seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Revelation 2:18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’(b)—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’(b)—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 2:27 Psalm 2:9
This is from the easy english commentary.
Thyatira was the smallest of the cities in Asia. It was also the least important. But this is the longest letter. The Christian church may have been small. Thyatira was about 35 miles from Pergamum. It was on the road from Pergamum to Sardis. The road then went on to Philadelphia and Laodicea. It had a busy market place. It was a centre for the wool trade. It was the place of the dyeing business. Lydia came from here. She sold purple cloth (Acts 16:14). Purple dye was very expensive. It came from a little shellfish. (A shellfish is an animal that lives in water. It has a shell but it does not look like an ordinary fish.) They took one drop of purple dye from the back of its mouth. Lydia must have been a very wealthy woman.
Thyatira was a busy and wealthy city. There were many other trades here. They were in wool, leather, bronze, makers of clothes, dyers, pot-makers, bakers and the slave trade. There were unions of workers for each trade. The Roman rulers did not encourage unions. They had, however, a large army centre near Pergamum. So the local trades were useful to them. They supplied the army with the goods that they needed.
The unions had a god. He was Apollo. He was the local god of Thyatira. The unions held feasts in their Temple. They were religious occasions. There they offered meat to their god. Often they did sinful things at these feasts. It was not possible for Christians to join in such meetings.
‘I know the things that you do.’ Then follows a list of Christian qualities. These are love, faith, service and patience. Christ is pleased with the Christians. Now they are doing more than they did at first. This church was growing in its service for Christ.
However, all is not well. There was a problem at Thyatira. It came from inside the church. The problem was ‘that woman Jezebel’.
People have tried many times to explain who this woman was. The most likely explanation is this: Her name is a description of someone else. Queen Jezebel was the wife of King Ahab (1 Kings 16:31). He was a bad king. He had a weak character. Jezebel came from a country called Sidon. She was the daughter of the king of Sidon. She left Sidon. She brought her own gods with her. She caused Ahab and his people to worship the god Baal. She did not prevent the Israelites from worshipping God. She wanted them to worship Baal as well.
She killed the prophets of the Lord. She supported 450 prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:13, 19). There was a man called Naboth. He grew grapes on his own ground. Jezebel wanted Ahab to possess Naboth’s ground. So she asked someone to murder him. Then Ahab owned his ground (1 Kings 21). She used the magic of witches. She worshipped idols. She agreed with wrong sexual acts. So the name Jezebel became a sign. It was a sign of evilness. The Jezebel in Thyatira brought new ways into the church. They were evil ways.
Jezebel calls herself a prophetess. The work of a prophetess is to bring a message from God. But her message was a false one. Her teaching was false. She taught the Christians wrong sexual acts. Further God did not allow the Israelites to eat certain meat. This was the meat used for sacrifices. They sacrificed this meat to idols. Jezebel told them that they could eat this meat.
This brought a problem for the Christians. They needed to work in order to live. They would have worked in different trades. So they had to join their trade unions. Otherwise, it would have been difficult for them to earn money. They would have had to attend the trade feasts. There people would sacrifice animals to their idols. They would eat the meat of the animals. The Christians had to decide whether to eat the meat.
Jezebel was a prophetess. But she gave the Christians bad advice. She argued that an idol was not important (see 1 Corinthians 8:4). She said that Christians could eat these meals. But there is more. The meal would become a party. The people would take part in wrong sexual behaviour. Jezebel’s teaching brought great sin to the Christians.
There was another problem about the meat. Someone might have sold it to the butcher. A Christian might buy it. He might not know that it came from a sacrifice. Jezebel was a prophetess. She was important in the church. Members of the church would have listened to her teaching. This is why her teaching was so wrong.
We may say that these things do not matter to us. But we have these problems in every age. Christians are a part of society. But they must not give up their faith. The Lord Jesus makes demands on Christians. He requires high standards of moral behaviour. Paul talks about this problem in 1 Corinthians chapters 8 to 10. These matters were important to the first Christians. They could not eat certain kinds of food. They accepted this. They then became members of the Christian church (see Acts 15:29).
The Lord did not hurry to punish Jezebel. He gave time for her to repent. But she would not repent. She continued to do wrong things. She took no notice of the invitation to repent.
‘So I will throw her on a bed of suffering’. The Hebrew ‘to fall on a bed’ means to become ill. ‘To throw on a bed’ means that someone makes you ill. The reference here may be to illness. It may be to suffering. ‘Those who take part in adultery with her’. This refers to those who accepted Jezebel’s teaching. Their sin was wrong sexual behaviour. It could have been adultery. ‘Unless they repent’. This means that there is still an opportunity for mercy. God does not want anyone to die. He does not want anyone to be apart from him. He wants to rescue everyone from the results of sin and the punishment for sin (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4). There is hope for mercy to those who repent. This offer appears many times in this book.
