Revelation 2:18-29
18 “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. 19 “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 20 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. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 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, 23 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. 24 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. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come. 26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 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. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
I saw an article that was titled: “Sacrifices you must make to advance your career.” I honestly thought it was going to be one of those articles where the title is ironic because the article would actually list things that were negative to start with, or the answer would be “nothing.” I was surprised to find, instead, that this was a serious article that was truly intended to help people prepare to climb the corporate ladder. The first 5 things they said you will have to be prepared to sacrifice were: Free time, sleep, the place you want to live, your home life, and, they listed separately, evenings and weekends…and there was more!
Some of you know the pressure to sacrifice these things and more. Well in Thyatira they were also called to, quite literally, sacrifice their careers.
The situation facing Thyatira was that a woman named “Jezebel” was a leader of a group who were engaging in sinful activities- namely sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.
Was “Jezebel” her real name? It is more than likely that Jesus here is, once again, going back to the Old Testament. In His letter to Pergamum, he speaks of the “teaching of Balaam” which sent us back to the book of Numbers and, now, Jesus takes us back to the story of Jezebel which can be found in 1 Kings starting in chapter 16. Here we find that Ahab, King of Israel, took Jezebel to be his wife. Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal who was king of the Sidonians a people who worshipped Baal. By her influence, Ahab built a temple to Baal in Samaria and set up an altar to him there. 1 Kings 16:33 says “Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel before him.” The story of Jezebel continues in 1 Kings which tells further of her wickedness, and we now see that her name had become synonymous with those who would lead God’s people into engaging in practices that are repugnant to God.
Unlike Pergamum, Thyatira was not a political center but was a commercial hub for the region. You may recall that Lydia (Acts 16:14) was a “dealer in purple cloth.” She was from Thyatira. In fact, in may have been her that brought Christianity to the city. With commerce comes trade guilds and each trade guild had its own guardian god. To practice your trade you would become a member of the guild and belonging to the guild implied that you worshipped the guild’s particular god. You would, then, be expected to go to the guild festivals, eat the food which is offered to the deity and engage in the immoral activities that accompanied the feast.
So what happens if you have come to faith in Christ? What happens if a Christian quits the guild? The Christian could expect to lose business, to lose their job altogether, this comes with the loss of income- the loss of everything. It appears that Jezebel, however, was teaching that it was ok for Christians to be active parts of the guilds. Jesus says that this leads them to “know the deep things of Satan” because the more involved they are in the practices of the guilds, the more they are giving themselves over the devil. Those in Thyatira who are engaging in the idol feasts, and the sexual immorality that came with them, were doing so for financial security and for social standing.
And Jesus sees it. He sees it all. He has eyes like a flame of fire whose feet are like burnished bronze. John tells us in his Gospel- 2:25- that Jesus does not need anyone to tell Him what is going on in your heart, He knows what is going on inside you. Now Jesus is described as having eyes like flames of fire that can pierce the darkness, can search your mind and heart, and give you according to your works. Those feet of burnished bronze will – 19:15- “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.”
The situations in Pergamum and Thyatira were quite similar. But here is this difference: In Pergamum Jesus is still demonstrating patience, while in Thyatira His patience has run out. He says of Jezebel, “I gave her time to repent, but she refuses.” So, what does He do? The punishment fits the crime. She is engaged in sexual immorality and, so, He makes her bed a bed of sickness. Those of her followers who do not repent will be thrown into the great tribulation and they (her “children”) will die. This is, again, hearkening back to the Jezebel of the OT. In 2 Kings 9, Jezebel ultimately faces God’s judgment by being thrown from a tower and the dogs eat her flesh. In chapter 10, her sons are then executed and their heads placed at the entrance of the city gate as a testimony to the fact that everything God says will come to be. Now Jezebel and her children will face a judgement in order that, “All the churches will know that I am He who searches mind and heart and will give to each of you according to your works.”
So, while the letter to Pergamum was a call for the church to utilize the “keys” entrusted to it to bind and loosen in church discipline; the letter to Thyatira is a warning that, “This is what happens when you don’t.” We are learning that Jesus is jealous of His glory. We tend to think of jealousy as a problem to overcome but that is not always the case. When a wife is jealous for her husband’s attention if he seems to be paying an inordinate amount attention to another woman, we would say that the wife is not wrong in her jealousy because she actually has a right to her husband’s attention and for him to be paying more attention to her is good for him as the alternative is a pathway to hurt and brokenness and loss. So it is with Christ and His people. He will not stand by as His people give their affections to idols or any other thing that is contrary to Him and His kingdom.
