“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira
write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a
flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
“‘I know your
works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your
latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that
you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls
herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual
immorality and to eat food
sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to
repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a
sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great
tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike
her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind
and heart, and I will give to each
of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in
Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of
Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you
any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until
I come. The one who
conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give
authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a
rod of iron, as when earthen
pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my
Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ Revelation 2:18-29
As the Church grew and matured in the doctrine of Christ, the
world became more persistent in his attempts to corrupt God’s people. According
to several scholars, this description of the church at Thyatira also represents
the historical dark age of the Church, with its meaningless ritual, ceremony
and false doctrine generally accepted and becoming prominent.
The Lord defined Himself in this address as the Son of God.
His eyes are like fire (omniscience and authority), and His feet are like
burnished bronze (strength and stability). Together, these characteristics
represent divine judgment. Jesus knows
the deeds of this church, from the beginning to the end. There was a remnant of
true believers in this congregation, even though the “prophetess” Jezebel had
gained a following with her occultism and idolatry. Apparently, this female
leader of a phallic cult had insinuated herself into the leadership of the
church and was promoting the same practices the gentile believers had come out
of when they believed in Jesus. And apparently, the male leadership of the
church was allowing this. Were they afraid of her? More likely, they were
afraid of offending other members of the congregation, who preferred
entertainment and pleasure to learning Bible doctrine and honoring Jesus Christ
in the way He had taught them to do. That issue of popularity is still a
problem in our churches today. Pastors and church leaders would often rather be
popular than to be right, so they allow things that are a clear compromise of
Bible standards. They are terrified of “boring” people with straight-forward
Bible doctrine, so the rah-rah emotionalism dominates, and their congregations
are left unfed and spiritually ignorant. Ah, but they are having a good time
socializing with friends. This is an unhealthy tolerance of evil.
The Jezebel of the Old Testament was a beautiful,
intelligent, scheming woman from an idolatrous culture who married Israel’s
king Ahab. By her feminine wiles and forceful personality, she soon had Ahab
and almost the entire nation indulging in the promiscuous sexual practices of
idol worship (I Kings chs 16-25, 2 Kings 9). Jezebel was an evil woman with an ambitious
agenda and no shame. In her lust for power and pleasure, she would do anything
to entice God’s people into the very evil that God had continually warned them
against. Men in positions of authority, who also are driven by power lust and
pleasure lust are easily manipulated by this kind of woman. We’ve seen a few
through the ages. It is a pattern of disobedience. They are without excuse,
because they know God’s standards.
In the specific case we are studying, it very likely was a
living woman who was practicing and teaching occultism in the Church. Jezebel also
symbolizes a false religious system that mixes worldliness and occultism (esoteric
“knowledge”) with the true worship of God. This is an abomination, of course,
and is condemned throughout the scriptures.
We wonder why God doesn’t simply strike these evil
infiltrators dead and be done with them. He tells us in verse 21: “I gave her
time to repent.” Grace always comes before judgment. There will come a
deadline, however, when the false teachers and those who have committed
spiritual and physical adultery with them will be called to account. They may
think they’ve had problems in life, but they have not seen anything yet.
There is always a remnant according to the election of
grace. God knows their faithfulness. He urges them to preserve and protect what
they know to be true. When He returns to set up His kingdom on the earth, these
faithful ones will be given authority over nations. God’s system of authority
is the issue in this message to Thyatira. His Word clearly defines His supreme authority and designates those humans who represent His authority, especially
in the Church. In this case, as with all other examples of disobedience to the
direct command of God, the humans involved consider themselves “good” and “intelligent”
and think that just because “there’s a rule about that” doesn’t mean it applies
to them.
That is the arrogance of human good. Our way is not better
than God’s way. God knows us better than we know ourselves, and He has established
the boundaries within which our lives will be most productive and most pleasing
to Him. Plainly speaking: there are important reasons, known only to God
(though we could probably think of a few) that He has given commands and
limitations for His people to follow. In God’s system of worship, women were
never allowed prominence. This Jezebel characterization of the female leader of
false religion is a good clue, though we don’t know the particulars. God condemned her evil. That’s all we need to know. Remember the definition of
evil: anything that contradicts the direct Word of God. No matter how pretty it
is, how beneficial it looks, how innocent-looking or how much fun; if God
forbade it in His Word, it is evil.
Jesus has authority from the Father to reward His faithful
ones. They who overcome the world by their identification with Jesus and keep
Jesus’ works to the end will receive the morning star. The morning star is
identified with Christ Himself and is something only He could give.
