Revelation Chapter One, Firstborn

Revelation 1:5b the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. 

Christ was the first to be resurrected, to see death no more, Colossians 1:18, Romans 6:9. The firstborn, in Jewish tradition and Scripture, was the inheritor of the father’s estate. All that belonged to the father would be the son’s. Those who, through faith in the Lord, received the Second Birth belong to Christ as part of the Father’s estate, John 10:29.

Yes, there was resurrection in the Old Testament. There was the incident of the widow in Zarephath, whose son died. Elijah prayed the Lord, and God gave the child life again, 1 Kings 17:21, 22. Likewise, Elisha revived the son of a Shunammite woman, 2 Kings 4:32-35. Christ likewise raised the dead on numerous occasions during His earthly ministry; most famously raising Lazarus from the dead, John 11:43, 44. There was the incident of the twelve year old girl, Luke 8:54, 55, Mark 5:41, 42. There was also the episode of the widow’s son in Nain, Luke 7:14, 15.

God likewise raised Tabitha from the dead through Peter’s instrumentality, Acts 9:40. But these were not resurrections in the sense that the revived would not experience physical death again. Even the episode of the saints rising to witness after Christ’s death did not precede His triumphant resurrection. We read, “and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many,” Matthew 27:52, 53. Christ our Lord has the preeminence of being raised from the dead first. Those who were raised before would likewise suffer physical death again. The saints raised at His resurrection would seem to have gone with their Lord when He ascended to Heaven.

John also explains that Jesus is ruler over the kings of the earth. Paul explained, “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,” Acts 17:26. Make no mistake; the world system we exist in today is Satanic. The world, with all of its faltering, enfeebled, hopeless strength resists God’s claim of ownership, though it is painfully clear that we stand collectively in the wrong. Yet God appoints all earthly rule, even unto the limits of their duration and boundaries for His own purposes. He did this with Pharaoh in Moses’ time, Exodus 9:16. Likewise we see this when God addresses the Persian ruler, Cyrus in the book of Isaiah at least 150 years before he sat on Persia’s throne, Isaiah 45:1-4.

This concept culminates in John’s Gospel, when Pilate asks Jesus a question, and our Lord responds, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above,” John 19:11. Pilate’s authority was derived from God’s authority. Human government is a pale, now crooked and perverse reflection of God’s kingdom. There are rules and laws and boundaries, and a Sovereign that governs with absolute power married to absolute wisdom. Human government is modeled after the kingdom of Heaven; an entity meant to provide leadership, structure, safety, peace, wisdom, answers. Solomon, Israel’s wisest king, was a type of Christ. He was a king of (humanly speaking) unparalleled wisdom, since that wisdom was a gift directly from God. His rule brought peace, safety and prosperity. When Christ, who is the ruler over all earthly powers, descends from Heaven to take His throne in Jerusalem, those who dwell on the earth will have that.

The kingdoms that reject the Lord at that time will be sorely punished by drought, Zechariah 14:18. Though the prophet refers to the nations as families in this passage (Zechariah 14:16-19), he makes clear mention of Egypt twice, and the nations generically once, making the context clear that these families are in fact the surviving nations that did not join themselves to the Antichrist’s attempted annihilation of the Jewish people. At the time the Lord will be reigning from Israel’s throne, ruling over the nations with a rod of iron, as was the Father’s promised inheritance to Him, Psalm 2:8, 9. This rule Christ our Lord offers to those who overcome through faith (see 1 John 5:4) and keep His works until the end, to share the rule of the nations with Him, Revelation 2:26, 27. It is clear that human government is subservient to divine government, and that the very nature of human government–arguably beginning with Noah after the Flood–is modeled after the person of God and His rule over all that is His. It is orderly, structured, principled, and under His law. For those who rule in any great or small sphere, know that you too are being ruled over by one infinitely greater than we are, and we are accountable. Family is the smallest governmental structure, and so let us who are parents do our utmost to govern our households well for the glory of God and in the name of our King.