Painting #1 Seven Golden Candlesticks - Revelation 1:12-16

Revelation 1:12.     And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks.

     The great voice, like a trumpet, was behind John so he turned and saw the most glorious sight ever beheld by mortal eyes – none other than the glorified Christ there in the midst of seven golden candlesticks. These “candlestands” probably called to John’s mind the Menorah, the lampstands in the tabernacle, each of which had one main and six side branches (Exodus 24:31). The lampstands seen by John, however, had seven equal branches.

Revelation 1:13.     And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

     The one who spoke was “in the midst” of the candlesticks. John long ago had heard the Lord say concerning the Church He would build: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The candlesticks represented the churches, all of whom were enduring great tribulation for the testimony of Jesus Christ, but the Lord would remind them that He was still in their midst (Matthew 18:20).

     And despite the glory of His appearance, John recognized Him to be a man – indeed the very Son of man, the representative man, true man, man as God intended man to be. This term, “Son of man,” was Christ’s favorite term for Himself; he used it more than eighty times in the four Gospels. The term is used first in Psalm 3:4, prophesying His first coming in humility, and last in Revelation 14:14, prophesying His second coming in power.

     But though he is a true man, He is only like unto the son of man. Adam also was a man, but was not a son of man. Jesus Christ was “made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7); He was “made like unto his brethren” (Hebrews 2:17); He was sent “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3). He was not born of the union of a sinful man and a sinful woman (terms which apply to all human beings save Jesus, even to Joseph and Mary), but was divinely conceived and virgin born. Nevertheless He is to be forever like unto the Son of man.

     Note also the fullness of His garments. There is no nudity or seminudity among the inhabitants of heaven. Jesus was stripped of His garments when made sin on the cross, but in heaven, and in the new earth, He is always appropriately arrayed, and so are all His servants.

Revelation 1:14.     His head and his hairs were like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire.

     No one living today knows what Jesus looked like during His days on earth, though imaginative portrayals of Him adorn innumerable homes and churches. The New Testament writers speak not one word concerning His physical appearance – whether He was short or tall, dark or light, lean or stout. This omission is significant – He is the representative man. Furthermore, whatever His appearance may have been then, His present appearance is far more important, for this is the way we shall see Him, and this will be His appearance through all future ages. John describes Him as He is and will be.

     The most striking feature is His snow-white hair. The same appearance was seen by Daniel: “The Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool” (Daniel 7:9). Isaiah 9:6 speaks of Him as the “everlasting Father.” The white hair crowning His head (beards are never mentioned at all in the New Testament) clearly speaks of His great age. This contrasts with the wistful desire of modern men to retain the appearance of youth, even using dyes to mask their gray hair. The Bible says: “The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the grey head” (Proverbs 20:29). “The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness” (Proverbs 16:31). The Scripture promises that “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Note we shall see Him as He is, not as He was.

     His eyes were, as it were, burning with anger. This aspect was to be seen especially by the immoral church at Thyatira (Revelation 2:18). Yet these were the same eyes that could weep over human need (John 11:35; Luke 19:41). His eyes are all-seeing as He is all-knowing. “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13).

Revelation 1:15.     And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

     His feet once had rough spikes driven through them and, even in this glorified body, the wounds are still there (Luke 24:39, 40). But these same feet shall trample His enemies (Psalm 110:1; Isaiah 63:3). This aspect of judgment is dominant here, as though the feet had been shod in brazen boots, heated to white heat in the great furnace of judgment where they were treading.

     “The voice of his words like the voice of a multitude” (Daniel 10:6). Clear and strong like the trumpet, broad and deep like the sea – so the voice seemed to John.  This is the voice that one day will raise the dead (John 5:28, 29) and the same voice that called the world into being (Psalm 33:6). 

Revelation 1:16.     And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

     Christ was in the midst of the churches, but He held the angels of the churches, represented by the seven stars, in His own right hand. The word “star” (Greek aster) can mean any heavenly “light” – meteorites, planets, etc., as well as stars in the modern scientific sense. Evidently the majesty of the Son of man was such that His face gave the appearance of the shining sun and the objects in His hand that of shining stars, both as set against the background of the heavens over Patmos.

     The two-edged sword is, in other Scriptures, compared to the power of the Word of God (Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 6:17). Here it clearly speaks of judgment (compare Revelation 19:15). The very appearance of the glorified Christ and the sound of the majestic voice flowing from the blinding light of His countenance gave every word a swordlike brilliance and sharpness that was almost visible.  

The Keys of Hell

Revelation 1:17.     And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.

     The first “Fear not” of the Bible occurs just before the first “I am” of the Bible. “Fear not, Abraham: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15:1). For mortal, sinful man to come into the presence of the living God is death, and this would have been John’s experience were he not “in the Spirit.” The hand in which the seven stars were held was laid upon John and the double-edged sword from His mouth spoke peace instead of judgment. John need not fear, for the One who spoke was not only his Creator (“the first and the last”) but also His Savior, who died for him and rose again. 

Revelation 1:18.     I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and death.

     This is one of the mountain-peak verses of Scripture, and one of the most amazing of the great claims of Christ. Multitudes of religious philosophers as well as scientists have searched for the key to life and death, but Christ claims to have the key. Further he claims to possess the keys to hell (Greek Hades). Hades is the New Testament equivalent of the Hebrew sheol, both terms describing the abode of departed human spirits.

