A Commentary in Simple English on Revelation

Chapter 2:18-29 Thyatira: The Army Town

Thyatira was much smaller than the first three cities. It was probably the smallest of the seven. It stood in a plain, in level, flat country. It had a small river and you could see some low hills in the distance. It was not proud or ancient like the other cities. It had grown up as an army town when the Attalid kings ruled in Pergamum and it had not yet reached its best days.

The people of Thyatira worked at many trades. They made clothes, leather and metal goods. They dyed cloth (Acts 16:14). These were the things, which the army needed in the past. Each trade had its own club or 'guild'. These guilds did two things. They made sure that secrets of the trade were kept secret. And they would make sure that work was done well. Most of them were probably there in John's time. Then these guilds had regular feasts in the temples of the false 'gods'; mostly this was the temple of Apollo. So it was hard to work at a trade in Thyatira unless you joined in heathen worship. There was even a 'guild' for middle aged men and three 'guilds' for young men. There were few, if any, Jews so far as we know, but all around Thyatira there were not only Romans and Greeks but also people from Persia and Egypt.

We know nothing of how the church at Thyatira began. Nor do we know much about what happened to it later. But when the first 'charismatic' movement began, sixty or seventy years after 'Revelation' was written, the church at Thyatira joined it.

The Message to Thyatira)

Thyatira is now the Turkish town of Akhisar. There is little to be seen there to tell us about the days of John. Yet this is the longest of the seven messages. It is the most difficult of the seven. And we shall see that it is the most important of the seven. It is, of course, the fourth of the seven. It is the middle one.

a) What Jesus says about Himself (verse 18)

This is the only place in Revelation where Jesus calls Himself 'the Son of God'. Look again at 1: 14 and 15 and at Daniel 10:6. The eyes and feet mean that everything between is just the same. The fire and the shining 'bronze' remind us of the metal work which went on at Thyatira: 'Bronze' here means the best brass; this is made from copper to which pure zinc is added.

Many people in Thyatira worshipped Apollo, the 'sun-god'. The glory of Jesus shines far more than the glory of 'Apollo'.

b) The good things, which Jesus sees in the church (verse 19)

The people of Thyatira worked, and so did the church. But Jesus speaks of their faith and love as well. Love led them to service to one another and to people who were not Christians. Faith led to 'patient endurance'. They had many troubles but they held on to their faith and they did not try wrong ways to get out of trouble. And as time went on, they did more and more for other people.

c) Jesus tells us what is wrong in the church (verses 20-23)

There was a woman in the church who was a prophet. Her teaching was quite wrong, but some people in the church listened to what she said. We have seen that in Thyatira, it was not easy to work at a trade unless you belonged to the trade 'guild'. And that meant that you had to join in feasts at the heathen temples. Most likely it would be the temple of Apollo. There would be a big meal. Animals would be offered to the 'god', cooked and eaten. As the day went on, people probably became drunk. The people would behave badly, and do many things that were wrong. This woman prophet said that it was all right for Christians to join in. But she was quite wrong (Acts 15: 29).

We should notice one other thing. People in those days did not sit on a chair to eat. They laid down on one side. They supported themselves on one arm (or 'elbow') and stretched their feet out behind them. Several people would share one 'couch' when they ate. So in verse 22, the 'bed' may well not be a bed to sleep on. It may be the 'couch' used at feasts.

So now, Jesus calls this woman prophet 'Jezebel'. That was not her real name, but everyone would know which person in the church Jesus meant.

The first 'Jezebel' was an Old Testament queen. Her husband was Ahab. He was a king in Samaria from about 873-853BC. He seems to have been a rather weak man. Jezebel's story begins in 1 Kings 16:31. She was not a Jew at all, but the daughter of the king of the heathen city of Sidon. She thought that she could bring new ideas to the people of this Jewish kingdom up in the hills. She thought that a king should be able to do just as he wanted. (1 Kings 21:7). She brought in the worship of the heathen' gods' of Sidon and much else that was wrong. (2 Kings 9: 22). Elijah was the prophet of God at this time. Elisha followed him. An army officer called Jehu turned against Ahab's son Joram and killed him (2 Kings 9:24). Jezebel died when she was thrown out of a window (2 Kings 9:30-33). There was a great deal of violence.

So this new 'Jezebel' teaches the Christians at Thyatira to sin, just as the first Jezebel taught the Jews to sin. She teaches them to share in heathen meals in the temples, and to share in sinful sex practices. [2.7]

In verse 21 the Lord Jesus shows that He has allowed plenty of time for this woman prophet 'Jezebel' to change her mind. She will not do so. So Jesus (verse 22) will Himself punish her, just as He would punish the Nicolaitans at Pergamum in verse 16.