And Jesus not only has a right, as your Creator, to demand your attention and affection, but this is for our joy. The apostle Paul said that he prayed for the Christians in Ephesus that they might understand “What is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power to those of us who believe.” This is why Jesus demands that we lay down our idols and devote ourselves to Him- it is for our hope, it is for the delight of knowing the glory of a godly inheritance- the greatness of God’s power at work in us. And it is also for our good because it creates the context in which God can work in our lives. But how often do we doubt that? How often do we think we can do better? How often do we turn to the idols of this world in search of security, in search of satisfaction? How often do we act as if, “If I don’t compromise with the world around me to fit in, how will I possibly be successful? How will I get ahead?”
A moment’s reflection shows that we need to be grateful for God’s patience with us. It is interesting that, when speaking of God’s patience in the OT, the Hebrew word utilized means that He is “broad in His nostrils.” The idea being that God’s fury is likened to the flaring of the nostrils and His being broad in His nostrils means that it takes a while for Him to get to the point of His nostrils flaring in anger. That is something worth celebrating. It is worth asking, however, “Why is He so patient with us?”
Many make the mistake of thinking that the absence of immediate judgment is a sign that God does not see what they do. But Jesus has eyes of flaming fire. He searches your mind and heart. He knows. So, if He knows, well maybe, then, the absence of immediate judgment is that He doesn’t care about the particular sin that I am engaged in. Could that be it? Well, Nahum 1:3 says, “The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.” Those heavy bronze feet will stomp.
Then why haven’t they? Why is He “broad in His nostrils”? For those who have yet to come to Christ in faith- two possible reasons:
1) He is giving you a chance to repent. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” Here in Revelation 2:21, even with Jezebel: “I gave her time to repent.”
2) He is giving you time to store up more wrath in order that His glory might be seen in His wrath poured out on you while His mercy is poured out on those who remain true. Romans 9:22 “What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, had endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.” In other words, He will glorify Himself in the eyes of the saints by bringing judgment down on the unrepentant. And we see this here in verse 23 as well: “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.”
We are reminded here that Jesus is Almighty. He “will give to each according to our works.” This is no empty threat. Jesus will bring His wrath to bear upon the unrepentant and we don’t know when it will come. Jesus’ patience had run out with Jezebel. She was soon to feel the heavy weight of God’s wrath and displeasure fall down upon her as would those who continued to follow her lead. Sickness and death would soon be their portion. The call to those today who follow in the steps of Jezebel of sexual immorality, of choosing worldly idols over Christ alone, is “repent.”
For those who have come to Christ, we cling to the promise that Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins and so we need not fear His wrath. But what of God’s discipline? We have become conditioned to believe that He doesn’t discipline us. It may be because we don’t see the correlation between someone’s actions and the discipline which follows. It may be that we write off the discipline as someone’s own self-destructive behavior bearing its proper fruit. If we had heaven’s vantage point we’d see things differently. I was thinking about just how many mega-church pastors that arose in the early and mid-2000’s who were seen as the movers and shakers and the biggest influencers in the modern church, experienced the proverbial “fall from glory.” A video that circulated back then recorded a round table discussion about some topic that seemed pertinent to the church at the time. There were 6 pastors involved and all of them, save one, was to lose their ministries in the years to come. Issues ranged from drug abuse, affairs, anger issues, financial shenanigans. At the time nobody knew.
Well, someone did. Someone with eyes like a flame. Someone who is able to remove lampstands. I wonder if we started paying attention to the news how often we would find that the punishment fits the crime and if we might recognize that we are surrounded by more Jezebels than we actually realized.
We need to ask the LORD to give us eyes to see, to give us understanding that we might be warned and, on the other hand, encouraged. After all, those words of judgment were both a warning against disobedience and a reminder that, with steadfastness, comes a sure reward. Hear what Jesus says: “I do not lay on you any other burden…Only hold fast what you have until I come.”
This brings to mind 1 John 5:3, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.” I don’t lay on you any other burden…only hold fast what you have until I come. Verse 26- “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.” This letter is the only place in Revelation that Jesus refers to Himself as “the Son of God” and now we see why He does that. It was in order for Him to set up this promise that comes from Psalm 2:7-12
“I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are those who take refuge in him.”
The promise to us is that for those who hold fast to what you have, to those who serve the LORD, to those who take refuge in Him: we will participate in His victory. We will see all that has sought to draw us away from our King destroyed and trampled under foot. We will celebrate with Him and in this way stand in judgment over this evil world. We will be given “the morning star.”
What does it mean to be given “the morning star”? Jesus refers to Himself as the “bright and morning star” in 22:16 and so it could be that He will give Himself to His people in a fuller way as we rejoice with Him in the new heavens and new earth. The “morning star” is also a name for Venus which symbolized victory in Rome. Roman legions would often have the symbol for Venus on their standards. So it could be a way for Jesus to say that He will hand victory over to His people. Of course, we know that we will, indeed, receive both, so either fit.
