Revelation
Thyatira: the Reign of the
World-Church (Rev. ii. 18 - 29.)
OUR course has been hitherto continually downward. The
church to which we have now come forms no exception to this rule, and in a
certain sense it is the end of the course that we reach in it. In Thyatira, our
eyes are no more toward the past, but toward the future - the coming of the
Lord: there is no more the call to repentance and doing the first works; the
word is now, "I gave her space to repent, and she did not repent." The
opportunity of repentance is therefore over: henceforth there can only be
judgment - judgment which has accumulated terribly during the long delay: "I
will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great
tribulation, except they repent of her works; and I will kill her children with
death."
But on this account we find a remnant in Thyatira distinguished
from that upon which judgment is to fall; a remnant guilty indeed for their
toleration of what the Lord has devoted to destruction, but which He cannot for
a moment confound, nevertheless, with it. This remnant is exhorted to hold fast
until He comes. "And to him that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end,
to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of
iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to pieces, even as I
received of My Father; and I will give him the morning star."
We have
reached, then, in this line, the final development, as I have said. Thyatira
goes on, substantially, unchanged until the coming of the Lord.
What, then,
is the character of Thyatira? It is characterized by the suffering of one who
calls herself a prophetess, - that is, claims for herself divine inspiration, -
and who by her name, Jezebel, carries us back to the idolatry of the worst days
of IsraeL and the bitter persecution of the saints and servants of God by her
who, stranger as she was, exercised royal authority in the midst of the
professed people of the Lord. "And she teacheth and seduceth My servants to
commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols."
We have
already compared the opening parables of the thirteenth of Matthew with the
first three of these addresses to the Asiatic churches, and we cannot but be
here most powerfully impressed with the appearance of the "woman" alike in the
fourth parable of this series and the fourth address to which we have come. It
is a new figure in each case. When we come to examine it, we are made to
realize without any doubt that the two women are in fact but one. And that in
spite of various and discordant interpretations which have been given to these
passages. Let us look, then, first at the parable, and then compare it with our
Revelation chapter. They are both the words of our Lord Himself.
"Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three
measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."
The common
interpretation of this we are all familiar with. It is applied to the universal
spread and final triumph of the gospel, which, diffusive as leaven in its
nature, is thus to make its way among the nations of the earth, and subject
them to its beneficent influence. And at first sight there is much plausibility
in this view. It may be urged for it that if the kingdom of heaven be like unto
leaven, this settles the juestion of the leaven itself as to be taken in a good
sense, and then undoubtedly it is the kingdom which spreads throughout the
world. But a brief examination will assuredly remove all the appearance of
truth in this, and force upon us an entirely different conclusion from the
common one.
In the first place, to meet the strongest point of the
argument: - is the kingdom of heaven here intended to find its symbol in the
leaven itself? At first sight, it may be granted that it seems so, but if we
compare the style of similar parables, we shall more than hesitate to assert
this. To take the second parable of the same chapter, is the kingdom of heaven
meant to find its likeness in the Sower of the good seed? or rather, is it not
in the whole story of the different seed, and of the issue? Again, in the
fifth, if the treasure hid in the field be the kingdom, and not the man who
finds it, - yet in the sixth it would be not the pearl itself, but the man who
finds it.
The truth is, it is the whole parable that is the likeness,
and not any one point in it; and then also this does not decide that the
meaning shall be good rather than bad: for the kingdom is not as it will be -
set up in power and in the hands of Him whose right it is, but as now with the
King absent, intrusted to the hands of others. Thus, while men sleep, the enemy
can sow his tares among the wheat, and the proof is conclusive that in the
first three parables there is a progressive growth of evil: the first showing
the partial failure of the good seed; the second, the success of the bad seed,
the enemy’s work; the third, the tree-like worldly power which results
from the sowing of the least of all seeds; and the fowls of the air, the evil
powers of the first parable, securely lodged within it. If, then, the fourth
parable shows the universal spread of the gospel, the whole course of things is
changed, and the most perplexing contradiction arises, not only to the view
presented in what goes before, but also to the view given by Scripture as a
whole.
On the other hand, simply interpret Scripture by Scripture, and
not only is there consistency throughout, but there is found a definiteness and
precision of meaning which is itself a convincing proof of its truth. Every
part of the parable becomes full of light. We have not, as before, to omit or
interpret at hazard essential features of it, (as the three measures of meal,
for instance,) and to claim in defence of it that "no parable goes on all
fours," though this may be really true, instinct as it is with a life higher
than bestial, as with a spirit more than human.
