement of the earth.

How often we make mistakes as to the relative value of things God seeth not as man seeth, and the common view which appropriates seal after seal to the succession of Roman emperors; trumpet after trumpet to the inroads of Goths and Vandals; vial after vial to the French revolution and Napoleonic wars, has surely missed His estimate of importance.

It is not in any wise as being the Metropolitan church of Asia that we find Ephesus addressed first. Such a thought, however commonly held, has no countenance from the Word, The churches of God are local gatherings of so many disciples of the Lord Jesus as find themselves, in the will of God, actually together. Each of these companies, according to Scripture, is the church in that place, as the true text reads invariably in chapters 2. and 3. This expanded would be, as in the epistle to the Corinthians, "The Church of God" in such and such a place.

F. J. SMALE, Winnipeg | Jun 1943
The Revelation. Chapter 1. 17 To 2.7