Jesus says “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” What has He said to you? Are there compromises that you have been tempted to or engaged in that you have pursued in your marketplace, in the realm of your world of commerce or trade, in order that you would not have to fear the loss of respect on the job, would not have to risk the loss of the ability to climb the ladder of success or even lose your job altogether? This was the challenge of those in Thyatira. To sacrifice to the gods of their occupations. You heard what Jesus said to them. What is He saying to you? Are there temptations to immorality that you have been enticed with or have even engaged in and you have been, up this point, encouraged to continue because you have not seen any harm come from them…no judgment…no punishment….perhaps Jesus doesn’t really care about this stuff after all. I mean, it is just little ol’ me and its such a small thing in light of all the evil that takes place in this world. I imagine that is what some of those who listened to Jezebel thought. You have heard what Jesus said to them. What is He saying to you?
And when things of this nature are evident within the body of Christ and the church is tempted to simply turn a blind eye…I mean, its really not affecting our witness as far as we can tell….just a few as a part of the larger whole…is it really worth bringing up and confronting? We have heard what Jesus said to the church in Thyatira. What is He saying to our church here in Angier?
And finally, for those who have not yet placed their faith in Christ at all. Listen to what He said: “I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent.” He has given you time. And He has given you more time. But that time will come to an end. He is jealous for your love and devotion. Give it to Him before it is too late. Join His saints in the victory of Christ. He who has an ear, let him heart what the Spirit says.
Questions for Reflection:
This passage has given us the excuse to discuss a biblical take on business and commercial transactions but before we get to that, the words of Christ to the Christians in Thyatira had to do with the temptation to compromise their faith in order to maintain, not simply social standing, but job security and, thus, financial well-being.
1) Has anyone felt a particular temptation in a place of employment to compromise, or even, deny their faith in order to advance their career or to keep their jobs? How did you handle it? What are some creative ways you sought to navigate the hostile environment? (For example, a church member at a previous church was told that he could no longer actively seek to proselytize his co-workers so, in response, he placed his Bible in a very prominent place on his desk in the hopes that someone would ask him about it thereby opening the doors for gospel conversations). What are some lessons you learned?
2) At what point would you know it was time for you to find a new job?
If someone had asked the Christians in Thyatira the question “How do you glorify God in your life?”, their dealings in their particular trade may not have likely come up. Like us, they may have typically thought of the times in which they gathered together in worship, when they were encouraging one another in their homes and in those moments when they had opportunity to share their faith with others. But on the job? That is worldly stuff we engage in simply to make ends meet. Perhaps that is why Jezebel was so persuasive on some of those in their midst- “What does it matter? It is only business- you’ve got to make a living!”
In His confrontation with Jezebel and her “children,” Jesus reminds them, and us, its not so simple. All of life provides opportunities for serving the Lord. Our dealings in business is no different. In fact we are commanded, “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).
The situation in Thyatira gives us an opportunity to consider how we are given opportunities to glorify God in our dealings with commerce or business. This is not simply for people who are in business to consider, but those of us who benefit from their labors. There will be much for us to think upon as we consider the businesses we frequent in light of God’s character and how we carry out our own activities in whatever context God has placed us in. I’ve come up with the questions below while reflecting on a little book written by Wayne Grudem back in 2003 called “Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business.”
3) Is ownership of property a form of greed? How does the command “You shall not steal” (Exod. 20:15) inform our perspective on this?
4) How might ownership of personal property provide us opportunities to imitate God? What are some sinful attitudes we need to guard our hearts from?
5) How do we know that producing goods from the resources on earth is fundamentally good?
6) Leviticus 25:14 says “If you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.” Some look at such transactions as a necessary evil or, at best, something that is morally neutral but how does this command (or passages such as Proverbs 31) demonstrate that commercial transactions can be a positive good?
7) Earning a profit sounds unfair as one person is selling something for more than the cost they incurred in producing it. Read Luke 19:11-27. What does Jesus seem to think about it? In Proverbs 31:18, the “excellent wife” is commended for selling goods for a profit. When we pay $2 for something that only cost the manufacturer $1 to produce, what are we paying for? We are paying for, not simply the raw materials, but the skills involved in producing it, the materials required, and the risk that the manufacturer takes in producing goods that they cannot be certain that they will actually sell. While profit margins can reflect sinful attitudes and desires, it also gives both parties opportunities to glorify God.
8) Speaking of money: does the Bible teach that it is the root of all evil? Read 1 Timothy 6:10 closely. Read Matthew 6:19-24. What is the warning against? Now notice the first word in verse 25. What is it and what does it indicate? How are verses 25-34 related to verses 19-24.
9) Some say that Acts 2:44-46 and Acts 4:32-35 teach a form of communism. Do they really?
