Today, Friday January 28
What John Saw Revelation 1:12-14 “Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire.”
When John turns to see the “voice” that spoke to him he saw seven golden lampstands and a vision of the glorified Christ. Revelation 1:20 makes it clear that that we must not interpret this vision literally, for it is made up of symbols. The seven lampstands represent the seven churches that would receive the book. Each local church is the bearer of God's light in this dark world.
As I began to meditate on this passage I couldn’t help but remember in John 1, when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to be baptized, he said to those around him, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) The next day when Jesus was approaching John the Baptist proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God.” (John 1:36) Twice John calls Jesus “the Lamb of God.”
Jesus in His first advent is described coming as a lamb! A lamb is a beautiful, innocent and helpless animal. John the Baptist, no doubt knew his Old Testament Scriptures quite well. He must have remembered Isaiah 53 where the prophet had one of the clearest visions of the Messiah of the Root of David, being crucified. Isaiah said, “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7)
This reference to Jesus coming and being described as a Lamb also reminds me of a passage in Genesis 22. Abraham had been asked by God to take his only son Isaac to Mt. Moriah and there sacrifice him. Abraham immediately obeyed and started on a three day journey to the place of sacrifice. On the way there Isaac asked his father a question: “And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.” Genesis 22:6-8 (KJV)
I love Abraham’s answer here as we see it in the Old King James Version of the Bible. “God will provide Himself a lamb….” Wow! Abraham somehow sees ahead and proclaims that God, Himself will become a lamb to be the sacrifice that God demands to take away our sin! By the way, Mt. Moriah, the place where Abraham was told to sacrifice his only son, is the exact same location of present day City of Jerusalem, where God sacrificed His Son for our sins!
Jesus came the first time as a humble, meek Lamb to be sacrificed for our sins! But here in Revelation 1 when John sees the glorified Christ appearing in the midst of the seven lampstands, he sees Christ as both Priest and Judge! In Revelation 5, the Lamb is also called “The Lion of the tribe of Judah.”
Today we need to come and experience Jesus as the Lamb who loves us and gave His life as a sacrifice for our sins! Because for sure we don’t want to have to meet Him when He comes as the King and Judge of all the earth and as He appears as the Lion of the tribe of Judah!
God bless!