I see you Jezebel!
Jesus's Oracle to the Church at Thyateira
And to the angel of the church in Thyateira write: Thus says the Son of God, who has his eyes as flames of fire and his feet like burnished bronze. I know your works and love and faithfulness and service and your perseverance, and your recent works are more than the first ones. But I have this against you: that you allow the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and deceives my slaves to fornicate and eat idol-meat, indeed— I gave her time to repent, but she did not want to repent from her fornication. Look, I am throwing her into a bed, and her adulterers with her into a great tribulation, unless they repent from her works, and her children I shall bring to death with a plague, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches kidneys and hearts, and I will give to you, to each one, according to your works. Now I say to the rest of you in Thyateira, as many as do not hold this teaching, who do not know “the deep things of Satan,” as they say: I do not throw upon you any other burden; nonetheless, what you do have, hold on until I come. And the one who conquers and keeps my works until the end, I will grant to him authority over the nations and he will shepherd them with an iron staff, like a clay vessel he will crush, and I will give to him the morning star. The one who has an ear, let him listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. Revelation 2:18–29.
During the months of May and June, I am teaching a course titled, “The Old Testament in the New Testament,” and some things I’ve learned in preparation are fascinating.
Did you know that there are almost three hundred direct OT quotations in the New Testament and, depending on what is counted, up to 4000 allusions to OT texts?
Revelation has a few direct quotations and many, many allusions.
Suffice it to say, without some understanding of the Old Testament, it is difficult to understand much of the New Testament the way it was intended.
When we ignore (or are ignorant of) the allusions to the Old Testament, we cannot clearly and accurately interpret what a New Testament author (or in this case Jesus as speaker) is saying.
All this to say that the passage in this post has one direct quotation from the Old Testament and numerous allusions.
And with these words, Jesus expected the readers to understand them as Old Testament references.
If some couldn’t understand them, at least others could, and they would explain what Jesus alluded to and why.
(continued)
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Opening: And to the angel of the church in Thyateira write: Thus says the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fires and his feet are like burnished bronze. Rev 2:18
Thyateira (circled in blue) was a city inland to the southeast of Pergamum and northeast of Smyrna with a long history, but known in the first century as an industrial town, especially the dye industry.
Paul’s first convert in Philippi, Lydia, was a seller of purple cloth from Thyateira and like Pergamum, Paul or one of his team may have started the church in Thyateira.
In his address to the church, Jesus once again referred to the vision of himself to John in Revelation 1:14–15; there John saw one like a son of man with “his eyes as flames of fire and his feet like burnished bronze.” This is a repeat of the allusion to the man in one of Daniel’s visions in Daniel 10:6.
But unlike Revelation 1:11, which described “one like a son of man,” here Jesus identified himself as “the Son of God.” Together with the eyes and feet, we hear Jesus as omniscient and all-powerful: later in this oracle he said that he is the one who searches kidneys and hearts—he knows all.
Praise: I know your works and your love and faithfulness and service and perseverance, and your recent works are greater than the former ones. Revelation 2:19
Like the Ephesian church, Jesus praised the Thyateiran church for their perseverance, but adds “love” and “faithfulness” and “service,” and even says they are growing in all of these (“your recent works surpass the earlier ones”).
That is high praise for any church, and despite the issue Jesus brought up, he expected them to continue this trajectory.
Would that Jesus said that about any of our churches today!
Criticism: But I have against you that you are allowing the woman Jezebel, who styles herself a prophetess and teaches and deceives my bondservants to fornicate and eat idol meat. Indeed, I gave her time to repent, yet she did not want to repent from her fornication. Revelation 2:20–21
Despite the fruitful life of this church there was some rotten fruit. A self-proclaimed “prophetess” was teaching the same “cheap grace” doctrine as the Nikolaitans (Revelation 2:6, 15)—and was probably one of them.
Yet the church was tolerating her and those following her (whom Jesus calls his own: “my slaves” or “bondservants”).
How could this be happening?