‘I will strike her children dead’. This means ‘I will kill her children with death (plague)’. This could mean disease or hunger. All will result in death. ‘Her children’ may be her own children. They may be those who follow her teaching. The same punishment is for all Jezebel’s disciples.
Thyatira was a busy and wealthy city. There were many other trades here. They were in wool, leather, bronze, makers of clothes, dyers, pot-makers, bakers and the slave trade. There were unions of workers for each trade. The Roman rulers did not encourage unions. They had, however, a large army centre near Pergamum. So the local trades were useful to them. They supplied the army with the goods that they needed.
The unions had a god. He was Apollo. He was the local god of Thyatira. The unions held feasts in their Temple. They were religious occasions. There they offered meat to their god. Often they did sinful things at these feasts. It was not possible for Christians to join in such meetings.
‘I know the things that you do.’ Then follows a list of Christian qualities. These are love, faith, service and patience. Christ is pleased with the Christians. Now they are doing more than they did at first. This church was growing in its service for Christ.
However, all is not well. There was a problem at Thyatira. It came from inside the church. The problem was ‘that woman Jezebel’.
People have tried many times to explain who this woman was. The most likely explanation is this: Her name is a description of someone else. Queen Jezebel was the wife of King Ahab (1 Kings 16:31). He was a bad king. He had a weak character. Jezebel came from a country called Sidon. She was the daughter of the king of Sidon. She left Sidon. She brought her own gods with her. She caused Ahab and his people to worship the god Baal. She did not prevent the Israelites from worshipping God. She wanted them to worship Baal as well.
She killed the prophets of the Lord. She supported 450 prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:13, 19). There was a man called Naboth. He grew grapes on his own ground. Jezebel wanted Ahab to possess Naboth’s ground. So she asked someone to murder him. Then Ahab owned his ground (1 Kings 21). She used the magic of witches. She worshipped idols. She agreed with wrong sexual acts. So the name Jezebel became a sign. It was a sign of evilness. The Jezebel in Thyatira brought new ways into the church. They were evil ways.
Jezebel calls herself a prophetess. The work of a prophetess is to bring a message from God. But her message was a false one. Her teaching was false. She taught the Christians wrong sexual acts. Further God did not allow the Israelites to eat certain meat. This was the meat used for sacrifices. They sacrificed this meat to idols. Jezebel told them that they could eat this meat.
This brought a problem for the Christians. They needed to work in order to live. They would have worked in different trades. So they had to join their trade unions. Otherwise, it would have been difficult for them to earn money. They would have had to attend the trade feasts. There people would sacrifice animals to their idols. They would eat the meat of the animals. The Christians had to decide whether to eat the meat.
Jezebel was a prophetess. But she gave the Christians bad advice. She argued that an idol was not important (see 1 Corinthians 8:4). She said that Christians could eat these meals. But there is more. The meal would become a party. The people would take part in wrong sexual behaviour. Jezebel’s teaching brought great sin to the Christians.
There was another problem about the meat. Someone might have sold it to the butcher. A Christian might buy it. He might not know that it came from a sacrifice. Jezebel was a prophetess. She was important in the church. Members of the church would have listened to her teaching. This is why her teaching was so wrong.
We may say that these things do not matter to us. But we have these problems in every age. Christians are a part of society. But they must not give up their faith. The Lord Jesus makes demands on Christians. He requires high standards of moral behaviour. Paul talks about this problem in 1 Corinthians chapters 8 to 10. These matters were important to the first Christians. They could not eat certain kinds of food. They accepted this. They then became members of the Christian church (see Acts 15:29).
The Lord did not hurry to punish Jezebel. He gave time for her to repent. But she would not repent. She continued to do wrong things. She took no notice of the invitation to repent.
‘So I will throw her on a bed of suffering’. The Hebrew ‘to fall on a bed’ means to become ill. ‘To throw on a bed’ means that someone makes you ill. The reference here may be to illness. It may be to suffering. ‘Those who take part in adultery with her’. This refers to those who accepted Jezebel’s teaching. Their sin was wrong sexual behaviour. It could have been adultery. ‘Unless they repent’. This means that there is still an opportunity for mercy. God does not want anyone to die. He does not want anyone to be apart from him. He wants to rescue everyone from the results of sin and the punishment for sin (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4). There is hope for mercy to those who repent. This offer appears many times in this book.
‘I will strike her children dead’. This means ‘I will kill her children with death (plague)’. This could mean disease or hunger. All will result in death. ‘Her children’ may be her own children. They may be those who follow her teaching. The same punishment is for all Jezebel’s disciples.
There is still time to repent! Be careful not to wait too long....
