Monthly Archives: July 2015

Seven Golden Candlesticks – Part 1

Revelation Commentary, , ,

Revelation 1:12: “I saw seven golden candlesticks.”

This passage shows how the symbols of the Book of Revelation are to be understood. The symbolism of the stars is no mere literary device but is an integral part of the purpose and message of the Book. The starry heavens are interpreted as the Heavenly Pattern of earthly realities, both of which agree as witnesses of a higher spiritual truth. Many Scriptures may serve as referents to show that heaven and earth are witnesses to God.[1] The seven-starred constellation of Ursa Major is here used as a visual analogy of the seven golden lampstands of the Temple.

 The Hosts of Heaven are reflected on Earth

Another use of analogy is in the “hosts of heaven” and the “hosts on earth.” The word translated ‘host’ is Hebrew tsabah, meaning: “an earthly army, or host and is used equally of the sacred host of Levites.” Moses was commanded to make all things “according to the Pattern” which God showed him on the mountain. Thus he made the orders of the Levites, serving in their rotating courses, even as the constellations of the heavens rotated in their order and the order was changed every month, as were the constellations of the heavens.

The word tsabah also means: “…specially …the host of heaven.”: “(a) the angels round the throne of God, 1 Kings 22:19; II Chronicles 18:18; Psalms 148:2; compare also Psalm 103:21; and Joshua 5:15; (b) Used of the sun, moon, and stars. Isaiah 34:4; 40:26; 45:12; Jeremiah 33:22; Daniel 8:10; also used when the worship of the stars is mentioned. Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kings 17:16; 21:3, 5; Zephaniah 1:5.”*

The word is used also more comprehensively as including all the heavenly bodies, …  compare Job 38:7, where angels and stars are mentioned together, and Isaiah 24:21, where the host of heaven is in opposition to the kings of the earth.

Jehovah is very often called “Lord God of Hosts,” and “Jehovah God of the heavenly Hosts.” This is most frequent in the prophetic books: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Malachi, but is not found in the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Ezekiel, Job, or Solomon.

Zeugma: Hebrew Tsabah:

The “Hosts of Heaven” and the “Hosts on Earth” are a unity and are both called by the word tsabah. This unity of the heavenly and earthly hosts is expressed by the grammatical use called ‘zeugma.’ Zeugma is the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words, usually in a manner that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one. Literally, it means “joining, to join,” as for example, “a yoke.”

The usage of zeugma applies in Biblical Hebrew to the relationship of the heavenly hosts and the inhabitants or whatever fills the earth, even the plants being included. The concept of zeugma may help to clarify the particular type of analogy used in the Book of Revelation, but which is also well attested in Old Testament Scriptures. The following discussion follows Gesinius’ Lexicon p. 699.

Genesis 2:1: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.”

This zeugma of the yoke between the hosts of heaven and the hosts of earth is resolved in Nehemiah 9:6 where the two are separated and each is described separately:

“Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.”

In Joshua 5:15 we see the “Captain (or Prince) of the host of the Lord” appearing to Joshua. He was shâr, (Prince), of all the host of the Lord whereas each Prince,  shâr, of Daniel 10:13, 20 represented only a particular nation. This passage sets a precedent for referring to the Messiah as the Prince Who is the Leader or Head of all God’s host in heaven and in earth. In this sense all of the hosts in heaven and earth are considered as a single host.

It is appropriate, therefore, to make His symbol that star around which the apparent marching of all heaven and earth revolve, the pole star, the apparent great Bond between heaven and earth which makes them a unity, a Uni-verse,by which all earth can be mapped in reference to the heavens.

Faithful Witness in the Heavens:

The promises to David were of a cosmic and ideal nature. The ideal model is forever established in heaven regardless of the corruption suffered by the earthly images. The Revelation of Jesus Christ deals with this ideal model. That dominion is described in Psalm 89:27: “And I will make my firstborn, (Light), higher than the kings of the earth” (also vv. 35-37):

“Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie to David. His seed shall endure forever and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.”

These promises clearly indicate their cosmic nature. To find a suitable heavenly symbol for this promised ‘throne’ and ‘witness’ which is as conspicuous in its own way as the sun or moon, again, we need only consider the pole star. No other heavenly body has served so well as a “faithful witness” for orientation for it is forever “established” and “unmovable” from its place.

Psalm 89:2-6: “Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant, ‘Thy seed will I establish for ever and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah. And the heavens shall praise Thy wonders, O Lord: Thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints…For who in the heavens can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?”

Verses 11:12 (Psalm 89) show the value of the heavens for orientation north and south:

“The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine; as for the world and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded them. The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon, (the north and south mountains) shall rejoice in thy name.”

Next: Seven Golden Candlesticks – Part 2

This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book, Revelation in Context, available locally at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma or www.Amazon.com, or www.XulonPress.com.
Free downloads are also available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net.