One thing we may need to consider is that each of these city churches were not meeting in one place but were scattered about in a network of house churches.
The participants probably never met altogether at one time.
This would explain the ability of a small sector of the church to wander into false practices, led by a leader—in this case the woman teacher “Jezebel.”
Was that her name?
Jesus called her Jezebel—likely not her actual name but a reference to an infamous woman in the Old Testament, a princess of Tyre, who married King Ahab of Israel and from the capital Samaria sought to turn the Israelites to Baal worship, considered as both idolatry and spiritual fornication.
Jezebel had many of Yahweh’s prophets killed, and Elijah’s victory over the priests of Baal made him a mortal enemy of Jezebel.
Jesus’s calling this woman Jezebel was a serious charge and stemmed once again from teaching that eating meat sacrificed to idols was okay, probably so they could eat with non-Christians—this was one practice expressly forbidden in the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15:29.
To do so knowingly was to participate in idolatry (and thus spiritual fornication—idolatry in the Old Testament was often referred to as fornication or adultery; see especially Hosea).
We do not have anything quite like this issue today in our country, do we?
I’ve heard instances over the years where so-called “pastors” were teaching not only bad theology but sensual practices.
Yet any teaching that encourages believers to both tolerate and even participate in lax societal practices in their church is at best “cheap grace” and at worst heresy and evil.
But didn’t Jesus eat with tax-collectors and sinners? Yes, but to show his unfailing love for them, not to join in their sin.
Loving others does not mean joining in their lifestyles.
Apparently the woman was confronted with the offer of forgiveness, but she resisted and continued her teachings—and the church still allowed it.
(cont.)
Call to Repent: Look, I am throwing her into a (sick)bed and those committing adultery with her into great distress—if they don’t repent from her works, also I will put her children to death with a plague—so all the churches will know that I am the one who searches kidneys [emotions] and hearts [desires] and I will give to you all, to each one, according to your works. Revelation 2:22–23
Jesus continued with a warning and a call to repent. Still using the language of sexual immorality—here not “fornication (Greek porneuō)” but “commit adultery (Greek moicheuō), Jesus promised some sort of judgment—a sickbed for the woman and “great tribulation” and a plague for those who followed her.
Any form of idolatry is akin to sexual immorality because we have turned away from the One who loves us and is committed to us for other worldly gods.
And sin in whatever form it is practiced, sooner or later results in consequences of a dire nature—I understand the natural consequences of sin as the wrath of God.
In this case Jesus promised tribulation and plague.
We have no idea what this tribulation/plague was, but later in Revelation there are plenty of them.
What is the purpose of whatever judgment comes? Like the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 led to a holy awe in the church, so this judgment is for all the churches to understand that Jesus is the all-knowing and all-powerful one who searches the depths of our souls: our kidneys and hearts.
So many translations have “minds and hearts,” but nephrous means “kidneys” (or reins in the KJV—think “renal”). The internal organs were considered as the seat of the emotions, so maybe better to translate as “emotions and desires.”
Finally, Jesus said he “will give to you all, to each one, according to your works.”
This phrase is an uncomfortable one for so many.
Is Christianity a “works” religion after all?
Well, yes—according to the New Testament.
Paul used the same language in Romans 2:6 and 2 Timothy 4:14 (and 2 Corinthians 11:15).
Jesus used “fruit” for works: “By their fruits you will know them” as good or evil.
And once again we have an allusion to multiple Old Testament texts:
Psalm 62:13 says: [Lord] you will pay a man according to his work.
Proverbs 24:12 says: Though you say, behold, we didn’t know, doesn’t the One who weighs hearts understand and the one watching your soul know and repay to a man his work?
Jeremiah wrote: I am the LORD who searches the heart, who test kidneys, and gives to a man according to his ways, according to his deeds.
Here we have a fundamental principle built into the creation of humans: our response to God (“works” or “fruit”) is the plumb line for our lives—either faith to life, or rejection to death.
Both are termed “works.”