There should be no
question that the key of the parable has been rightly found in the second
chapter of Leviticus. The "three measures of meal" refer to the "fine flour" of
the meal-offering, as the Revised Version very well styles it, into which the
leaven was never to be put (Lev. ii. i i). The essential point is, that the
woman is doing what was expressly forbidden to be done. This at once brings the
similitude of the kingdom here into harmony with what has gone before. The
process of deterioration which we see going on in the first three only assumes
in the fourth a character of more decided evil. For the meal-offering is Christ
the bread of life, the food of the priestly people of God, and the mixture of
the leaven means the adulteration of Christ as this at the hands of the woman,
the professing church. We must, for its importance, look at this more closely,
however. And here the feast of unleavened bread, so peremptorily insisted on in
connection with the passover-feast, shows at once the perfect familiarity of
the figure to the mind of the Jews whom our Lord was here addressing, and the
way in which it could scarcely fail to be apprehended by them. Leaven in meal
was to them undoubtedly a thing of evil significance and not of good. The
positive word, "For whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until
the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel" (Ex. xii. is), was
well known and rigidly held by the mass of the people in our Lord’s day.
The ordinance as to the meal-offering was scarcely less familiar to them, and
the prohibition of leaven in any offering to the Lord made with fire was very
clear in attaching to leaven as a type the thought of evil abhorrent to the
Holy One.
The general use of leaven in Scripture, it is allowed,
perfectly corresponds with this. There is no exception, if it be not found in
the passage bebefore us; and here, the connection of the parable with what
precedes necessitates an evil significance.
But there is a specific
application of the figure by the Lord Himself, and in this gospel which defines
it in a way completely in agreement with the parable before us: He applies it
to "the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (chap. xvi. 12).
Now
Christ as the food of our souls is ministered to us in the way of doctrine. The
Word is constantly, in Scripture, spoken of as food to be eaten, or
appropriated by faith to the personal need. Christ is the "Truth," and in the
truth we apprehend Him. The doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees is error
presented in its common types of an external and self-righteous formalism, or
of an unbelieving rationalism. The leaven in either case is the rejection of
Christ as God presents Him and as faith enjoys Him. If to these we add what in
the gospel of Mark (viii. i1) is added - " the leaven of Herod," or the
court-party, then we have fully the great triumvirate of evil - the flesh, the
devil, and the world - as corrupting influences of the truth of Christ.
But why "three measures" of meal? Upon any other interpretation of the meal, I
know not. We find the same thing in the provision made by Abram for his
heavenly guests; and both there and here, if we see Christ before us, it is not
hard to realize the meaning. It is the Son of Man who gives us the "meat which
endureth unto everlasting life;" as man, He becomes our necessary food: but
what is the measure of the" Man, Christ Jesus"? Three is the divine measure,
the number of the Trinity - of the fullness of God; and "in Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Lesser or lower measure would not fit the
truth presented to us here. Into these "three measures of meal" the woman,
then, is putting leaven. But who is the woman? Undoubtedly the Church is in
Scripture symbolized by a woman, and this whether it be the true or the nominal
professing body, which so readily passes into the shape of the woman "Babylon,"
the false church of this book of Revelation. Between these two,in view of the
other features of the parable, there is not the least difficulty in deciding as
to which is before us. In the preceding parable, we have already found the
Babylonish character, - the kingdom of heaven, becoming in its earthly
administration of the pattern of the kingdoms of the world, the figure of the
tree corresponding specifically, moreover, to that under which the power of
Nebuchadnezzar is depicted. Thus here it is the reigning world-church, which as
possessing empire must make its laws and promulge its doctrines. Necessarily
the leaven comes then into the meal. All features cohere in a picture startling
in its vividness.
The woman has in her hands the doctrine of Christ -
the Christian doctrine; she has authority over it; she can knead and mould it
at her will; she can add her traditions, her unwritten law, equal in authority
to the written Word; she can interpret and fix its meanings. Here is the
leaven: it is the leaven of Church-teaching, the essential error which wherever
found, in whatever modified forms, quenches the Spirit of God, deforms and
mutilates the Word of God, gives the conscience another master than the Lord
Jesus Christ, and does all this cunningly in His name and by His authority, so
that the souls of His people even bow to the forged decrees and shudder at the
thought of resistance. For this is "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of
harlots and abominations of the earth;" and her merchants are the great men of
the earth, and by her sorceries are all nations deceived.
