1:14. Hair White as Wool: “His head and His hair were as white as wool.”
A direct referent for this description is also found in
the Book of Enoch (46.1). Enoch relates his experience:
1.And there I saw One, who had a head of days, And His head was white
like wool, And with Him was another being whose countenance had the appearance
of a man, and his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels.
And I asked the angel who went with me and showed me all the hidden
things, concerning that Son of Man, who he was, and whence he was, (and) why he went with the Head of
Days? 3. And he answered and said unto me: ‘This is the Son of Man who hath
righteousness, With whom dwelleth righteousness, And who revealeth all the
treasures of that which is hidden, Because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him,
And whose lot hath the pre-eminence before the Lord of Spirits in uprightness
for ever.
It would be
profitable reading for any who have the inclination to read this whole passage
in Enoch.
1:14. Fire: “His eyes were like a flame of
fire.”
The Book of
Revelation contains so many references to
fire that one can hardly fail to sense the importance of it to the basic
message. It is almost as if the entire vision which John saw was illuminated by the fires
of judgments on earth and the purifying fires from the heavens.
And he shall pass over to his
strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the
LORD, whose fire [is] in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem, Isaiah 31:9).
The eyes of Christ are like fire; gold must be
refined by fire; fire is thrown into the earth from the altar in heaven. The
traditions taught that the holy fire from heaven was one of the things that had
been missing from the second temple period, (CNT, vol. 4,
295). We see from this passage that the Revelator viewed the
heavenly Temple as the true one wherein the Holy Fire still resided.
There are
burning mountains, fiery lightnings, dragon-like creatures breathing fire, as
well as do the “witnesses,” (11:5). The beast has power to call down fire from
heaven, but he and his followers are to be punished with fire. The sea of glass
is mingled with fire and the fire from heaven scorches evil men. The great
harlot is to be burned with fire by her lovers. The lake of fire is the
ultimate punishment of the evil ones.
1:16. Sword of His
Mouth: “And out of his mouth went a
sharp two-edged sword.”
The true interpretation
of the term “sword of his mouth” is
apparent from the Scriptures:
And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, (Eph. 6:17).
For the word of God [is] quick,
and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, (Hebrews 4:12).
The offensive
power of the Lord both for blessing as well as for vengeance is His spoken
Word. Genesis chapter one is sufficient to
establish that He needs no other source of power. It is certainly not
consistent with His nature to use carnal weapons such as earthly kings use for
warfare.
In Revelation 2:16 He warns: “(I) will fight against them with the sword
of my mouth.” And in Revelation 19:21: “And
the remnant of them were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse,
which sword proceedeth out of his mouth.”
Ladd, quotes Psalms of Solomon 17:27,[i] saying
that “...the Lord’s anointed...will establish the Kingdom by destroying the wicked ‘with
the word of his mouth;’ i.e. by supernatural power.” Thus we see that the
believing people of that era expected their Messiah to conduct this kind of
spiritual warfare.
[i] Ladd, Theology,
38. According to D. S. Russell, Apocalyptic, the Psalms of Solomon were first written in Hebrew and appear to have
been written about the middle of the first century BC, (p. 57).
This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context.
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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