Chapter 1 - part 1
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which G-d gave Him to show to His servants what must soon take place; and made known by sending His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the Word of G-d and the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, blessed are those that hear, and keep what is written therein; for the time is near.” Rev.1.1-3
“Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of the prophecy” means this is not a prophecy to be kept to oneself, whether in single or small groups. Nor is it to be delegated to the Apocrypha as many false prophets have proclaimed or to be solely studied in the seminaries. This is a prophecy to be given to all of G-d’s servants and to be kept within their hearts. So has our Church been wrong by not giving this book a greater part in our liturgy? We do not believe so because the reading to all servants is to commence when “the time is near”, that is when the events of this book will “soon take place”; for this is the context in which John placed these words.
Yet this is the one argument non-believers give against this book because it has been about two thousand years and Yeshua did not return. So, did Saint John get it wrong? One would think so if you take these words out of context; but in context they can be upheld. So what tells us these words are in fact true? The answer lies in the words: “Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, blessed are those that hear”.
We find a clue in the interpretation of the word “read”. The word John used for “read” is the Greek word “anaginosko” (314) which literally means, “to know again”. It comes from two root words, which are important to the formation of this meaning. The first is “ana” (303) and this means “repetition”, or “intensity”; the second is the word “ginosko” (1097), which means, “to know” or “to perceive” that is “understand”. So when John was telling us to “read” this aloud, he was not telling us to “decode” the sounds without understanding their true meaning but read with understanding and hear with understanding and to do this over and over (maybe because the more we peruse this text the more we can glean from it). This is why John’s words did not apply to the last two thousand years.
We are not claiming that it was wrong to read this book over the last two thousand years, but that the blessings will not occur until we can read and hear with understanding. If we don’t open the book then how can we ever know when the time has come? After all, these very words by John above say that when this text does make sense then the time would be near when Yeshua is coming! Thus these words contained in this book were like a seed planted in the first century that will come to flower and be fulfilled as we near the end of this Age. And we shall know it is time to read and hear when we see these meanings opening up and making sense.
“Grace to you and peace from Him Who Is, Who Was, and Who Is to come; and from the seven
Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the
dead, and ruler of the kings of the earth.” Rev.1.4-5
“John to the seven Churches that are in Asia:
John is actually speaking to seven “assemblies” or congregations”. The word here often interpreted “church” is a goyim word that actually has the same meaning of an assembled group (or a group with something in common and not necessarily denominations per say). There are seven, which is the number of perfection. These “churches” are in Asia, which means Asia Minor, but more often when used during John’s time meant western Asia which once included both the Asia continent in the east and European continent in the west. “Grace and peace” were a common apostolic blessing in the first century but here this isn’t John who is blessing, but it comes from three different sources:
1. From Him Who Is, Who Was, and Who Is to come
This is the same G-d Who created all things. He formed the light and separated the darkness; He set the sun, moon and stars as signs and created all things on earth, both great and small. It was He who called our father Av’raham out of paganism and He that commanded Moshe to go before Pharaoh and sent the plagues and parted the Sea. He led our fathers by a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of smoke by day and fed them bread from heaven in the wastelands around them. He called Samuel and anointed Dovid and blessed Solomon with great wisdom. He sent the Assyrian down upon E’phraim and the Babylonians to Judah when they walked from the faith of our sages. He brought Judah home, refined them with Antiochus, and then sent them His only son.
This is G-d, The Father. This is the Great IAM. So why call Himself: “Who Is, Who Was, and Who Is to come”? Because He hasn’t changed. The great and often terrible things He did before He will do again with more power and glory! The seas will be parted again; this is His promise and His word will not come back void. By this same truth, plagues more fierce than those of Egypt will descend again upon our earth, kings more frightening than Pharaoh, Shalmane’ser, and Nebuchadnezzar will crush lukewarm “believers” and His children shall be taken into captivity again where many shall die. And by this same hand, mercy will flow with everlasting kindness and a remnant will be found brought home and healed and the dead shall be raised. This is our G-d. This is the Catholic’s G-d. The Merciful Father is also our judge. He has not changed even if our views of Him have!
2. From the seven Spirits, who are before His throne,
Who or what are these seven Spirits before the throne of G-d. One clue can be found in Is.11.2 where HaMoshiach will have the Spirit of G-d upon Him. There are six mentioned in this passage:
“And the Spirit of the L-rd shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit
of council and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the L-rd. And His delight shall be
fear of the L-rd.”
