Devotions with Dre Episode 17: Book of Revelation Part 2: Jesus the Preeminent Elohim

Rev 1 (whole chapter):

A revealing of Jesus, the Messiah. God gave it to make plain to his servants what is about to happen. He published and delivered it by Angel to his servant John. And John told everything he saw: God’s Word—the witness of Jesus Christ! How blessed the reader! How blessed the hearers and keepers of these oracle words, all the words written in this book! Time is just about up. I, John, am writing this to the seven churches in Asia province: All the best to you from The God Who Is, The God Who Was, and The God About to Arrive, and from the Seven Spirits assembled before his throne, and from Jesus Christ—Loyal Witness, Firstborn from the dead, Ruler of all earthly kings.

Glory and strength to Christ, who loves us,

    who blood-washed our sins from our lives,

Who made us a Kingdom, Priests for his Father,

    forever—and yes, he’s on his way!

Riding the clouds, he’ll be seen by every eye,

    those who mocked and killed him will see him,

People from all nations and all times

    will tear their clothes in lament.

        Oh, Yes.

The Master declares, “I’m A to Z. I’m The God Who Is, The God Who Was, and The God About to Arrive. I’m the Sovereign-Strong.” I, John, with you all the way in the trial and the Kingdom and the passion of patience in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God’s Word, the witness of Jesus. It was Sunday and I was in the Spirit, praying. I heard a loud voice behind me, trumpet-clear and piercing: “Write what you see into a book. Send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea.” I turned and saw the voice.

I saw a gold menorah

    with seven branches,

And in the center, the Son of Man,

    in a robe and gold breastplate,

    hair a blizzard of white,

Eyes pouring fire-blaze,

    both feet furnace-fired bronze,

His voice a roar,

    right hand holding the Seven Stars,

His mouth a sharp-biting sword,

    his face a blinding sun.

I saw this and fainted dead at his feet. His right hand pulled me upright, his voice reassured me “Don’t fear: I am First, I am Last, I’m Alive. I died, but I came to life, and my life is now forever. See these keys in my hand? They open and lock Death’s doors, they open and lock Hell’s gates. Now write down everything you see: things that are, things about to be. The Seven Stars you saw in my right hand and the seven-branched gold menorah—do you want to know what’s behind them? The Seven Stars are the Angels of the seven churches; the menorah’s seven branches are the seven churches.”

1. Jesus as the Elohim Who existed in the forever past, Who exists now, and Who will always exist/be present/be as He is, never changing.

In 1:4, 8 as well as 4:8 we read this three-fold clause “was, is, is to come” (as well as the is/was part of it also occurring in 11:17, 16:5)

Eugene Peterson calls it “The God who was, is, and is about to arrive”

In Biblical scholar Sean McDonough (“Mc-Donna”)’s dissertation-turned-book, “YHWH at Patmos: Rev 1:4 in its Hellenistic and Early Jewish Setting,” we see that:

this description of God is from Jewish meditation and reflection on the Name (YHWH)

and in particular it’s an extraction from / and expounding on Exodus 3 where God reveals Who He is as “I am that I am”

scholars agree broadly that in Rev 1 John is drawing on that Burning Bush story where Moses encounters God and learns God’s Name

intentional grammatical errors all over Rev - “from” in this verse is left in the form you find it in the Septuagint (greek translation of Hebrew scriptures) in Exodus 3

(reminds me of Heb 13:8)

So, that explains why John is describing God as the one who was and is, but where is John getting this “is to come” part?

There are contemporary greek writings that show Zues and others often being called “the gods that are eternally” and there was a culturally known phrase “Zues was, Zues is, Zues shall be”

So, Rev’s description of YHWH is not only a hyperlink to Exodus 3 but a dig at the grecco-roman boss-god Zues.

2. The Alpha/Omega, First/Last, Beginning and End

(not sure how someone Who has no beginning or end also IS the beginning and end but …)

Rev 1:8 as well as 21:6 and 22:13 describe God as Alpha/Omega, Beg/End, First/Last. These are hyperlinks back to Isaiah 41:4, 43:10, 44:6, and 48:12.

Is 43:10  

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,

    “and my servant whom I have chosen,

so that you may know and believe me

    and understand that I am he.

Before me no god was formed,

    nor will there be one after me.

Jesus IS YHWH: Rev 1:17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Michael Heiser:

“Yes there are plural elohim… but before God there was no other. He has to create the other ones. He is the lone creator. He is the lone self-existent. Nothing else, even in the spiritual world can claim these attributes.”

So BOTH of these names for God (was / is / is to come … and alpha omega / first last / beginning end) are references to Exodus 3:14 AND Isaiah 41, 43, 46, and 48.

3. Why is John pulling these Hebrew scripture references in to his description of his vision?

Besides insulting Zues, John’s prob motivated to present God as present in ages past and to the end of history to emphasize that YHWH is the Lord over history, therefore able to deliver the readers of this letter from the oppression of the greco roman empire just like God delivered people from Egypt, and from Babylon.

To quote G.K. Beale from the New Int’l Greek Textual Commentary on Rev “the last part of the 3-fold clause is to be understood eschatologically, and as referring to God’s Sovereign consummation of history in the future”

4. So many other hyperlinks in this chapter

John meshes two distinct persons of God from Daniel 7 - the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man - purposefully into ONE character Jesus

John brings in the menorah branches from Zechariah 4 that are God’s eyes that roam the earth, that are the 7 angels of the churches, that is somehow also probably the 7-fold spirit which many think is the third person of the trinity the Holy Spirit

He calls believers Kingdom Priests which is from Exodus 19:6

He describes Jesus the way Ezekiel 1 describes the figure on the throne in Heaven

He mentions that Jesus is holding a 2-edged sword, the metaphorical sword of pronouncing judgement from Isaiah 11 and 49

Daniel 8, 10, 12 are pulled in and we learn that Jesus is the Prince of the Heavenly Hosts, the commander of the Lord’s army, the prince of all princes, THE angel of the Lord which was God as in man throughout the Hebrew scriptures (high Christology of John)

5. The Name of Jesus is YHWH - Phil 2 worthy of our worship!