Turn we now
to this other picture that we have in the address to Thyatira, - a picture by
the same master-hand, - and put side by side the woman of the fourth parable
and the woman Jezebel of the fourth Asiatic church. Who will deny that they are
one? This Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and seduces
Christ’s servants to commit fornication and eat things sacrificed to
idols, is she any other than the leaven-hiding woman of the parable "writ
large"? or than the woman Babylon of the later character? But we will take up
the address in its due order; we will listen to Christ’s words as the
Spirit of truth has given them to us; we would not miss the least detail, or
the impression that the "due order" should make upon us. "And unto the angel of
the church in Thyatira write, These things saith the Son of God, who hath His
eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass." It is no
longer, as in Pergamos, "He that hath the sharp sword with two edges." That
sword is the Word of God as the word of penetrating judgment; for "the word
that I have spoken," says the Lord, "the same shall judge (receiveth them not,]
at the last day" (Jno. xii.)
And so, in the nineteenth chapter of this
book, are slain with the sword proceeding out of His mouth.
But in the
meanwhile the Word precedes and anticipates this judgment, and in Pergamos it
is still there to appeal to, to warn of coming wrath, to separate between
joints and marrow, and soul and spirit, and bring men into the presence of Him
with whom we have to do, before whom all things are naked and opened. Plenty of
perverters of the Word there are too in Pergamos, as we have seen; but the Word
is also there witnessing for itself against them. In Thyatira it remains no
longer: we hear of Jezebel’s doctrine, and the word of the living
prophets, clearer and more decisive, as her followers claim, has superseded
practically the Scriptures. With the Church’s word men may be more safely
trusted than with the word of God.
Thus it is no more "He that hath
the sharp sword with two edges," but the "Son of God," who has to assert His
authority as a divine Being over the Church, rising into a sphere where she
dare not pretend to be. With Him alone are the "eyes as a flame of fire," the
really infallible and holy insight, which the "feet like fine brass" accompany
with irresistible judgment. And He needs to assert His claim, for she who
claims to be His bride, in her own self-assertion, is doing what she can to
lower it. She has taken the grace of His incarnation to subject Him to His
human mother; or if she remember His divine title, it is to raise Mary into the
"Mother of God." Systematically Rome degrades Him amid a crowd of saintly
mediators and intercessors with God, all more accessible than Himself, foremost
of whom is this "queen of heaven" with her woman’s heart, more tender than
His!
Here, then, He speaks as Son of God to those who would confound
the Church’s authority with His. Has she His eyes of fire? Has she His
feet of brass? That which she binds on earth is bound in heaven, will she bind
with her decrees the throne of God itself? Will His all-conscious wisdom
stutter in her infant’s speech or His holiness attach itself to error and
frailty and sin?
It is well known, and shortly to come before us, how
Rome escapes from such perplexity; and it is safe to assert there is no other
way. But to all assertors of Church-authority alike, the Lord here maintains
His distinctive place. He alone is the "Son of God," in a place unapproachable
by His people, and His glory will He not give to another. He alone is the
governing head; the Church His body, in wondrous relationship to Him as that,
but perfectly distinct and wholly subject.
As "Son of God," also, He
now sits upon the throne - His Father’s throne, - that of pure deity,
vhich no creature could possibly share. His words to Laodicea afterward bring
out the force of the ssertion here, - " To him that overcometh will I grant to
sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My
Father in His throne" (chap. iii. 21). As Son of man the postle has seen Him in
the vision with which he book commences; as Son of man He will presently take a
throne which He can share with men, His redeemed. Till then, they are in the
field of conflict, to overcome as He overcame, nd this is the manifest answer
to the dream of authority in the world which in Thyatita possesses he false
church. Rome would reign before Christ eigns, or reign upon the throne of God
with Him. Thus His claim to be the Son of God is here of the greatest possible
significance.
This is as to authority over the world, and in this way,
of course, "whatsoever ye shall bind on earth hall be bound in heaven" cannot
possibly apply. The passage in Matthew connects it with the maintenance of
discipline among the saints, with care of the holiness which His people are to
exhibit.
This not founded on relationship to Him, save as disciples to
a Master, and then of obedience to tim which they are under responsibility to
enforce. In the fulfillment of this responsibility He surely with them: what
they bind He binds; it apart from His word they bind nothing, nor re they even
the authorized exponents of it.