Some interpretations include another spirit that of “Piety” but we feel this was a later addition and we strongly suspect where Isaiah got the six spirits named above. They came from the Etz Chaim or the Tree of Life a teaching found in the Kabbalah (to receive). In the Tree of Life there are actually ten Spirits (spheres): three form “the Supernal” Triad, Kether/Crown, Cochmah/Wisdom, and Binah/understanding. Seven lower spheres remain and these come out of the former three already mentioned. The first three spheres exist in the realm of G-d and only images exist in our own world whereas the remaining spheres exist directly within our realm, that is we can perceive them within this realm even though they came forth by the hand of G-d.
Briefly, the lower spheres are divided into two triads. The first triad is of Chesed/Kindness, Gevurah/Judgment and Tiferet/Harmony. The last triad is Netzach/Victory, Hod/Glory, and Yesod/Foundation. The last sphere, which follows these triads, is Malchut/kingdom. These seven spheres make up the lower spirits, which are visible to the human eye. Thus might these seven spirits here in Revelations be the lower spirits that can be seen manifested in our world? We feel strongly that they are, so this would make these spirits: Kindness, Judgment, Balance, Victory, Glory, Foundation, and Kingdom. If correct then these are the seven Spirits that stand before His throne and wish us His Grace and peace.
One question which may have arisen by now in the minds of those reading this is what do spheres, whatever their number, have to do with Spirits? Wouldn’t John when he wrote of spirits have written instead of spheres if he meant for us to recognize the Tree of Life? Actually the ten Spheres do have an independent living existence for in the Sefer Yetzirah we read:
“The appearance of the ten spheres (Sephiroth) out of Nothing (Ayn) is as a flash of lightning or a
sparking flame, and they are without beginning or end. The Word of G-d is in them when they go
forth and when they return. They run by His order like a whirlwind and prostate themselves
before His throne.” (The Sefer Yetzirah adapted from Manly P. Hall in “The Secret Teaching of
All Ages, 1.6)
Thus these must be Spirits if they “they go forth”, “they return” and “prostate themselves before His throne”. Why was John not clearer? John was instructed by the Ruach and HaMoshiach, the Chiah (Living Light), to write this book in such way that it’s meaning would remain unclear until the time of the appointed, that is the time of near fulfillment.
Why would these Spirits, called spheres in the Tree of Life doctrine, be there with the Father and His Son (the third person wishing us this blessing)? The answer is that these are the same creative Spirits that assisted G-d and Yeshua in the creation of the heavens and the earth and they were active in Yeshua’s first coming as well.
They are also found, eight of them (one set of four are found inside the other four), beneath the four living creatures of the Tetragrammaton in first chapter of Ezekiel that also says that book contains within the fulfillment of great prophetic promises (here the crown represented Himself and the kingdom was missing because this came with His Son. Thus if they are here now in this capacity in Revelations they must be here to bring about another event no less magnificent and earth shaking then the last two times we know they joined HaShem in creating something new and earth transforming. And this creation they and the Father are about to bring forth will ultimately give “grace and peace” to the righteous children of G-d.
3. The last one wishing us grace and peace is HaMoshiach Himself.
It is He Who was the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead (Moshiach Ben Yosif) and the King of kings (Moshiach Ben Dovid).
So three entities/persons are wishing us grace and peace: The Creator/Father of all, the mechanism (the portion that we can see of it) that He used to create the heavens and earth and to bring about the first fulfillment of His ultimate plan of creation (HaMoshiach Ben Yosif) and His only Begotten Son who joined Him in all these things. Three also makes a completion thus these three entities will bring us “grace and peace” (in fact they are the only things in all creation which can) and it is these three that address the assemblies from “Western Asia”.
“To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His Blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His G-d and Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, everyone who perceives Him; and all the tribes of earth will wail on account of Him. Even so. Amen” Rev.1.5-7
Yeshua is coming, our merciful savior is returning to fulfill all He promised but He comes not as the Lamb of G-d but as the Lion of Judah, upon the clouds in sight of all. How do we know He will be a Lion not a Lamb? The words “and all the tribes of earth will wail on account of Him” tell us so.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the L-rd G-d, Who Is, Who Was, and Who Is to come, the
Almighty.” Rev.1.8
Alpha is the first letter of the Greek Alphabet, Omega is the last, and therefore He is saying He is the A to Z and all points in-between. This is Yeshua speaking not the Father yet John calls Him “L-rd G-d, Who Is, Who Was, and Who Is to come, the Almighty” making Him One with the Father.
