Revelation Chapter Two, The Son Of God

Revelation 2:18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:

Our Lord moves on to the fourth of the seven churches: Thyatira. There was Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, and now Thyatira. To keep something of a tally, Ephesus was addressed in 11 verses, Smyrna in a fleet 4, Pergamos in 6, and Thyatira–who is discussed for the remainder of the chapter–will occupy 12 verses.

Jesus comes to Thyatira as the Son of God; but not the humble suffering servant of His initial earthly ministry. No, He is still the Son of Man, but the emphasis has shifted and His deity put on full display, as was seen when He appeared to John just before delivering His messages to the Asiatic churches.

There is a subtle but I believe profound interpretive difference in Scripture between the Critical Text (quite similar to the Majority Text) and the Textus Receptus found in John’s Gospel. The NIV (which follows the Critical Text) renders John 9:35 as, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The NKJV, which follows the Received Text, or Textus Receptus, translates the verse as, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” Why is this subtle difference important? It focuses on the Lord’s deity. Christ is God, and when He approaches the formerly blind man, now excommunicated because of his beliefs, He is exercising His prerogative as deity to offer the man salvation, Luke 5:24.

Christ our Lord arrives in this manner: as the Son of God, glorified and radiant. His eyes are a flame of fire. If the eyes are the window to the soul, then we see through this window, “the bush [that] was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed,” Exodus 3:2. We turn to Daniel and find this portrayal of a most awesome personage and His visage: “His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude,” Daniel 10:6. In Daniel 10:5 we further find this “certain man” clothed in linen, with his waist girded with gold from Uphaz. It is difficult to escape the description here and its implication. While Daniel did receive angelic messengers in the form of Gabriel, for instance, he also clearly experienced theophanies. Revelation’s message to Thyatira inadvertently (or perhaps entirely intentionally) clarifies this for us.

We find the certain man’s description to contain both eyes like fire and feet like brass, or bronze in Daniel’s case. This is clearly a reference to the theophany Daniel experienced, but it also directly links Jesus our Lord to Ezekiel and the River Chebar. “I saw that from the waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord,” Ezekiel 1:27, 28, NIV. Once again compare these descriptions to the Lord in Revelation. Ezekiel makes it abundantly clear that he is seeing a theophany. Daniel, by implication, sees likewise. The descriptor in Revelation cinches the reality that both men witnessed the pre-incarnate Son of God.

We know that Jesus appeared to each of the Asiatic churches for specific reasons. To our previous church He was the One who had the sharp, two-edged sword. Now He is the Son of God, crowned with all of the deific glory that accompanies such a claim. As we explore the spiritual hardships and conditions in Thyatira, we will quickly learn why our Lord chose to reveal Himself this way to their congregation.