80. THE BOOK OF LIFE

Revelation 3:5. “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels.”

(For referents see also Revelation 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27; 22:19 and Philippians 4:3.)

This Book of Life is more fully called "The Book of Life of the Lamb," or "The Lamb's Book of Life." It is mentioned in the above referents in the New Testament.  Is there Old Testament precedence for this Book?  Yes.

There are many references to book(s) in the Old Testament.  There were "Books of Generations" or "History." for example Genesis 2:4; Numbers 1:2, 3, 17-46, etc.  There were books, lost to us now, of prophets, such as those of Jashar, Joshua 10;13 and 2Samuel 1:18; of Nathan, Ahijah and Iddo, 2 Chronicles 9:29.

It is clear from Exodus 32:32-33 that Moses believed that God had a Book in which the names of His people were recorded:

Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin –; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. 33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

There is the "Book of Remembrance" spoken of by Malachi:

Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard [it], and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name, (Malachi 3:16).

These latter two books contain the names of those who do not sin and those who fear the Lord. It is a book kept in heaven by the Lord Himself. It is this book that continues into the New Testament and is called "The Lamb's Book of Life."

In the Old Testament to remember was "to record."  There is a suggestion in the word zâkâr that it means "to mark." The word also means “a man,” or “male persons,” especially in connection with circumcision. It appears that the young male child was recorded in the genealogies at the same time he was marked by circumcision.  This ceremony enrolled him in the earthly Book of Remembrance, or, that is, the official genealogical records kept by the priests.

However, it was possible to be "blotted out" of this book, and even in some cases to reverse the marks of physical circumcision.  The result of this blotting out in the earthly realm was that one was considered to no longer exist.  He was ostracized from the community, excommunicated.  He was considered to be forgotten, not remembered.  The writer of 2 Esdras mentions this blotting out. Of the desolate house of Israel that has been rejected by God Almighty he says:

Let them be scattered among the nations, let their names be blotted out from the earth, because they have despised my covenant, (2 Esdras* 2:7).

In the Book of Enoch,** we again find the Book of Life mentioned:

Another book which Enoch wrote for his son Methuselah and for those who will come after him, and keep the law in the last days. 2. Ye who have done good shall wait for those days till an end is made of those who work evil, and an end of the might of the transgressors. 3. And wait ye indeed till sin has passed away, for their names shall be blotted out of the book of life and out of the holy books, and their seed shall be destroyed for ever, and their spirits shall be slain, and they shall cry and make lamentation in a place that is a chaotic wilderness, and in the fire shall they burn; for there is no earth there.**

In the New Testament Christ is the "minister of circumcision," Romans 15:8, which enrolls us in the "Lamb's Book of Life," the genealogy of God's children.

Colossians 2:11-12: "[Christ] In whom ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ."

The entire New Testament may be summarized as the "Generations of Jesus Christ," (see Matthew 1:1), for it is the record not only of Jesus’ forefathers but also of His descendants, those who through Him make up the Chosen People of God, the tribe of Priests and Kings.

It records the closing out of all the fleshly tribes because of sin and unbelief.  But God's Kingdom is not defeated nor depleted but alive and well in a more glorious form than ever.  No promise has failed; all is fulfilled in spite of the total loss of the carnal identity. That all of this is true depended entirely upon the identity of Christ as the True Prophet, Priest, and King. His identity was proven by His resurrection from the dead.

*The Book of 2 Esdras is not sacred Scripture but is an ancient book known and respected in the New Testament era. This quotation is from The Oxford Annotated Apocrypha, Expanded Edition, Revised Standard Version, Bruce M. Metzger, Editor, New York, University Press, 1957, page 25.

** Quoted from Charles, R.H. Enoch, CVIII, p. 108. “An Appendix to the Book of Enoch,” p. 153. Although not a part of the sacred Scriptures, The Book of Enoch was also one read and honored by the New Testament saints. It is quoted in the New Testament Book of Jude, verses 14 and 15.

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

79. THE CHURCH IN SARDIS

79. THE CHURCH IN SARDIS

Revelation 3:1. “The church in Sardis”

The inspired writer may have again used a play on the Greek word by using Hebrew meanings for the name Sardis as he also does with the other names of the seven churches. The Greek word Sardis sounded much the same as the Hebrew word sərâd with the Greek suffix. By using the Hebrew meaning he drove home the message he had for them. The meaning of the word sərâd is: "A kind of cloth or stuff, like a coat of mail, made of threads by means of needles ... of this the curtains of the tabernacle were made ... (Exodus 31:10)."*

Brown-Driver-Briggs defines sərâd as "plaited or braided work (... textile stuff, curtains).”

So there is an emphasis here in the message to the Church in Sardis on textiles, cloth, garments, curtains, raiment. Textiles are referred to in 3:4-5: “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”

Revelation 19:8, speaking of the Bride: “And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.” Only a few of the Church in Sardis were fit to wear the garments of the Bride.

Revelation 3:4-5 also reflects the concern for the sacred priestly garments which were ordained to be worn only by the High Priest, Exodus chapter 28. These sacred garments had become a burning issue in the first century for when Herod became king he took the sacred garments into his own custody. He locked them up under his own seal instead of allowing the priests to have charge of them. This passage in Revelation 3:4-5 shows that the true priestly garments, the robe of righteousness, is in the custody of Jesus and worn only by His saints.

