Sunday School Notes: Revelation 1:10-12
10 I was in [the] Spirit on the Lord’s Day and I heard behind me a great voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “What you see write in a book and send to the seven churches: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamon, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicia.” 12 And I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands.
John begins to describe his experience by stating that he was “in [the] Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” What does he mean by “in the Spirit”? Is this some kind of charismatic experience? Was it normal for him to be “in the Spirit” on the Lord’s Day? Was it a part of his regular worship experience, or is this something special that happened to him one time? In Paul’s epistles and the writings of the early church, we see this phrase,”in the Spirit,” (which in the Greek of Revelation 1:10 doesn’t have the definite article, but I think we can understand him to be speaking in a Christian context of the Holy Spirit) used to indicate the authority by which one speaks. In other places in Revelation (2:10, 4:2, 17:3) we see the phrase used to describe the means by which an angel summons John to go somewhere and see something. It appears there that John is making clear that the angel appearance was not physical, and he was not traveling physically to a physical place. All the things that happened on those occasions were “in the Spirit”–it was a vision. There is no angel summons in 1:10, but perhaps the idea is the same. John is saying that the vision he saw was not physical, and the words he heard were not caused by vibrations of air around his head. This was a spiritual experience. There are interesting parallels to this in Ezekiel 2:2 and 3:12 where the Spirit enters the prophet, and lifts him up. Perhaps John is indicating to his readers that his experience here was like that of Ezekiel, or the other Old Testament prophets. I think this is the case, and that will become clear when we get to verses 13ff.
“The Lord’s Day” is undoubtedly a reference to the first day of the week, the day set aside by Christians for worship. It is not the same as “the Day of the Lord,” as in the final day of judgment. The Greek here is kuriakê hêmera, where the preferred phrase for “Day of the Lord” is hêmera tou theou. So I don’t think John is receiving prophetic visions that are all about the Day of Judgment. That’s not to say there aren’t end-times aspects to what we read in Revelation, but that’s not the entire context of what he sees.
John describes the voice he hears as being “behind him” and sounding “like a trumpet.” It may seem an unnecessary detail to include the location of the voice, but perhaps John wants to emphasize the fact that at this point he couldn’t see who was speaking. Trumpets were used in Jewish worship, in particular the shofar, or ram’s horn, that would sound the call to worship. Loud noises, including trumpets, are a frequent part of Old Testament theophanies–manifestations of the Lord–as we see in Exodus 19:16-20 when the Lord appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai. Again, maybe John’s description is meant to associate his experience with that of the Old Testament prophets. This isn’t to deny the reality of what John experienced, but to point to the continuity between the experience of the prophets and what happened to John.
This continuity is further emphasized by the command John receives to write what he sees in a book. A similar command was given to Isaiah (Isaiah 30:8) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 37:2). In these cases the words recorded by the prophets were words of judgement upon Israel. While Revelation is a book of hope and encouragement to the church, there are also harsh words for the unfaithful, and those who don’t take their faith seriously. Particularly in the letters to the seven churches (chapters 2-3), Jesus will have harsh words to say to these congregations that are also applicable to the rest of his church.
Some attach great significance to the order in which the seven churches are listed, suggesting that each church represents an era of church history. They draw the characteristics of each era from the descriptions of those churches in chapters 2 and 3. While one might be able to draw parallels, the fact is the way those churches are described could apply to the church in any number of different eras. Indeed, I’m sure we can see the modern-day church in all seven of the churches! I think such speculations are examples of theories looking for a proof-text, rather than drawing one’s understanding out of the text of Scripture.
It’s apparent that what John is writing is not just the letters to the seven churches, but the entire book which will be distributed to the seven churches and beyond. This means, those seven letters are not just private epistles of exhortations and admonition. As someone in the group pointed out, this is rather severe chastisement, where the dirty laundry of these churches is being read about throughout the Christian world. Clearly, Christ intended this, to use these churches as an example for us all. If we’re honest with ourselves, we would withhold our own judgment, since our own sins are no less severe.
Having kept us in suspense for a couple of verses, John finally turns around to see who’s addressing him. But notice John doesn’t say that he turned to see the person, but he turned to see “the voice that was speaking…” It seems odd to talk about seeing a voice, but there’s Old Testament behind this, too, in Exodus 20:18 and Daniel 7:11, both of which are in the context of divine manifestations. In Exodus, it’s all the people who see the voice or noise, and in Daniel it’s the prophet who sees the voice. These voices are not supposed to be separate physical entities apart from the speaker. Indeed, they could be seen as a metonymy, where the voice represents the person speaking. But this is more than a simple literary device. John is calling our attention to the fact that it was the sound that drew him to the speaker, causing him to turn. And when he turns, at first he doesn’t see the speaker. All he knows is the voice, and the lampstands.
John will tell us is verse 20 that the lampstands represent the seven churches, but this doesn’t exhaust everything we need to understand about this symbol. First, we note again the use of the number seven, and just as the seven churches shouldn’t be taken to limit the audience to those seven churches, likewise, these seven lampstands represent the church throughout the world in all its fullness. In Zechariah 4, the prophet receives a vision of what seems to be a Jewish menorah, the mult-stemmed lamp often associated with Hanukkah. During the days of the Temple, this menorah was a seven-stemmed lamp which was only used within the Temple. When the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the seven-stemmed menorah ceased to be used. Instead, the 9-stemmed “Hanukkah menorah” became popular. In Zechariah, the seven-stemmed menorah is representative of true Israel, those who remain righteous in the eyes of God. What I think we have here in Revelation is the seven-stemmed menorah. Since the figure John sees is in the midst of the lampstands, I don’t think we’re looking at a traditional menorah configuration (i.e., a candleholder with seven branches). But I think the seven lampstands are representative of the seven stems of the Temple menorah.
If we pull all this together, what we see in Revelation 1:12 is a picture of the church, the true Israel, with the Lord in the midst of his church. John is showing us the continuity between faithful Israel and the bride of Christ, his people. What was prophesied of Israel in the Old Testament will come to pass through Christ for his church, for faithful Old Testament Israel, and the New Testament church are one and the same.
We started looking at verse 13, but I’ll save those notes until next time.