     The position of the scientific establishment, of course, is that neither Hades nor heaven has any real existence. The popular lay view, on the other hand, is that both do exist but in some kind of different state of existence, completely outside the framework of our present physical universe. The fact is, however, the Bible clearly teaches that both heaven and hell literally exist in the present cosmos and this teaching has not been refuted in any way by modern science.

     When the Lord Jesus died on the cross and His body was placed in the tomb, His spirit “descended first into the lower parts of the earth” (Ephesians 4:9). These lower parts of the earth are also called “the deep” (literally “the abyss” from the Greek word abussosas in Romans 10:7), and are apparently the same as Hades. But in fulfillment of the prophecy of Psalm 16:10, “He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in [Hades], neither his flesh did see corruption” (Acts 2:31).

     Until Christ descended into Hades, it had housed all the souls and spirits of all people who had lived and died before that time. Those who died in faith were “comforted” in one compartment of Hades; all others were separated from these by “a great gulf” and were “in torments” (see Luke 16:23-26). Pre-Calvary believers were safe in God’s keeping, trusting His Word that someday the redemption price would be paid and they would be freed. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14, 15).

     Therefore, after He went and proclaimed His victory to the evil spirits still incarcerated in prison (see 1 Peter 3:18-20), “When he ascended up on high, He led captivity captive. . . . He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:8-10). 

     All of this is implied in the great assertion by Christ that He now possessed the very keys to Hades and death. “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him” (Romans 6:9). “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

     Ever since, those who die in Christ are translated to “be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23) in heaven. The unsaved dead remain in Hades, whence they will later be brought forth for eternal judgment (Revelation 20:13). In the meantime, the great abyss in the heart of the earth continues to “enlarge herself” (Isaiah 5:14) with multitudes dying in their sins.  

Angels of the Churches

Revelation 1:19.     Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.

     The conclusion of these wonderful revelations is: “Therefore, write!” The threefold division here has been noted by almost every commentator on Revelation: (1) “the things thou hast seen” (perhaps including not only the immediate vision but all the great events of the Apostolic Age in which John himself had been a leading participant); (2) “the things which are” (specifically the existing situation in the church of John’s day, representing the needs of all churches throughout the Church Age); (3) “the things which shall be here-after,” clearly identified by use of the same phrase in Revelation 4:1 to be those events described from Revelation 4 onward – the Ages of Judgment and the Kingdom and the New Earth. The last phrase is, literally, “the things which shall be after these things,” that is, after the things described in Revelation 2-3. Since at least three of these church exhortations include specific references to the second coming of Christ (Revelation 2:25; 3:3, 11), there is strong indication that the third division relates to events taking place after the initial phases, at least, of the second coming. 

Revelation 1:20.     The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

     This verse points up the fact that, when symbols are used in the Book of Revelation, they are explained internally, not subject to imaginative suggestions by allegorizing expositors. The great lampstands symbolize light-bearing churches, and the stars represent the angels of the churches.

     But who are these angels? By far the greater number of modern expositors say they represent the pastors of the churches. The Greek word is aggelos and apparently has the basic meaning of “messenger.” However, the word is used 188 times in the New Testament, practically always (with at most a half-dozen exceptions) to denote real angels rather than human messengers. It would seem that the context must clearly demand it if any messengers other than true angels are meant.

     If “angel” means “pastor” here, it is used with this meaning here and nowhere else. If the Lord Jesus meant the pastors of the churches, why did He not say “pastors?” Or why did He not say “elders,” a term which is used in the New Testament as essentially synonymous with “pastors,” and which is later used twelve times in Revelation.

     Instead, He spoke of the angels of the churches, and this term is used sixty-seven other times in Revelation, in none of which could the meaning possibly be that of “pastors.” The principle of natural, literal interpretation seems to require us to understand here that true churches of the Lord have individual angels assigned for their guidance and watch-care.

     This fact is hardly surprising in view of the innumerable company of angels (Hebrews 12:22) and their assigned function as ministering spirits to those who are heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14). Individual believers have angels assigned to them (Matthew 18:10; Acts 12:15). Angels are present in the assemblies during their services (1 Corinthians 11:10) and are intensely interested in their progress (1 Corinthians 4:9; Ephesians 3:10; 1 Timothy 3:16; 5:21; Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 1:12).

     Admittedly, the concept of an angel of God assigned to each church and , in some degree, responsible for the effectiveness of its ministry is one which is largely unrecognized among Christians. Nevertheless this seems to be the teaching of the Lord’s words here. The symbolism is also appropriate to angels. Stars are frequently identified with angels in Scripture, especially here in Revelation 9:1, 11; 12:3-9).

     Thus the letters to the churches were indeed addressed to the churches and to their members and ministers, but they were somehow to be trans-mitted through their angels. Pastors, elders, deacons, teachers – all may change from time to time as the membership changes. But the individual church itself goes on, sometimes continuing over many generations, and its angel continues with it. Though its members may not be able to see him or communicate with him, he is there, and the very knowledge of his protecting and ministering presence should be a source of encouragement and purification in all its activities.l