Revelation: Light Was Conceived In Creation

Revelation Commentary, , , ,

Revelation 1:12: “… and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”

Jesus Firstborn of Creation

Jesus, the Light of the World, was the Firstborn of Creation, Colossians 1:15. So let us paraphrase the creation story to see the account of when Christ was “Firstborn,” Genesis 1:1-3:

“When God began to create [the duality] heaven and earth, [1] the earth was [materially] formlessness, [spatially wandering, rationally mad, intellectually without order, spiritually and visually totally dark], and [virgin] emptiness. Darkness [was the veil that] covered the surface of the [boundless] chaos.

“And the Spirit, [Breath, Wind], moved, [brooded, trembling with loving affection], proceeded to heal her. [In lifting the veil of darkness from her], God said [of this union]: ‘Let Light begin to be.’ And Light [was conceived in her and thus] began to be.”

From Milton’s Paradise Lost

Of this portion of Genesis Milton writes in Paradise Lost as he addressed Christ:

“Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born Or of the Eternal Coeternal beam,

May I express thee unblam’d? Since God is Light,

And never but in unapproached Light

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee

Bright effluence of bright essence increate

Or hear’st thou rather pure ethereal stream,

Whose fountain, who shall tell? before the sun….”[2]

Duality and Unity:

There has been considerable discussion over the supposed duality in Christian religion. Many have declared that the duality did not exist in the Old Testament and that it was totally foreign to the true religion of the Jews. It did not need, however, to be imported as some would have it, from Babylon, or Greece, or Zoroastrianism. Although the duality is not apparent in our English translations, it is apparent in the dual forms of the Biblical Hebrew, even of the first verse of the Bible.

The duality, then, is the source of the possibility of the chaotic conditions of the earth and therefore of evil. It is the reconciliation of earth and heaven and their reunion that brings about the blessings of order and peace. This perfect unity is the source of, as well as the result of, Light. Earth and Heaven are reunited in earth’s conception of Light. In the fullness of time that Light that was conceived in the beginning comes to full maturity in the Perfection of Light, Jesus.

The Prophet Isaiah saw this beautiful truth:

“The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name….And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, ….he says: ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.'”(Isaiah 49:1b, 5-6. See also Isaiah 44:24.)

The Divine Cycle

God created duality for the sake of the joy of desire-fulfillment. In Unity all is at rest, therefore, the prime move itself was necessarily an act in contrast, apposition, conflict with the Unity of rest. The act constituted duality itself, and was initiated with the intention of creating duality.

The Bible begins with the rest of divine Unity: God. It can only proceed by and because of an act: Creating. The act is first produced by desire, tôhûw ve bôhûw. Desire creates reunion, marechepheth. Reunion, or resolution of the duality produces an offspring, Light. This circular continuum of Unity, Creation, Duality, Desire Fulfillment, Creation, Reunion is repeated infinitely and infinitesimally and each cycle produces its own peculiar radiance which is an appearance of God, a Revelation. The Revelation of Jesus Christ is the perfect fulfillment of the great cycle of cycles resolving all things to the Great Unity of Divine Rest.

Christ As Both Father And Son

As Light, Christ is the “Everlasting Father” of Isaiah 9:6. The Hebrew is ’âbiy-‘âd, translated by Gesinius as “perpetual father.” Since the word ‘âd means “time,” a possible translation would be “Father of Time.” Christ was both Abraham’s progenitor and Seed, as also He was of David. [Note that the Seed is only activated by Light.]

As Abraham’s seed produced the fleshly Israel, and also Christ according to the flesh, so Christ is the progenitor of the spiritual Israel for it is His bloodline that survived the destruction of the Jewish nation, city, and people in the first century AD. No other Jewish or Israeli bloodline or genealogy survived. As Christ raised and ascended and is alive forevermore, He perpetuates the bloodline of Abraham forever and is the source of the Holy Seed that produces the new birth, bringing sons and daughters into the kingdom and producing, perpetuating, and increasing the spiritual Israel, the Church, the Light of the world, Matthew 5:14.

Manifestation: Revealed Light

Revelation means ‘Perfection of Light.’ While God is unapproachable Light, Christ is revealed light. The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, then, is the written manifestation (that which makes manifest is light), of Jesus Christ and shows Him as the “Perfection of Light.”

The purpose of Light, or Revelation, is to show, (cause to see), and this purpose is the one given for the Book in its title sentence: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass.” This is parallel to the passage from 1 Timothy 6:14b-16, “The appearing [Revelation] of our Lord Jesus Christ: which in His, [referring to God’s], times, [in verse 13], He, [God], shall shew [reveal].”

The Firstborn Light Comes to Perfection in Jesus

The Light that God commanded to be conceived or begun in the beginning waxed brighter and brighter throughout the revealed Scriptures until at last, it reached its perfection in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The whole Bible could rightly be named “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” But while this Light was conceived in the Old Testament, it was at that time hidden, but in the incarnation it was revealed, and in the Spirit it is perfected. Taking this title sentence as the key to the interpretation of the Book, we are required to interpret its symbols as symbols of Light.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” LIGHT!

This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book, Revelation in Context, available locally at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma or www.Amazon.com, or www.XulonPress.com.
Free downloads are also available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net.