1:4. Grace and Peace: “Grace be unto you, and peace
from Him which is and which was, and which is to come.”
The message of the Book of Revelation is not to frighten, discourage, or confuse,
but rather to dispense grace and peace. This is according to the nature of the Spirit
of God, the gifts He bestows, and the fruits of the Spirit.
1:4.The Great “I AM”: “From Him which is and which was and which is to come.”
Parallels: Revelation 1:8-“The Lord, which is, and
which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
4:8-“The Lord God
Almighty, which was and is and is to come.”
11:17-“Lord God Almighty, which
art and wast and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power
and hast reigned.”
16:5-“O, Lord,which art, and wast,
and shalt be…..”
This phrase "which is and which was and which is to come" is Christ’s identification of Himself as the Great I Am of Exodus 3:13-15.[i] The divine Name is a verb of existence: Yahweh – “I am He who creates,” or “I am that I am,” or “Being, I cause to be.”[ii]
The Name YAHWEH is called “the quadriliteral Name” for in Hebrew it contains four letters and was considered by the Rabbis as being too holy to pronounce.
Note that in the RSV passages in 11:17 and 16:5 the future tense is conspicuously absent; there is no “is to come.” This more accurately reflects the Greek text than does the KJV. Perhaps this indicates that in the events seen in these visions He has come. In 11:17 He has begun to reign; in 16:5 He has begun to judge.
The Hebrew word standing behind this phrase "is, was and is to come"might also be the word yesh. As a noun it means “being, existence, that which is present, ready.” It is most commonly used as a verb substantive, without distinction of number or tense, “is, was, will be.” With a predicate yesh gives an emphatic force (BDB). If the subject of the verb form, however, is a pronoun, it is expressed by a suffix as if it were a noun form instead of a verb form. The form that would produce the translation I Am would then be almost or entirely the equivalent of Jesus, Yeshua.
The force of the Name Yahweh is that of infinity brought into the present moment. The eternally existent God, eternity past and eternity future, is brought into the present finite moment.[iv] Davies, W.D. Paul and Rabbinic Judaism says:
"The community of Israel is a unity of past, present and future…. The Israelites to whom Amos spoke had come up from Egypt (3.2 [3:1 KJV]); this can be said because every Israelite shared in this experience…. Another excellent example of this method of thought occurs in the book of Joshua. {Note 2: “Joshua 24. See also Deut.26.5f.”} …. it follows that the experience of Christ can be re-enacted in the [individual Christian]: the Christian man can die and rise with his Lord," [underlines mine.] (108-9).
This participation in the life of Christ is expressed in Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Colossians 2:20 and 3:1: "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances.... If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."
[i] Summers says: "Grace and peace are here pronounced
as coming from 'the one who is and the one who was and the one who is coming.'
This was a typical Jewish conception of
God. It is a good reproduction of the
Hebrew word for Jehovah– 'the eternally existing one'" (Worthy Is the Lamb, 101).
[ii] See also John Bright, A History of Israel, Second Edition,
(Philadelphia, The Westminster Press. 1972), 151-2.
In this and in the identification as "Aleph and Tau," Christ is identifying
with the name "Elohim," (God in the plural), which
Bright sees to be a name constituting a claim that He is the totality,
(plurality), of the manifestation of the deity, (p. 153). That is, not plural gods, but a plurality of manifestations of the One God.
[iii] See M. Jastrow, Dictionary of the
Targumim, the Talmud Babli
and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. (Brooklyn: Shalom. 1967
reprint).
[iv] See also my Commentary on 1:8, "Alpha and Omega".
This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context.
My Book is available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com
Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net .
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