Signature

Revelation 1:4-5a

⁴John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,

⁵and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

As we have discussed in the past, it was the practice of letter writers during the 1^st century to put their names as the beginning of the letter rather than at the end like we do today. In verses 4 and 5 of Revelation 1 we find John affixing his name at the beginning along with the name of the true Author of the book – God Himself for what we find mentioned here are all Three Persons of the Trinity.

First we begin with “from Him who is and who was and who is to come”. This is God the Father. We meet Him by name for the first time in Exodus 3:14.

God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

God introduces Himself to Moses as “I AM.” Yahweh. His name means “I exist.” He has no beginning and no end. He exists – eternally. To invoke this name is incredibly serious. The Jews would not even speak the name of God as it was so sacred to them. (On a tangential thought – perhaps we could embrace some of that awe and respect ourselves in 2015, as we are so quick to use God’s name trivially and with no respect whatsoever. I do confess I would truly hate to never being able to speak God’s name for His name is a source of great comfort, imperative in worship, and makes my relationship with Him so personal.) But here is God the Father, named by John as Author of this letter.

Then we have “from the seven spirits” as a direct reference to the Holy Spirit. In order to get our hands on this thought we need to look back into the Old Testament to see just what that means. The prophet Zechariah uses this image in his figurative description of the Holy Spirit and His presence here on the earth.

Zechariah 3:9-4:10

⁹For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. [Perhaps the atoning work of Christ on Good Friday – and maybe even the day of His Second Coming.]

¹⁰In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”

^4:1And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep.

²And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. [We will see this imagery again very soon in the Revelation as well.]

³And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”

⁴And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”

⁵Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.”

⁶Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

⁷Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁹“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.

¹⁰For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. “These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range through the whole earth.”

I have made comments on just a couple of these passages which are found in brackets and in a different font. The bold parts are where the “seven spirits” are mentioned and defined. Now we move on to Isaiah 11. Here Isaiah actually gives attributes to the “seven spirits”.

Isaiah 11:1-2

¹There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

²And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

If you attend a traditional, liturgical church you may have lampstands on your chancel that contain seven candles. These lampstands represent the “sevenfold spirit of God”. The attributes given in the Isaiah passage are:

1. The Spirit of the Lord
2. Wisdom
3. Understanding
4. Counsel
5. Might
6. Knowledge
7. The Fear of the Lord
   

This is to whom John refers when he says “the seven spirits.”

“In biblical thought, the number seven symbolizes God. It is the sum of the number three, which symbolizes God himself (Genesis 18:1–2; Isaiah 6:3), and the number four, which symbolizes creation (Ezekiel 37:9; 1 Chronicles 9:24). Seven thus symbolizes the God of creation. Because God rested on the seventh day (Gen 2:2–3), the number is also used to picture or refer to perfection, completion, and holiness, especially in reference to God’s activities and creative works.”

Brighton, L. A. _©1999. Revelation (pp. 41–42). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub. House.

Finally, we find the name of Jesus listed in the “signature” line of this book. He is the faithful witness, the firstborn from death and the ultimate ruler. Jesus rounds out the Trinity and God’s name is affixed to the beginning of the letter. The next few verses deal specifically with the work and character of Jesus and so we will leave that for tomorrow. As you can see, each and every word is filled with meaning and detail in Revelation. But all of them inevitably point back to Jesus Christ and our salvation. In a letter about the end times we find grace and forgiveness, just as God always intended for us.