Revelation 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. People like to say that Revelation is full of symbolism, and they are absolutely right! Right here Jesus is telling us that the seven gleamers in His right hand represent the ANGELS of the seven churches [in Asia], and that the seven lampstands represent the seven churches [in Asia - that is, what we now call western Turkey]. The lampstands are symbols that stand in place of the churches Jesus wants John to send the letters to, and the stars are symbols that stand in place of the angels of those seven churches that the letters are specifically addressed to, as we shall see when we get to chapters 2 & 3. I admit that these objects are symbols. But notice two things. First of all, Jesus is clearly telling us that that are symbols; and secondly, Jesus is telling us what the symbols mean. He is not leaving John or us to try to guess on own own - to try to figure out, based on our knowledge of Old Testament prophecies and other apocalyptic literature - what the images represent. Jesus clearly TELLS John what they represent. Surely John, an elderly Jew, who undoubtedly had spent most of his life studying and immersing himself in the scriptures, and walking in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and being obedient to the Word of God, would be expected to know what the symbols meant without it having to be spelled out for him with easy to understand sentences. And yet here was Jesus explaining to this extremely knowledgeable Jew what the symbols meant, just so that there was no possibility of misunderstanding. One thing Jesus DOES NOT explain, something that I think most of us would have very much wished He had taken the time to explain, is what exactly He means when He uses the word angels. We know from the Old Testament that stars sometimes (but not always) represent heavenly angels, the hosts of heaven (Deut 4:19), created non-human celestial beings (though they frequently appear in human form). The Lords hosts include His angels, and God is repeatedly called the Lord of hosts. In Job 38:7 God Himself calls the angels that witnessed the creation of the earth morning stars. When John saw the stars in Jesus hand, he could have guessed that they represented angels. But just to be sure John didnt guess wrong, Jesus clearly tells him what they represented. So why not tell us what the word angels represents? Are they human messengers? Couriers or delivery boys? Ambassadors in the early churches? Pastors or elders or deacons or scripture readers or some other unspecified leaders in the community of believers? Of all the words Jesus could have used, why use the word angels and then not tell us what He means by that word? If Revelation is supposed to be a revealing, why introduce a new mystery (the mystery of the seven stars) and not reveal to us what the mystery is? I believe that is because Jesus is saying EXACTLY what He means. He would not reveal that stars represent angels but then fail to reveal that angels represent something else. Angels represent ANGELS! Each and every time Jesus uses the word angels in the Gospels, every time the word angel appears in its plural form, it always means celestial, heavenly, non-human, angelic beings, the servants of God in Heaven. There are NO exceptions. For Jesus, the word angels ALWAYS means angels. If you want to know what a word means when used by someone in a particular instance, simply look at how that person usually uses that word. In this case, there is no ambiguity. There is not a single instance where the word angels is used by Jesus in its plural form where it can possibly mean anything other than literal angels. Does anyone want to discuss this before I continue?
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 14:26:27 +0000
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