This is not about karma—human good deeds or merits outweighing the bad—but about idolatry: are we serving and worshipping God as he intended, or have we rejected God to serve and worship ourselves?
All the “good deeds” we do apart from the grace of God are worthless in his sight.
Jesus clearly states what one work is preeminent: “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one He has sent” (John 6:29).
Following after Jezebel (and the world) is the rejection of God and thus opposite the work of faith.
Exhortation: Now I say to the rest of you in Thyateira, as many as do not hold this teaching, who do not know “the deep things of Satan,” as they say: I do not throw upon you any other burden; nonetheless, what you do have, hold on until I come. Revelation 2:24–25
In this exhortation, Jesus returned to those he first addressed, the faithful believers at Thyateira who were not involved with “Jezebel” and her followers.
He identified them as not holding to her teachings and adds the very cryptic, “who do not know the deep things of Satan (as they say).”
These “deep things of Satan” were special knowledge that Jezebel (as one of the Nicolaitans) claimed to have—called then and now Gnosticism or Science (think Christian Science or Scientology).
Any esoteric knowledge that a leader purports to have apart from the Word of God is false, deceptive, and evil.
Every cult runs on this principle of special knowledge.
The only mystery in the gospel is now open for all to know and appropriate for our lives: Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead.
This basic truth is proclaimed over and over in the New Testament and spoken about from many angles, but there is nothing secret about it.
Those not following Jezebel in Thyateira were to simply hold on and keep staying faithful until the coming of Jesus—a good word for us.
Rewards and call to listen. And the one who conquers and keeps my works until the end, I will grant to him authority over the nations and he will rule them with an iron staff, like a clay vessel he will crush, and I will give to him the morning star. The one who has an ear, let him listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. Revelation 2:26–29
As with the other churches, Jesus finished with a reward and a call to listen. In the first three oracles the call to listen was first, but in the last four it is last. There is no difference in meaning.
Unlike the other six, the beginning of the reward was not just “To the one who conquers” but added “and keeps my works until the end.”
What are those works? Love, faithfulness, service, and perseverance—those very things Jesus praised them for at the beginning of the oracle.
These are the works that flow from faith in Jesus.
And the reward is a huge one.
Jesus promised to make that person “who conquers and keeps” a co-regent with him.
Jesus virtually quoted Psalm 2:8-9:
Ask from me, and I will give the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and like a potter’s vessel you shall shatter them.
Psalm 2, a Messianic psalm, was used numerous times in the New Testament to refer to Jesus (most prominently “You are my beloved Son” at Jesus’s baptism and transfiguration) or to the nations against him and his followers (Acts 4:25–26).
Psalm 2:8–9 is God’s promise to the Messiah that he would overcome all enemies set against him.
Now Jesus makes the same promise to his faithful followers.
No matter the rage and around them—even persecution—they will reign with Jesus in victory.
The second reward is the “morning star.”
To the point, the morning star is Jesus himself as he says later in Revelation 22:16, I Jesus … am the root and descendent of David, the bright morning star.
But there is a connection with the Psalm 2 passage.
In Numbers 24:17 (a prophetic word of Balaam!) we read, “I see him but not now, I behold him but not near. A star will come from Jacob and a rod will rise from Israel, and it will shatter the corners of (the head) of Moab, and will break all the sons of Sheth.”
The star from Jacob (here “the morning star”) has a rod that shatters, just like the Messiah in Psalm 2 and that is given to the one who conquers in Revelation 2:26–28.
Conclusion:
This is the longest passage we have covered in Revelation (or in the Sermon on the Mount). I could have split it up, but wanted to keep the whole intact.
There are so many theological issues I haven’t touched on or developed adequately. What is God’s wrath on sin? What is the Biblical theology of works? How does the church respond to idolatry or heretical teachings? Do those who are deceived forfeit their salvation? How is the triumphalistic language of the Kingdom an expression of God’s love?
These are just a few that I might take up individually in some posts ahead, while also making headway with Revelation.
Thanks for reading. See you later.