Today’s reading is Revelation 2.
The picture of the Bride gets more sullied. If the manifestation of the Bride in Pergamum was flirting, in Thyatira she had started sleeping around. The Groom had already caught her in the adultery and given time to repent, but she persisted. It’s possible the congregation had a particular woman named Jezebel. However, I think it more likely Jesus wanted to identify the woman not by her given name, but to demonstrate who she really was. Whatever her given name, she was Jezebel. She was the same as the pagan wife who had been the greatest stumbling block for ancient Ahab, king of Israel. The point was not merely to identify who she was, but what would happen to her. Recall, the ancient Jezebel was thrown out of a window at the command of Jehu and then her body was eaten by dogs (see 2 Kings 9:30-37). Further, I don’t know how many of Ahab’s 70 sons in 2 Kings 10 were sons of Jezebel, but they also were killed.
This Jezebel, who fashioned herself as a prophetess, seducing the Lord’s servants to participate in idolatry, prefigured the Great Prostitute of Revelation 17. Jezebel may like to claim she was part of the Bride, but she wasn’t. She was part of the Prostitute. She may have liked to claim she was a stone in the wall of the heavenly Jerusalem, but she was not. She was a brick of Babylon. Hiding out among the Christians would not save her from the coming judgment.
Notice, the Groom claimed when He brought this judgment, all the churches would know He is the one who searches the mind and heart (Revelation 2:23). That is, hiding out among the Bride does not hide the idolatrous mind and heart from Jesus. He knows His Bride. He knows His enemy. His flaming eyes can pierce into our very hearts and souls.
But, and I admit this part puzzles and surprises me. Though Thyatira was in danger of being trampled by the Groom’s feet of burnished bronze and consumed by His fiery eyes, Jesus knew the ones in the congregation who had not gone along with Jezebel. He knew those who did not follow Jezebel in her teaching and her adultery. They had not followed her into “the deep things of Satan.” No doubt, Jesus spoke of these pure saints in His opening statement: “I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.” In other words, though in Pergamum the Prostitute had mingled with the Faithful Bride, Jesus could tell the difference. The faithful individual in the congregation would not be destroyed along with the unfaithful. But, on the other hand, the unfaithful will not be saved by meeting on Sundays with the faithful.
Perhaps in this letter we learn the greatest lesson. In Thyatira, the Bride was not faithful; she was not Smyrna. She was not faithful in either a contractual or covenantal sense; she wasn’t Ephesus. She was not faithful in a technical sense; she was not even Pergamum. Yet, the Groom offered her repentance. How amazing is that? Sadly, Jezebel would not repent. But she was given that opportunity. Perhaps you have been Jezebel in your congregation. The Lord knows. He hasn’t missed it. He searches the minds and hearts. But you can still be invited to the wedding feast. You can still be victorious. Repent. Give up the sins which have led you astray. He will save you. Praise the Lord!
We are the Bride. Let us repent and find fellowship with our King.
Next week’s reading is Revelation 3.
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PATHS:
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