The rule of Herod, the Idumean, was a critical juncture in the history of Israel for it marked the first foreigner to be king of the Jewish nation, as such, fulfilling Genesis 49:10: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” For the saints, Herod’s rule meant that it was time for their Messiah to come.

­­Eusebius says: “With him [Herod] the succession from Moses of Jewish rulers and governors came to an end.” The kingship of the Davidic line had ceased and the last of the legal High Priests had also been deposed many years earlier, so that selection of the priesthood and kingship had both ceased to follow the Biblical prescription. From that time until the destruction in 70 AD the kingship and priesthood were both political appointments by the ruling empire, Rome.  It was no longer a nation under God.

*Gesinius Lexicon. 
 This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book, Revelation In Context, available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com. Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net.
 

78. THE MORNING STAR

78. THE MORNING STAR

Revelation 2:28: And I will give him the morning star.”

What is this gift Christ is promising to the overcoming Church at Thyatira? For the answer look at 2 Peter 1:19:

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.

The morning star is "the sure word of prophecy." It is analogous to the bright star that rises just before dawn in the eastern sky, notably the planet Venus. It heralds the approach of the sun, the "day star." Christ is the Day Star, but until His Kingdom rules, we have the morning star, the sure word of prophecy that heralds His coming.

2:29. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches. 
          The message is not only to the Church at Thyatira at that time and place, but to everyone who has ears. Let the modern Church world hear.  
This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book, Revelation In Context, available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com. Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net.


 

78. RULE WITH A ROD OF IRON

78. Rule With A Rod of Iron

2:26; “…I will give him power over the nations…. [ethnos]” 

 See also Revelation 11:15; 12:5; 21:24-26. These verses all speak of Christ and His Bride as ruling the nations. The commentary of Lightfoot* will be helpful in interpreting this Scripture in light of the Talmud and writings of the Rabbis. In discussing the nations of Canaan that were to be conquered and driven out by Israel when it entered the promised land, Lightfoot says that the rabbis do not agree about these nations but mostly agree that they would be completely subdued in "the days of the Messias." So when we find these passages in the Book of Revelation, it indicates to the Jews that Jesus is indeed the Messiah that has come to rule the nations.

In the following discussion words in brackets, […] are mine. Words in quotes are those of Lightfoot.

"These nations were not delivered to Israel in this age; but they shall be delivered in the days of the Messias" [according to the Rabbis.]

“The nations of the world ... is a very common form of speech amongst the Jews, by which they express the Gentiles, or all other nations beside themselves.  Kosmos and aion have a peculiar propriety in sacred writ, which they have not in profane [secular] authors: so that aion hath relation only to the Jewish ages, and kosmos to the nations that are not Jewish.  Hence ..., Matthew xxiv. 3 is meant the end of the Jewish age, or world.  And ... Titus i.2, is before the Jewish world began. And hence it is that the world very often in the New Testament is to be understood only of the Gentile world.” [Lightfoot volume 3:135. Matthew 24:3 says: “… and what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world,” Greek aion, that is, Matthew 24:3 speaks of the end of the Jewish age, not the end of the planet earth.]

“After the same manner that the Jews called all Gentiles Greeks, so the Greeks called all other nations but their own barbarians.”  [Lightfoot volume 4:149]

 “But let this be taken notice of by the way, that wherever any thing occurs in the Holy Scripture that is either terrifying or disgraceful or threatening the Jews commonly apply it to the Gentiles, as by numberless instances might be confirmed.” [4:155-6]

[Concerning Romans 3:10-19, Lightfoot paraphrases:]

"You Jews expound these things of the Gentiles only, as if they did not in the least belong to yourselves.  And with the same design likewise have your interpreters multiplied this heap of quotations, having their eye on them: but ye must know that whatever things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law." [Volume 4:156]

[When Jesus instructed his disciples to go to the cities of Israel and preach the gospel, He said they should shake off the dust of those cities that refused to accept Christ. That meant that they were to be considered as Gentile, defiled nations. According to the Rabbis, although not true according to Scripture:] “'The Jewish offspring in Babylon is more valuable than that among the Greeks, even purer than that in Judea itself.’ Whence for a Palestine Jew to go to the Babylonish dispersion, was to go to a people and country equal, if not superior, to his own: but to go to the dispersion among the Greeks, was to go into unclean regions, where the very dust of the land defiled them: it was to go to an inferior race of Jews, and more impure in their blood; it was to go into nations most heathenized.” [Volume 3:318-9. Note their arrogant pride in their self-righteousness.]

These quotes show the arrogance and spiritual hubris of the Pharisees of the New Testament era. Yet the passage from Romans 3:10-19 is clearly spoken of those Pharisees, themselves.

As the New Testament witnesses, Jesus was and is the Messiah. He did come as the King of the Jews Who was to rule every nation, kindred, people and tongue of the world who will believe and accept His salvation. Lightfoot, John. A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, in four volumes. Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachussetts 01961-3473. 1989

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