Revelation Chapter Two, A Synagogue Of Satan

Revelation 2:9 “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

The Lord addresses Smyrna, stating that He knows their works, tribulation, and poverty. Ephesus was acknowledged for their works, labor and patience. In this the two churches share works, but diverge as the Lord discusses different issues of importance between them.

The largest issue of importance is about to become very manifest, foreshadowed by the term tribulation. To put it shortly, tribulation is a source of great suffering. The church in Smyrna was suffering. To add to that, Jesus acknowledges their poverty. Parenthetically He adds that He knows they are rich, and this is the difference between the material and spiritual outlook. Materially, Smyrna may have been an impoverished church; but the Lord looks at the heart, 1 Samuel 16:7.

The tribulation they suffered may well be (and likely was) the link to their poverty, but it apparently did nothing to halt their generous spirits. Paul, when addressing generous giving with the Corinthian church, wrote, “For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have,” 2 Corinthians 8:12. Their tribulation may have made them impoverished in terms of coin, but not in terms of willingness and ability. They still had time and energy and could serve when meeting others’ material needs was simply impossible. Jesus saw the willing hearts of a church filled with believers and called them rich in spite of the evidence of the eyes, when the church of Smyrna had nothing to commend such a descriptor.

Solomon once wrote, “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days,” Ecclesiastes 11:1. In the same epistle to the Corinthians, Paul further wrote, “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver,” 2 Corinthians 9:6, 7. The Biblical principle is twofold: the first is that it is not what you give, it is why you give. The second is adjacent to it; that we must have an earnest, honest willingness to give whatever it is that we’re giving. Whether it is time, money, counsel, or our very life, if this is done because we have surrendered to the Holy Spirit and are led by Him and not by self, to us it is enriching, and that from God.

The Lord further addresses what He refers to as the synagogue of Satan. He declares that their doctrine is blasphemy. This sect apparently was hounding the church of Smyrna. We glimpse the spirit of this synagogue in Acts 7:57-59, when the Jews Stephen testified against (including Paul) with one accord stoned him to death for his testimony. This type of persecution was apparently still taking place, Revelation 2:10. A faction of those Jews seemingly converted to Christianity and infiltrated the Christian church, attempting to inject Judaism into it, Acts 15:1, 5, Galatians 2:4. This perversion within what Paul referred to as the circumcision was still prevalent when the apostle wrote to Titus, Titus 1:11.

It was clear that many Jews in the first century resisted the message of the gospel and rejected the claims of Jesus Christ. They had been raised on the foundation of Moses and the prophets, but did not comprehend that the whole of the prophetic office was bent toward illuminating the arrival of the Coming One. And yet, despite their fierce opposition many were turned, beginning with Peter on the Day of Pentecost, who himself was made the apostle to the Jews, Galatians 2:8. Paul (not to mention the rest of the apostles) was likewise Jewish.

So what does this passage say in regard to the Jews? Nothing more than an acknowledgment that they are human, like the Gentiles, and equally prone to sin and error. Their sin was national pride, which Christ our Lord threatened when He emphasized that salvation was by grace and not works, and that salvation was universally free to all men, not just the Jews. A certain faction of the Jews refused to yield, holding fast to Judaism with a death grip, as was the case in Acts 23:12, 13. But what was being issued from Judaism in Smyrna was something the Lord referred to as blasphemy; not the utterances of men who adored God and yielded to Him, but men who adored their station and yielded to its tradition and power. Jesus Himself warned of such a time when, “They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service,” John 16:2.

It is clear Jesus intimates that this type of thinking and action is Satanically inspired. The Devil is behind the persecution of the church, as he is also behind the persecution of the Jewish nation. It is doubly troubling, then, that he can use one persecuted ethnic minority chosen by God to visit harm upon believers of God’s word. But make no mistake, this is not the actions or the thinking of all of Jewry; neither is this verse taken in isolation to be a declaration that makes anti-Semitism legitimized. It is not. Such hatred is equally Satanically inspired, and to consider all Jews evil for the actions a handful have willingly done is both juvenile and willfully ignorant. We do find this synagogue once more in Revelation 3:9, and will see the ultimate outcome of what happens when someone persecutes a Christian because they belong to Christ. More on that later, God willing.