In the Old Testament, Moses had stood against Balaam. Elijah (and Elisha too) had stood against Jezebel. (We shall find 'Moses and Elijah' again when we come to 11:3-6.). Jesus will not leave it to his servants at Thyatira to punish these people: He will come Himself. Just as the Old Testament Jezebel died when she was thrown out of a window, so this 'Jezebel' will die when she is 'thrown', but into 'a bed'. We have seen that this probably does not mean a bed here. The same word also meant a 'dining couch' such as those in the heathen temples. [2.8] 'Those who commit adultery with her' are some of her followers. They still have time to change their minds. But (verse 23) 'her children' are closer to her. They will be 'killed by death', that is, they will die from disease.

Each of the seven churches has to hear what the Lord Jesus says, and they have to obey him. The words 'all the churches will know' are the only ones in the seven messages that speak of the effect of what happened in one church on the others. The Lord Jesus makes no mistakes. Then Jesus again says: 'I AM'. He does not only look at the outside of people. He looks more at what is inside us, 'the mind and heart'. [2.9] The last part of the verse is like Jeremiah 17:10.

d) Jesus tells them what to do (verses 24 and 25)

Jesus now speaks only to those people in the church at Thyatira who had nothing to do with 'Jezebel' (verse 24). We begin to see just how bad her teaching was. Some of her followers seem to have said: 'Yes! What goes on in the heathen temples belongs to Satan. It is his 'deep things'. But Christians can safely try it out. God will look after them.' Satan can kill and destroy people with his shallow things. These people tempted God by what they did. Christians must not have anything to do with 'the things of Satan', whether they are deep or only shallow!

The last part of verse 24 is rather like Acts 15:28, and there is no reason to doubt that the churches in Asia would have known those words. [2.10] The Christians have 'a burden‘; they have a load to carry. They have to live the Christian life in a heathen city. They have to be faithful to Jesus at a time when many of the people in the church follow a false prophet. Jesus says: 'That is enough. I will not ask you to do more. Just be faithful to Me' (verse 25).

e) So there is no more warning here [2.11]

f) Jesus gives a promise (verses 26-29)

You will see that verse 29 comes after the rest of the promise. In the first three messages it comes before the rest of the promise. This is an important clue when we want to understand the whole book.

The promise is for those who 'overcome', who win the fight with the temptation to get mixed up in heathen religion. It is for those who keep with great care the works that Jesus wants them to do.

Now we know very well that there are places like Thyatira today. There are places where work and trade are not ruled by what is fair and right. Even the courts of law may not be just. How well you work does not matter. Whether your prices are fair does not matter. What does matter is who you know. What matters is whether you belong to a certain club, or go to a certain place of worship. (See 13:16,17.) God says that He will honour those who honour Him. It has often happened that some Christian people have good jobs and make money, although the world is against them. But God does not promise this to us all. He will never leave us, never go away from us. So most Christians just have to learn to be happy with the little that they have.

So we have two parts to the promise. If you look at Psalm 2, you will see that the first part of the promise is like verses 8 and 9. We do not know quite what the 'Morning Star' would have meant to people at Thyatira. Probably it means Jesus Himself. (See 22:16; 2 Peter 1:19.) It is dark now, Jesus says. But a new day will come for His people in Thyatira.

These cities were all different from each other. The one church of Christ has to live and preach the Good News in all sorts of places. The three cities, which we have not yet looked at, are quite different again.

In verse 27 Jesus speaks of God the Father as 'My Father'. He does this also in the letter to Sardis (3:5) and in the message to Laodicea (3: 21). However in the message to Philadelphia, He speaks four times of 'My God' (3:12,13). I cannot explain why this is.

Now John gives us a sign here. The first three messages end with a promise. And in each of them, before the promise comes the verse that begins: 'He who has an ear...' (verses 7, 11 and 17). When we come to the message to Thyatira, it is the other way round. The promise comes first (in verse 28). The verse: 'He who has an ear...' comes after the promise. In Chapter 3 the other three messages also have this order.

Most of the 'sevens' in Revelation are built up 4+2+1. But John here says to us: 'This one is 3+4'. I think that we can go further and say that the seven messages to the churches are built up 3+1+3. (This is more like the shape that we find in Chapter 16. That is 3+3+1.)

Thyatira is different from the other cities because there is no 'picture' from the city in the part of Revelation about the New Jerusalem. Instead, pictures from Thyatira join up with 22:16. The words 'All the churches will know' in verse 23 are like 'This testimony for the churches'. Most important, Jesus calls Himself 'I AM' in 1:17, then here in verse 23 and then in 22:16. 'The morning star' in verse 28 comes again in 22:16. And verse 27 here uses words from Psalm 2:9 which belonged to David and the kings who came after him. So in 22:16, Jesus says: 'I AM the Root and Offspring of David'.

We can add to this the fact that in Revelation, only in verse 18 does Jesus call Himself 'the Son of God'. I feel that this message to Thyatira is different from the other six messages.