Themselves subject to that Word, He
is for them in all true subjection. It is the Word that has authority, not
they; and let it be shown that the Word has not guided them, then Christ cannot
bind upon His people insubjection to the Word: it would be to be a party to His
own dishonour. And all claim of ecclesiastical authority other than this is
real rebellion against Christ Himself. Here as elsewhere, "no man can serve two
masters." The conscience is to be before God alone, and this is a first
principle of all holiness, all morality. Swerve from it by a hair’s
breadth, right is no longer right, nor wrong wrong; all lines are blurred; the
unsteady tremulousness of the soul warns but too surely of the approach of
spiritual paralysis. Yes, the "eyes of fire" are still with the "Son of God"
alone. Let us take heed how we hear and what! But clear and holy as they are,
they are the eyes of the priestly Son of Man, full of an infinite pity and
tenderness nne can fathom. How blessed to have to do with Him! How full of joy
to stand before Him! And even in Thyatira - amid the awful corruption of that
"mystery of iniquity," Rome, - still His words to His own recognize all He can:
- "1 know thy works and love and faith and service, and thy patience, and thy
last works to be more than the first." We must remember that a remnant is
distinctly separated in Thyatira, and that neither Jezebel nor her children are
included here. Then it will not be hard to realize this testimony on the
Lord’s part to what He has seen in them. Little, too, do we know of the
hidden lives of those who amid the assumption and pride of the days of
tyranny walked humbly and in secret with God. Comforting it is to realize how
fully He could appreciate and how openly He will yet acknowledge them. Like the
devil-coats put upon their victims by the Inquisition of old, how many
falsehoods have besmirched the memories often of those who in the day of
manifestation will receive their crown of righteousness from the Lord the
righteous Judge! Of how many Naboths has Jezebel suborned her witnesses that
they have "blasphemed God and the king," because they would not surrender their
inheritance for a price! Here is the record, that they are not forgotten, those
nameless ones, or of dishonoured names: "works and love and faith," how tested!
"and service," amid what discouragement! "and thy patience," marked and
emphasized in the language used, - that long endurance!
And then comes,
last of all, that sweet witness of real divine energy, which does not flag as
what is merely human does, - "and thy last works to be more than the first."
Not simply the same as the first, - that would be much to say, as it should
seem, amid all the opposition, continuous, unrelenting, of all that held power
on earth But here it is "more than the first," for the works recorded are
fruits of the life eternal, which, implanted within us, is a growth, a living
energy, which, thank God! can burst all bands and defy all imprisonment. We
have all remarked how the might of a living tree will break up and burst
through the stones around its roots, as it forces its way up into the light of
heaven. How much more will the energy of that eternal life whose nature is
spirit, and which the Spirit of God sustains, develop itself in the face of
whatever hindrances. "They go from strength to strength" is said of God’s
pilgrims through the valley of Baca; for it is Christ’s strength perfected
in human weakness.
If we study the record which we have of those dark
days also, we shall be inclined too to believe that there was in the line of
those patient witnesses, looked at as a whole, a growth in vigour as the days
went on. They come more into the light; they take bolder place; the coming
Reformation has its precursors; the torch of truth, as it drops from one hand,
is taken up by another. Above all, separation becomes more decided, - a great
point, one of the greatest; for we see that what the Lord has against these
saints of His is declared to be their tolerance of the woman Jezebel. The evil,
it is true, was rampant, and might seem supreme; none the less, but the more,
became the duty of open testimony against it. It was by such a testimony, in
the face of overwhelming odds naturally, the Reformation established itself;
and where it was the Word openly preached, God rallied round it defenders of
it.
"Notwithstanding I have against thee, that thou sufferest that
woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess; and sh€ teaches and seduces
My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And
I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she will not
repent."
Here is the distinctive evil of Thyatira, - an evil so
frightful that the Lord calls it further on "the depths of Satan." Beyond it we
do not get in this direction. It closes the development of the Church’s
departure from God in true succession from its germ in the beginning.
Afterward, we find a fresh work of God has commenced, although it too is
shortly, and indeed when first it comes before us, declined and passing. But as
the woman closes the first series of the parables of Matt. xiii., so does the
woman close the first series of the Asiatic churches. We shall speedily find,
as has been already stated, that these two women are in fact one and the same,
- the woman, "Babylon the Great, the Mother of harlots and abominations of the
earth." Her name is at once significant, and is a striking exemplification of
the pregnant speech of Scripture, which with a single word will illuminate a
subject with. a flood of light. The name, with its attached history, adds
features to the picture which carry us far beyond the mere assembly in Asia to
which first the Lord spoke, and identically the "woman" in question in the
plainest way possible.
THYATIRA
(continued)
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