The study of the Book of Revelation (הִתְגַּלּוּת, Hitgalut) reaches chapter 1:9-16, where Brother Gideon Levytam brings us to the apostle John on the island of Patmos. John did not go there for a vacation. The emperor Domitian had banished him as a prisoner for the word of God and the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah. John calls himself a brother and companion in tribulation. He means the opposition believers meet for their testimony, not the great tribulation to come (John 16:33). The emperor meant to silence him. Instead the LORD met him there and gave him the Revelation. In the Spirit John heard a voice behind him, loud as a shofar. Gideon shows what John saw when he turned. Seven golden lampstands stood before him. They are the seven assemblies of Asia Minor, each called to give light to those around it. In the midst was one like the Son of Man, Ben ha-Adam (בֶּן הָאָדָם), the person Daniel saw some six hundred years earlier (Daniel 7:13). This is the glorified Messiah, a King in the role of a judge. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and nothing in the life of His people is hidden from Him. Out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, the truth of God's word. He stands in the midst and knows the spiritual condition of every assembly, in every country and century. God can use His own anywhere, even on a prison island. Believers are called to give light in a dark world.
Revelation 1:9-16 - The Son of Man in the Midst of the Lampstands
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